LI  B  RAR.Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 


973.7115 
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cop.    3 


ILLINOIS  HISTORICAL  SliMY 


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THE 


IM)ERGROIM>  RAIL  ROAD 

A    RECORD 

OP 

FACTS,    AUTHENTIC  NARRATIVES,   LETTERS,   &c., 

Narrating  the  Hardships  Hair-breadth  Escapes  and  Death  Straggles 

OF    THE 

Slaves  in  their  efforts  for  Freedom, 

AS    RELATED 

BY  THEMSELVES  AND  OTHERS,  OR  WITNESSED  BY  THE  AUTHOR; 

TOGETHER    WITH 

SKETCHES  OF  SOME  OF  THE  LARGEST  STOCKHOLDERS,  AND 

MOST  LIBERAL  AIDERS  AND  ADVISERS, 

OF  THE  ROAD. 


BY 

WILLIAM  STILL, 

For  many  years  connected  with  the  Anti-Slavery  Office  in  Philadelphia,  and  Chairman 

of  the  Acting  Vigilant  Committee  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of 

the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

Illustrated  with  70  fine  Engravings  by  Bensell,  Schell  and  otters,  and 
Portraits  from  Photographs  from  Life. 


Thou  shall  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant  that  has  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee.—Deut.  xxiii.  15. 


SOLD  ONLY  BY  SUBSCRIPTION. 

PHILADELPHIA: 
PORTER    &  COA.TE8, 

822,  CHESTNUT  STREET. 
1872. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

•WM.  STILL, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


JAS.  B.  RODGERS  CO. 

Electrotype™  t  Printers, 
52  ft  54  North  6th  Street,  Philad'i 


993, 


TO  THE 
FRIENDS  OF  FREEDOM,  TO  HEROIC  FUGITIVES  AND  THEIR 

POSTERITY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

THESE  MEMORIALS  OF  THEIR   LOVE  OF   LIBERTY 

ARE  INSCRIBED 

By  the  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


Whereas,  The  position  of  William  Still  in  the  vigilance  committee  connected  with  the 
"  Underground  Rail  Road,"  as  its  corresponding  secretary,  and  chairman  of  its  active 
sub-committee,  gave  him  peculiar  facilities  for  collecting  interesting  facts  pertaining  to 
this  branch  of  the  anti-slavery  service  ;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-Slavery  Society  request  him  to  compile  and 
publish  his  personal  reminiscences  and  experiences  relating  to  the  "Underground 
Rail  Road." 

In  compliance  with  this  Resolution,  unanimously  passed  at  the 
closing  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-Slavery  Society  held 
last  May  in  Philadelphia,  the  writer,  in  the  following  pages,  wil- 
lingly and  he  hopes  satisfactorily  discharges  his  duty. 

In  these  Records  will  be  found  interesting  narratives  of  the 
escapes  'of  many  men,  women  and  children,  from  the  prison- 
house  of  bondage;  from  cities  and  plantations;  from  rice  swamps 
and  cotton  fields;  from  kitchens  and  mechanic  shops;  from 
Border  States  and  Gulf  States;  from  cruel  masters  and  mild  mas- 
ters ; — some  guided  by  the  north  star  alone,  penniless,  braving  the 
perils  of  land  and  sea,  eluding  the  keen  scent  of  the  bloodrhound 
as  well  as  the  more  dangerous  pursuit  of  the  savage  slave-hunter; 
some  from  secluded  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth,  where  for  months 
and  years  they  had  been  hidden  away  waiting  for  the  chance  to 
escape ;  from  mountains  and  swamps,  where  indescribable  suffer- 
ing from  hunger  and  other  privations  had  patiently  been  endured. 
Occasionally  fugitives  came  in  boxes  and  chests,  and  not  infre- 
quently some  were  secreted  in  steamers  and  vessels,  and  in  some 
instances  journeyed  hundreds  of  miles  in  skiffs.  Men;  disguised  in 
female  attire  and  women  dressed  in  the  garb-  of  men  have  under 
very  trying  circumstances  triumphed  in  thus  making  their  way 
to  freedom.  And  here  and  there  when  all  other  modes  of  escape 
seemed  cut  off,  some,  whose  fair  complexions  have  rendered  them 
indistinguishable  from  their  Anglo-Saxon  brethren,  feeling  that 
they  could  endure  the  yoke  no  longer,  with  assumed  airs  of  im- 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

portance,  such  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  see  their  masters 
show  when  traveling,  have  taken  the  usual  modes  of  conveyance 
and  have  even  braved  the  most  scrutinizing  inspection  of  slave- 
holders, slave-catchers  and  car  conductors,  who  were  ever  on  the 
alert  to  catch  those  who  were  considered  base  and  white  enough 
to  practice  such  deception.  Passes  have  been  written  and  used 
by  fugitives,  with  their  masters'  and  mistresses'  names  boldly 
attached  thereto,  and  have  answered  admirably  as  a  protection, 
when  passing  through  ignorant  country  districts  of  slave  regions, 
where  but  few,  either  white  or  colored,  knew  how  to  read  or  write 
correctly. 

Not  a  few,  upon  arriving,  of  course,  hardly  had  rags 
enough  on  them  to  cover  their  nakedness,  even  in  the  coldest 
weather. 

It  scarcely  needs  be  stated  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  passengers 
of  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  were  physically  and  intellectually  above  the 
average  order  of  slaves. 

They  were  determined  to  have  liberty  even  at  the  cost  of  life. 

The  slave  auction  block  indirectly  proved  to  be  in  some  respects 
a  very  active  agent  in  promoting  travel  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.,  just 
as  Jeff.  Davis  was  an  agent  in  helping  to  bring  about  the  downfall 
of  Slavery.  The  horrors  of  the  block,  as  looked  upon  through 
the  light  of  the  daily  heart-breaking  separations  it  was  causing  to 
the  oppressed,  no  pen  could  describe  or  mind  imagine ;  hence  it 
will  be  seen  that  many  of  the  passengers,  whose  narratives  will  be 
found  in  this  work,  ascribed  their  first  undying  resolution  to  strike 
for  freedom  to  the  auction  block  or  to  the  fear  of  soon  having  to 
take  their  chances  thereon.  But  other  agencies  were  at  work  in 
the  South,  which  in  various  ways  aided  directly  or  tacitly  the 
U.  G.  R.  R.  cause. 

To  refer  in  detail  to  any  considerable  number  of  these  agents 
would  be  impossible,  if  necessary.  Some  there  were  who  nobly 
periled  their  all  for  the  freedom  of  the  oppressed,  whose  sufferings 
and  deeds  of  bravery  must  have  a  fitting  place  in  this  volume. 

Where  in  history,  modern  or  ancient,  could  be  found  a  more 
Christlike  exhibition  of  love  and  humanity,  of  whole-souled  devo- 
tion to  freedom,  than  was  proven  in  the  character  of  the  hero, 
Seth  Concklin,  who  lost  his  life  while  endeavoring  to  rescue  from 
Alabama  slavery  the  wife  and  children  of  Peter  Still  ? 


PREFACE.  3 

So  also  do  the  heroic  and  faithful  services  of  Samuel  D.  Burris 
demand  special  reference  and  commemoration,  for  his  connection 
with  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  cost  him  not  only  imprisonment  and  the 
most  barbarous  treatment,  but  likewise  the  loss  of  his  freedom. 
He  was  sold  on  the  auction  block. 

Here  too  come  the  overwhelming  claims  of  S.  A.  Smith,  who 
at  the  sad  cost  to  himself  of  many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  in 
the  Richmond  penitentiary,  boxed  up  Henry  Box  Brown  and 
others  in  Richmond,  and  committed  them  to  Adams'  Express 
office,  to  be  carried  in  this  most  extraordinary  manner  to  freedom. 

We  must  not  omit  from  these  records  the  boldness  and  the 
hazard  of  the  unparalleled  undertakings  of  Captains  Dray  ton, 
Lee,  Baylis,  &c. 

While  the  Vigilance  Committee  of  Philadelphia  was  in  no  wise 
responsible  for  the  suffering  incurred  by  many  of  those  who 
helped  the  slave,  yet  in  order  to  show  how  men  were  moved 
to  lend  an  ear  to  those  hungering  and  thirsting  for  freedom,  and 
to  what  extent  the  relentless  spirit  of  Slavery  would  go  in  wreak- 
ing vengeance  upon  them — out  of  the  many  who  were  called  upon 
to  suffer  thus,  the  individual  cases  here  brought  forward  must 
suffice.  Without  introducing  a  few  of  such  incidents  the  records 
would  necessarily  be  incomplete. 

Those  who  come  after  us  seeking  for  information  in  regard 
to  the  existence,  atrocity,  struggles  and  destruction  of  Slavery, 
will  have  no  trouble  in  finding  this  hydra-headed  monster 
ruling  and  tyrannizing  over  Church  and  State,  North  and 
South,  white  and  black,  without  let  or  hindrance,  for  at  least 
several  generations.  Nor  will  posterity  have  any  difficulty  i^i 
finding  the  deeds  of  the  brave  and  invincible  opposers  of  Slavery, 
who  in  the  language  of  Win.  Lloyd  Garrison,  declared  without 
concealment  and  without  compromise  :  "  I  am  in  earnest,  I  will 
not  equivocate — I  will  not  excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single 
inch — and  I  will  be  heard." 

While  this  resolute  spirit  actuated  the  hearts  of  all  true  aboli- 
tionists, it  was  a  peculiar  satisfaction  and  gratification  to  them  to 
know  that  the  slaves  themselves  were  struggling  and  hungering 
for  deliverance.  Hence  such  evidence  from  this  quarter  never 
failed  to  meet  with  hearty  sympathy  and  aid.  But  here  the 
enemy  was  never  willingly  allowed  to  investigate. 


4  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

The  slave  and  his  particular  friends  could  only  meet  in  private 
to  transact  the  business  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  ground. 
All  others  were  outsiders.  The  right  hand  was  not  to  know  what 
the  left  hand  was  doing. 

Stockholders  did  not  expect  any  dividends,  nor  did  they  re- 
quire special  reports  to  be  published.  Indeed  prudence  often 
dictated  that  even  the  recipients  of  our  favor  should  not  know 
the  names  of  their  helpers,  and  vice  versa  they  did  not  desire  to 
know  theirs. 

The  risk  of  aiding  fugitives  was  never  lost  sight  of,  and  the  safety 
of  all  concerned  called  for  still  tongues.     Hence  sad  and  thrilling 
stories  were  listened  to,  and  made  deep  impressions ;  but  as  a  uni- 
versal rule,  friend  and  fugitive  parted  with  only  very  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  the  secret  interview  and  with  mutual  sympathy;  for  a  length 
of  time  no  narratives  were  written.     The  writer,  in  common  with 
others,   took  no  notes.       But   after    the    restoration    of    Peter 
Still,  his  own  brother  (the  kidnapped  and  the  ransomed),  after 
forty   years'    cruel   separation    from    his   mother,    the  wonderful 
discovery    and    joyful    reunion,  the    idea  forced  itself  upon  his 
mind  that  all  over  this  wide  and  extended  country  thousands  of 
mothers  and  children,  separated  by   Slavery,  were  in   a  similar 
way  living  without  the  slightest  knowledge  of  each  other's  where- 
abouts, praying  and  weeping  without  ceasing,  as  did  this  mother 
and  son.     Under  these  reflections  it  seemed  reasonable  to  hope 
that  by  carefully  gathering  the  narratives  of  Underground  Rail 
Road  passengers,  in  some  way  or  other  some  of  the  bleeding  and 
severed  hearts  might  be  united  and  comforted ;  and  by  the  use  that 
might  be  made  privately,  if  not  publicly,  of  just  such  facts  as  would 
naturally  be  embraced  in  their  brief  narratives,  re-unions  might  take 
place.    For  years  it  was  the  writer's  privilege  to  see  many  travelers, 
to  receive  from  their  own  lips  the  most  interesting  and  in  many 
cases  exceedingly  thrilling  accounts  of  their  struggles  for  liberty, 
and  to  learn  who  had  held  them  in  bondage,  how  they  had  been 
treated,  what  prompted  them  to  escape,  and  whom  that  were  near, 
and  dear  to  them  they  had  left  in  chains.     Their  hopes,  fears  and 
sufferings  were   thus  recorded  in  a  book.     It  scarcely  need  be 
added  with  no  expectation,  however,  that  the   day  was  so  near 
when  these  things  could  be  published. 

It    is    now   a   source   of    great   satisfaction    to   feel    that    not 


PREFACE.  5 

only  these  numerous  narratives  may  be  published,  but  that  in 
connection  therewith,  for  the  completeness  of  the  work,  many  in- 
teresting private  letters  from  fugitives  in  Canada,  slaves  in  the 
South,  Underground  Rail  Road  conductors  arid  stockholders,  and 
last  and  least,  from  slaveholders,  in  the  bargain — all  having  a 
direct  bearing  on  the  mysterious  road. 

In  the  use  of  these  various  documents,  the  writer  begs  to  assure 
his  readers  that  the  most  scrupulous*  care  has  been  taken  to 
furnish  artless  stories,  simple  facts, — to  resort  to  no  coloring 
to  make  the  book  seem  romantic,  as  he  is  fully  persuaded  that 
any  exaggerations  or  Additions  of  his  own  could  not  possibly 
equal  in  surpassing  interest,  the  original  and  natural  tales  given 
under  circumstances,  when  life  and  death  seemed  about  equally 
balanced  in  the  scale,  and  fugitives  in  transit  were  making  their 
way  from  Slavery  to  Freedom,  with  the  horrors  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave-law  staring  them  in  the  face. 

Thousands  were  either  directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  this  en- 
terprise, and  in  all  probability  two  generations  will  pass  away  before 
many  who  are  now  living  witnesses  to  the  truth  of  these  records 
will  cease  to  bring  vividly  to  mind  the  hour  and  circumstance 
when  for  the  first  time  they  were  led  to  resort  to  this  road  to 
escape  the  "  barbarism"  of  Slavery. 

Far  be  it  from  the  writer  to  assume,  however,  that  these 
Records  cover  the  entire  Underground  Rail  Road  operations. 
Many  local  branches  existed  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
which  neither  time  nor  limit  would  allow  mention  of  in  this 
connection.  Good  men  labored  and  suffered,  who  deserve  to  be 
held  in  the  highest  admiration  by  the  friends  of  Freedom,  whose 
names  may  be  looked  for  in  vain  in  these  pages ;  for  which  reason 
some  may  be  inclined  to  complain.  With  respect  to  these 
points  it  may  here  be  remarked  that  in  gathering  narratives 
from  unwritten  sources — from  memory  simply — no  amount  of 
pains  or  labor  could  possibly  succeed  in  making  a  trustworthy  his- 
tory. The  writer  has  deemed  it  best,  therefore,  to  confine  himself 
to  facts  coming  within  his  personal  knowledge,  and  to  the  records 
of  his  own  preserving,  which,  by  the  way,  are  quite  too  voluminous 
to  be  all  used  in  this  work.  Frequent  abridgements  and  omissions 
must  be  made. 

The  writer  is  fully  conscious  of  his  literary  imperfections.     The 


6  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

time  allotted  him  from  other  pressing  duties  is,  moreover,  exceed- 
ingly limited.  Nevertheless  he  feels  that  he  owes  it  to  the 
cause  of  Freedom,  and  to  the  Fugitives  and  their  posterity  in  par- 
ticular, to  bring  the  doings  of  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  before  the  public 
in  the  most  truthful  manner;  not  for  the  purpose  of  amusing 
the  reader,  but  to  show  what  efforts  were  made  and  what  suc- 
cess was  gained  for  Freedom  under  difficulties.  That  some 
professing  a  love  of  liberty  at  this  late  date  will  be  disposed  to 
criticise  some  of  the  methods  resorted  to  in  aiding  in  the  escape 
of  fugitives  as  herein  recounted,  may  be  expected.  While  .the 
writer  holds  the  labors  of  Abolitionists  generally  in  very  grateful 
appreciation,  he  hopes  not  to  be  regarded  as  making  any  invidious 
discriminations  in  favor  of  the  individual  friends  of  the  slave, 
whose  names  may  be  brought  out  prominently  in  this  work,  as  it 
(is  not  with  the  Anti-Slavery  question  proper  that  he  is  dealing, 
but  simply  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  In  order,  therefore, 
fittingly  to  bring  the  movements  of  this  enterprise  to  light, 
the  writer  could  not  justly  confine  himself  to  the  Acting 
Committee,  but  felt  constrained  to  bring  in  others — Friends — 
who  never  forsook  the  fugitive,  who  visited  him  in  prison, 
clothed  him  when  naked,  fed  him  when  hungry,  wept  with 
him  when  he  wept,  and  cheered  him  with  their  warmest  sym- 
pathies and  friendship.  In  addition  to  the  names  of  the  Act- 
ing Committee,  he  has  felt  constrained  to  beg  the  portraits  of  the 
following  stockholders  and  advisers  of  the  Road,  whose  names 
will  be  found  on  the  next  page,  and  in  thus  presenting  a  brief 
sketch  of  their  labors,  he  feels  that  the  true  friends  of  the  slave  in 
recognizing  them  in  this  connection  with  many  of  the  once  Fugi- 
tives (now  citizens),  will  regard  it  as  a  tribute  to  the  Anti-Slavery 
cause  rather  than  the  individuals  themselves. 

WILLIAM  STILL. 
PHILADELPHIA,   January,  1872. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


THE  AUTHOR FRONTISPIECE. 

PAGE 

PETER   STILL — "  TH1,   KIDNAPPED  AND   THE   RANSOMED"  37 

CHARITY  STILL   TWICE   ESCAPED   FROM  SLAVERY 37 

DESPERATE   CONFLICT  IN   A   BARN 50 

DEATH   OF   ROMULUS   HALL 53 

RESURRECTION   OF    HENRY   BOX   BROWN 83 

RESCUE   OF  JANE  JOHNSON   AND   HER   CHILDREN 88 

PASSMORE  WILLIAMSON 95 

JANE  JOHNSON 95 

ESCAPING   FROM   PORTSMOUTH,   VA : 98 

TWENTY-EIGHT   FUGITIVES  ESCAPING   FROM  EASTERN  SHORE  OF  MARYLAND    102 

ESCAPING   FROM   ALABAMA   ON   TOP  OF  A   CAR 107 

CROSSING   THE  RIVER  ON   HORSEBACK   IN   THE   NIGHT 121 

A   BOLD  STROKE   FOR  FREEDOM — CONTEST  WITH   FIRE-ARMS 125 

ABRAM   GALLOWAY 150 

THE  MAYOR  AND   POLICE   OF   NORFOLK   SEARCHING    CAPTAIN    FOUNTAIN'S 

SCHOONER  167 

MARIA   WEEMS   ESCAPING  AS  JO   WRIGHT 183 

JOHN   HENRY   HILL   191 

DRY-GOODS   MERCHANT   SEARCHING   THE   CARS  215 

ESCAPE   WITH   A   LADY,   AS    HER   COACHMAN,   WITH    MASTER'S    HORSE  AND 

CARRIAGE  216 

SIX  ON  TWO   HORSES  220 

UP   A   TREE    237 

SAMUEL   GREEN   SENTENCED   TO   THE   PENITENTIARY   FOR  TEN   YEARS   FOR 

HAVING  A   COPY   OF   "  UNCLE   TOM'S   CABIN"   IN   HIS   HOUSE   250 

LEAR  GREEN   ESCAPING  IN   A  CHEST 283 

ESCAPE  OF    ELEVEN   PASSENGERS   FROM   MARYLAND   IN   TWO   CARRIAGES...    302 

THE   CHRISTIANA   TRAGEDY 351 

WILLIAM    AND    ELLEN    CRAFT 368 

7 


8  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PACK 

MEMBERS   OF   THE   ACTING  COMMITTEE: 

N.   W.   DEPEE '. 400 

JACOB   C.   WHITE    400 

CHARLES  WISE 400 

EDWIN   H.   COATES 400 

KNIFING  HIS  VICTIM 423 

LIVING  IN  A   HOLLOW   TREE ; 424 

"        IN   A   CAVE 425 

A  NARROW  ESCAPE 453 

SUSPENDED   BY   THE  HANDS   WITH  BLOCK   AND  TACKLE 470 

CROSSING  THE   BAY  482 

BREAKING   HIM   IN 495 

MOTHER   ESCAPING  WITH  SEVEN  CHILDREN  , 512 

FIGHT   IN   CHESAPEAKE  BAY .    528 

JOHN   W.   DUNGEE 542 

MARY  MILBURN   (SECRETED   IN   A   BOX) 558 

HEAVY  WEIGHTS — ARRIVAL  OF  A  PARTY   AT  LEAGUE   ISLAND 560 

SKETCHES  AND  PORTRAITS  OF  STATION-MASTERS,  PROMINENT  ANTI-SLAVERY 
MEN,  AND  SUPPORTERS  OF  THE   U.   G.   R.    R.  : 

ABIGAIL   GOODWIN 622 

THOMAS  GARRETT v 622 

DANIEL   GIBBONS 622 

LUCRETIA   MOTT  622 

J.   MILLER  M'KIM % 654 

WILLIAM  H.   FURNESS 65£ 

WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON   654 

LEWIS  TAPPAN 654 

ELIJAH   F.   PENNYPACKER 688 

WILLIAM    WRIGHT 688 

DR.   BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL '. 688 

ROBERT   PURVIS  688 

JOHN   HUNN 720 

SAMUEL   RHOADS 720 

WILLIAM    WHIPPER 720 

SAMUEL  D.   BURRI8 720 

CHARLES   D.   CLEVELAND 724 

GRACE  ANNA   LEWIS 748 

MRS.    FRANCES    E.   W.    HARPER  748 

JOHN   NEEDLES..  , 748 


CONTENTS. 


PACE 

SETHCONKLIN 23 

UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD  LETTERS. 

From  Thomas  Garrett — G.  A.  Lewis — E.  L.  Stevens — Sydney  Howard  Gay — John 
Henry  Hill — J.  Bigelowe  —  Ham  and  Eggs — Rev.  H.  Wilson — Sheridan  Ford — 
E.  F.  Pennypacker— J.  C.  Bustill — Slave  secreted  in  Richmond — G.  S.  Nelson — 
John  Thompson — Wm.  Penn 39 

WILLIAM  BOX  PEEL  JONES 
Came  boxed  \ipvia  Erricson  line  of  Steamers 46 

WESLEY    HARRIS    ALIAS    ROBERT    JACKSON,    CRAVEN    MATTERSON 
AND  TWO  BROTHERS 48 

CLARISSA  DAVIS 
Arrived  in  Male  Attire 60 

ANTHONY  BLOW  ALIAS  HENRY  LEVISON 

Secreted  Ten  Months — Eight  days  on  the  Steamship  City  of  Richmond  bound  for 
Philadelphia 61 

PERRY  JOHNSON,  OF  ELKTON,  MARYLAND. 
Eye  knocked  Out v 64 

ISAAC  FORMAN,  WILLIAM  DAVIS  AND  WILLIS  REDICK. 

Hearts  full  of  joy  for  Freedom — Very  anxious  for  Wives  in  Slavery 64 

JOSEPH  HENRY  CAMP 

Sold,  the  day  he  escaped,  for  Fourteen  Hundred  Dollars — Slave  Trader  loses  his 
Bargain t 66 

SHERIDAN  FORD 
Secreted  in  the  Woods — Escapes  in  a  Steamer 67 

JOSEPH  KNEELAND  ALIAS  JOSEPH  HULSON 

Young  Master  had  a  "Malignant  Spirit" 68 

9 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

EX-PRESIDENT  TYLER'S  HOUSEHOLD  LOSES  AN  ARISTOCRATIC 
ARTICLE '. 69 

EDWARD   MORGAN,   HENRY  JOHNSON,  JAMES  AND  STEPHEN 

BUTLER.. 

"  Two  Thousand  Dollars  Reward"  offered 70 

HENRY  PREDO 
Daniel  Hughes,  Thomas  Elliott,  and  five  others  betrayed  into  Dover  Jail 72 

MARY  EPPS  ALIAS  EMMA  BROWN,  JOSEPH  AND  ROBERT 

ROBINSON. 

A  Slave  Mother  Loses  her  Speech  at  the  Sale  of  her  Child. ..Bob  Escapes  from  his 
Master,  a  Trader,  with  Fifteen  Hundred  Dollars  in  North  Carolina  Money 74 

GEORGE  SOLOMON,  DANIEL  NEALL,  BENJAMIN  R.  FLETCHER  AND 
MARIA  DORSEY * 79 

HENRY  BOX  BROWN 
Arrived  by  Adams  Express 81 

TRIAL  OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS  OF  COL.  J.  H.  WHEELER'S  SLAVES, 
JANE  JOHNSON  AND  HER  TWO  LITTLE  BOYS 85 

THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH. 

Sixty  Passengers  came  in  one  Month — Twenty-eight  in  one  Arrival — Great  Panic 
and  Indignation  Meeting — Interesting  Correspondence  from  Masters  and  Fugi- 
tives   97 

A  SLAVE  GIRL'S  NARRATIVE. 

Cordelia  Loney,  Slave  of  Mrs.  Joseph  Caheill,  (widow  of  the  late  Hon.  Joseph  Caheill, 
of  Virginia) — Cordelia's  Escape  from  her  Mistress  in  Philadelphia 112 

ARRIVAL  OF  JACKSON,  ISAAC  AND  EDMONDSON  TURNER  FROM 

PETERSBURG. 
Touching  Scene  on  Meeting  their  Old  Blind  Father  at  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  Depot 117 

ROBERT  BROWN  ALIAS  THOMAS  JONES. 
Crossing  the  River  on  Horseback  in  the  Night 121 

ANTHONY  LONEY  ALIAS  WILLIAM  ARMSTEAD  AND  CORNELIUS 
SCOTT. 122 

SAMUEL  WILLIAMS  ALIAS  JOHN  WILLIAMS 123 

BARNABY  GRIGBY  ALIAS  JOHN  BOYER,  AND  MARY  ELIZABETH  HIS 
WIFE,  FRANK  WANZER  ALIAS  ROBERT  SCOTT,  EMILY  FOSTER 
ALIAS  ANN  WOOD  ..  .  124 


CONTENTS.  11 

PAGE 

WILLIAM  JORDAN  ALIAS  WILLIAM  PRICE 129 

JOSEPH  GRANT  AND  JOHN  SPEAKS. 
Two  Passengers  via  Liverpool 132 

WILLIAM  N.  TAYLOR. 
"One  Hundred  Dollars  Reward" 134 

LOUISA  BROWN,  JACOB  WATERS,  AND  ALFRED  GOULDEN 135 

ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE. 

Jefferson  Pipkins  alias  David  Jones,  Louisa  Pipkins,  Elizabeth  Brit,  Harriet  Brown, 
alias  Jane  Wooton,  Gracy  Murry  alias  Sophia  Sims,  Edward  Williams  alias  Henry 
Johnson,  Charles  Lee  alias  Thomas  Bushier 136 

SEVERAL  ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLACES. 

Henry  Anderson,  Charles  and  Margaret  Congo,  Chaskey  Brown,  William  Henry 
Washington,  James  Alfred  Frisley,  Charles  Henry  Salter,  Stephen  Taylor,  Charles 
Brown,  Charles  H.  Holli?,  Luther  Dorsey 137 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND. 
Jeremiah  W.  Smith  and  wife  Julia 141 

EIGHT  ARRIVALS. 

James  Massey,  Perry  Henry  Trusty,  George  Rhoads,  James  Rhoads,  George  Wash- 
ington, Sarah  Elizabeth  Rhoadd,  and  Child,  Mary  Elizabeth  Stevenson 143 

CHARLES  THOMPSON, 
Carrier  of  "The  National  American" 146 

BLOOD  FLOWED  FREELY. 

Abram  Galloway  and  Richard  Eden — Secreted  in  a  Vessel  Loaded  with  Spirits  of 
Turpentine — Shrouds  Prepared  to  Prevent  being  Smoked  to  Death — Abram  a  Sol- 
dier under  Father  Abraham — Senator  of  North  Carolina 150 

JOHN  PETTIFOOT. 

"  One   Hundred   Dollars   Reward"   Offered — McHenry  and   McCulloch   Anxious 
About  John 153 

EMANUEL  T.  WHITE. 
"  Would  rather  Fight  than  Eat" 154 

THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  CHILD  FOURTEEN  MONTHS  OLD. 
Letter  from  "J.  B.1' — Letters  from  E.  L.  Stevens... Great  Anxiety  and  Care 155 

ESCAPE  OF  A  YOUNG  SLAVE  MOTHER. 
Baby,  Little  Girl  and  Husband  left  Behind— Three  Hundred  Dollars  Reward  Offered  157 


12  CONTENTS. 

SAMUEL  W.  JOHNSON. 

PAGE 

Arrival  from  the  Richmond  Daily  Dispatch  Office — "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  turned 
Sam's  Brain — Affecting  Letters 158 

FAMILY  FROM  BALTIMORE. 

Stephen  Amos  alias  Henry  Johnson,  Harriet  alias  Mary  Jane  Johnson,  and  their 
four  children,  Ann  Rebecca,  William  H.,  Elizabeth  and  Mary  Ellen 160 

ELIJAH  HILTON, 

From  Richmond— "  Five   Hundred  Dollars  Reward"  offered  by  R.  J.  Christian. ..Grate- 
ful letter  from  Canada 161 

SOLOMON  BROWN 

Arrived  per  City  of  Richmond — Letter  from  Canada  containing  expressions  of  Grati- 
tude   163 

WILLIAM  HOGG  ALIAS  JOHN  SMITH. 

Traveler  from  Maryland — William  was  much  troubled  about  his  Wife  left  behind — 
Letter  from  Canada 164 

TWO  FEMALE  PASSENGERS  FROM  MARYLAND. 
Ann  Johnson  and  Lavina  Woolfley  Sold — Out  of  the  Frying  Pan  into  the  Fire  164 

CAPTAIN  F.  AND  THE  MAYOR  OF  NORFOLK. 

Twenty-one  Passengers  secreted  in  Captain  Fountain's  Boat — Mayor  and  Posse  of 
Officers  on  the  Boat  searching  for  U.  G.  R.  R.  Passengers 165 

ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLACES. 

Matilda  Mahoney — Dr.  J.  W.  Pennington's  Brother  and  Sons — Great  Adventure  to 
deliver  a  Lover  172 

FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE. 

Ann  Maria  Weems  alias  Joe  Wright — Great  Triumph — Arrival  on  Thanksgiving 
Day — Interesting  letters  from  J.  Bigelow 177 

FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED. 
John  Henry,  Hezekiah  and  James  Hill IS'J 

FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND  AND  DELAWARE. 

Archer  Barlow,  alias  Emet  Robins — Samuel  Bush  alias  William  Oblebee— John  Spen- 
cer and  his  son  William  and  James  Albert — Robert  Fisher — NATHAN  HARRIS — 
Hansel  Waples  —  Rosanna  Tonnell,  alias  Maria  Hyde  —  Mary  Ennis  alias  Licia 
Hemmit  and  two  Children— Lydia  and  Louisa  Caroline 203 

.  SAM,  ISAAC,  PERRY.  CHARLES  AND  GREEN. 
"  One  Thousand  Dollars  Reward"...  ..  208 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAGE 

FROM  RICHMOND  AND  NORFORK,  VA. 
William  B.  White,  Susan  Brooks,  and  Win.  Henry  Atkinson 211 

FOUR  ARRIVALS. 

Charlotte  and  Harriet  escape  in  deep  Mourning — White  Lady  and  Child  with  a  Col- 
ored Coachman — Three  likely  Young  Men  from  Baltimore — Four  large  and  two 
Small  Hams — U.  G.  R.  R.  Passengers  Travelling  with  their  Master's  Horses  and 
Carriage — Six  Passengers  on  two  Horses,  &c 214 

FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  NORTH  CAROLINA,  WASH- 
INGTON, D.  C.  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA 223 

CHARLES  GILBERT, 

Fleeing  from  Davis,  a  Negro  Trader — Secreted  under  a  Hotel — Up  a  Tree — Under  a 
Floor— In  a  Thicket— On  a  Steamer 235 

LIBERTY  OR  DEATH. 
Jim  Bowlegs  alias  Bill  Paul 240 

SALT-WATER  FUGITIVE 242 

SAMUEL  GREEN  ALIAS  WESLEY  KINNARD. 

Ten  Years  in  the  Penitentiary  for  having  a  Copy  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  in  his 
House '. 246 

AN  IRISH  GIRL'S  DEVOTION  TO  FREEDOM. 
In  Love  with  a  Slave — Gets  him  off  to  Canada — Follows   him — Marriage,  &c 250 

"SAM"  NIXON  ALIAS  DR.  THOMAS  BAYNE. 
The  Escape  of  a  Dentist  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  &c 254 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS. 
From  Loudoun  County,  Va.,  Norfolk,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Petersburg,  Va.,  Ac 259 

HEAVY  REWARD. 
"  Two  Thousand  Six  Hundred  Dollars  Reward"  Offered 272 

SLAVE-TRADER  HALL  IS  FOILED. 
Robert  McCoy  alias  William  Donar,  and  Elizabeth  Sanders,  arrived  per  steamer 274 

THE  PROTECTION  OF  SLAVE  PROPERTY  IN  VIRGINIA. 
A  Bill  providing  additional  Protection  for  the  Slave  Property  of  Citizens  of  this  Com- 
monwealth   277 

ESCAPING  IN  A  CHEST. 
"One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Dollars  Reward"— Lear  G'reen 281 

ISAAC  WILLIAMS,  HENRY  BANKS  AND  KIT  NICKLESS 284 


14  CONTENTS. 

ARRIVAL  OP  FIVE  FROM  THE  EASTERN  SHORE  OF  MARYLAND. 

PAGE 

Cyrus  Mitchell  alias  John  Steel,  Joshua  Handy  alias  Hambleton  Hamby,  Charles 
Dutton  alias  William  Robinson,  Ephraim  Hudson  alias  John  Spry,  Francis  Molock 
alias  Thomas  Jackson 286 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  ABOUT  AUGUST  IST,  1855. 
Francis  Billiard  and  Others 287 

DEEP  FURROWS  ON  THE  BACK. 
Thomas  Madden 294 

PETER  MATHEWS  ALIAS  SAMUEL  SPARROWS. 
"I  might  as  well  be  in  the  Penitentiary  as  in  Slavery." 295 

"MOSES"  ARRIVES  WITH  SIX  PASSENGERS  296 

ESCAPED  FROM  "A  WORTHLESS  SOT." 
John  Atkinson 299 

WILLIAM  BUTCHER  ALIAS  Wm.  T.  MTCHELL. 
«  He  was  abuseful" 300 

"WHITE  ENOUGH  TO  PASS" 301 

ESCAPING  WITH  MASTER'S  CARRIAGES  AND   HORSES. 
Harriet  Shephard,  and  her  five  Children  with  five  other  Passengers 302 

EIGHT  AND  A  HALF  MONTHS  SECRETED. 
Washington  Somlor  alias  James  Moore 304 

ARTHUR  FOWLER  ALIAS  BENJAMIN  JOHNSON 305 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS. 
About  the  1st  of  June,  1855— Emory  Roberts  and  others 305 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  ABOUT  JANUARY  IST,  1855. 
Verenea  Mercer  and  others 309 

SLAVE-HOLDER  IN  MARYLAND  WITH  THREE  COLORED  WIVES. 
James  Griffin  alias  Thomas  Brown 314 

CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  NINE  PASSENGERS. 
Names  of  Passengers 316 

OWEN  AND  OTHO  TAYLOR'S  FLIGHT  WITH  HORSES,  &c 330 


CONTENTS.  15 

HEAVY  REWARD. 

PAGE 

Three  Hundred  Dollars  Reward — "Tom"  gone 324 

CAPT.  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  "PRIME  ARTICLES"  ON  BOARD  325 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  LATTER  PART  OF  DECEMBER,  1855,  AND  BE- 
GINNING OF  JANUARY,  1856. 

Joseph  Cornish  and  others 334 

PART  OF  THE  ARRIVALS  IN  DECEMBER,  1855. 
Thomas  J.  Gooseberry  and  others 339 

THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL  OF  1850. 

"  An  Act  Respecting  Fugitives  from  Justice,  and  Persons  Escaping  from  the  Servi- 
ces of  their  Masters." 343 

THE  SLAVE   HUNTING   TRAGEDY    IN   LANCASTER    COUNTY,   IN 

SEPTEMBER,  1851. 
"Treason  at  Christiana" 348 

WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT. 

Female  Slave  in  Male  Attire,  fleeing  as  a  Planter,  with  her  Husband  as  her  Body 
Servant 3G8 

ARRIVALS  FROM  RICHMOND. 
Lewis  Cobb  and  Nancy  Brister 377 

PASSENGERS  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA,  [Br  SCHOONER.] 
Major  Latham,  William  Wilson,  Henry  Goram,  Wiley  Madison,  and  Andrew  Shep- 
herd  .' 379 

THOMAS  CLINTON,  SAUNEY  PRY  AND  BENJAMIN  DUCKET. 
Passed  over  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  in  the  Fall  of  1856 3S2 

ARRIVALS  IN  APRIL,  1856. 
Charles  Hall  and  others 383 

FIVE  FROM  GEORGETOWN  CROSS-ROADS. 
Mother  and  Child  from  Norfolk,  Va.,  &c 386 

PASSENGERS  FROM  MARYLAND. 
William  Henry  MOODY,  BELINDA  BIVANS,  &c 388 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 390 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  <fec.,  1857. 
George  Carroll,  Randolph  Branson,  John  Clagart  and  William  Royan 391 


16  CONTENTS. 

ARRIVAL  FROM  UNIONVILLE,  1857. 

PACK 

Israel  Todd  and  Bazil  Aldridge 392 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857. 
Ordee  Lee  and  Richard  J.  Booce 393 

ARRIVAL  FROM  CAMBRIDGE,  1857. 

Silas   Long  and  Solomon   Light — "  The   Mother  of  Twelve   Children" — Old  Jane 
Davis 394 

BENJAMIN  ROSS  AND  HIS  WIFE  HARRIET 
Fled  from  Caroline  County,  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  June,  1857 395 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1857 396 

ARRIVAL   FROM  DELAWARE,  1857 397 

ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  IN  1857 399 

ARRIVAL  FROM  UNIONVILLE,  1857 401 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NEW  ORLEANS,  1857 403 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C 406 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1857 408 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 409 

ARRIVAL  FROM  GEORGETOWN  CROSSROADS  AND  ALEXANDRIA 410 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 411 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA... 412 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C 413 

FOUR  ABLE  BODIED  "ARTICLES"  IN  ONE  ARRIVAL,  1857 414 

ARRIVAL  FROM  ARLINGTON,  MD.,  1857 416 

FIVE  PASSENGERS,  1847 418 

ARRIVAL  FROM  HOWARD  COUNTY,  Ma,  1857 419 

ARRIVAL  FROM  PRINCE  GEORGE'S  COUNTY,  MD., 420 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RAPPAHANNOCK  COUNTY,  1857 421 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1857...,  ..  422 


CONTENTS,  17 

PAGE 

ALFRED  HOLLON,  GEORGE  AND  CHARLES  N.  RODGER3 427 

ARRIVAL  FROM  KENT  COUNTY,  1857 429 

ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE  COUNTY,  1857 429 

MARY  COOPER  AND  MOSES  ARMSTEAD,  1857 ' 430 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NEAR  WASHINGTON,  D.  C 430 

HON.  L.  McLANE'S  PROPERTY,  SOON  AFTER  HIS  DEATH,  TRAVELS 
VIA  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD— WILLIAM  KNIGHT,  ESQ. 
LOSES  A  SUPERIOR  "ARTICLE."  431 

ARRIVAL  FROM  HARFORD  COUNTY,  1857 434 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857 434 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA.,  1857 435 

ARRIVAL  FROM  HOOPERVILLE,  MD.,  1857 437 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857 r 439 

ARRIVAL  FROM  QUEEN  ANNE  COUNTY,  1858 440 

ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE 441 

ARRIVED  FROM  DUNWOODY  COUNTY,  1858 441 

ARRIVED  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  VA.,  1857 442 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858 443 

ARRIVAL  FROM  PETERSBURG,  1858 , 444 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 444 

ARRIVAL  OF  A  PARTY  OF  SIX,  1858 445 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858 419 

ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE,  1858 -  450 

ARRIVAL  FROM  HIGHTSTOWN,  1858 451 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858 452 

ARRIVAL  FROM   BELLAIR 454 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858 455 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858 459 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858 461 

2 


18  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA,  1858 402 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NEAR  BALTIMORE,  1858 462 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858 463 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  1858 463 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858 4G4 

ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  OLD  DOMINION , 465 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858 , 470 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858 471 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858 472 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA  AND  DELAWARE 473 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 474 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND.... 476 

ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA,  1858 477 

ARRIVAL  FROM  HONEY  BROOK  TOWNSHIP,  1858 478 

ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  VA.,  1858 478 

ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  SEAT  OF  GOVERNMENT 480 

CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  SKIFF 481 

ARRIVAL  FROM  KENT  COUNTY,  MD.,  1858 485 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  1858 •  486 

ARRIVAL  FROM  CECIL  COUNTY,  1858 486 

ARRIVAL  FROM  GEORGETOWN,  D.  C.,  1858 487 

ARRIVAL  FROM  SUSSEX  COUNTY,  1858 488 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  IN  1859 491 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859 493 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858 495 

ARRIVAL  FROAl  RICHMOND,  1859... 497 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859 499 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  1859 ..  500 


CONTENTS.  19 

PAGE 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859 502 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1859 502 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,   1859 503 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859 504 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,   1859 500 

• 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND 507 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  VIRGINIA,  AND  THE  DISTRICT    OF   CO- 

LUMBIA 508, 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND  AND  VIRGINIA 509 

ARRIVAL  FROM  SEAFORD,  1859 511 

ARRIVAL  FROM  TAPS'  NECK,  MD.,  1859 511 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859 512 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND  AND  DELAWARE....  514 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DIFFERENT  POINTS 516 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860 519 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,   1860 521 

ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE,  1860 523 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND ^24 

ARRIVAL  FROM  FREDERICKSBURG,   1860 525 

SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860 526 

CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  BATTEAU 528 

ARRIVAL  FROM  DORCHESTER  COUNTY,  1860 530 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860 532 

TWELVE  MONTHS  IN  THE  WOODS,  1860 532 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND :.. 533 

A  SLAVE  CATCHER  CAUGHT  IN  HIS  OWN  TRAP 534 

TO  WHOM  IT  MIGHT  CONCERN 535 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858 536 


20  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859 539 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND 541 

"  AUNT  HANNAH  MOORE." 547 

KIDNAPPING  OF  RACHEL  AND  ELIZABETH  PARKER— MURDER  OF 
JOSEPH  C.  MILLER,  IN  1851  AND  1852 551 

ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1854 ,.....". 555 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK 558 

ARRIVAL  OF  FIFTEEN  FROM  NORFOLK,  VIRGINIA 559 

THE  CASE  OF  EQPHEMIA  WILLIAMS 566 

HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD— INTEREST- 
ING LETTERS 584 

'PAMPHLET  AND  LETTERS 584 

LETTERS  TO  THE  WRITER 603 

WOMAN  ESCAPING  IN  A  BOX,  1857 608 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE 610 

PORTRAITS  AND  SKETCHES 613 

ABIGAIL  GOODWIN 617 

THOMAS  GARRETT 623 

DANIEL  GIBBONS ".. 642 

LUCRETIA  MOTT 649 

JAMES  MILLER  McKIM 654 

WILLIAM  H.  FURNESS,  D.  D 659 

WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON 665 

LEWIS  TAPPAN 680 

ELIJAH  F.   PENNYPACKER 688 

WILLIAM  WRIGHT .' 691 

DR.  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL 695 

THOMAS  SHIPLEY 698 

ROBERT  PURVIS...,  ..  711 


CONTENTS.  21 

PA  OB 

JOHN  HUNN 712 

SAMUEL  RHOADS 719 

GEORGE  CORSON 721 

CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND 723 

WILLIAM  WHIPPER 735 

ISAAC  T.  HOPPER 740 

SAMUEL  D.  BURRIS 746 

MARIANN,  GRACE  ANNA,  AND  ELIZABETH  R.  LEWIS 748 

CUNNINGHAM'S  RACHE 753 

FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER...  ..  755 


THE 


UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


SETH  CONCKLIN. 

IN  the  long  list  of  names  who  have  suffered  and  died  in  the  cause  of 
freedom,  not  one,  perhaps,  could  be  found  whose  efforts  to  redeem  a  poor 
family  of  slaves  were  more  Christlike  than  Seth  Concklin's.  whose  noblo 
and  daring  spirit  has  been  so  long  completely  shrouded  in  mystery.  Except 
John  Brown,  it  is  a  question,  whether  his  rival  could  be  found  with  respect 
to  boldness,  disinterestedness  and  willingness  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  de- 
liverance of  the  oppressed. 

By  chance  one  day  he  came  across  a  copy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Freeman, 
containing  the  story  of  Peter  Still,  "  the  Kidnapped  and  the  Ransomed," — 
how  he  had  been  torn  away  from  his  mother,  when  a  little  boy  six  years 
old ;  how,  for  forty  years  and  more,  he  had  been  compelled  to  serve  under 
the  yoke,  totally  destitute  as  to  any  knowledge  of  his  parents'  whereabouts; 
how  the  intense  love  of  liberty  and  desire  to  get  back  to  his  mother  had  un- 
ceasingly absorbed  his  mind  through  all  these  years  of  bondage;  how,  amid 
the  most  appalling  discouragements,  prompted  alone  by  his  undying  deter- 
mination to  be  free  and  be  reunited  with  those  from  whom  he  had  been  sold 
away,  he  contrived  to  buy  himself;  how,  by  extreme  economy,  from  doing 
over-work,  he  saved  up  five  hundred  dollars,  the  amount  of  money  required 
for  his  ransom,  which,  with  his  freedom,  he,  from  necessity,  placed  unre- 
servedly in  the  confidential  keeping  of  a  Jew,  named  Joseph  Friedman,  whom 
he  had  known  for  a  long  time  and  could  venture  to  trust, — how  he  had  fur- 
ther toiled  to  save  up  money  to  defray  his  expenses  on  an  expedition  in 
search  of  his  mother  and  kindred ;  how,  when  this  end  was  accomplished, 
with  an  earnest  purpose  he  took  his  carpet-bag  in  his  hand,  and  his  heart 
throbbing  for  his  old  home  and  people,  he  turned  his  mind  very  privately  to- 
wards Philadelphia,  where  he  hoped,  by  having  notices  read  in  the  colored 
churches  to  the  effect  that  "  forty-one  or  forty-two  years  before  two  little  boys* 

*  Sons  of  Levin  and  Sidney — the  last  names  of  his  parents  he  was  too  young  to  remember. 

23 


24  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

were  kidnapped  and  carried  South  " — that  the  memory  of  some  of  the  older 
members  might  recall  the  circumstances,  and  in  this  way  he  would  be  aided 
in  his  ardent  efforts  to  become  restored  to  them. 

And,  furthermore,  Seth  Coucklin  had  read  how,  on  arriving  in  Philadel- 
phia, after  traveling  sixteen  hundred  miles,  that  almost  the  first  man  whom 
Peter  Still  sought  advice  from  was  his  own  unknown  brother  (whom  he  had 
never  seen  or  heard  of),  who  made  the  discovery  that  he  was  the  long-lost 
boy,  whose  history  and  fate  had  been  enveloped  in  sadness  so  long,  and 
for  whom  his  mother  had  shed  so  many  tears  and  offered  so  many  prayers, 
during  the  long  years  of  their  separation ;  and,  finally,  how  this  self-ran- 
somed and  restored  captive,  notwithstanding  his  great  success,  was  destined 
to  suffer  the  keenest  pangs  of  sorrow  for  his  wife  and  children,  whom  he  had 
left  in  Alabama  bondage. 

Seth  Coucklin  was  naturally  too  singularly  sympathetic  and  humane  not 
to  feel  now  for  Peter,  and  especially  for  his  wife  and  children  left  in  bonds 
as  bound  with  them.  Hence,  as  Seth  was  a  man  who  seemed  wholly  insen- 
sible to  fear,  and  to  know  no  other  law  of  humanity  and  right,  than  when- 
ever the  claims  of  the  suffering  and  the  wronged  appealed  to  him,  to  respond 
unreservedly,  whether  those  thus  injured  were  amongst  his  nearest  kin  or 
the  greatest  strangers, — it  mattered  not  to  what  race  or  clime  they  might  be- 
long,— he,  in  the  spirit  of  the  good  Samaritan,  owning  all  such  as  his  neigh- 
bors, volunteered  his  services,  without  pay  or  reward,  to  go  and  rescue  the 
wife  and  three  children  of  Peter  Still. 

The  magnitude  of  this  offer  can  hardly  be  appreciated.  It  was  literally 
laying  his  life  on  the  altar  of  freedom  for  the  despised  and  oppressed  whom 
he  had  never  seen,  whose  kins-folk  even  he  was  not  acquainted  with.  At  this 
juncture  even  Peter  was  not  prepared  to  accept  this  proposal.  He  wanted 
to  secure  the  freedom  of  his  wife  and  children  as  earnestly  as  he  had  ever 
desired  to  see  his  mother,  yet  he  could  not,  at  first,  hearken  to  the  idea  of 
having  them  rescued  in  the  way  suggested  by  Concklin,  fearing  a  failure. 

To  J.  M.  McKim  and  the  writer,  the  bold  scheme  for  the  deliverance  of 
Peter's  family  was  alone  confided.  It  was  never  submitted  to  the  Vigilance 
Committee,  for  the  reason,  that  it  was  not  considered  a  matter  belonging 
thereto.  On  first  reflection,  the  very  idea  of  such  an  undertaking  seemed 
perfectly  appalling.  Frankly  was  he  told  of  the  great  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties to  be  encountered  through  hundreds  of  miles  of  slave  territory.  Seth 
was  told  of  those  \vho,  in  attempting  to  aid  slaves  to  escape,  had 
fallen  victims  to  the  relentless  Slave  Power,  and  had  either  lost  their 
lives,  or  been  incarcerated  for  long  years  in  penitentiaries,  where  no  friendly 
aid  could  be  afforded  them ;  in  short,  he  was  plainly  told,  that  without  a 
very  great  chance,  the  undertaking  would  cost  him  his  life.  The  occasion 
of  this  interview  and  conversation,  the  seriousness  of  Concklin  and  the  utter 
failure  in  presenting  the  various  obstacles  to  his  plan,  to  create  the  slightest 
apparent  misgiving  in  his  mind,  or  to  produce  the  slightest  sense  of  fear  or 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  25 

hesitancy,  can  never  be  effaced  from  the  memory  of  the  writer.  The  plan 
was,  however,  allowed  to  rest  for  a  time. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Peter's  mind  was  continually  vacillating  between  Ala- 
bama, with  his  wife  and  children,  and  his  new-found  relatives  in  the  North. 
Said  a  brother,  "If  you  cannot  get  your  family,  what  will  you  do?  Will 
you  come  North  and  live  with  your  relatives?"  "I  would  as  soon  go  out 
of  the  world,  as  not  to  go  back  and  do  all  I  can  for  them,"  was  the  prompt 
reply  of  Peter. 

The  problem  of  buying  them  was  seriously  considered,  but  here  obstacles 
quite  formidable  lay  in  the  way.  Alabama  laws  utterly  denied  the  right  of 
a  slave  to  buy  himself,  much  less  his  wife  and  children.  The  right  of  slave 
masters  to  free  their  slaves,  either  by  sale  or  emancipation,  was  positively 
prohibited  by  law.  With  these  reflections  weighing  upon  his  mind,  having 
stayed  away  from  his  wife  as  long  as  he  could  content  himself  to  do,  he  took 
his  carpet-bag  in  his  hand,  and  turned  his  face  toward  Alabama,  to  embrace 
his  family  in  the  prison-house  of  bondage. 

His  approach  home  could  only  be  made  stealthily,  not  daring  to  breathe 
to  a  living  soul,  save  his  own  family,  his  nominal  Jew  master,  and  one 
other  friend — a  slave — where  he  had  been,  the  prize  he  had  found,  or  any- 
thing in  relation  to  his  travels.  To  his  wife  and  children  his  return  was 
unspeakably  joyous.  The  situation  of  his  family  concerned  him  with  ten- 
fold more  weight  than  ever  before. 

As  the  time  drew  near  to  make  the  offer  to  his  wife's  master  to  purchase 
her  with  his  children,  his  heart  failed  him  through  fear  of  awakening  the  ire 
of  slaveholders  against  him,  as  he  knew  that  the  law  and  public  sentiment 
were  alike  deadly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  freedom  in  the  slave.  Indeed, 
as  innocent  as  a  step  in  this  direction  might  appear,  in  those  days  a  man 
would  have  stood  about  as  good  a  chance  for  his  life  in  entering  a  lair  of 
hungry  hyenas,  as  a  slave  or  free  colored  man  would,  in  talking  about 
freedom. 

He  concluded,  therefore,  to  say  nothing  about  buying.  The  plan  proposed 
by  Seth  Concklin  was  told  to  Vina,  his  wife ;  also  what  he  had  heard  from 
his  brother  about  the  Underground  Kail  Road, — how,  that  many  wti3 
could  not  get  their  freedom  in  any  other  way,  by  being  aided  a  little,  were 
daily  escaping  to  Canada.  Although  the  wife  and  children  had  never 
tasted  the  pleasures  of  freedom  for  a  single  hour  in  their  lives,  they  hated 
slavery  heartily,  and  being  about  to  be  far  separated  from  husband  and 
father,  they  were  ready  to  assent  to  any  proposition  that  looked  like  deliver- 
ance. 

So  Peter  proposed  to  Vina,  that  she  should  give  him  certain  small 
articles,  consisting  of  a  cape,  etc.,  which  he  would  carry  with  him  as  memo- 
rials, and,  in  case  Concklin  or  any  one  else  should  ever  come  for  her  from 
him,  as  an  unmistakable  sign  that  all  was  right,  he  would  send  back,  by 


26  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

whoever  was  to  befriend  them,  the  cape,  so  that  she  and  the  children  might 
not  doubt  but  have  faith  in  the  man,  when  he  gave  her  the  sign,  (cape). 

Again  Peter  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  was  now  willing  to  accept  the 
offer  of  Concklin.  Ere  long,  the  opportunity  of  an  interview  was  had, 
and  Peter  gave  Seth  a  very  full  description  of  the  country  and  of  his  family, 
and  made  known  to  him,  that  he  had  very  carefully  gone  over  with  his 
wife  and  children  the  matter  of  their  freedom.  This  interview  interested 
Concklin  most  deeply.  If  his  own  wife  and  children  had  been  in  bondage, 
scarcely  could  he  have  manifested  greater  sympathy  for  them. 

For  the  hazardous  work  before  him  he  was  at  once  prepared  to  make  a 
start.  True  he  had  two  sisters  in  Philadelphia  for  whom  he  had  always  che- 
rished the  warmest  affection,  but  he  conferred  not  with  them  on  this  mo- 
mentous mission.  For  full  well  did  he  know  that  it  was  not  in  human 
nature  for  them  to  acquiesce  in  this  perilous  undertaking,  though  one  of 
these  sisters,  Mrs.  Supplee,  was  a  most  faithful  abolitionist. 

Having  once  laid  his  hand  to  the  plough  he  was  not  the  man  to  look 
back, — not  even  to  bid  his  sisters  good-bye,  but  he  actually  left  them  as 
though  he  expected  to  be  home  to  his  dinner  as  usual.  What  had  become 
of  him  during  those  many  weeks  of  his  perilous  labors  in  Alabama  to  rescue 
this  family  was  to  none  a  greater  mystery  than  to  his  sisters.  On  leaving 
home  he  simply  took  two  or  three  small  articles  in  the  way  of  apparel  with 
one  hundred  dollars  to  defray  his  expenses  for  a  time  ;  this  sum  he  con- 
sidered ample  to  start  with.  Of  course  he  had  very  safely  concealed  about 
him  Vina's  cape  and  one  or  two  other  articles  which  he  was  to  use  for  his 
identification  in  meeting  her  and  the  children  on  the  plantation. 

His  first  thought  was,  on  reaching  his  destination,  after  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  family,  being  familiar  with  Southern  manners,  to  have 
them  all  prepared  at  a  given  hour  for  the  starting  of  the  steamboat  for 
Cincinnati,  and  to  join  him  at  the  wharf,  when  he  would  boldly  assume  the 
part  of  a  slaveholder,  and  the  family  naturally  that  of  slaves,  and  in 
this  way  he.  hoped  to  reach  Cincinnati  direct,  before  their  owner  had  fairly 
discovered  their  escape. 

But  alas  for  Southern  irregularity,  two  or  three  days'  delay  after  being 
Advertised  to  start,  was  no  uncommon  circumstance  with  steamers ;  hence 
this  plan  was  abandoned.  What  this  heroic  man  endured  from  severe 
struggles  and  unyielding  exertions,  in  traveling  thousands  of  miles  on  water 
and  on  foot,  hungry  and  fatigued,  rowing  his  living  freight  for  seven  days 
and  seven  nights  in  a  skiff,  is  hardly  to  be  paralleled  in  the  annals  of  the 
Underground  Rail  Road. 

The  following  interesting  letters  penned  by  the  hand  of  Concklin  con- 
vey minutely  his  last  struggles  and  characteristically  represent  the  singleness 
of  heart  which  impelled  him  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  the  slave — 


SETH  CONCKLIN.       .  27 

EASTPOKT,  Miss.,  FEB.  3,  1851. 

To  WM.  STILL  : — Our  friends  in  Cincinnati  have  failed  finding  anybody  to  assist  me  on 
my  return.  Searching  the  country  opposite  Paducah,  I  find  that  the  whole  country  fifty 
miles  round  is  inhabited  only  by  Christian  wolves.  It  is  customary,  when  a  strange  negro 
is  seen,  for  any  white  man  to  seize  the  negro  and  convey  such  negro  through  and  out  of 
the  State  of  Illinois  to  Paducah,  Ky.,  and  lodge  such  stranger  in  Paducah  jail,  and  there 
claim  such  reward  as  may  be  offered  by  the  master. 

There  is  no  regularity  by  the  steamboats  on  the  Tennessee  River.  I  was  four  days 
getting  to  Florence  from  Paducah.  Sometimes  they  are  four  days  starting,  from  the  time 
appointed,  which  alone  puts  to  rest  the  plan  for  returning  by  steamboat.  The  distance 
from  the  mouth  of  the  river  to  Florence,  is  from  between  three  hundred  and  five  to  three 
hundred  and  forty-five  miles  by  the  river;  by  land,  two  hundred  and  fifty,  or  more. 

I  arrived  at  the  shoe  shop  on  the  plantation,  one  o'clock,  Tuesday,  28th.  William  and 
two  boys  were  making  shoes.  I  immediately  gave  the  first  signal,  anxiously  waiting 
thirty  minutes  for  an  opportunity  to  give  the  second  and  main  signal,  during  which  time 
I  was  very  sociable.  It  was  rainy  and  muddy — my  pants  were  rolled  up  to  the  knees.  I 
was  in  the  character  of  a  man  seeking  employment  in  this  country.  End  of  thirty  minutes 
gave  the  second  signal. 

William  appeared  unmoved ;  soon  sent  out  the  boys ;  instantly  sociable ;  Peter  and 
Levin  at  the  Island  ;  one  of  the  young  masters  with  them ;  not  safe  to  undertake  to  see 
them  till  Saturday  night,  when  they  would  be  at  home  :  appointed  a  place  to  see  Vina, 
in  an  open  field,  that  night;  they  to  bring  me  something  to  eat;  our  interview  only  four 
minutes;  I  left;  appeared  by  night;  dark  and  cloudy;  at  ten  o'clock  appeared  William; 
exchanged  signals ;  led  me  a  few  rods  to  where  stood  Vina  ;  gave  her  the  signal  sent  by 
Peter ;  our  interview  ten  minutes  ;  she  did  not  call  me  "  master,"  nor  did  she  say  "  sir," 
by  which  I  knew  she  had  confidence  in  me. 

Our  situation  being  dangerous,  we  decided  that  I  meet  Peter  and  Levin  on  the  bank 
of  the  river  early  dawn  of  day,  Sunday,  to  establish  the  laws.  During  our  interview, 
William  prostrated  on  his  knees,  and  face  to  the  ground ;  arms  sprawling ;  head  cocked 
back,  watching  for  wolves,  by  which  position  a  man  can  see  better  in  the  dark.  No  house 
to  go  to  safely,  traveled  round  till  morning,  eating  hoe  cake  which  William  had  given  me 
for  supper  ;  next  day  going  around  to  get  employment.  I  thought  of  William,,  who  is  a 
Christian  preacher,  and  of  the  Christian  preachers  in  Pennsylvania.  One  watching  for 
wolves  by  night,  to  rescue  Vina  and  her  three  children  from  Christian  licentiousness  ;  the 
other  standing  erect  in  open  day,  seeking  the  praise  of  men. 

During  the  four  days  waiting  for  the  important  Sunday  morning,  I  thoroughly  surveyed 
the  rocks  and  shoals  of  the  river  from  Florence  seven  miles  up,  where  will  be  my  place  of 
departure.  General  notice  was  taken  of  me  as  being  a  stranger,  lurking  around.  Fortu- 
nately there  are  several  small  grist  mills  within  ten  miles  around.  No  taverns  here,  as  in 
the  North  ;  any  planter's  house  entertains  travelers  occasionally.. 

One  night  I  stayed  at  a  medical  gentleman's,  who  is  not  a  large  planter;  another  night 
at  an  ex-magistrate's  house  in  South  Florence — a  Virginian  by  birth — one  of  the  late 
census  takers ;  told  me  that  many  more  persons  cannot  read  and  write  than  is  reported  ; 
one  fact,  amongst  many  others,  that  many  persons  who  do  not  know  the  letters  of  the  al- 
phabet, have  learned  to  write  their  own  names  ;  such  are  generally  reported  readers  and 
writers.  • 

It  being  customary  for  a  stranger  not  to  leave  the  house  early  in  the  morning  where  he 
has  lodged,  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  staying  out  all  night  Saturday,  to  be  able  to  meet 
Peter  and  Levin,  which  was  accomplished  in  due  time.  When  we  approached,  I  gave  my 
signal  first ;  immediately  they  gave  theirs.  I  talked  freely.  Levin's  voice,  at  first,  evi- 
dently trembled.  No  wonder,  for  my  presence  universally  attracted  attention  by  the  lords 


28  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

of  the  land.  Our  interview  was  less  than  one  hour  ;  the  laws  were  written.  I  to  go  to 
Cincinnati  to  get  a  rowing  boat  and  provisions  ;  a  first  class  clipper  boat  to  go  with  speed. 
To  depart  from  the  place  where  the  laws  were  written,  on  Saturday  night  of  the  first  of 
March.  I  to  meet  one  of  them  at  the  same  place  Thursday  night,  previous  to  the  fourth 
Saturday  from  the  night  previous  to  the  Sunday  when  the  laws  were  written.  We  to  go 
down  the  Tennessee  river  to  some  place  up  the  Ohio,  not  yet  decided  on,  in  our  row  boat. 
Peter  and  Levin  are  good  oarsmf-n.  So  am  I.  Telegraph  station  at  Tuscumbia,  twelve 
miles  from  the  plantation,  also  at  Paducah. 

Came  from  Florence  to  here  Sunday  night  by  steamboat.  Eastport  is  in  Mississippi. 
Waiting  here  for  a  steamboat  to  go  down  ;  paying  one  dollar  a  day  for  board.  Like  other 
taverns  here,  the  wretchedness  is  indescribable;  no  pen,  ink,  paper  or  newspaper  to  be 
had  ;  only  one  room  for  everybody,  except  the  gambling  rooms.  It  is  difficult  for  me  to 
write.  Vina  intends  to  get  a  pass  for  Catharine  and  herself  for  the  first  Sunday  in  March. 

The  bank  of  the  river  where  I  met  Peter  and  Levin  is  two  miles  from  the  plantation.  I 
have  avoided  saying  I  am  from  Philadelphia.  Also  avoided  talking  about  negroes.  I 
never  talked  so  much  about  milling  before.  I  consider  most  of  the  trouble  over,  till  I 
arrive  in  a  free  State  with  my  crew,  the  first  week  in  March ;  then  will  I  have  to  be  wiser 
than  Christian  serpents,  and  more  cautious  than  doves.  I  do  not  consider  it  safe  to  keep 
this  letter  in  my  possession,  yet  I  dare  not  put  it  in  the  post-office  here;  there  is  so  little 
business  in  these  post-offices  that  notice  might  be  taken. 

I  am  evidently  watched  ;  everybody  knows  me  to  be  a  miller.  I  may  write  again  when 
I  get  to  Cincinnati,  if  I  should  have  time.  The  ex- magistrate,  with  whom  I  stayed  in 
South  Florence,  held  three  hours'  talk  with  me,  exclusive  of  our  morning  talk.  Is  a  man 
of  good  general  information  ;  he  was  exceedingly  inquisitive.  "  I  am  from  Cincinnati,  for- 
merly from  the  State  of  New  York"  I  had  no  opportunity  to  get  anything  to  eat  from 
seven  o'clock  Tuesday  morning  till  six  o'clock  Wednesday  evening,  except  the  hoe  cake, 
and  no  sleep. 

Florence  is  the  head  of  navigation  for  small  steamboats.  Seven  miles,  all  the  way  up  to 
my  place  of  departure,  is  swift  water,  and  rocky.  Eight  hundred  miles  to  Cincinnati.  I 
found  all  things  here  as  Peter  told  me,  except  the  distance  of  the  river.  South  Florence 
contains  twenty  white  families,  three  warehouses  of  considerable  business,  a  post-office, 
but  no  school.  McKiernon  is  here  waiting  for  a  steamboat  to  go  to  New  Orleans,  so  we 
are  in  company. 

PRINCETON,  GIBSON  COUNTY,  INDIANA,  FEB.  18,  1851. 

To  WM.  STILL  :— The  plan  is  to  go  to  Canada,  on  the  Waba&h,  opposite  Detroit.  There 
are  four  routes  to  Canada.  One  through  Illinois,  commencing  above  and  below  Alton ; 
one  through  to  North  Indiana,  and  the  Cincinnati  route,  being  the  largest  route  in  the 
United  Slates. 

I  intended  to  have  gone  through  Pennsylvania,  but  the  risk  going  up  the  Ohio  river 
has  caused  me  to  go  to  Canada.  Steamboat  traveling  is  universally  condemned;  though 
many  go  in  boats,  consequently  many  get  lost.  Going  in  a  skiff  is  new,  and  is  approved 
of  in  my  case.  After  I  arrive  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river,  I  will  go  up  the  Ohio 
seventy-five  miles,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash,  then  up-the  Wabash,  forty-four  miles  to 
New  Harmony,  where  I  shall  go  ashore  by  night,  and  go  thirteen  miles  east,  to  Charles 
Grier,  a  farmer,  (colored  man),  who  will  entertain  u^,  and  next  night  convey  us  sixteen 
miles  to  David  Stormon,  near  Princeton,  who  will  take  the  command,  and  I  be  released. 

David  Stormon  estimates  the  expenses  from  his  house  to  Canada,  at  forty  dollars,  with- 
out which,  no  sure  protection  will  be  given.  They  might  be  instructed  concerning  the 
course,  and  beg  their  way  through  without  money.  If  you  wish  to  do  what  should  be 
done,  yon  will  send  me  fifty  dollars,  in  a  letter,  to  Princeton,  Gibson  county,  Inda ,  so  as 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  29 

to  arrive  there  by  the  8th  of  March.    Eight  days  should  be  estimated  for  a  letter  to  arrive 
from  Philadelphia. 

The  money  to  be  State  Bank  of  Ohio,  or  State  Bank,  or  Northern  Bank  of  Kentucky, 
or  any  other  Eastern  bank.  Send  no  notes  larger  than  twenty  dollars. 

Levi  Coflia  had  no  money  for  me.  I  paid  twenty  dollars  for  the  skiff.  No  money  to 
get  back  to  Philadelphia.  It  was  not  understood  tb.at  I  would  have  to  be  at  any  expense 
seeking  aid. 

One  half  of  my  time  has  been  used  in  trying  to  find  persons  to  assist,  when  I  may 
arrive  on  the  Ohio  river,  in  which  I  have  failed,  except  Stormon. 

Having  no  letter  of  introduction  to  Stormon  from  any  source,  on  which  I  could  fully 
rely,  I  traveled  two  hundred  miles  around,  to  find  out  his  stability.  I  have  found  many 
Abolitionists,  nearly  all  who  have  made  propositions,  which  themselves  would  not  comply 
with,  and  nobody  else  would.  Already  I  have  traveled  over  three  thousand  mil^s.  TWJ 
thousand  and  four  hundred  by  steamboat,  two  hundred  by  railroad,  one  hundred  by 
stage,  four  hundred  on  foot,  forty-eight  in  a  skiff. 

I  have  yet  five  hundred  miles  to  go  to  the  plantation,  to  commence  operations.  I  have 
been  two  weeks  on  the  decks  of  steamboats,  three  nights  out,  two  of  which  I  got  per- 
lectly  wet.  If  I  had  had  paper  mon^,  as  McKim  desired,  it  would  have  been  destroyed. 
I  have  not  been  entertained  gratis  at  any  place  except  Stormon's.  I  had  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  dollars  when  I  left  Philadelphia,  one  hundred  from  you,  twenty-six  mine. 

Telegraphed  to  station,  at  Evansville,  thirty-three. miles  from  Stormon's,  and  at  Vin- 
clure's,  twenty-five  miles  from  Stormon's.  The  Wabash  route  is  considered  the  safest 
route.  No  one  has  ever  been  lost  from  Stormon's  to  Canada.  Some  have  been  lost 
between  Stormon's  and  the  Ohio.  The  wolves  have  never  su?pected  Stormon.  Your 
asking  aid  in  money  for  a  case  properly  belonging  east  of  Ohio,  is  detested.  If  you  have 
sent  money  to  Cincinnati,  you  should  recall  it.  I  will  have  no  opportunity  to  use  it. 

SETH  CONCKLIN,  Princeton,  Gibson  county,  Ind. 

P.  S.  First  of  April,  will  be  about  the  time  Peter's  family  will  arrive  opposite  Detroit. 
You  should  inform  yourself  how  to  find  them  there.  I  may  have  no  opportunity. 

I  will  look  promptly  for  your  letter  at  Princeton,  till  the  10th  of  March,  and  longer  if 
there  should  have  been  any  delay  by  the  mails. 

* 

In  March,  as  contemplated,  Concklin   arrived   in  Indiana,  at  the  place 

designated,  with  Peter's  wife  and  three  children,  and  sent  a  thrilling  letter 
to  the  writer,  portraying  in  the  most  vivid  light  his  adventurous  flight  from 
the  hour  they  left  Alabama  until  their  arrival  in  Indiana.  In  this  report 
he  stated,  that  instead  of  starting  early  in  the  morning,  owing  to  some  un- 
foreseen delay  on  the  part  of  the  family,  they  did  not  reach  the  designated 
place  till  towards  day,  which  greatly  exposed  them  in  passing  a  certain  town 
which  he  had  hoped  to  avoid. 

But  as  his  brave  heart  was  bent  on  prosecuting  his  journey  without 
further  delay,  he  concluded  to  start  at  all  hazards,  notwithstanding  the 
dangers  he  apprehended  from  passing  said  town  by  daylight.  For  safety 
he  endeavored  to  hide  his  freight  by  having  them  all  lie  flat  down  on  the 
bottom  of  the  skiff;  covered  them  with  blankets,  concealing  them  from  ihe 
effulgent  beams  of  the  early  morning  sun,  or  rather  from  the  "  Christian 
Wolves"  who  might  perchance  espy  him  from  the  shore  in  passing  the 
town. 


30  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

The  wind  blew  fearfully.  Concklin  was  rowing  heroically  when  loud 
voices  from  the  shore  hailed  him,  but  he  was  utterly  deaf  to  the  sound. 
Immediately  one  or  two  guns  were  fired  in  the  direction  of  the  skiff,  but  he 
heeded  not  this  significant  call ;  consequently  here  ended  this  difficulty, 
lie  supposed,  as  the  wind  was  blowing  so  hard,  those  on  shore  who  hailed 
him  must  have  concluded  that  he  did  not  hear  them  and  that  he  meant 
no  disrespect  in  treating  them  with  seeming  indifference.  Whilst  many 
straits  and  great  dangers  had  to  be  passed,  this  was  the  greatest  before 
reaching  their  destination. 

But  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  glad  tidings  which  this  letter  contained  filled 
the  breast  of  Peter  with  unutterable  delight  and  his  friends  and  relations 
with  wonder  beyond  degree.*  No  fond  wife  had  ever  waited  with  more 
longing  desire  for  the  return  of  her  husband  than  Peter  had  for  this  blessed 
news.  All  doubts  had  disappeared,  and  a  well  grounded  hope  was  cher- 
ished that  within  a  few  short  days  Peter  and  his  fond  wife  and  children 
would  be  reunited  in  Freedom  on  the  Canada  side,  and  that  Concklin  and 
the  friends  would  be  rejoicing  with  joy  unspeakable  over  this  great  triumph. 
But  alas,  before  the  few  days  had  expired  the  subjoined  brief  paragraph  of 
news  was  discovered  in  the  morning  Ledger. 

RUNAWAY  NEGROES  CAUGHT. — At  Vincennes,  Indiana,  on  Saturday  last,  a  white  man 
and  four  negroes  were  arrested.  The  negroes  belong  to  B.  McKiernon  of  South  Florence, 
Alabama,  and  the  man  who  was  running  them  off  calls  himself  John  H.  Miller.  The 
prisoners  were  taken  charge  of  by  the  Marshall  of  Evansville. — April  9th. 

How  suddenly  these  sad  tidings  turned  into  mourning  and  gloom  the 
hope  and  joy  of  Peter  and  his  relatives  no  pen  could  possibly  describe;  at 
least  the  writer  will  not  attempt  it  here,  but  will  at  once  introduce  a  wit- 
ness who  met  the  noble  Concklin  an,d  the  panting  fugitives  in  Indiana  and 
proffered  them  sympathy  and  advice.  And  it  may  safely  be  said  from  a 
truer  and  more  devoted  friend  of  the  slave  they  could  not  have  received 
counsel. 

EVANSVILLE,  INDIANA,  MARCH  31st,  1851. 

WM.  STILL  :  Dear  Sir, — On  last  Tuesday  I  mailed  a  letter  to  you,  written  by  Seth 
Concklin.  I  presume  you  have  received  that  letter.  It  gave  an  account  of  his  rescue  of 
the  family  of  your  brother.  If  that  is  the  last  news  you  have  had  from  them,  I  have 
very  painful  intelligence  for  yon.  They  passed  on  from  near  Princeton,  where  I  saw  them 
and  had  a  lengthy  interview  with  them,  up  north,  I  think  twenty-three  miles  above  Vin- 
cennes, Ind.,  where  they  were  seized  by  a  party  of  men,  and  lodged  in  jail.  Telegraphic 
dispatches  were  sent  all  through  the  South.  I  have  since  learned  that  the  Marshall  of 
Evansville  received  a  dispatch  from  Tuscumbia,  to  look  out  for  them.  By  some  means, 
he  and  the  master,  so  says  report,  went  to  Vincennes  and  claimed  the  fugitives,  chained 
Mr.  Concklin  and  hurried  all  off.  Mr.  Concklin  wrote  to  Mr.  David  Stormon,  Princeton, 
as  soon  as  he  was  cast  into  prison,  to  find  bail.  So  soon  as  we  got  the  letter  and  could 
get  off,  two  of  us  were  about  setting  off  to  render  all  possible  aid,  when  we  were  told  they 

*  In  some  unaccountable  manner  this  the  last  letter  Concklin  ever  penned,  perhaps,  has  been  un- 
fortunately lost. 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  31 

all  had  passed,  a  few  hours  before,  through  Princeton,  Mr.  Conckliii  in  chains.  What 
kind  of  process  was  had,  if  any,  I  know  not.  I  immediately  came  down  to  this  place,  and 
learned  that  they  had  been  put  on  a  boat  at  3  P.  M.  I  did  not  arrive  until  6.  Now  all 
hopes  of  their  recovery  are  gone.  No  case  ever  so  enlisted  my  sympathies.  I  had  seen 
Mr.  Concklin  in  Cincinnati.  I  had  given  him  aid  and  counsel.  I  happened  to  see  them 
after  they  landed  in  Indiana.  I  heard  Peter  and  Levin  tell  their  tale  of  suffering,  shed 
tears  of  sorrow  for  them  all ;  but  now,  since  they  have  fallen  a  prey  to  the  unmerciful 
blood-hounds  of  this  state,  and  have  again  been  dragged  back  to  unrelenting  bondage,  I 
am  entirely  unmanned.  And  poor  Concklin  !  I  fear  for  him.  When  he  is  dragged  back 
to  Alabama,  I  fear  they  will  go  far  beyond  the  utmost  rigor  of  the  law,  and  vent  their 
savage  cruelty  upon  him.  It  is  with  pain  I  have  to  communicate  these  things.  But  you 
may  not  hear  them  from  him.  I  could  not  get  to  see  him  or  them,  as  Vincennes  is  about 
thirty  miles  from  Princeton,  where  I  was  when  I  heard  of  the  capture. 

I  take  pleasure  in  stating  that,  according  to  the  letter  he  (Concklin)  wrote  to  Mr.  D. 
Stewart,  Mr.  Concklin  did  not  abandon  them,  but  risked  his  own  liberty  to  save  them. 
He  was  not  with  them  when  they  were  taken ;  but  went  afterwards  to  take  them  out 
of  jail  upon  a  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  when  they  seized  him  too  and  lodged  him  m  prison. 

I  write  in  much  haste.  If  I  can  learn  any  more  facts  of  importance,  I  may  write  you. 
If  you  desire  to  hear  from  me  again,  or  if  you  should  learn  any  thing  specific  from  Mr. 
Concklin,  be  pleased  to  write  me  at  Cincinnati,  where  I  expect  to  be  in  a  short  time.  If 
curious  to  know  your  correspondent,  I  may  say  I  was  formerly  Editor  of  the  "New  Con- 
cord Free  Press,"  Ohio.  I  only  add  that  every  case  of  this  kind  only  tends  to  make  me 
abhor  my  (no !  )  this  country  more  and  more.  It  is  the  Devil's  Government,  and  God 
will  destroy  it.  Yours  for  the  slave,  N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

P.  S.  I  broke  open  this  letter  to  write  you  some  more.  The  foregoing  pages  were 
written  at  night.  I  expected  to  mail  it  next  morning  before  leaving  Evansville  ;  but  the 
boat  for  which  I  was  waiting  came  down  about  three  in  the  morning  ;  so  I  had  to  hurry 
on  board,  bringing  the  letter  along.  As  it  now  is  I  am  not  sorry,  for  coming  down,  on  my 
way  to  St.  Louis,  as  far  as  Paducah, there  I  learned  from  a  colored  man  at  the  wharf  that, 
that  same  day,  in  the  morning,  the  master  and  the  family  of  fugitives  arrived  off  the  boat, 
and  had  then  gone  on  their  journey  to  Tuscumbia,  but  that  the  ''white  man"  (Mr.  Conck- 
lin) had  "g^ot  away  from  them,"  about  twelve  miles  up  the  river.  It  seems  he  got  off  the 
boat  some  way,  near  or  at  Smithland,  Ky.,  a  town  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland 
River.  I  presume  the  report  is  true,  and  hope  he  will  finally  escape,  though  I  was  also 
told  that  they  were  in  pursuit  of  him.  Would  that  the  others  had  also  escaped.  Peter 
and  Levin  could  have  done  so,  I  think,  if  they  had  had  resolution.  One  of  them  rode  a 
horse,  he  not  tied  either,  behind  the  coach  in  which  the  others  were.  He  followed  ap- 
parently "  contented  and  happy."  From  report,  they  told  their  master,  and  even  their 
pursuers,  before  the  master  came,  that  Concklin  had  decoyed  them  away,  they  coming 
unwillingly.  I  write  on  a  very  unsteady  boat.  Yours,  N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

A  report  found  its  way  into  the  papers  to  the  effect  that  "Miller," 
the  white  man  arrested  in  connection  with  the  capture  of  the  family,  was 
found  drowned,  with  his  hands  and  feet  in  chains  and  his  skull  frac- 
tured. It  proved,  as  his  friends  feared,  to  be  Seth  Concklin.  And  in 
irons,  upon  the  river  bank,  there  is  no  doubt  he  was  buried. 

In  this  dreadful  hour  one  sad  duty  still  remained  to  be  performed.  Up 
to  this  moment  the  two  sisters  were  totally  ignorant  of  their  brother's  where- 
abouts. Not  the  first  whisper  of  his  death  had  reached  them.  But  they 
must  now  be  made  acquainted  with  all  the  facts  in  the  case.  Accordingly 


32  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

an  interview  was  arranged  for  a  meeting,  and  the  duty  of  conveying  this 
painful  intelligence  to  one  of  the  sisters,  Mrs.  Supplee,  devolved  upon  Mr. 
McKim.  And  most  tenderly  and  considerately  did  he  perform  his  mournful 
task. 

Although  a  woman  of  nerve,  and  a  true  friend  to  the  slave,  an  earnest 
worker  and  a  liberal  giver  in  the  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society,  for  a  time 
she  was  overwhelmed  by  the  intelligence  of  her  brother's  death.  As  soon 
as  possible,  however,  through  very  great  effort,  she  controlled  her  emo- 
tions, and  calmly  expressed  herself  as  being  fully  resigned  to  the  awful 
event.  Not*  a  word  of  complaint  had  she  to  make  because  she  had  not 
been  apprised  of  his  movements;  but  said  repeatedly,  that,  had  she  known 
ever  so  much  of  his  intentions,  she  would  have  been  totally  powerless  in 
opposing  him  if  she  had  felt  so  disposed,  and  as  an  illustration  of  the  true 
character  of  the  man,  from  his  boyhood  up  to  the  day  he  died  for  his  fellow- 
man,  she  related  his  eventful  career,  and  recalled  a  number  of  instances 
of  his  heroic  and  daring  deeds  for  others,  sacrificing  his  time  and  often 
periling  his  life  in  the  cause  of  those  who  he  considered  were  suffering 
'gross  wrongs  and  oppression.  Hence,  she  concluded,  that  it  was  only 
natural  for  him  in  this  case  to  have  taken  the  steps  he  did.  Now  and 
then  overflowing  tears  would  obstruct  this  deeply  thrilling  and  most  re- 
markable story  she  was  telling  of  her  brother,  but  her  memory  seemed 
quickened  by  the  sadness  of  the  occasion,  and  she  was  enabled  to  recall 
vividly  the  chief  events  connected  with  his  past  history.  Thus  his  agency  in 
this  movement,  which  cost  him  his  life,  could  readily  enough  be  accounted 
for,  and  the  individuals  who  listened  attentively  to  the  story  were  prepared 
to  fully  appreciate  his  character,  for,  prior  to  offering  his  services  in  this 
mission,  he  had  been  a  stranger  to  them. 

The  following  extract,  taken  from  a  letter  of  a  subsequent  date*,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  above  letter,  throws  still  further  light  upon  the  heart-rending 
affair,  and  shows  Mr.  Johnston's  deep  sympathy  with  the  sufferers  and  the 
oppressed  generally — 

EXTRACT  OF  A   LETTER  FROM   REV.   N.   B.   JOHNSTON. 

My  heart  bleeds  when  I  think  of  those  poor,  hunted  and  heart-broken  fugitives,  though 
a  most  interesting  family,  taken  back  to  bondage  ten  fold  worse  than  Egyptian.  And 
then  pnor  Concklin !  How  my  heart  expanded  in  love  to  him,  as  he  told  me  his  adven- 
tures, his  trials,  his  toils,  his  fears  and  his  hopes  !  After  hearing. all,  and  then  seeing  and 
communine  with  the  family,  now  joyful  in  hopes  of  soon  seeing  their  husband  and  father 
in  the  land  of  freedom  ;  now  in  terror  lest  the  human  blood-hounds  should  be  at  their 
heels,  I  felt  as  though  I  could  lay  down  my  life  in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  In  that 
hour  or  two  of  intercourse  with  Peter's  family,  my  heart  warmed  with  love  to  them, 
never  saw  more  interesting  young  men.  They  would  make  Remonds  or  Douglasses,  if 
they  had  the  same  opportunities 

While.  I  was  with  them,  I  was  elated  with  joy  at  their  escape,  and  yet,  when  I  heard 
their  tale  of  woe,  especially  that  of  the  mother,  I  could  not  suppress  tears  of  deepest 
emotion. 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  33 

My  joy  was  short-lived.  Soon  I  heard  of  their  capture.  The  telegraph  had  been  the 
means  of  their  being  claimed.  I  could  have  torn  down  all  the  telegraph  wires  in  the  land. 
It  was  a  strange  dispensation  of  Providence. 

On  Saturday  the  sad  news  of  their  capture  came  to  my  ears.  We  had  resolved  to  go 
to  their  aid  on  Monday,  as  the  trial  was  set  for  Thursday.  On  Sabbath,  I  spoke  from 
Psalm  xii.  5.  "  For  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  for  the  sighing  of  the  needy,  now 
will  I  arise,"  saith  the  Lord:  ''  I  will  set  him  in  safety  from  him  that  puffeth  at  (from 
them  that  would  enslave)  him."  When  on  Monday  morning  I  learned  that  the  fugitives 
had  passed  through  the  place  on  Sabbath,  and  Concklin  in  chains,  probably  at  the  very 
time  I  was  speaking  on  the  subject  referred  to,  my  heart  sank  within  me.  And  even  yet, 
I  cannot  but  exclaim,  when  I  think  of  it — 0,  Father !  how  long  ere  Thou  wilt  arise  to 
avenge  the  wrongs  of  the  poor  slave!  Indeed,  my  dear  brother,  His  ways  are  very  mys- 
terious. We  have  the  consolation,  however,  to  know  that  all  is  for  the  best.  Our 
Redeemer  does  all  things  well.  When  He  hung  upon  the  cross,  His  poor  broken  hearted 
disciples  could  not  understand  the  providence ;  it  was  a  dark  time  to  them  ;  and  yet  that 
was  an  event  that  was  fraught  with  more  joy  to  the  world  than  any  that  has  occurred  or 
could  occur.  Let  us  stand  at  our  post  and  wait  God's  time.  Let  us  have  on  the  whole 
armor  of  God,  and  fight  for  the  right,  knowing,  that  though  we  may  fall  in  battle,  the 
victory  will  be  ours,  sooner  or  later. 

********** 

May  God  lead  you  into  all  truth,  and  sustain  you  in  your  labors,  and  fulfill  your  prayers 
and  hopes.  Adieu.  N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

LETTERS   FROM   LEVI   COFFIN. 

The  following  letters  on  the  subject  were  received  from  the  untiring  and 
devoted  friend  of  the  slave,  Levi  Coffin,  who  for  many  years  had  occupied  in 
Cincinnati  a  similar  position  to  that  of  Thomas  Garrett  in  Delaware, 
a  sentinel  and  watchman  commissioned  of  God  to  succor  the  fleeing  bond- 
man— 

CINCINNATI,  4in  MO.,  K)TH,  1851. 

FRIEND  WM.  STILL  : — We  have  sorrowful  news  from  our  friend  Concklin,  through  the 
papers  and  otherwise.  I  received  a  letter  a  few  days  ago  from  a  friend  near  Princeton, 
Ind.,  stating  that  Concklin  and  the  four  slaves  are  in  prison  in  Vincennes,  and  that  their 
trial  would  come  on  in  a  few  days.  He  states  that  they  rowed  seven  days  and  nights  in 
the  skiff,  and  got  safe  to  Harmony,  Ind.,  on  the  Wabash  river,  thence  to  Princeton,  and 
were  conveyed  to  Vincennes  by  friends,  where  they  were  takon.  The  papers  state,  that 
they  were  all  given  up  to  the  Marshal  of  Evansville,  Indiana. 

We  have  telegraphed  to  different  points,  to  try  to  get  some  information  concerning 
them,  but  failed.  The  last  information  is  published  in  the  Times  of  yesterday,  though  quite 
incorrect  in  the  particulars  of  the  case.  Inclosed  is  the  slip  containing  it.  I  fear  all  is 
over  in  regard  to  the  freedom  of  the  slaves.  If  the  last  account  be  true,  we  have  some 
hope  that  Concklin  will  escape  from  those  bloody  tyrants.  I  cannot  describe  my  feelings 
on  hearing  this  sad  intelligence.  I  feel  ashamed  to  own  my  country.  Oh  !  what  shall  I 
gay.  Surely  a  God  of  justice  will  avenge  the  wrongs  of  the  oppressed. 

Thine  for  the  poor  slave,  LEVI  COFFIN. 

N.  B. — If  thou  hast  any  information,  please  write  me  forthwith. 

CINCINNATI,  5rn  MO.,  HTH,  1851. 

WM.  STILL:— Dear  Friend — Thy  letter  of  1st  inst.,  came  duly  to  hand,  but  not  being 
able  to  give  any  further  information  concerning  our  friend,  Concklin,  I  thought  best  to 
wait  a  little  before  I  wrote,  still  hoping  to  learn  something  more  definite  concerning  him. 
3 


34  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

We  that  became  acquainted  with  Seth  Concklin  and  his  hazardous  enterprises  (here  at  Cin- 
cinnati), who  were  very  few,  have  felt  intense  and  inexpressible  anxiety  about  them. 
And  particularly  about  poor  Seth,  since  we  heard  of  his  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  ty- 
rants. I  fear  that  he  has  fallen  a  victim  to  their  inhuman  thirst  for  blood. 

I  seriously  doubt  the  rumor,  that  he  had  made  his  escape.    I  fear  that  he  was  sacrificed. 

Language  would  fail  to  express  my  feelings;  the  intense  and  deep  anxiety  I  felt  about 
them  for  weeks  before  I  heard  of  their  capture  in  Indiana,  and  then  it  seemed  too  much  to 
bear.  0  !  my  heart  almost  bleeds  when  I  think  of  it.  The  hopes  of  the  dear  family  all  blasted 
by  the  wretched  blood-hounds  in  human  shape.  And  poor  Seth,  after  all  his  toil,  and 
dangerous,  shrewd  and  wise  management,  and  almost  unheard  of  adventures,  the  many 
narrow  and  almost  miraculous  escapes.  Then  to  be  given  up  to  Indianians,  to  these 
fiendish  tyrants,  to  be  sacrificed.  0!  Shame,  Shame ! ! 

My  heart  aches,-my  eyes  fill  with  tears,  I  cannot  write  more.  I  cannot  dwell  longer  on 
this  painful  subject  now.  If  you  get  any  intelligence,  please  inform  me.  Friend  N.  R. 
Johnston,  who  took  so  much  interest  in  them,  and  saw  them  just  before  they  were  taken, 
has  just  returned  to  the  city.  He  is  a  minister  of  the  Covenanter  order.  He  is  truly  a 
lovely  man,  and  his  heart  is  full  of  the  milk  of  humanity  ;  one  of  our  best  Anti-Slavery 
spirits.  I  spent  last  evening  with  him.  He  related  the  whole  story  to  me  as  he  had  it 
from  friend  Concklin  and  the  mother  and  children,  and  then  the  story  of  their  capture 
We  wept  together.  He  found  thy  letter  when  he  got  here. 

He  said  he  would  write  the  whole  history  to  thee  in  a  few  days,  as  far  as  he  could.  He 
can  tell  it  much  better  than  I  can. 

Concklin  left  his  carpet  sack  and  clothes  here  with  me,  except  a  shirt  or  two  he  took 
with  him.  What  shall  I  do  with  them?  For  if  we  do  not  hear  from  him  soon,  we  must 

conclude  that  he  is  lost,  and  the  report  of  his  escape  all  a  hoax .     . 

Truly  thy  friend,  LEVI  COFFIN. 

Stunning  and  discouraging  as  this  horrible  ending  was  to  all  con- 
cerned, and  serious  as  the  matter  looked  in  the  eyes  of  Peter's  friends  with 
regard  to  Peter's  family,  he  could  not  for  a  moment  abandon  the  idea 
of  rescuing  them  from  the  jaws  of  the  destroyer.  But  most  formidable 
difficulties  stood  in  the  way  of  opening  correspondence  with  reliable  persons 
in  Alabama.  Indeed  it  seemed  impossible  to  find  a  merchant,  lawyer,  doc- 
tor, planter  or  minister,  who  was  not  too  completely  interlinked  with 
slavery  to  be  relied  upon  to  manage  a  negotiation  of  this  nature.  Whilst 
waiting  and  hoping  for  something  favorable  to  turn  up,  the  subjoined  letter 
from  the  owner  of  Peter's  family  was  received  and  is  here  inserted  precisely 
as  it  was  written,  spelled  and  punctuated — 

McKiERNON's  LETTER. 

SOUTH  FLORENCE  ALA  6  Augest  1851 

Mr  WILLIAM  STILL  No  31  North  Fifth  street  Philadelphia 

Sir  a  few  days  sine  mr  Lewis  Tharenton  of  Tuscumbia  Ala  shewed  me  a  letter  dated  6 
June  51  from  Cincinnati  signd  samuel  Lewis  in  behalf  of  a  Negro  man  by  the  name  of 
peter  Gist  who  informed  the  writer  of  the  Letter  that  you  ware  his  brother  and  wished 
an  answer  to  be  directed  to  you  as  he  peter  would  be  in  philadelphi.  the  object  of  the 
letter  was  to  purchis  from  me  4  Negros  that  is  peters  wife  &  3  children  2  sons  &  1  Girl 
the  Name  of  said  Negres  are  the  woman  Viney  the  (mother)  Eldest  son  peter  21  or  2 
years  old  second  son  Leven  19  or  20  years  1  Girl  about  13  or  14  years  old.  the  Husband 
&  Father  of  these  people  once  Belonged  to  a  relation  of  mine  by  the  name  of  Gist  now 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  35 

Decest  &  some  few  years  since  he  peter  was  sold  to  a  man  by  the  Name  of  Freedman  who 
removed  to  Cincinnati  ohio  &  Tuck  peter  with  him  of  course  peter  became  free  by  the 
volentary  act  of  the  master  some  time  last  march  a  white  man  by  the  name  of  Miller 
apperd  in  the  nabourhood  &  abducted  the  bove  negroes  was  caut  at  vincanes  Indi  with 
said  negroes  &  was  thare  convicted  of  steliug  &  remanded  back  to  Ala  to  Abide  the 
penalty  of  the  law  &  on  his  return  met  his  Just  reward  by  Getting  drownded  at  the 
mouth  of  Cumberland  River  on  the  ohio  in  attempting  to  make  his  escape  I  recovered  & 
Brau^ht  Back  said  4  negroes  or  as  You  would  say  coulard  people  under  the  Belief  that 
peter  the  Husband  was  accessery  to  the  offence  thareby  putting  me  to  much  Expense 
&  Truble  to  the  amt  $1000  which  if  he  gets  them  he  or  his  Friends  must  refund  these  4 
negroes  are  worth  in  the  market  about  4000  for  thea  are  Extraordinary  fine  &  likely  & 
but  for  the  fact  of  Elopement  I  would  not  take  8000  Dollars  for  them  but  as  the  thing 
now  stands  you  can  say  to  peter  &  his  new  discovered  Relations  in  Philadelphia  I  will 
take  5000  for  the  4  culerd  people  &  if  this  will  suite  him  &  he  can  raise  the  money  I  will 
delever  to  him  or  his' agent  at  paduca  at  mouth  of  Tennessee  river  said  negroes  but  the 
money  must  be  Deposeted  in  the  Hands  of  some  respectabl  person  at  paduca  before  I 
remove  the  property  it  wold  not  be  safe  for  peter  to  come  to  this  countery  write  me  a  line 
on  recpt  of  this  &  let  me  Know  peters  views  on  the  above 

I  am  Yours  &c  B.  McKiEENON 

N  B  say  to  peter  to  write  &  let  me  Know  his  viewes  amediately  as  I  am  determined 
to  act  in  a  way  if  he  dont  take  this  offer  he  will  never  have  an  other  opportunity 

B  HcKlERNON 

WM.  STILL'S  ANSWER. 

PHILADELPHIA,  Aug.  16th,  1851. 

To  B.  McKlEENON,  ESQ.  :  Sir — I  have  received  your  letter  from  South  Florence, 
Ala.,  under  date  of  the  6th  inst.  To  say  that  it  took  me  by  surprise,  as  well  as  afforded 
me  pleasure,  for  which  I  feel  to  be  very  much  indebted  to  you,  is  no  more  than  true.  In 
regard  to  your  informants  of  myself — Mr.  Thornton,  of  Ala.,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Lewis,  of 
Cincinnati — to  them  both  I  am  a  stranger.  However,  I  am  the  brother  of  Peter,  referred 
to,  and  with  the  fact  of  his  having  a  wife  and  three  children  in  your  service  I  am  also 
familiar.  This  brother,  Peter,  I  have  only  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  for  the  brief  space 
of  one  year  and  thirteen  days,  although  he  is  now  past  forty  and  I  twenty-nine  years  of 
age.  Time  will  not  allow  me  at  present,  or  I  should  give  you  a  detailed  account  of  how 
Peter  became  a  slave,  the  forty  long  years  which  intervened  between  the  time  he  was  kid- 
napped, when  a  boy,  being  only  six  years  of  age,  and  his  arrival  in  this  city,  from  Alabama, 
one  year  and  fourteen  days  ago,  when  he  was  re-united  to  his  mother,  five  brothers  and 
three  sisters. 

None  but  a  father's  heart  can  fathom  the  anguish  and  sorrows  felt  by  Peter  during  the 
many  vicissitudes  through  which  he  has  passed.  He  looked  back  to  his  boyhood  and  saw 
himself  snatched  from  the  tender  embraces  of  his  parents  and  home  to  be  made  a  slave 
for  life. 

During  all  his  prime  days  he  was  in  the  faithful  and  constant  service  of  those  who  had 
no  just  claim  upon  him.  In  the  meanwhile  he  married  a  wife,  who  bore  him  eleven  children, 
the  greater  part  of  whom  were  emancipated  from  the  troubles  of  life  by  death,  and  three 
only  survived.  To  them  and  his  wife  he  was  devoted.  Indeed  I.  have  never  seen  attach- 
ment between  parents  and  children,  or  husband  and  wife,  more  entire  than  was  manifested  in 
the  case  of  Peter. 

Through  these  many  years  of  servitude,  Peter  was  sold  and  resold,  from  one  State  to 
another,  from  one  owner  to  another,  till  he  reached  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  when, 
in  a  good  Providence,  through  the  kindness  of  a  friend  and  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  he  re- 


36  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

gained  the  God-given  blessings  of  liberty.     He  eagerly  sought  his  parents  and  home  with 
all  possible  speed  and  pains,  when,  to  his  heart's  joy,  he  found  his  relatives. 

Your  present  humble  correspondent  is  the  youngest  of  Peter's  brothers,  and  the  first 
one  of  the  family  he  saw  after  arriving  in  this  part  of  the  country.  I  think  you  could  not 
fail  to  be  interested  in  hearing  how  we  became  known  to  each  other,  and  the  proof  of  our 
being  brothers,  etc.,  all  of  which  I  should  be  most  glad  to  relate,  but  time  will  not  permit 
me  to  do  so.  The  news  of  this  wonderful  occurrence,  of  Peter  finding  his  kindred,  was 
published  quite  extensively,  shortly  afterwards,  in  various  newspapers,  in  this  quarter, 
which  may  account  for  the  fact  of  "  Miller's "  knowledge  of  the  whereabouts  of  the 
"  fugitives."  Let  me  say,  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  no  one  had  any  hand  in  per- 
suading "  Miller  "  to  go  down  from  Cincinnati,  or  any  other  place,  after  the  family.  As 
glad  as  I  should  be,  and  as  much  as  I  would  do  for  the  liberation  of  Peter's  family  (now 
no  longer  young),  and  his  three  "likely"  children,  in  whom  he  prides  himself — how  much,  if 
you  are  a  father,  you  can  imagine ;  yet  I  would  not,  and  could  not,  think  of  persuading 
any  friend  to  peril  his  life,  as  would  be  the  case,  in  an  errand  of  that  kind. 

As  regards  the  price  fixed  upon  by  you  for  the  family,  I  must  say  I  do  not  think  it 
possible  to  raise  half  that  amount,  though  Peter  authorized  me  to  say  he  would  give  you 
twenty-five  hundred  for  them.  Probably  he  is  not  as  well  aware  as  I  am,  how  difficult  it 
is  to  raise  so  large  a  sum  of  money  from  the  public.  The  applications  for  such  objects  are 
so  frequent  among  us  in  the  North,  and  have  always  been  so  liberally  met,  that  it  is  no 
wonder  if  many  get  tired  of  being  called  upon.  To  be  sure  some  of  us  brothers  own  some 
property,  but  no  great  amount;  certainly  not  enough  to  enable  us  to  bear  so  great  a 
burden.  Mother  owns  a  small  farm  in  New  Jersey,  on  which  she  has  lived  for  nearly 
forty  years,  from  which  she  derives  her  support  in  her  old  age.  This  small  farm  contains 
between  forty  and  fifty  acres,  and  is  the  fruit  of  my  father's  toil.  Two  of  my  brothers 
own  small  places  also,  but  they  have  young  families,  and  consequently  consume  nearly  as 
much  as  they  make,  with  the  exception  of  adding  some  improvements  to  their  places. 

For  my  own  part,  I  am  employed  as  a  clerk  for  a  living,  but  my  salary  is  quite  too 
limited  to  enable  me  to  contribute  any  great  amount  towards  so  large  a  sura  as  is  de- 
manded. Thus  you  see  how  we  are  situated  financially.  We  have  plenty  of  friends,  but 
little  money.  Now,  sir,  allow  me  to  make  an  appeal  to  your  humanity,  although  we  are 
aware  of  your  power  to  bold  as  property  those  poor  slaves,  mother,  daughter  and  two 

sons, that  in  no  part  of  the  United  States  could  they  escape  and  be  secure  from  your 

claim nevertheless,  would  your  understanding,  your  heart,  or  your  conscience  reprove 

you,  should  you  restore  to  them,  without  price,  that  dear  freedom,  which  is  theirs  by  right 
of  nature,  or  would  you  not  feel  a  satisfaction  in  so  doing  which  all  the  wealth  of  the 
world  could  not  equal  ?  At  all  events,  could  you  not  so  reduce  the  price  as  to  place  it  in 
the  pow.er  of  Peter's  relatives  and  friends  to  raise  the  means  for  their  purchase  ?  At  first, 
I  doubt  not,  but  that  you  will  think  my  appeal  very  unreasonable;  but,  sir,  serious  re- 
flation will  decide,  whether  the  money  demanded  by  you,  after  all,  will  be  of  as  great  a 
benefit  to  you,  as  the  satisfaction  you  would  find  in  bestowing  so  great  a  favor  upon  those 
whose  entire  happiness  in  this  life  depends  mainly  upon  your  decision  in  the  matter.  If 
the  entire  family  cannot  be  purchased  or  freed,  what  can  Vina  and  her  daughter  be  pur- 
chased for?  Hoping,  sir,  to  hear  from  you,  at  your  earliest  convenience,  I  subscribe  my- 
solf,  Your  obedient  servant,  WM.  STILL. 

To  B.  McKiERNON,  Esq. 

No  reply  to  this  letter  was  ever  received  from  McKiernon.  The  cause  of 
his  reticence  can  be  as  well  conjectured  by  the  reader  as  the  writer. 

Time  will  not  admit  of  further  details  kindred  to  this  narrative.  The 
life,  struggles,  and  success  of  Peter  and  his  family  were  ably  brought  before 


PETER  STILL, 

THE  KIDNAPPED  AND  RANSOMED. 


CHARITY  STILL, 

TWICE   ESCAPED   IBOM   SLATEKY.  See  p. 


SETH  CONCKLIN.  37 

the  public  in  the  "Kidnapped  and  the  Ransomed,"  being  the  personal 
recollections  of  Peter  Still  and  his  wife  "Vina,"  after  forty  years  of  slavery, 
by  Mrs.  Kate  E.  R.  Pickard;  with  an  introduction  by  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May, 
and  an  appendix  by  William  H.  Furness,  D.  D.,  in  1856.  But,  of  course, 
it  was  not  prudent  or  safe,  in  the  days  of  Slavery,  to  publish  such  facts  as 
are  now  brought  to  light :  all  such  had  to  be  kept  concealed  in  the  breasts 

O  O  '  •*• 

of  the  fugitives  and  their  friends. 

The  following  brief  sketch,  touching  the  separation  of  Peter  and  his 
mother,  will  fitly  illustrate  this  point,  and  at  the  same  time  explain  certain 
mysteries  which  have  been  hitherto  kept  hidden — 

THE  SEPARATION. 

With  regard  to  Peter's  separation  from  his  mother,  when  a  little  boy,  in 
few  words,  the  facts  were  these :  His  parents,  Levin  and  Sidney,  were  both 
slaves  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.  "  I  will  die  before  I  submit  to 
the  yoke,"  was  the  declaration  of  his  father  to  his  young  master  before  either 
was  twenty-one  years  of  age.  Consequently  he  was  allowed  to  buy  himself 
at  a  very  low  figure,  and  he  paid  the  required  sum  and  obtained  his  "  free 
papers "  when  quite  a  young  man — the  young  wife  and  mother  remaining 
in  slavery  under  Saunders  Griffin,  as  also  her  children,  the  latter  having 
increased  to  the  number  of  four,  two  little  boys  and  two  little  girls.  But  to 
escape  from  chains,  stripes,  and  bondage,  she  took  her  four  little  children  and 
fled  to  a  place  near  Greenwich,  New  Jersey.  Not  a  great  while,  however, 
did  she  remain  there  in  a  state  of  freedom  before  the  slave-hunters  pursued 
her,  and  one  night  they  pounced  upon  the  whole  family,  and,  without  judge 
or  jury,  hurried  them  all  back  to  slavery.  Whether  this  was  kidnapping  or 
not  is  for  the  reader  to  decide  for  himself. 

Safe  back  in  the  hands  of  her  owner,  to  prevent  her  from  escaping  a 
second  time,  every  night  for  about  three  months  she  was  cautiously  "  kept 
locked  up  in  the  garret,"  until,  as  they  supposed,  she  was  fully  "cured  of 
the  desire  to  do  so  again."  But  she  was  incurable.  She  had  been  a  witness 
to  the  fact  that  her  own  father's  brains  had  been  blown  out  by  the  dis- 
charge of  a  heavily  loaded  gun,  deliberately  aimed  at  his  head  by  his 
drunken  master.  She  only  needed  half  a  chance  to  make  still  greater  strug- 
gles than  ever  for  freedom. 

She  had  great  faith  in  God,  and  found  much  solace  in  singing  some  of 
the  good  old  Methodist  tunes,  by  day  and  night.  Her  owner,  observing 
this  apparently  tranquil  state  of  mind,  indicating  that  she  "seemed  better 
contented  than  ever,"  concluded  that  it  was  safe  to  let  the  garret  door 
remain  unlocked  at  night.  Not  many  weeks  were  allowed  to  pass  before 
she  resolved  to  again  make  a  bold  strike  for  freedom.  This  time  she  had  to 
leave  the  two  little  boys,  Levin  and  Peter,  behind. 

On  the  night  she  started  she  went  to  the  bed  where  they  were  sleeping, 


38  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD.     . 

kissed  them,  and,  consigning  them  into  the  hands  of  God,  bade  her  mother 
good-bye,  and  with  her  two  little  girls  wended  her  way  again  to  Burlington 
County,  New  Jersey,  but  to  a  different  neighborhood  from  that  where  she 
had  been  seized.  She  changed  her  name  to  Charity,  and  succeeded  in  again 
joining  her  husband,  but,  alas,  with  the  heart-breaking  thought  that  she 
had  been  compelled  to  leave  her  two  little  boys  in  slavery  and  one  of  the 
little  girls  on  the  road  for  the  father  to  go  back  after.  Thus  she  began 
life  in  freedom  anew. 

Levin  and  Peter,  eight  and  six  years  of  age  respectively,  were  now  left  at 
the  mercy  of  the  enraged  owner,  and  were  soon  hurried  off  to  a  Southern 
market  and  sold,  while  their  mother,  for  whom  they  were  daily  weeping, 
was  they  knew  not  where.  They  were  too  young  to  know  that  they  were 
slaves,  or  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  afflicting  separation.  Sikteen 
years  before  Peter's  return,  his  older  brother  (Levin)  died  a  slave  in  the 
State  of  Alabama,  and  was  buried  by  his  surviving  brother,  Peter. 

No  idea  other  than  that  they  had  been  "kidnapped"  from  their  mother 
•  ever  entered  their  minds ;  nor  had  they  any  knowledge  of  the  State  from 
whence  they  supposed  they  had  been  taken,  the  last  names  of  their  mother 
and  father,  or  where  they  were  born.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mother  was 
aware  that  the  safety  of  herself  and  her  rescued  children  depended  on  keep- 
ing the  whole  transaction  a  strict  family  secret.  During  the  forty  years  of 
separation,  except  two  or  three  Quaker  friends,  including  the  devoted  friend 
of  the  slave,  Benjamin  Lundy,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  other  individuals 
were  let  into  the  secret  of  her  slave  life.  And  when  the  account  given  of 
Peter's  return,  etc.,  was  published  in  1850,  it  led  some  of  the  family  to 
apprehend  serious  danger  from  the  partial  revelation  of  the  early  condition 
of  the  mother,  especially  as  it  was  about  the  time  that  the  Fugitive  Slave 
law  was  passed. 

Hence,  the  author  of  "The  Kidnapped  and  the  Ransomed"  was  com- 
pelled to  omit  these  dangerous  facts,  and  had  to  confine  herself  strictly  to  the 
"  personal  recollections  of  Peter  Still "  with  regard  to  his  being  "  kid- 
napped." Likewise,  in  the  sketch  of  Seth  Concklin's  eventful  life,  written 
by  Dr.  "W.  H.  Furness,  for  similar  reasons  he  felt  obliged  to  make  but  bare 
reference  to  his  wonderful  agency  in  relation  to  Peter's  family,  although  he 
was  fully  aware  of  all  the  facts  in  the  case. 


LETTERS.  39 


UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD  LETTERS. 

Here  are  introduced  a  few  out  of  a  very  large  number  of  interesting 
letters,  designed  for  other  parts  of  the  book  as  occasion  may  require.  All 
letters  will  be  given  precisely  as  they  were  written  by  their  respective 
authors,  so  that  there  may  be  no  apparent  room  for  charging  the  writer 
with  partial  colorings  in  any  instance.  Indeed,  the  originals,  however 
ungrammatically  written  or  erroneously  spelt,  in  their  native  simplicity 
possess  such  beauty  and  force  as  corrections  and  additions  could  not  possibly 
enhance — 

LETTER  FROM   THOMAS  GARRETT  (u.   G.   R.   R.   DEPOT). 

WILMINGTON,  3mo.  23d,  1856. 

DEAR  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Since  I  wrote  thee  this  morning  informing  thee  of 
the  safe  arrival  of  the  Eight  from  Norfolk,  Harry  Craige  has  informed  me,  that  he  has  a 
man  from  Delaware  that  he  proposes  to  take  along,  who  arrived  since  noon.  He  will 
take  the  man,  woman  and  two  children  from  here  with  him,  and  the  four  men  will  get  in 
at  Marcus  Hook.  Thee  may  take  Harry  Craige  by  the  hand  as  a  brother,  true  to  the 
cause;  he  is  one  of  our  most  efficient  aids  on  the  Rail  Road,  and  worthy  of  full  confidence. 
May  they  all  be  favored  to  get  on  safe.  The  woman  and  three  children  are  no  common 
stock.  I  assure  thee  finer  specimens  of  humanity  are  seldom  met  with.  I  hope  herself 
and  children  may  be  enabled  to  find  her  husband,  who  has  been  absent  some  years,  and 
the  rest  of  their  days  be  happy  together.  I  am,  as  ever,  thy  friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

LETTER  FROM  MISS  G.   A.   LEWIS  (u.   G.   R.   R.    DEPOT). 

KIMBERTON,  October  28th,  1855. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  ; — This  evening  a  company  of  eleven  friends  reached  here,  having 
left  their  homes  on  the  night  of  the  26th  inst.  They  came  into  Wilmington,  about  ten 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  27th,  and  left  there,  in  the  town,  their  two  carriages,  drawn 
by  two  horses.  They  went  to  Thomas  Garrett's  by  open  day-light  and  from  thence  were 
sent  hastily  onward  for  fear  of  pursuit.  They  reached  Longwood  meeting-house  in  the 
evening,  at  which  place  a  Fair  Circle  had  convened,  and  stayed  a  while  in  the  meeting, 
then,  after  remaining  all  night  with  one  of  the  Kennet  friends,  they  were  brought  to 
Downingtown  early  in  the  morning,  and  from  thence,  by  daylight,  to  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  this  place. 

They  come  from  New  Chestertown,  within  five  miles  of  the  place  from  which  the  nine 
lately  forwarded  came,  and  left  behind  them  a  colored  woman  who  knew  of  their  intended 
flight  and  of  their  intention  of  passing  through  Wilmington  and  leaving  their  horses  and 
carriages  there. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  my  statement,  because  the  case  seems  to  us  one  of  un- 
usual danger.  We  have  separated  the  company  for  the  present,  sending  a  mother  and 
five  children,  two  of  them  quite  small,  in  one  direction,  and  a  husband  and  wife  and  three 
lads  in  another,  until  I  could  write  to  you  and  get  advice  if  you  have  any  to  give,  as  to 
the  best  method  of  forwarding  them,  and  assistance  pecuniarily,  in  getting  them  to 
Canada.  The  mother  and  children  we  have  sent  off  of  the  usual  route,  and  to  a  place 
where  I  do  not  think  they  can  remain  many  days. 


40  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

We  shall  await  hearing  from  you.  H.  Kimber  will  be  in  the  city  on  third  day  the  30th 
and  any  thing  left  at  408  Green  Street  directed  to  his  care,  will  meet  with  prompt  atten- 
tion. 

Piease  give  me  again  the  direction  of  Hiram  Wilson  and  the  friend  in  Elmira  Mr. 
Jones,  I  think.  If  you  have  heard  from  any  of  the  nine  since  their  safe  arrival,  please  let 
us  know  when  you  write.  Very  Respectfully,  G.  A.  LEWIS. 

2d  day  morning,  29th. — The  person  who  took  the  husband  and  wife  and  three  lads  to 
E.  F.  Pennypecker,  and  Peart,  has  returned  and  reports  that  L.  Peart  sent  three  on  to 
Norristown.  We  fear  that  there  they  will  fall  into  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  colored  man 
Daniel  Ross,  and  that  he  may  not  understand  the  necessity  of  caution.  Will  you  please 
write  to  some  careful  person  there?  The  woman  and  children  detained  in -this  neighbor- 
hood are  a  very  helpless  set.  Our  plan  was  to  assist  them  as  much  as  possible,  and  when 
we  get  things  into  the  proper  train  for  sending  them  on,  to  get  the  assistance  of  the  hus- 
band and  wife,  who  have  no  children,  but  are  uncle  and  aunt  to  the  woman  with  five,  in 
taking  with  them  one  of  the  younger  children,  leaving  fewer  for  the  mother.  Of  the  lads, 
or  young  men,  there  is  also  one  whom  we  thought  capable  of  accompanying  one  of  the 
older  girls — one  to  whom  he  is  paying  attention,  they  told  us.  Would  it  not  be  the  best 
way  to  get  those  in  Norristown  under  your  own  care  ?  It  seems  to  me  their  being  sent 
on  could  then  be  better  arranged.  This,  however,  is  only  a  suggestion, 
,  Hastily  yours,  G.  A.  LEWIS. 

LETTER   FROM   E.    L.   STEVENS,  ESQ. 

(The  reader  will  interpret  for  himself.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  llth,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  SIE  : — Susan  Bell  left  here  yesterday  with  the  child  of  her  relative,  and  since 
leaving  I  have  thought,  perhaps,  you  had  not  the  address  of  the  gentleman  in  Syracuse 
where  the  child  is  to  be  taken  for  medical  treatment,  etc.  His  name  is  Dr.  H.  B.  Wilbur. 
A  woman  living  with  him  is  a  most  excellent  nurse  and  will  take  a  deep  interest  in  the 
child,  which,  no  doubt,  will  under  Providence  be  the  means  of  its  complete  restoration  to 
health.  Be  kind  enough  to  inform  me  whether  Susan  is  with  you,  and  if  she  is  give  her 
the  proper  direction.  Ten  packages  were  sent  to  your  address  last  evening,  one  of  them 
belongs  to  Susan,  and  she  had  better  remain  with  you  till  she  gets  it,  as  it  may  not  have 
come  to  hand.  Susan  thought  she  would  go  to  Harrisburg  when  she  left  here  and  stay 
over  Sunday,  if  so,  she  would  not  get  to  Philadelphia  till  Monday  or  Tuesday.  Please 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  this,  and  inform  me  of  her  arrival,  also  when  the  packages 
came  safe  to  hand,  inform  me  especially  if  Susan's  came  safely. 

Truly  Yours,  E.  L.  STEVENS. 

LETTER   FROM   S.    H.  GAY,  ESQ.,  EX-EDITOR   OF   THE   ANTI-SLAVERY  STAN- 
DARD  AND   NEW   YORK   TRIBUNE. 

FRIEND  STILL  : — The  two  women,  Laura  and  Lizzy,  arrived  this  morning.  I  shall  for- 
ward them  to  Syracuse  this  afternoon. 

The  two  men  came  safely  yesterday,  but  went  to  Gibbs'.  He  has  friends  on  board  the 
boat  who  are  on  the  lookout  for  fugitives,  and  send  them,  when  found,  to  his  house. 
Those  whom  you  wish  to  be  particularly  under  my  charge,  must  have  careful  directions 
to  this  office. 

There  is  now  no  other  sure  place,  but  the  office,  or  Gibbs',  that  I  could  advise  you  to 
send  such  persons.  Those  to  me,  therefore,  must  come  in  office  hours.  In  a  few  days, 
however,  Napoleon  will  have  a  room  down  town,  and  at  odd  times  they  can  be  sent  there. 
I  am  not  willing  to  put  any  more  with  the  family  where  I  have  hitherto  sometimes  sent 
them. 


LETTERS.  41 

When  it  is  possible  I  wish  you  would  advise  me  two  days  before  a  shipment  of  your 
intention,  as  Napoleon  is  not  always  on  hand  to  look  out  for  them  at  short  notice.  In 
special  cases  you  might  advise  me  by  Telegraph,  thus  :  "  One  M.  (or  one  F.)  this  morning. 
W.  S."  By  which  I  shall  understand  that  one  Male,  or  one  Female,  as  the  case  may  be, 
has  left  Phila.  by  the  6  o'clock  train — one  or  more,  also,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Aug.  17th,  1855.  Truly  Yours,  S.  H.  GAY. 

LETTER  FROM   JOHN    H.  HILL,  A  FUGITIVE,    APPEALING   IN    BEHALF   OF   A 
POOR  SLAVE   IN   PETERSBURG,  VA. 

HAMILTON,  Sept.  15th,  1856. 

DEAR  FP.IEND  STILL  : — I  write  to  inform  you  that  Miss  Mary  Wever  arrived  safe  in  this 
city.  You  may  imagine  the  happiness  manifested  on  the  part  of  the  two  lovers,  Mr.  H. 
and  Miss  W.  I  think  they  will  be  married  as  soon  as  they  can  get  ready.  I  presume 
Mrs.  Hill  will  commence  to  make  up  the  articles  to-morrow.  Kind  Sir,  as  all  of  us  is 
concerned  about  the  welfare  of  our  enslaved  brethren  at  the  South,  particularly  our 
friends,  we  appeal  to  your  sympathy  to  do  whatever  is  in  your  power  to  save  poor  Willis 
Johnson  from  the  hands  of  his  cruel  master.  It  is  not  for  me  to  tell  you  of  his  case,  be- 
cause Miss  Wever  has  related  the  matter  fully  to  you.  All  I  wish  to  say  is  this,  I  wish 
you  to  write  to  my  uncle,  at  Petersburg,  by  our  friend,  the  Capt.  Tell  my  uncle  to  go  to 
Richmond  and  ask  my  mother  whereabouts  this  man  is.  The  best  for  him  is  to  make  his 
way  to  Petersburg ;  that  is,  if  you  can  get  the  Capt.  to  bring  him.  He  have  not  much 
money.  But  I  hope  the  friends  of  humanity  will  not  withhold  their  aid  on  the  account  of 
money.  However  we  will  raise  all  the  money  that  is  wanting  to  pay  for  his  safe  delivery. 
You  will  please  communicate  this  to  the  friends  as  soon  as  possible. 

Yours  trujy,  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

LETTER  FROM  J.    BIGELOW,   ESQ. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  22d,  1854. 

ME.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Sir — I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  my  friend,  Wm.  Wright, 
of  York  Sulphur  Springs,  Pa.,  in  which  he  says,  that  by  writing  to  you,  I  may  get  some 
information  about  the  transportation  of  some  property  from  this  neighborhood  to  your  city 
or  vicinity. 

A  person  who  signs  himself  Wm.  Penn,  lately  wrote  to  Mr.  Wright,  saying  he  would 
pay  $300  to  have  this  service  performed.  It  is  for  the  conveyance  of  only  one  SMALL 
package ;  but  it  has  been  discovered  since,  that  the  removal  cannot  be  so  safely  effected 
without  taking  two  larger  packages  with  it.  I  understand  that  the  three  are  to  be  brought, 
to  this  city  and  stored  in  safety,  as  soon  as  the  forwarding  merchant  in  Philadelphia  shall 
say  he  is  ready  to  send  on.  The  storage,  etc.,  here,  will  cost  a  trifle,  but  the  $300  will  be 
promptly  paid  for  the  whole  service.  I  think  Mr.  Wright's  daughter,  Hannah,  has  also 
seen  you.  I  am  also  known  to  Prof.  C.  D.  Cleveland,  of  your  city.  If  you  answer  this 
promptly,  you  will  soon  hear  from  Wm.  Penn  himself. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  BIGELOW. 

LETTER   FROM    HAM  &   EGGS,   SLAVE    (u.    G.    R.    R.    AG'T). 

PETERSBURG,  VA.,  Oct.  17th,  1860. 

MR.  W.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — I  am  happy  to  think,  that  the  time  has  come  when  we  no 
doubt  can  open  our  correspondence  with  one  another  again.  Also  I  am  in  hopes,  that 
these  few  lines  may  find  you  and  family  well  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  good  health,  as  it 
leaves  me  and  family  the  same.  I  want  you  to  know,  that  I  feel  as  much  determined  to 
work  in  this  glorious  cause,  as  ever  I  did  in  all  of  my  life,  and  I  have  some  very  good 


42  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

hams  on  hand  that  I  would  like  very  much  for  you  to  have.  I  have  nothing  of  interest 
to  write  about  just  now,  only  that  the  politics  of  the  day  is  in  a  high  rage,  and  I  don't 
know  of  the  result,  therefore,  I  want  you  to  be  one  of  those  wide- a- wakes  as  is  mentioned 
from  your  section  of  country  nojv-a-days,  &c.  Also,  if  you  wish  to  write  to  me  Mr.  J. 
Brown  will  inform  you  how  to  direct  a  letter  to  me. 
No  more  at  present,  until  I  hear  from  you ;  but  I  want  you  to  be  a  wide-a-wake. 

Yours  in  haste,  HAM  &  EGGS. 

LETTER  FROM  REV  H.   WILSON   (u.   G.   R.   R.   AGJT). 

ST.  CATHAEINE,  C.  W.,  July  2d,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL  :— Mr.  Elias  Jasper  and  Miss  Lucy  Bell  having  arrived 
here  safely  on  Saturday  last,  and  found  their  "  companions  in  tribulation,"  who  had  ar- 
rived before  them,  I  am  induced  to  write  and  let  you  know  the  fact.  They  are  a  cheerful, 
happy  company,  and  very  grateful  for  their  freedom.  I  have  done  the  best  I  could  for 
their  comfort,  but  they  are  about  to  proceed  across  the  lake  to  Toronto,  thinking  they  can 
do  better  there  than  here,  which  is  not  unlikely.  They  all  remember  you  as  their  friend 
and  benefactor,  and  return  to  you  their  sincere  thanks.  My  means  of  support  are  so 
scanty,  that  I  am  obliged  to  write  without  paying  postage,  or  not  write  at  all.  I  hope 
you  are  not  moneyless,  as  I  am.  In  attending  to  the  wants  of  numerous  strangers,  I  am 
much  of  the  time  perplexed  from  lack  of  means  ;  but  send  on  as  many  as  you  can  and  I 
will  divide  with  them  to  the  last  crumb. 

Yours  truly,  HIRAM  WILSON. 

LETTER  FROM  SHERIDAN  FORD,  IN   DISTRESS. 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  Feb.  15th,  1855. 

No.  2,  Change  Avenue. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND: — Allow  me  to  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  you  and  at  the  same 
time  appearing  troublesomes  you  all  friend,  but  subject  is  so  very  important  that  i  can 
not  but  ask  not  in  my  name  but  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  humanity  to  do  something 
for  my  Poor  Wife  and  children  who  lays  in  Norfolk  Jail  and  have  Been  there  for  three 
month  i  Would  open  myself  in  that  frank  and  hones  manner.  Which  should  convince 
you  of  my  cencerity  of  Purpoest  don't  shut  your  ears  to  the  cry's  of  the  Widow  and  the 
orphant  &  i  can  but  ask  in  the  name  of  humanity  and  God  for  he  knows  the  heart  of  all 
men.  Please  ask  the  friends  humanity  to  do  something  for  her  and  her  two  lettle  ones 
i  cant  do  any  thing  Place  as  i  am  for  i  have  to  lay  low  Please  lay  this  before  the  churches 
of  Philadelphaise  beg  them  in  name  of  the  Lord  to  do  something  for  him  i  love  my 
freedom  and  if  it  would  do  her  and  her  two  children  any  good  i  mean  to  change  with  her 
but  cant  be  done  for  she  is  Jail  and  you  most  no  she  suffer  for  the  jail  in  the  South 
are  not  like  yours  for  any  thing  is  good  enough  for  negros  the  Slave  hunters  Says  &  may 
God  interpose  in  behalf  of  the  demonstrative  Race  of  Africa  Whom  i  claim  desendent 
i  am  sorry  to  say  that  friendship  is  only  a  name  here  but  i  truss  it  is  not  so  in  Philada 
i  would  not  have  taken  this  liberty  had  i  not  considered  you  a  friend  for  you  treaty  as 
such  Please  do  all  you  can  and  Please  ask  the  Anti  Slavery  friends  to  do  all  they  can  and 
God  will  Reward  them  for  it  i  am  shure  for  the  earth  is  the  Lords  and  the  fullness  there, 
of  as  this  note  leaves  me  not  very  well  but  hope  when  it  comes  to  hand  it  may  find  you 
and  family  enjoying  all  the  Pleasure  life  Please  answer  this  and  Pardon  me  if  the 
necessary  sum  can  be  required  i  will  find  out  from  my  brotherinlaw  i  am  with  respectful 
consideration  SHERIDAN  W.  FORD. 

Yesterday  is  the  fust  time  i  have  heard  from  home  Sence  i  left  and  i  have  not  got  any 
thing  yet  i  have  a  tear  yet  for  my  fellow  man  and  it  is  in  my  eyes  now  for  God  knows  it 


LETTERS.  43 

is  tha  truth  i  sue  for  your  Pity  and  all  and  may  God  open  their  hearts  to  Pity  a  poor 
Woman  and  two  children.  The  Sum  is  i  believe  14  hundred  Dollars  Please  write  to  day 
for  me  and  see  if  the  cant  do  something  for  humanity. 

LETTER  FROM  E.   F.   PENNYPACKER  (u.   G.   R.   R.   DEPOT). 

SCHUYLKILL,  llth  mo.,  7th  day,  1857. 

WM.  STILL  : — Respected  Friend — There  are  three  colored  friends  at  my  house  now,  who 
will  reach  the  city  by  the  Phil.  &  Reading  train  this  evening.  Please  meet  them. 

Thine,  &c.,  E.  P.  PENNYPACKEE. 

We  have  within  the  past  2  mos.  passed  4.3  through  our  hands,  transported  most  of  them 
to  Norristown  in  our  own  conveyance.  E.  F.  P. 

LETTER  FROM   JOS.    C.   BUSTILL   (u.   G.    R.    R.    DEPOT). 

HAEEISBTJEG,  March  24,  '56. 

FEIEND  STILL  : — I  suppose  ere  this  you  have  seen  those  five  large  and  three  small 
packages  I  sent  by  way  of  Reading,  consisting  of  three  men  and  women  and  children. 
They  arrived  here  this  morning  at  8J  o'clock  and  left  twenty  minutes  past  three.  You 
will  please  send  me  any  information  likely  to  prove  interesting  in  relation  to  them. 

Lately  we  have  formed  a  Society  here,  called  the  Fugitive  Aid  Society.  This  is  our 
first  case,  and  I  hope  it  will  prove  entirely  successful. 

When  you  write,  please  inform  me  what  signs  or  symbols  you  make  use  of  in  your 
despatches,  and  any  other  information  in  relation  to  operations  of  the  Underground  Rail 
Road. 

Our  reason  for  sending  by  the  Reading  Road,  was  to  gain  time  ;  it  is  expected  the  owners 
will  be  in  town  this  afternoon,  and  by  this  Road  we  gained  five  hours'  time,  which  is  a 
matter  of  much  importance,  and  we  may  have  occasion  to  use  it  sometimes  in  future.  In 
great  haste,  Yours  with  great  respect,  Jos.  C.  BUSTILL. 

LETTER  FROM  A  SLAVE  SECRETED   IN  RICHMOND. 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  Oct.  18th,  1860. 

To  ME.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — Please  do  me  the  favor  as  to  write  to  my  uncle  a 
few  lines  in  regard  to  the  bundle  that  is  for  John  H.  Hill,  who  lives  in  Hamilton,  C.  W. 
Sir,  if  this  should  reach  you,  be  assured  that  it  comes  from  the  same  poor  individual  that 
you  have  heard  of  before ;  the  person  who  was  so  unlucky,  and  deceived  also.  If  you 
write,  address  your  letter  John  M.  Hill,  care  of  Box  No.  250.  I  am  speaking  of  a  person 
who  lives  in  P.ya.  I  hope,  sir,  you  will  understand  this  is  from  a  poor  individual. 

LETTER   FROM   G.   S.    NELSON   (u.    G.    R.    R.    DEPOT). 

ME.  STILL  : — My  Dear  Sir — I  suppose  you  are  somewhat  uneasy  because  the  goods  did 
not  come  safe  to  hand  on  Monday  evening,  as  you  expected — consigned  from  Harrisburg  to 
you.  The  train  only  was  from  Harrisburg  to  Reading,  and  as  it  happened,  the  goods  had 
to  stay  all  night  with  us,  and  as  some  excitement  exists  here  about  goods  of  the  kind,  we 
thought  it  expedient  and  wise  to  detain  them  until  we  could  hear  from  you.  There  aj-e 
two  small  boxes  and  two  large  ones ;  we  have  them  all  secure ;  what  had  better  be  done  ? 
Let  us  know.  Also,  as  we  can  learn,  there  are  three  more  boxes  still  in  Harrisburg.  An- 
swer your  communication  at  Harrisburg.  Also,  fail  not  to  answer  this  by  the  return  of 
mail,  as  things  are  rather  critical,  and  you  will  oblige  us. 

G.  S.  NELSON. 

Reading,  May  27,  '57. 

We  knew  not  that  these  goods  were  to  come,  consequently  we  were  all  taken  by  sur- 
prise. When  you  answer,  use  the  word,  goods.  The  reason  of  the  excitement,  is :  some 


44  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

three  weeks  ago  a  big  box  was  consigned  to  us  by  J.  Bustill,  of  Harrisburg.  We  received 
it,  and  forwarded  it  on  to  J.  Jones,  Elmira,  and  the  next  day  they  were  on  the  fresh  hunt 
of  said  box ;  it  got  safe  to  Elruira,  as  I  have  had  a  letter  from  Jones,  and  all  is  safe. 

Yours,  G.  S.  N. 

LETTER   FROM   JOHN   THOMPSON. 

ME.  STILL: — You  will  oblige  me  much  Iff  you  will  Direct  this  Letter  to  Vergenia  for 
me  to  my  Mother  &  iff  it  well  sute  you  Beg  her  in  my  Letter  to  Direct  hers  to  you  &  you 
Can  send  it  to  me  iff  it  sute  your  Convenience  I  am  one  of  your  Chattle. 

JOHN  THOMPSON, 

Syracuse,  Jeny  6th. 

Direction— Matilda  Tate  Care  of  Dudley  M  Pattee  Worrenton  Farkiear  County  Ver- 
ginia. 

LETTER  FROM  JOHN  THOMPSON,    A   FUGITIVE,  TO  HIS  MOTHER. 

MY  DEAR  MOTHER: — I  have  imbrace  an  opportunity  of  writing  you  these  few  lines 
(hoping)  that  they  may  fine  you  as  they  Leave  me  quite  well  I  will  now  inform  you  how 
I  am  geting  I  am  now  a  free  man  Living  By  the  sweet  of  my  own  Brow  not  serving  a 
nother  man  &  giving  him  all  I  Earn  But  what  I  make  is  mine  and  iff  one  Plase  do  not 
sute  me  I  am  at  Liberty  to  Leave  and  go  some  where  elce  &  can  ashore  you  I  think 
highly  of  Freedom  and  would  not  exchange  it  for  nothing  that  is  offered  me  for  it  I  am 
waiting  in  a  Hotel  I  supose  you  Remember  when  I  was  in  Jail  I  told  you  the  time  would 
Be  Better  and  you  see  that  the  time  has  come  when  I  Leave  you  my  heart  was  so  full  & 
yours  But  I  new  their  was  a  Better  Day  a  head,  &  I  have  Live  to  see  it  I  hird  when  I 
was  on  the  Underground  R.  Road  that  the  Hounds  was  on  my  Track  but  it  was  no  go  I 
new  I  was  too  far  out  of  their  Reach  where  they  would  never  smell  my  track  when  I 
Leave  you  I  was  carred  to  Richmond  &  sold  &  From  their  I  was  taken  to  North  Carolina 
&  sold  &  I  Ran  a  way  &  went  Back  to  Virginna  Between  Richmond  &  home  &  their 
I  was  caught  &  Put  in  Jail  &  their  I  Remain  till  the  oner  come  for  me  then  I  was  taken 
&  carred  Back  to  Richmond  then  I  was  sold  to  the  man  who  I  now  Leave  he  is  nothing 
But  a  But  of  a  Feller  Remember  me  to  your  Husband  &  all  in  quirin  Friends  &  say  to 
Miss  Rosa  that  I  am  as  Free  as  she  is  &  more  happier  I  no  I  am  getting  $12  per  month 
for  what  Little  work  I  am  Doing  I  hope  to  here  from  you  a  gain  I  your  Son  &  ever  By 

JOHN  THOMPSON. 

LETTER  FROM   "  WM.   PENN "    (OF  THE   BAR). 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Dec.  9th,  1856. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  was  unavoidably  prevented  yesterday,  from  replying  to  yours  of  6th  in- 
stant, and  although  I  have  made  inquiries,  I  am  unable  to-day,  to  answer  your  questions 
satisfactorily.  Although  I  know  some  of  the  residents  of  Loudon  county,  and  have  often 
visited  there,  still  I  have  not  practiced  much  in  the  Courts  of  that  county.  There  are 
several  of  my  acquaintances  here,  who  have  lived  in  that  co.unty,  and  possibly,  through  my 
assistance,  your  commissions  might  be  executed.  If  a  better  way  shall  not  suggest  itself 
to  you,  and  you  see  fit  to  give  me  the  facts  in  the  case,  I  can  better  judge  of  my  ability 
to  help  you;  but  I  know  not  the  man  resident  there,  whom  1  would  trust  with  an  impor- 
tant suit.  I  think  it  is  now  some  four  or  five  weeks  since,  that  some  packages  left  this  vi- 
cinity, said  to  be  from  fifteen  to  twenty  in  number,  and  as  I  suppose,  went  through  your 
hands.  It  was  at  a  time  of  uncommon  vigilance  here,  and  to  me  it  was  a  matter  of  ex- 
treme wonder,  how  and  through  whom,  such  a  work  was  accomplished.  Can  you  tell 
me?  It  is  needful  that  I  should  know !  Not  for  curiosity  merely,  but  for  the  good  of  others. 


LETTERS.  45 

An  enclosed  slip  contains  the  marks  of  one  of  the  packages,  which  you  will  read  and  then 
immediately  burn. 

If  you  can  give  me  any  light  that  will  benefit  others,  I  am  sure  you  will  do  so. 

A  traveler  here,  very  reliable,  and  .who  knows  his  business,  has  determined  not  to  leave 
home  again  till  spring,  at  least  not  without  extraordinary  temptations. 

I  think,  however,  he  or  others,  might  be  tempted  to  travel  in  Virginia. 

Yours,  WM.  P. 

LETTER   FROM   MISS   THEODOCIA   GILBERT. 

SKANEATELES  (GLEN  HAVEN)  CHUT.,  1851. 

WILLIAM  STILL: — Dear  Friend  and  Brother— A  thousand  thanks  for  your  good,  gen- 
erous letter ! 

It  was  so  kind  of  you  to  have  in  mind  my  intense  interest  and  anxiety  in  the  success 
and  fate  of  poor  Concklin !  That  he  desired  and  intended  to  hazard  an  attempt  of  the  kind, 
I  well  understood ;  but  what  particular  one,  or  that  he  had  actually  embarked  in  the  en- 
terprise, I  had  not  been  able  to  learn. 

His  memory  will  ever  be  among  the  sacredly  cherished  with  me.  He  certainly  dis- 
played more  real  disinterestedness,  more  earnest,  unassuming  devotedness,  than  those  who 
claim  to  be  the  sincerest  friends  of  the  slave  can  often  boast.  What  more  Saviour-like  than 
the  willing  sacrifice  he  has  rendered! 

Never  shall  I  forget  that  night  of  our  extremest  peril  (as  we  supposed),  when  he  came 
and  so  heartily  proffered  his  services  at  the  hazard  of  his  liberty,  of  life  even,  in  behalf  of 
William  L.  Chaplin. 

Such  generosity  !  at  such  a  moment !  The  emotions  it  awakened  no  words  can  bespeak ! 
They  are  to  be  sought  but  in  the  inner  chambers  of  one's  own  soul!  He  as  earnestly  de- 
vised the  means,  as  calmly  counted  the  cost,  and  as  unshrinkingly  turned  him  to  the  task, 
as  if  it  were  his  own  freedom  he  would  have  won. 

Through  his  homely  features,  and  humble  garb,  the  intrepidity  of  soul  came  out  in  all 
its  lustre !  Heroism,  in  its  native  majesty,  commanded  one's  admiration  and  love! 

Most  truly  can  I  enter  into  your  sorrows,  and  painfully  appreciate  the  pang  of  disap- 
pointment which  must  have  followed  this  sad  intelligence.  But  so  inadequate  are  words 
to  the  consoling  of  such  griefs,  it  were  almost  cruel  to  attempt  to  syllable  one's  sympathies. 

I  cannot  bear  to  believe,  that  Concklin  has  been  actually  murdered,  and  yet  I  hardly 
dare  hope  it  is  otherwise. 

And  the  poor  slaves,  for  whom  he  periled  so  much,  into  what  depths  of  hopelessness  and 
woe  are  they  again  plunged!  But  the  deeper  and  blacker  for  the  loss  of  their  dearly 
sought  and  new-found  freedom.  How  long  must  wrongs  like  these  go  unredressed? 
"  How  long,  0  God,  how  long  ?" 

Very  truly  yours,  THEODOCIA  GILBERT. 


46  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


WILLIAM  PEEL,. ALIAS  WILLIAM  BOX  PEEL  JONES. 

ARRIVED  PER  ERRICSON  LINE  OF  STEAMERS,   WRAPPED  IN  STRAW  AND  BOXED  UP, 

APRIL,    1859. 

William  is  twenty-five  years  of  age,  unmistakably  colored,  good-looking, 
rather  under  the  medium  size,  and  of  pleasing  manners.  William  had  him- 
self boxed  up  by  a  near  relative  and  forwarded  by  the  Erricson  line  of 
steamers.  He  gave  the  slip  to  Robert  H.  Carr,  his  owner  (a  grocer  and 
commission  merchant),  after  this  wise,  and  for  the  following  reasons:  For 
some  time  previous  his  master  had  been  selling  off  his  slaves  every  now  and 
then,  the  same  as  other  groceries,  and  this  admonished  William  that  he  was 
liable  to  be  in  the  market  any  day ;  consequently,  he  preferred  the  box  to 
the  auction-block. 

.  He  did  not  complain  of  having  been  treated  very  badly  by  Carr,  but  felt 
that  no  man  was  safe  while  owned  by  another.  In  fact,  he  "hated  the  very 
name  of  slaveholder."  The  limit  of  the  box  not  admitting  of  straightening 
himself  out  he  was  taken  with  the  cramp  on  the  road,  suffered  indescribable 
misery,  and  had  his  faith  taxed  to  the  utmost, — indeed  was  brought  to  the 
very  verge  of  "  screaming  aloud  "  ere  relief  came.  However,  he  controlled 
himself,  though  only  for  a  short  season,  for  before  a  great  while  an  ex- 
cessive faintness  came  over  him.  Here  nature  became  quite  exhausted. 
He  thought  he  must  "die;"  but  his  time  had  not  yet  come.  After  a  severe 
struggle  he  revived,  but  only  to  encounter  a  third  ordeal  no  less  painful  than 
the  one  through  which  he  had  just  passed.  Next  a  very  "  cold  chill  "  came 
over  him,  which  seemed  almost  to  freeze  the  very  blood  in  his  veins  and  gave 
him  intense  agony,  from  which  he  only  found  relief  on  awaking,  having  ac- 
tually fallen  asleep  in  that  condition.  Finally,  however,  he  arrived  at  Phil- 
adelphia, on  a  steamer,  Sabbath  morning.  A  devoted  friend  of  his,  expecting 
him,  engaged  a  carriage  and  repaired  to  the  wharf  for  the  box.  The  bill  of 
lading  and  the  receipt  he  had  with  him,  and  likewise  knew  where  the  box 
was  located  on  the  boat.  Although  he  well  knew  freight  was  not  usually 
delivered  on  Sunday,  yet  his  deep  solicitude  for  the  safety  of  his  friend 
determined  him  to  do  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  rescue  him  from  his 
perilous  situation.  Handing  his  bill  of  lading  to  the  proper  officer  of  the 
boat,  he  asked  if  he  could  get  the  freight  that  it  called  for.  The  officer 
looked  at  the  bill  and  said,  "No,  we  do  not  deliver  freight  on  Sunday;" 
but,  noticing  the  anxiety  of  the  man,  he  asked  him  if  he  would  know  it  if 
he  were  to  see  it.  Slowly — fearing  that  too  much  interest  manifested 
might  excite  suspicion — he  replied:  "I  think  I  should."  Deliber- 
ately looking  around  amongst  all  the  "freight,"  he  discovered  the  box, 


WILLIAM  BOX  PEEL  JONES.  47 

and  said,  "I  think  that  is  it  there."  Said  officer  stepped  to  it,  looked  at  the 
directions  on  it,  then  at  the  bill  of  lading,  and  said,  "  That  is  right,  take  it 
along."  Here  the  interest  in  these  two  bosoms  was  thrilling  in  the  highest 
degree.  But  the  size  of  the  box  was  too  large  for  the  carriage,  and  the  driver 
refused  to  take  it.  Nearly  an  hour  and  a  half  was  spent  in  looking  for  a 
furniture  car.  Finally  one  was  procured,  and  again  the  box  was  laid  hold 
of  by  the  occupant's  particular  friend,  when,  to  his  dread  alarm,  the  poor  fel- 
low within  gave  a  sudden  cough.  At  this  startling  circumstance  he  dropped 
the  box;  equally  as  quick,  although  dreadfully  frightened,  and,  as  if  helped 
by  some  invisible  agency,  he  commenced  singing,  "Hush,  my  babe,  lie  still 
and  slumber,"  with  the  most  apparent  indifference,  at  the  same  time  slowly 
making  his  way  from  the  box.  Soon  his  fears  subsided,  and  it  was  pre- 
sumed that  no  one  was  any  the  wiser  on  account  of  the  accident,  or  coughing. 
Thus,  after  summoning  courage,  he  laid  hold  of  the  box  a  third  time,  and 
the  Rubicon  was  passed.  The  car  driver,  totally  ignorant  of  the  contents  of 
the  box,  drove  to  the  number  to  which  he  was  directed  to  take  it — left  it 
and  went  about  his  business.  Now  is  a  moment  of  intense  interest — now  of 
inexpressible  delight.  The  box  is  opened,  the  straw  removed,  and  the  poor 
fellow  is  loosed;  and  is  rejoicing,  I  will  venture  to  say,  as  mortal  never  did 
rejoice,  who  had  not  been  in  similar  peril.  This  particular  friend  was 
scarcely  less  overjoyed,  however,  and  their  joy  did  not  abate  for  several 
hours ;  nor  was  it  confined  to  themselves,  for  two  invited  members  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee  also  partook  of  a  full  share.  This  box  man  was 
named  Wm.  Jones.  He  was  boxed  up  in  Baltimore  by  the  friend  who  re- 
ceived him  at  the  wharf,  who  did  not  come  in  the  boat  with  him,  but  came 
in  the  cars  and  met  him  at  the  wharf. 

The  trial  in  the  box  lasted  just  seventeen  hours  before  victory  was 
achieved.  Jones  was  well  cared  for  by  the  Vigilance  Committee  and  sent  on 
his  way  rejoicing,  feeling  that  Resolution,  Underground  Rail  Road,  and 
Liberty  were  invaluable. 

On  his  way  to  Canada,  he  stopped  at  Albany,  and  the  subjoined  letter 
gives  his  view  of  things  from  that  stand-point— 

MR.  STILL  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  writing  a  few  lines  to  you  hoping  that  tha  may 
find  you  in  good  health  and  femaly.  i  am  well  at  present  and  doing  well  at  present  i  am 
now  in  a  store  and  getting  sixteen  dollars  a  month  at  the  present,  i  feel  very  much  o 
blige  to  you  and  your  family  for  your  kindnes  to  me  while  i  was  with  you  i  have  got  along 
without  any  trub  le  a  tal.  i  am  now  in  albany  City,  give  my  lov  to  mrs  and  mr  miller 
and  tel  them  i  am  very  much  a  blige  to  them  for  there  kind  ns.  give  my  lov  to  my  Brother 
nore  Jones  tel  him  i  should  like  to  here  from  him  very  much  and  he  must  write,  tel  him 
to  give  my  love  to  all  of  my  perticular  frends  and  tel  them  i  should  like  to  see  them  very 
much,  tel  him  that  he  must  come  to  see  me  for  i  want  to  see  him  for  sum  thing  very  per- 
ticler.  please  ansure  this  letter  as  soon  as  posabul  and  excuse  me  for  not  writting  sooner 
as  i  dont  write  myself,  no  more  at  the  present.  WILLIAM  JONES. 

derect  to  one  hundred  125  lydus.  stt 


48  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

*- 

His  good  friend  returned  to  Baltimore  the  same  day  the  box  man  started 
for  the  North,  and  immediately  dispatched  through  the  post  the  following 
brief  letter,  worded  in  Underground  Rail  Road  parables : 

BALTIMO  APRIL  16, 1859. 

W.  STILL  : — Dear  brother  i  have  taken  the  opportunity  of  writing  you  these  few  lines 
to  inform  you  that  i  am  well  an  hoping  these  few  lines  may  find  you  enjoying  the  same 
good  blessing  please  to  write  me  word  at  what  time  was  it  when  isreal  went  to  Jerico  i  am 
very  anxious  to  hear  for  thare  is  a  mighty  host  will  pass  over  and  you  and  i  my  brother 
will  sing  hally  luja  i  shall  notify  you  when  the  great  catastrophe  shal  take  place  No  more 
at  the  present  but  remain  your  brother.  N.  L.  J. 


WESLEY  HARRIS,*  ALIAS  ROBERT  JACKSON,  AND  THE 
MATTERSON  BROTHERS. 

In  setting  out  for  freedom,  Wesley  was  the  leader  of  this  party.  After 
two  nights  of  fatiguing  travel  at  a  distance  of  about  sixty  miles  from 
home,  the  young  aspirants  for  liberty  were  betrayed,  and  in  an  attempt 
made  to  capture  them  a  most  bloody  conflict  ensued.  Both  fugitives  and 
pursuers  were  the  recipients  of  severe  wounds  from  gun  shots,  and  other 
weapons  used  in  the  contest. 

Wesley  bravely  used  his  fire  arms  until  almost  fatally  wounded  by  one  of 
the  pursuers,  who  with  a  heavily  loaded  gun  discharged  the  contents  with 
deadly  aim  in  his  left  arm,  which  raked  the  flesh  from  the  bone  for  a  space 
of  about  six  inches  in  length.  One  of  Wesley's  companions  also  fought 
heroically  and  only  yielded  when  badly  wounded  and  quite  overpowered. 
The  two  younger  (brothers  of  C.  Matterson)  it  seemed  made  no  resistance. 

In  order  to  recall  the  adventures  of  this  struggle,  and  the  success  of 
Wesley  Harris,  it  is  only  necessary  to  copy  the  report  as  then  penned 
from  the  lips  of  this  young  hero,  while  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road, 
even  then  in  a  very  critical  state.  Most  fearful  indeed  was  his  condition 
when  he  was  brought  to  the  Vigilance  Committee  in  this  City. 

UNDERGROUND    RAIL   ROAD  RECORD. 

November  2d,  1853. — Arrived :  Robert  Jackson  (shot  man),  alias  Wesley 
Harris ;  age  twenty-two  years ;  dark  color ;  medium  height,  and  of  slender 
stature. 

Robert  was  born  in  Martinsburg,  "Va.,  and  was  owned  by  Philip  Pendle- 
ton.  From  a  boy  he  had  always  been  hired  out.  At  the  first  of  this  year 
he  commenced  services  with  Mrs.  Carroll,  proprietress  of  the  United  States 
Hotel  at  Harper's  Ferry.  Of  Mrs.  Carroll  he  speaks  in  very  grateful 
terms,  saying  that  she  was  kind  to  him  and  all  the  servants,  and  promised 
them  their  freedom  at  her  death.  She  excused  herself  for  not  giving  them 

*  Shot  by  slave-hunters. 


WESLEY  HARRIS.  49 

their  freedom  on  the  ground  that  her  husband  died  insolvent,  leaving  her 
the  responsibility  of  settling  his  debts. 

But  while  Mrs.  Carroll  was  very  kind  to  her  servants,  her  manager  was 
equally  as  cruel.  About  a  month  before  Wesley  left,  the  overseer,  for  some 
trifling  cause,  attempted  to  flog  him,  but  was  resisted,  and  himself  flogged. 
This  resistance  of  the  slave  was  regarded  by  the  overseer  as  an  unpardonable 
offence ;  consequently  he  communicated  the  intelligence  to  his  owner,  which 
had  the  desired  effect  on  his  mind  as  appeared  from  his  answer  to  the  over- 
seer, which  was  nothing  less  than  instructions  that  if  he  should  again 
attempt  to  correct  Wesley  and  he  should  repel  the  wholesome  treatment,  the 
overseer  was  to  put  him  in  prison  and  sell  him.  Whether  he  offended 
again  or  not,  the  following  Christmas  he  was  to  be  sold  without  fail. 

Wesley's  mistress  was  kind  enough  to  apprise  him  of  the  intention  of  his 
owner  and  the  overseer,  and  told  him  that  if  he  could  help  himself  he  had 
better  do  so.  So  from  that  time  Wesley  began  to  contemplate  how  he 
should  escape  the  doom  which  had  been  planned  for  him. 

"  A  friend,"  says  he,  "  by  the  name  of  C.  Matterson,  told  me  that  he  was 
going  off.  Then  I  told  him  of  my  master's  writing  to  Mrs.  Carroll  con- 
cerning selling,  etc.,  and  that  I  was  going  off  too.  We  then  concluded 
to  go  together.  There  were  two  others — brothers  of  Matterson — who  were 
told  of  our  plaa  to  escape,  and  readily  joined  with  us  in  the  undertaking. 
So  one  Saturday  night,  at  twelve  o'clock,  we  set  out  for  the  North.  After 
traveling  upwards  of  two  days  and  over  sixty  miles,  we  found  ourselves 
unexpectedly  in  Terry  town,  Md.  There  we  were  informed  by  a  friendly 
colored  man  of  the  danger  we  were  in  and  of  the  bad  character  of  the  place 
towards  colored  people,  especially  those  who  were  escaping  to  freedom;  and  he 
advised  us  to  hide  as  quickly  as  we  could.  We  at  once  went  to  the  woods 
and  hid.  Soon  after  we  had  secreted  ourselves  a  man  came  near  by  and 
commenced  splitting  wood,  or  rails,  which  alarmed  us.  We  then  moved 
to  another  hiding-place  in  a  thicket  near  a  farmer's  barn,  where  we  were 
soon  startled  again  by  a  dog  approaching  and  barking  at  us.  The  attention 
of  the  owner  of  the  dog  was  drawn  to  his  barking  and  to  where  we  were. 
The  owner  of  the  dog  was  a  farmer.  He  asked  us  where  we  were  going. 
We  replied  to  Gettysburg — to  visit  some  relatives,  etc.  He  told  us  that  we 
were  running  off.  He  then  offered  friendly  advice,  talked  like  a  Quaker, 
and  urged  us  to  go  with  him  to  his  barn  for  protection.  After  much  per- 
suasion, we  consented  to  go  with  him. 

"Soon  after  putting  us  in  his  barn,  himself  and  daughter  prepared  us  a 
nice  breakfast,  which  cheered  our  spirits,  as  we  were  hungry.  For  this 
kindness  we  paid  him  one  dollar.  He  next  told  us  to  hide  on  the  mow  till 
eve,  when  he  would  safely  direct  us  on  our  road  to  Gettysburg.  All,  very 
much  fatigued  from  traveling,  fell  asleep,  excepting  myself;  I  could  not 
sleep;  I  felt  as  if  all  was  not  right. 
4 


50  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"About  noon  men  were  heard  talking  around  the  barn.  I  woke  my  com- 
panions up  and  told  them  that  that  man  had  betrayed  us.  At  first  they  did 
not  believe  me.  In  a  moment  afterwards  the  barn  door  was  opened,  and  in 
came  the  men,  eight  in  number.  One  of  the  men  asked  the  owner  of  the 
barn  if  he  had  any  long  straw.  'Yes/  was  the  answer.  So  up  on  the 
mow  came  three  of  the  men,  when,  to  their  great  surprise,  as  they  pretended, 
we  were  discovered.  The  question  was  then  asked  the  owner  of  the  barn 
by  one  of  the  men,  if  he  harbored  runaway  negroes  in  his  barn?  He 
answered,  '  No/  and  pretended  to  be  entirely  ignorant  of  their  being  in  his 
barn.  One  of  the  men  replied  that  four  negroes  were  on  the  mow,  and  he 
knew  of  it.  The  men  then  asked  us  where  we  were  going.  "We  told  them 
to  Gettysburg,  that  we  had  aunts  and  a  mother  there.  Also  we  spoke  of  a 
Mr.  Houghman,  a  gentleman  we  happened  to  have  some  knowledge  of, 
having  seen  him  in  Virginia.  We  were  next  asked  for  our  passes.  We 
told  them  that  we  hadn't  any,  that  we  had  not  been  required  to  carry  them 
where  we  came  from.  They  then  said  that  we  would  have  to  go  before  a 
magistrate,  and  if  he  allowed  us  to  go  on,  well  and  good.  The  men  all  being 
armed  and  furnished  with  ropes,  we  were  ordered  to  be  tied.  I  told  them 
if  they  took  me  they  would  have  to  take  me  dead  or  crippled.  At  that  in- 
stant one  of  my  friends  cried  out — 'Where  is  the  man  that  betrayed  us?' 
Spying  him  at  the  same  moment,  he  shot  him  (badly  wounding  him).  Then 
the  conflict  fairly  began.  The  constable  seized  me  by  the  collar,  or  rather 
behind  my  shoulder.  I  at  once  shot  him  with  my  pistol,  but  in  consequence 
of  his  throwing  up  his  arm,  which  hit  mine  as  I  fired,  the  effect  of  the  load 
of  my  pistol  was  much  turned  aside;  his  face,  however,  was  badly  burned, 
besides  his  shoulder  being  wounded.  I  again  fired  on  the  pursuers,  but  do 
not  know  whether  I  hit  anybody  or  not.  I  then  drew  a  sword,  I  had 
brought  with  me,  and  was  about  cutting  my  way  to  the  door,  when  I  was 
shot  by  one  of  the  men,  receiving  the  entire  contents  of  one  load  of  a  double 
barreled  gun  in  my  left  arm,  that  being  the  arm  with  which  I  was  de- 
fending myself.  The  load  brought  me  to  the  ground,  and  I  was  unable  to 
make  further  struggle  for  myself.  I  was  then  badly  beaten  with  guns,  &c. 
In  the  meantime,  my  friend  Craven,  who  was  defending  himself,  was 
shot  badly  in  the  face,  and  most  violently  beaten  until  he  was  conquered  and 
tied.  The  two  young  brothers  of  Craven  stood  still,  without  making  the 
least  resistance.  After  we  were  fairly  captured,  we  were  taken  to  Terry- 
town,  which  was  in  sight  of  where  we  were  betrayed.  By  this  time  I  had 
lost  so  much  blood  from  my  wounds,  that  they  concluded  my  situation  was 
too  dangerous  to  admit  of  being  taken  further;  so  I  was  made  a  prisoner  at 
a  tavern,  kept  by  a  man  named  Fisher.  There  my  wounds  were  dressed, 
and  thirty-two  shot  were  taken  from  my  arm.  For  three  days  I  was  crazy, 
and  they  thought  I  would  die.  During  the  first  two  weeks,  while  I  was  a 
prisoner  at  the  tavern,  I  raised  a  great  deal  of  blood,  and  was  considered  in  a 
very  dangerous  condition — so  much  so  that  persons  desiring  to  see  me  were  not 


ROMULUS  HALL.  51 

permitted.  Afterwards  I  began  to  get  better,  and  was  then  kept  very  pri- 
vately— was  strictly  watched  day  and  night.  Occasionally,  however,  the 
cook,  a  colored  woman  (Mrs.  Smith),  would  manage  to  get  to  see  me.  Also 
James  Matthews  succeeded  in  getting  to  see  me;  consequently,  as  my  wounds 
healed,  and  my  senses  came  to  me,  I  began  to  plan  how  to  make  another 
effort  to  escape.  I  asked  one  of  the  friends,  alluded  to  above,  to  get  me  a 
rope.  He  got  it.  I  kept  it  about  me  four  days  in  my  pocket;  in  the  mean- 
time I  procured  three  nails.  On  Friday  night,  October  14th,  I  fastened  my 
nails  in  under  the  window  sill ;  tied  my  rope  to  the  nails,  threw  my  shoes 
out  of  the  window,  put  the  rope  in  my  mouth,  then  took  hold  of  it  with  my 
well  hand,  clambered  into  the  window,  very  weak,  but  I  managed  to  let 
myself  down  to  the  ground.  I  was  so  weak,  that  I  could  scarcely  walk,  but 
I  managed  to  hobble  off  to  a  place  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  tavern, 
where  a  friend  had  fixed  upon  for  me  to  go,  if  I  succeeded  in  making  my 
escape.  There  I  was  found  by  my  friend,  who  kept  me  secure  till  Saturday 
eve,  when  a  swift  horse  was  furnished  by  James  Rogers,  and  a  colored  man 
found  to  conduct  me  to  Gettysburg.  Instead  of  going  direct  to  Gettysburg, 
we  took  a  different  road,  in  order  to  shun  our  pursuers,  as  the  news  of  my 
escape  had  created  general  excitement.  My  three  other  companions,  who 
were  captured,  were  sent  to  Westminster  jail,  where  they  were  kept  three 
weeks,  and  afterwards  sent  to  Baltimore  and  sold  for  twelve  hundred  dollars 
a  piece,  as  I  was  informed  while  at  the  tavern  in  Terrytown." 

The  Vigilance  Committee  procured  good  medical  attention  and  afforded 
the  fugitive  time  for  recuperation,  furnished  him  with  clothing  and  a  free 
ticket,  and  sent  him  on  his  way  greatly  improved  in  health,  and  strong 
in  the  faith  that,  "  He  who  would  be  free,  himself  must  strike  the  blow." 
His  safe  arrival  in  Canada,  with  his  thanks,  were  duly  announced.  And 
some  time  after  becoming  naturalized,  in  one  of  his  letters,  he  wrote  that  he 
was  a  brakesman  on  the  Great  Western  R.  R.,  (in  Canada — promoted  from 
the  U.  G.  R.  R.,)  the  result  of  being  under  the  protection  of  the  British 
Lion. 


DEATH  OF  ROMULUS  HALI^-NEW  NAME  GEORGE  WEEMS. 

In  March,  1857,  Abram  Harris  fled  from  John  Henry  Suthern,  who 
lived  near  Benedict,  Charles  county,  Md.,  where  he  was  engaged  in  the 
farming  business,  and  was  the  owner  of  about  seventy  head  of  slaves.  He 
kept  an  overseer,  and  usually  had  flogging  administered  daily,  on  males  and 
females,  old  and  young.  Abram  becoming  very  sick  of  this  treatment,  re- 
solved, about  the  first  of  March,  to  seek  out  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
But  for  his  strong  attachment  to  his  wife  (who  was  owned  by  Samuel 


52  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Adams,  but  was  "  pretty  well  treated  "),  he  never  would  have  consented  to 
"suffer"  as  he  did. 

Here  no  hope  of  comfort  for  the  future  seemed  to  remain.  So  Abram  con- 
sulted with  a  fellow-servant,  by  the  name  of  Romulus  Hall,  alias  George 
Weems,  and  being  very  warm  friends,  concluded  to  start  together.  Both 
had  wives  to  "  tear  themselves  from,"  and  each  was  equally  ignorant  of  the 
distance  they  had  to  travel,  and  the  dangers  and  sufferings  to  be  endured. 
But  they  "  trusted  in  God  "  and  kept  the  North  Star  in  view.  For  nine 
days  and  nights,  without  a  guide,  they  traveled  at  a  very  exhausting  rate, 
especially  as  they  had  to  go  fasting  for  three  days,  and  to  endure  very  cold 
weather.  Abram's  companion,  being  about  fifty  years  of  age,  felt  obliged  to 
succumb,  both  from  hunger  and  cold,  and  had  to  be  left  on  the  way.  Abram 
was  a  man  of  medium  size,  tall,  dark  chestnut  color,  and  could  read  and 
write  a  little  and  was  quite  intelligent ;  "  was  a  member  of  the  Mount  Zion 
Church,"  and  occasionally  officiated  as  an  "  exhorter,"  and  really  appeared 
to  be  a  man  of  genuine  faith  in  the  Almighty,  and  equally  as  much  in 
freedom. 

In  substance,  Abram  gave  the  following  information  concerning  his  know- 
ledge of  affairs  on  the  farm  under  his  master — 

"Master  and  mistress  very  frequently  visited  the  Protestant  Church, 
but  were  not  members.  Mistress  was  very  bad.  About  three  weeks  before 
I  left,  the  overseer,  in  a  violent  fit  of  bad  temper,  shot  and  badly  wounded 
a  young  slave  man  by  the  name  of  Henry  Waters,  but  no  sooner  than  he  got 
well  enough  he  escaped,  and  had  not  been  heard  of  up  to  the  time  Abram 
left.  About  three  years  before  this  happened,  an  overseer  of  my  master  was 
found  shot  dead  on  the  road.  At  once  some  of  the  slaves  were  suspected, 
and  were  all  taken  to  the  Court  House,  at  Serentown,  St.  Mary's  county  ; 
but  all  came  off  clear.  After  this  occurrence  a  new  overseer,  by  the  name 
of  John  Decket,  was  employed.  Although  his  predecessor  had  been  dead 
three  years,  Decket,  nevertheless,  concluded  that  it  was  not  '  too  late '  to 
flog  the  secret  out  of  some  of  the  slaves.  Accordingly,  he  selected  a  young 
slave  man  for  his  victim,  and  flogged  him  so  cruelly  that  he  could  scarcely 
walk  or  stand,  and  to  keep  from  being  actually  killed,  the  boy  told  an  un- 
truth, and  confessed  that  he  and  his  Uncle  Henry  killed  Webster,  the  over- 
seer ;  whereupon  the  poor  fellow  was  sent  to  jail  to  be  tried  for  his  life." 

But  Abram  did  not  wait  to  hear  the  verdict.  He  reached  the  Committee 
safely  in  this  city,  in  advance  of  his  companion,  and  was  furnished  with  a 
free  ticket  and  other  needed  assistance,  and  was  sent  on  his  way  rejoicing. 
After  reaching  his  destination,  he  wrote  back  to  know  how  his  friend  and 
companion  (George)  was  getting  along ;  but  in  less  than  three  weeks  after  he 
had  passed,  the  following  brief  story  reveals  the  sad  fate  of  poor  Romulus 
Hall,  who  had  journeyed  with  him  till  exhausted  from  hunger  and  badly 
frost-bitten. 

A  few  days  after  his  younger  companion  had  passed  on  North,  Romulus 


ROMULUS  HALL.  53 

was  brought  by  a  pitying  stranger  to  the  Vigilance  Committee,  in  a  most 
shocking  condition.  The  frost  had  made  sad  havoc  with  his  feet  and  legs, 
so  much  so  that  all  sense  of  feeling  had  departed  therefrom. 

How  he  ever  reached  this  city  is  a  marvel.  On  his  arrival  medical  at- 
tention and  other  necessary  comforts  were  provided  by  the  Committee,  who 
hoped  with  himself,  that  he  would  be  restored  with  the  loss  of  his  toes  aloue. 
For  one  week  he  seemed  to  be  improving;  at  the  expiration  of  this  time,  how- 
ever, his  symptoms  changed,  indicating  not  only  the  end  of  slavery,  but  also 
the  end  of  all  his  earthly  troubles. 

Lockjaw  and  mortification  set  in  in  the  most  malignant  form,  and  for 
nearly  thirty-six  hours  the  unfortunate  victim  suffered  in  extreme  agony, 
though  not  a  murmur  escaped  him  for  having  brought  upon  himself  in 
seeking  his  liberty  this  painful  infliction  and  death.  It  was  wonderful  to  see 
how  resignedly  he  endured  his  fate. 

Being  anxious  to  get  his  testimony  relative  to  his  escape,  etc.,  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  took  his  pencil  and  expressed  to  him  his 
wishes  in  the  matter.  Amongst  other  questions,  he  was  asked:  "Do  you 
regret  having  attempted  to  escape  from  slavery?"  After  a  severe  spasm 
he  said,  as  his  friend  was  about  to  turn  to  leave  the  room,  hopeless  of  being 
gratified  in  his  purpose:  "Don't  go;  I  have  not  answered  your  question. 
I  am  glad  I  escaped  from  slavery!"  He  then  gave  his  name,  and  tried 
to  tell  the  name  of  his  master,  but  was  so  weak  he  could  not  be  under- 
stood. 

At  his  bedside,  day  and  night,  Slavery  looked  more  heinous  than  it  had 
ever  done  before.  Only  think  how  this  poor  man,  in  an  enlightened  Chris- 
tian land,  for  the  bare  hope  of  freedom,  in  a  strange  land  amongst  strangers, 
was  obliged  not  only  to  bear  the  sacrifice  of  his  wife  and  kindred,  but  also 
of  his  own  life. 

Nothing  ever  appeared  more  sad  than  seeing  him  in  a  dying  posture,  and 
instead  of  reaching  his  much  coveted  destination  in  Canada,  going  to  that 
"  bourne  whence  no  traveler  returns."  Of  course  it  was  expedient,  even  after 
his  death,  that  only  a  few  friends  should  follow  him  to  his  grave.  Never- 
theless, he  was  decently  buried  in  the  beautiful  Lebanon  Cemetery. 

In  his  purse  was  found  one  single  five  cent  piece,  his  whole  pecuniary 
dependence. 

This  was  the  first  instance  of  death  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  in 
this  region. 

The  Committee  were  indebted  to  the  medical  services  of  the  well-known 
friends  of  the  fugitive,  Drs.  J.  L.  Griscom  and  H.  T.  Childs,  whose  faithful 
services  were  freely  given ;  and  likewise  to  Mrs.  H.  S.  Duterte  and  Mrs. 
Williams,  who  generously  performed  the  offices  of  charity  and  friendship  at 
his  burial. 

From  his  companion,  who  passed  on  Canada-ward  without  delay,  we  re- 


54  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD 

ceived  a  letter,  from  which,  as  an  item  of  interest,  we  make  the  following 
extract : 

"  I  am  enjoying  good  health,  and  hope  when  this  reaches  you,  you  may  be  enjoying  the 

same  blessing.     Give  my  love  to  Mr. ,  and  family,  and  tell  them  I  am  in  a  land 

of  liberty !    I  am  a  man  among  men  I"   (The  above  was  addressed  to  the  deceased.) 

The  subjoined  letter,  from  Rev.  L.  D.  Mansfield,  expressed  on  behalf  of 
Romulus'  companion,  his  sad  feelings  on  hearing  of  his  friend's  death. 
And  here  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  add,  that  clearly  enough  is  it  to 
be  seen,  that  Rev.  Mansfield  was  one  of  the  rare  order  of  ministers,  who 
believed  it  right  "to  do  unto  others  as  one  would  be  done  by"  in  practice, 
not  in  theory  merely,  and  who  felt  that  they  could  no  more  be  excused  for 
"falling  down,"  in  obedience  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  under  President 
Fill  more,  than  could  Daniel  for  worshiping  the  "golden  image"  under 

Nebuchadnezzar. 

AUBURN,  NEW  YORK,  MAY  4iH,  1857. 

DEAR  Ba.  STILL  : — Henry  Lemmon  wishes  me  to  write  to  you  in  reply  to  your  kind 
letter,  conveying  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of  your  fugitive  guest,  Geo.  Weems.  He 
was  deeply  affected  at  the  intelligence,  for  he  was  most  devotedly  attached  to  him  and  had 
been  for  many  years.  Mr.  Lemmon  now  expects  his  sister  to  come  on,  and  wishes  you 
to  aid  her  in  any  way  in  your  power — as  he  knows  you  will. 

He  wishes  you  to  send  the  coat  and  cap  of  Weems  by  his  sister  when  she  comes.  And 
when  you  write  out  the  history  of  Weems'  escape,  and  it  is  published,  that  you  would 
send  him  a  copy  of  the  papers.  He  has  not  been  very  successful  in  getting  work  yet. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harris  left  for  Canada  last  week.  Ths  friends  made  them  a  purse  of  $15 
or  $20,  and  we  hope  they  will  do  well. 

Mr.  Lemraon  sends  his  respects  to  you  and  Mrs.  Still.  Give  my  kind  regards  to  her 
and  accept  also  yourself,  Yours  very  truly,  L.  D.  MANSFIELD. 


JAMES  MERCER,  WM.  H.  GILLIAM,  AND  JOHN  CLAYTON. 

STOWED  AWAY   IN   A   HOT   BERTH. 

This  arrival  came  by  Steamer.  But  they  neither  came  in  State-room  nor 
as  Cabin,  Steerage,  or  Deck  passengers. 

A  certain  space,  not  far  from  the  boiler,  where  the  heat  and  coal  dust 
were  almost  intolerable, — the  colored  steward  on  the  boat  in  answer  to  an 
appeal  from  these  unhappy  bondmen,  could  point  to  no  other  place  for 
concealment  but  this.  Nor  was  he  at  all  certain  that  they  could  endure 
the  intense  heat  of  that  place.  It  admitted  of  no  other  posture  than  lying 
flat  down,  wholly  shut  out  from  the  light,  and  nearly  in  the  same  predica- 
ment in  regard  to  the  air.  Here,  however,  was  a  chance  of  throwing  off 
the  yoke,  even  if  it  cost  them  their  lives.  They  considered  and  resolved  to 
try  it  at  all  hazards. 

Henry  Box  Brown's  sufferings  were  nothing,  compared  to  what  these  men 
submitted  to  during  the  entire  journey. 


STO  WED  A  WA  Y  IN  A  HOT  BERTH.  55 

They  reached  the  house  of  one  of  the  Committee  about  three  o'clock, 
A.M. 

All  the  way  from  the  wharf  the  cold  rain  poured  down  in  torrents  and 
they  got  completely  drenched,  but  their  hearts  were  swelling  with  joy  and 
gladness  unutterable.  From  the  thick  coating  of  coal  dust,  and  the  effect 
of  the  rain  added  thereto,  all  traces  of  natural  appearance  were  entirely 
obliterated,  and  they  looked  frightful  in  the  extreme.  But  they  had  placed 
their  lives  in  mortal  peril  for  freedom. 

Every  step  of  their  critical  journey  was  reviewed  and  commented  on, 
with  matchless  natural  eloquence, — how,  when  almost  on  the  eve  of  suffoca- 
ting in  their  warm  berths,  in  order  to  catch  a  breath  of  air,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  crawl,  one  at  a  time,  to  a  small  aperture ;  but  scarcely  would  one 
poor  fellow  pass  three  minutes  being  thus  refreshed,  ere  the  others  would 
insist  that  he  should  "go  back  to  his  hole."  Air  was  precious,  but  for  the 
time  being  they  valued  their  liberty  at  still  greater  price. 

After  they  had  talked  to  their  hearts'  content,  and  after  they  had  been 
thoroughly  cleansed  and  changed  in  apparel,  their  physical  appearance  could 
be  easily  discerned,  which  made  it  less  a  wonder  whence  such  outbursts  of 
eloquence  had  emanated.  They  bore  every  mark  of  determined  manhood. 

The  date  of  this  arrival  was  February  26,  1854,  and  the  following 
description  was  then  recorded — 

Arrived,  by  Steamer  Pennsylvania,  James  Mercer,  William  H.  Gilliam 
and  John  Clayton,  from  Richmond. 

James  was  owned  by  the  widow,  Mrs.  T.  E.  White.  He  is  thirty-two 
years  of  age,  of  dark  complexion,  well  made,  good-looking,  reads  and 
writes,  is  very  fluent  in  speech,  and  remarkably  intelligent.  From  a  boy, 
he  had  been  hired  out.  The  last  place  he  had  the  honor  to  fill  before 
escaping,  was  with  Messrs.  Williams  and  Brother,  wholesale  commission 
merchants.  For  his  services  in  this  store  the  widow  had  been  drawing  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  per  annum,  clear  of  all  expenses. 

He  did  not  complain  of  bad  treatment  from  his  mistress,  indeed,  he  spoke 
rather  favorably  of  her.  But  he  could  not  close  his  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  at 
one  time  Mrs.  White  had  been  in  possession  of  thirty  head  of  slaves,  although 
at  the  time  he  was  counting  the  cost  of  escaping,  two  only  remained — him- 
self and  William,  (save  a  little  boy)  and  on  himself  a  mortgage  for  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  was  then  resting.  He  could,  therefore,  with  his 
remarkably  quick  intellect,  calculate  about  how  long  it  would  be  before  he 
reached  the  auction  block. 

He  had  a  wife  but  no  child.  She  was  owned  by  Mr.  Henry  W.  Quarles. 
So  out  of  that  Sodom  he  felt  he  would  have  to  escape,  even  at  the  cost  of 
leaving  his  wife  behind.  Of  course  he  felt  hopeful  that  the  way  would  open 
by  which  she  could  escape  at  a  future  time,  and  so  it  did,  as  will  appear  by 
and  by.  Hie  aged  mother  he  had  to  leave  also. 


56  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Wm.  Henry  Gilliam  likewise  belonged  to  the  Widow  White,  and  he  had 
been  hired  to  Messrs.  White  and  Brother  to  drive  their  bread  wagon. 
William  was  a  baker  by  trade.  For  his  services  his  mistress  had  received  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars  per  year.  He  thought  his  mistress  quite  as 
good,  if  not  a  little  better  than  most  slave-holders.  But  he  had  never  felt 
persuaded  to  believe  that  she  was  good  enough  for  him  to  remain  a  slave 
for  her  support. 

Indeed,  he  had  made  several  unsuccessful  attempts  before  this  time  to 
escape  from  slavery  and  its  horrors.  He  was  fully  posted  from  A  to  Z,  but 
in  his  own  person  he  had  been  smart  enough  to  escape  most  of  the  more 
brutal  outrages.  He  knew  how  to  read  and  write,  and  in  readiness  of 
speech  and  general  natural  ability  was  far  above  the  average  of  slaves. 

He  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  well  made,  of  light  complexion,  and 
might  be  put  down  as  a  valuable  piece  of  property. 

This  loss  fell  with  crushing  weight  upon  the  kind-hearted  mistress,  as 
will  be  seen  in  a  letter  subjoined  which  she  wrote  to  the  unfaithful  William, 
spme  time  after  he  had  fled. 

LETTER   FROM   MRS.    L.    E.    WHITE. 

RICHMOND,  16th,  1854. 

DEAR  HENRY  : — Your  mother  and  myself  received  your  letter;  she  is  much  distressed 
at  your  conduct ;  she  is  remaining  just  as  you  left  her,  she  says,  and  she  will  never  be 
reconciled  to  your  conduct. 

I  think  Henry,  you  have  acted  most  dishonorably ;  had  you  have  made  a  confidant  of 
me  I  would  have  been  better  off;  and  you  as  you  are.  I  am  badly  situated,  living  with 
Mrs.  Palmer,  and  having  to  put  up  with  everything — your  mother  is  also  dissatisfied — I 
am  miserably  poor,  do  not  get  a  cent  of  your  hire  or  James',  besides  losing  you  both,  but 
if  you  can  reconcile  so  do.  By  renting  a  cheap  house,  I  might  have  lived,  now  it  seems 
starvation  is  before  me.  Martha  and  the  Doctor  are  living  in  Portsmouth,  it  is  not  in  her 
power  to  do  much  for  me.  I  know  you  will  repent  it.  I  heard  six  weeks  before  you 
went,  that  you  were  trying  to  persuade  him  off — but  we  all  liked  you,  and  I  was  un- 
willing to  believe  it — however,  I  leave  it  in  God's  hands  He- will  know  what  to  do.  Your 
mother  says  that  I  must  tell  you  servant  Jones  is  dead  and  old  Mrs.  Gait.  Kit  is  well, 
but  we  are  very  uneasy,  losing  your  and  James"  hire,  I  fear  poor  little  fellow,  that  he 
will  be  obliged  to  go,  as  I  am  compelled  to  live,  and  it  will  be  your  fault.  I  am  quite 
unwell,  but  of  course,  you  don't  care.  Yours,  L.  E.  WHITE. 

Jf  you  choose  to  come  back  you  could.  I  would  do  a  very  good  part  by  you,  Toler  and 
Cooke  has  none. 

This  touching  epistle  was  given  by  the  disobedient  William  to  a  member 
of  the  Vigilant  Committee,  when  on  a  visit  to  Canada,  in  1855,  and  it  was 
thought  to  be  of  too  much  value  to  be  lost.  It  was  put  away  with 
other  valuable  U.  G.  R.  R.  documents  for  future  reference.  Touching 
the  "  rascality  "  of  William  and  James  and  the  unfortunate  predicament  in 
which  it  placed  the  kind-hearted  widow,  Mrs.  Louisa  White,  the  following 
editorial  clipped  from  the  wide-awake  Richmond  Despatch,  was  also  highly 


STOWED  AWAY  IN  A  HOT  BERTH.  57 

appreciated,  and  preserved  as  conclusive  testimony  to  the  successful  working 
of  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  in  the  Old  Dominion.     It  reads  thus — 

"  RASCALITY  SOMEWHERE. — We  called  attention  yesterday  to  the  adver- 
tisement of  two  negroes  belonging  to  Mrs.  Louisa  White,  by  Toler  &  Cook, 
and  in  the  call  we  expressed  the  opinion  that  they  were  still  lurking  about 
the  city,  preparatory  to  going  off.  Mr.  Toler,  we  find,  is  of  a  different 
opinion.  He  believes  that  they  have  already  cleared  themselves — have 
escaped  to  a  Free  State,  and  we  think  it  extremely  probable  that  he  is  in  the 
right.  They  were  both  of  them  uncommonly  intelligent  negroes.  One  of 
them,  the  one  hired  to  Mr.  White,  was  a  tip-top  baker.  He  had  been  all 
about  the  country,  and  had  been  in  the  habit  of  supplying  the  U.  S.  Penn- 
sylvania with  bread;  Mr.  W.  having  the  contract.  In  his  visits  for  this 
purpose,  of  course,  he  formed  acquaintances  with  all  sorts  of  sea-faring  cha- 
racters ;  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  has  been  assisted  to  get 
off  in  that  way,  along  with  the  other  boy,  hired  to  the  Messrs.  Williams. 
That  the  two  acted  in  concert,  can  admit  of  no  doubt.  The  question  is 
now  to  find  out  how  they  got  off.  They  must  undoubtedly  have  had  white 
men  in  the  secret.  Have  we  then  a  nest  of  Abolition  scoundrels  among  us? 
There  ought  to  be  a  law  to  put  a  police  officer  on  board  every  vessel  as  soon 
as  she  lands  at  the  wharf.  There  is  one,  we  believe  for  inspecting  vessels 
before  they  leave.  If  there  is  not  there  ought  to  be  one. 

"These  negroes  belong  to  a  widow  lady  and  constitute  all  the  property  she 
has  on  earth.  They  have  both  been  raised  with  the  greatest  indulgence. 
"Had  it  been  otherwise,  they  would  never  have  had  an  opportunity  to  escape, 
as  they  have  done.  Their  flight  has  left  her  penniless.  Either  of  them 
would  readily  have  sold  for  $1200 ;  and  Mr.  Toler  advised  their  owner  to 
sell  them  at  the  commencement  of  the  year,  probably  anticipating  the  very 
thing  that  has  happened.  She  refused  to  do  so,  because  she  felt  too  much 
attachment  to  them.  They  have  made  a  fine  return,  truly." 

No  comment  is  necessary  on  the  above  editorial  except  simply  to  ex- 
press the  hope  that  the  editor  and  his  friends  who  seemed  to  be  utterly 
befogged  as  to  how  these  "  uncommonly  intelligent  negroes  "  made  their 
escape,  will  find  the  problem  satisfactorily  solved  in  this  book. 

However,  in  order  to  do  even-handed  justice  to  all  concerned,  it  seems 
but  proper  that  William  and  James  should  be  heard  from,  and  hence  a 
letter  from  each  is  here  appended  for  what  they  are  worth.  True  they 
were  intended  only  for  private  use,  but  since  the  "  True  light "  (Freedom) 
has  come,  all  things  may  be  made  manifest. 

LETTER   FROM   WILLIAM   HENRY   GILLIAM. 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  MAY  15th,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND: — I  receaved  yours,  Dated  the  10th  and  the  papers  on  the  13th,  I 
also  saw  the  pice  that  was  in  Miss  Shadd's  paper  About  me.  I  think  Tolar  is  right 


68  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

About  my  being  in  A  free  State,  I  am  and  think  A  great  del  of  it.  Also  I  have  no  com- 
passion on  the  penniless  widow  lady,  I  have  Served  her  25  yers  2  months,  I  think  that  is 
long  Enough  for  me  to  live  A  Slave.  Dear  Sir,  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  of  the  Accadent 
that  happened  to  our  Friend  Mr.  Meakins,  I  have  read  the  letter  to  all  that  lives  in  St. 
Catharines,  that  came  from  old  Virginia,  and  then  I  Sented  to  Toronto  to  Mercer  & 
Clayton  to  see,  and  to  Farman  to  read  fur  themselves.  Sir,  you  must  write  to  me  soon 
and  let  me  know  how  Meakins  gets  on  with  his  tryal,  and  you  must  pray  for  him,  I 
have  told  all  here  to  do  the  same  for  him.  May  God  bless  and  protect  him  from  prison, 
I  have  heard  A  great  del  of  old  Richmond  and  Norfolk.  Dear  Sir,  if  you  see  Mr.  or  Mrs. 
Gilbert  Give  my  love  to  them  aod  tell  them  to  write  to  me,  also  give  my  respect  to  your 
Family  and  A  part  for  yourself,  love  from  the  friends  to  you  Soloman  Brown,  H.  Atkins, 
Was.  Johnson,  Mrs  Brooks,  Mr.  Dykes.  Mr.  Smith  is  better  at  presant.  And  do  not 
forget  to  write  the  News  of  Meakin's  tryal.  I  cannot  say  any  more  at  this  time ;  but 
remain  yours  and  A  true  Friend  ontell  Death.  W.  H.  GILLIAM,  the  widow's  Mite. 

"  Our  friend  Minkins,"  in  whose  behalf  William  asks  the  united  prayers 
of  his  friends,  was  one  of  the  "  scoundrels  "  who  assisted  him  and  his  two 
companions  to  escape  on  the  steamer.  Being  suspected  of  "  rascality  "  in 
this  direction,  he  was  arrested  and  put  in  jail,  but  as  no  evidence  could  be 
found  against  him  he  was  soon  released. 

JAMES  MERCER'S  LETTER. 

TORONTO,  MARCH  17th,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  STILL  : — I  take  this  method  of  informing  you  that  I  am  well,  and 
when  this  comes  to  hand  it  may  find  you  and  your  family  enjoying  good  health.  Sir,  my 
particular  for  writing  is  that  I  wish  to  hear  from  you,  and  to  hear  all  the  news  from  down 
South.  I  wish  to  know  if  all  things  are  working  Right  for  the  Rest  of  my  Brotheran 
whom  in  bondage.  I  will  also  Say  that  I  am  very  much  please  with  Toronto,  So  also  the 
friends  that  came  over  with.  It  is  true  that  we  have  not  been  Employed  as  yet ;  but 
we  are  in  hopes  of  be'en  so  in  a  few  days.  We  happen  here  in  good  time  jest  about  time 
the  people  in  this  country  are  going  work.  I  am  in  good  health  and  good  Spirits,  and 
feeles  Rejoiced  in  the  Lord  for  my  liberty.  I  Received  cople  of  paper  from  you  to-day. 
I  wish  you  see  James  Morris  whom  or  Abram  George  the  first  and  second  on  the  Ship 
Penn.,  give  my  respects  to  them,  and  ask  James  if  he  will  call  at  Henry  W.  Quarles  pn 
May  street  oppisit  the  Jews  synagogue  and  call  for  Marena  Mercer,  give  my  love  to  her 
ask  her  of  all  the  times  about  Richmond,  tell  her  to  Send  me  all  the  news.  Tell  Mr. 
Morris  that  there  will  be  no  danger  in  going  to  that  place.  You  will  also  tell  M.  to 
make  himself  known  to  her  as  she  may  know  who  sent  him.  And  I  wish  to  get  a  letter 
from  you.  JAMES  M.  MERCER. 

JOHN   H.    HILL'S   LETTER. 

MY  FRIEND,  I  would  like  to  hear  from  you,  I  have  been  looking  for  a  letter  from  you 
for  Several  days  as  the  last  was  very  interesting  to  me,  please  to  write  Right  away. 

Yours  most  Respectfully,  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

Instead  of  weeping  over  the  sad  situation  of  his  "  penniless  "  mistress  and 
showing  any  signs  of  contrition  for  having  wronged  the  man  who  held  the 
mortgage  of  seven  -hundred  and  fifty  dollars  on  him,  James  actually  "  feels 
rejoiced  in  the  Lord  for  his  liberty,"  and  is  "  very  much  pleased  with 


STO WED  AWAY  IN  A  HOT  BERTH.  59 

Toronto ; "  but  is  not  satisfied  yet,  he  is  even  concocting  a  plan  by  which 
his  wife  might  be  run  off  from  Richmond,  which  would  be  the  cause  of  her 
owner  (Henry  W.  Quarles,  Esq.)  losing  at  least  one  thousand  dollars. 

ST.  CATHARINE,  CANADA,  JUNE  8th,  1854. 

MB.  STILL,  DEAR  FRIEND:— I  received  a  letter  from  the  poor  old  widow,  Mrs.  L.  E. 
White,  and  she  says  I  may  come  back  if  I  choose  and  she  will  do  a  good  part  by  me. 
Yes,  yes  I  am  choosing  the  western  side  of  the  South  for  my  home.  She  is  smart,  but 
cannot  bung  my  eye,  so  she  shall  have  to  die  in  the  poor  house  at  last,  so  she  says,  and 
Mercer  and  myself  will  be  the  cause  of  it.  That  is  all  right.  I  am  getting  even  with  her 
now  for  I  was  in  the  poor  house  for  twenty-five  years  and  have  just  got  out.  And  she 
said  she  knew  I  was  coming  away  six  weeks  before  I  started,  so  you  may  know  my 
chance  was  slim.  But  Mr.  John  Wright  said  I  came  off  like  a  gentleman  and  he  did  not 
blame  me  for  coming  for  I  was  a  great  boy.  Yes  I  here  him  enough  he  is  all  gas.  I  am 
in  Canada,  and  they  cannot  help  themselves. 

About  that  subject  I  will  not  say  anything  more.  You  must  write  to  me  as  soon  as 
you  can  and  let  me  here  the  news  and  how  the  Family  is  and  yourself.  Let  me  know 
how  the  times  is  with  the  U  G.  R.  R.  Co.  Is  it  doing  good  business  ?  Mr.  Dykes  sends 
his  respects  to  you.  Give  mine  to  your  family.  Your  true  friend,  W.  H.  GILLIAM. 

John  Clayton,  the  companion  in  tribulation  of  William  and  James,  must 
not  be  lost  sight  of  any  longer.  He  was  owned  by  the  Widow  Clayton,  and 
was  white  enough  to  have  been  nearly  related  to  her,  being  a  mulatto.  He 
was  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  a  man  of  fine  appearance,  and  quite  intel- 
ligent. Several  years  previous  he  had  made  an  attempt  to  escape,  but  failed. 
Prior  to  escaping  in  this  instance,  he  had  been  laboring  in  a  tobacco  factory 
at  $150  a  year.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  did  not  approve  of  the  "  pecu- 
liar institution."  He  left  a  wife  and  one  child  behind  to  mourn  after  him. 
Of  his  views  of  Canada  and  Freedom,  the  following  frank  and  sensible  let- 
ter, penned  shortly  after  his  arrival,  speaks  for  itself — 

TORONTO,  March  6th,  1854. 

DEAR  MR.  STILL  : — I  take  this  method  of  informing  you  that  I  am  well  both  in  health 
and  mind  You  may  rest  assured  that  I  fells  myself  a  free  man  and  do  not  fell  as  I  did 
when  I  was  in  Virginia  thanks  be  to  God  I  have  no  master  into  Canada  but  I  am  my  own 
man.  I  arrived  safe  into  Canada  on  friday  last.  I  must  request  of  you  to  write  a  few 
lines  to  my  wife  and  jest  state  to  her  that  her  friend  arrived  safe  into  this  glorious  land  of 
liberty  and  I  am  well  and  she  will  make  very  short  her  time  in  Virginia,  tell  her  that  I 
likes  here  very  well  and  hopes  to  like  it  better  when  I  gets  to  work  I  don't  meane  for  you 
to  write  the  same  words  that  are  written  above  but  I  wish  you  give  her  a  clear  under- 
standing where  I  am  and  Shall  Remain  here  untel  She  comes  or  I  hears  from  her. 

Nothing  more  at  present  but  remain  yours  most  respectfully,          JOHN  CLAYTON. 

You  will  please  to  direct  the  to  Petersburg  Luenena  Johns  or  Clayton  John  is  best. 


60  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

CLARISSA  DAVIS. 

ARRIVED  DRESSED    IN  MALE  ATTIRE. 

Clarissa  fled  from  Portsmouth,  Va.,  in  May,  1854,  with  two  of  her 
brothers.  Two  months  and  a  half  before  she  succeeded  in  getting  off,  Cla- 
rissa had  made  a  desperate  effort,  but  failed.  The  brothers  succeeded,  but 
she  was  left.  She  had  not  given  up  all  hope  of  escape,  however,  and  there- 
fore sought  "  a  safe  hiding-place  until  an  opportunity  might  offer,"  by 
which  she  could  follow  her  brothers  on  the  U.  G.  E-.  R.  Clarissa  was 
owned  by  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mrs.  Burkley,  of  Portsmouth,  under  whom  she 
had  always  served. 

Of  them  she  spoke  favorably,  saying  that  she  "  had  not  been  used  as  hard 
as  many  others  were."  At  this  period,  Clarissa  was  about  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  of  a  bright  brown  complexion,  with  handsome  features,  exceedingly 
respectful  and  modest,  and  possessed  all  the  characteristics  of  a  well-bred 
young  lady.  For  one  so  little  acquainted  with  books  as  she  was,  the  cor- 
rectness of  her  speech  was  perfectly  astonishing. 

For  Clarissa  and  her  two  brothers  a  "reward  of  one  thousand  dollars" 
was  kept  standing  in  the  papers  for  a  length  of  time,  as  these  (articles)  were 
considered  very  rare  and  valuable;  the  best  that  could  be  produced  in  Vir- 
ginia. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  brothers  had  passed  safely  on  to  New  Bedford,  but 
Clarissa  remained  secluded,  "  waiting  for  the  storm  to  subside."  Keeping 
up  courage  day  by  day,  for  seventy-five  days,  with  the  fear  of  being  detected 
and  severely  punished,  and  then  sold,  after  all  her  hopes  and  struggles,  re- 
quired the  faith  of  a  martyr.  Time  after  time,  when  she  hoped  to  succeed 
in  making  her  escape,  ill  luck  seemed  to  disappoint  her,  and  nothing  but 
intense  suffering  appeared  to  be  in  store.  Like  many  others,  under  the 
crushing  weight  of  oppression,  she  thought  she  "should  have  to  die"  ere 
she  tasted  liberty.  In  this  state  of  mind,  one  day,  word  was  conveyed  to 
her  that  the  steamship,  City  of  Richmond,  had  arrived  from  Philadelphia, 
and  that  the  steward  on  board  (with  whom  she  was  acquainted),  had  con- 
sented to  secrete  her  this  trip,  if  she  could  manage  to  reach  the  ship  safely, 
which  was  to  start  the  next  day.  This  news  to  Clarissa  was  both  cheering 
and  painful.  She  had  been  "praying  all  the  time  while  waiting,"  but  now 
ehe  felt  "that  if  it  would  only  rain  right  hard  the  next  morning  about  three 
t)'clock,  to  drive  the  police  officers  off  the  street,  then  she  could  safely  make 
her  way  to  the  boat."  Therefore  she  prayed  anxiously  all  that  day  that  it 
would  rain,  "  but  no  sign  of  rain  appeared  till  towards  midnight."  The 
prospect  looked  horribly  discouraging;  but  she  prayed  on,  and  at  the 
appointed  hour  (three  o'clock — before  day),  the  rain  descended  in  torrents. 
Dressed  in  male  attire,  Clarissa  left  the  miserable  coop  where  she  had  been 
almost  without  light  or  air  for  two  and  a  half  months,  and  unmolested, 


ANTHONY  BLOW.  61 

reached  the  boat  safely,  and  was  secreted  in  a  box  by  Wm.  Bagnal,  a  clever 
young  man  who  sincerely  sympathized  with  the  slave,  having  a  wife  in 
slavery  himself;  and  by  him  she  was  safely  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee. 

Clarissa  Davis  here,  by  advice  of  the  Committee,  dropped  her  old  name, 
and  was  straightway  christened  "Mary  D.  Armstead."  Desiring  to  join  her 
brothers  and  sister  in  New  Bedford,  she  was  duly  furnished  with  her  U.  G. 
R.  R.  passport  and  directed  thitherward.  Her  father,  who  was  left  behind 
when  she  got  off,  soon  after  made  his  way  on  North,  and  joined  his  children. 
He  was  too  old  and  infirm  probably  to  be  worth  anything,  and  had  been  al- 
lowed to  go  free,  or  to  purchase  himself  for  a  mere  nominal  sum.  Slave- 
holders would,  on  some  such  occasions,  show  wonderful  liberality  in  letting 
their  old  slaves  go  free,  when  they  could  work  no  more.  After  reaching 
New  Bedford,  Clarissa  manifested  her  gratitude  in  writing  to  her  friends  in 
Philadelphia  repeatedly,  and  evinced  a  very  lively  interest  in  the  U.  G.  R.  R. 
The  appended  letter  indicates  her  sincere  feelings  of  gratitude  and  deep 
interest  in  the  cause — 

NEW  BEDFORD,  August  26,  1855. 

MR.  STILL:— I  avail  my  self  to  write  you  thes  few  lines  hopeing  they  may  find  you  and 
your  family  well  as  they  leaves  me  very  well  and  ill  the  family  well  except  my  father  he 
seams  to  be  improveing  with  his  shoulder  he  has  been  able  to  work  a  little  I  received 
the  papers  I  was  highly  delighted  to  receive  them  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you 
in  the  wheler  case  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  that  the  persons  ware  safe  I  was  very  sory 
to  hear  that  mr  Williamson  was  put  in  prison  but  I  know  if  the  praying  part  of  the 
people  will  pray  for  him  and  if  he  will  put  his  trust  in  the  lord  he  will  bring  him  out 
more  than  conquer  please  remember  my  Dear  old  farther  and  sisters  and  brothers  to  your 
family  kiss  the  children  for  me  I  hear  that  the  yellow  fever  is  very  bad  down  south  now 
if  the  underground  railroad  could  have  free  course  the  emergrant  would  cross  the  river  of 
gordan  rapidly  I  hope  it  may  continue  to  run  and  I  hope  the  wheels  of  the  car  may  be 
greesed  with  more  substantial  greese  so  they  may  run  over  swiftly  I  would  have  wrote 
before  but  circumstances  would  not  permit  me  Miss  Sanders  and  all  the  friends  desired 
to  be  remembered  to  you  and  your  family  I  shall  be  pleased  to  hear  from  the  under- 
ground rail  road  often  Yours  respectfully,  MARY  D.  ARMSTEAD. 


ANTHONY  BLOW,  ALIAS  HENRY  LEVISON. 

SECRETED  TEN    MONTHS  BEFORE  STARTING — EIGHT  DAYS  STOWED  AWAY  ON  A 
STEAMER   BOUND   FOR   PHILADELPHIA. 

Arrived  from  Norfolk,  about  the  1st  of  November,  1854.  Ten  months 
before  starting,  Anthony  had  been  closely  concealed.  He  belonged  to  the 
estate  of  Mrs.  Peters,  a  widow,  who  had  been  dead  about  one  year  before  his 
concealment. 

On  the  settlement  of  his  old  mistress'  estate,  which  was  to  take  place  one 
year  after  her  death,  Anthony  was  to  be  transferred  to  Mrs.  Lewis,  a  daugh- 


62  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ter  of  Mrs.  Peters  (the  wife  of  James  Lewis,  Esq.).  Anthony  felt  well 
satisfied  that  he  was  not  the  slave  to  please  the  "  tyrannical  whims  "  of  his 
anticipated  master,  young  Lewis,  and  of  course  he  hated  the  idea  of  having 
to  come  under  his  yoke.  And  what  made  it  still  more  unpleasant  for 
Anthony  was  that  Mr.  Lewis  would  frequently  remind  him  that  it  was 
his  intention  to  "sell  him  as  soon  as  he  got  possession — the  first  day  of 
January."  "  I  can  get  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  you  easily,  and  I  will  do 
it."  This  contemptuous  threat  had  caused  Anthony's  blood  to  boil  time  and 
again.  But  Anthony  had  to  take  the  matter  as  calmly  as  possible,  which, 
however,  he  was  not  always  able  to  do. 

At  any  rate,  Anthony  concluded  that  his  "  young  master  had  counted  the 
chickens  before  they  were  hatched."  Indeed  here  Anthony  began  to  be  a 
deep  thinker.  He  thought,  for  instance,  that  he  had  already  been  shot 
three  times,  at  the  instance  of  slave-holders.  The  first  time  he  was  shot 
was  for  refusing  a  flogging  when  only  eighteen  years  of  age.  The  second 
time,  he  was  shot  in  the  head  with  squirrel  shot  by  the  sheriff,  who  was 
attempting  to  arrest  him  for  having  resisted  three  "  young  white  ruffians," 
who  wished  to  have  the  pleasure  of  beating  him,  but  got  beaten  themselves. 
And  in  addition  to  being  shot  this  time,  Anthony  was  still  further  "broke 
in  "  by  a  terrible  flogging  from  the  Sheriff.  The  third  time  Anthony  was 
shot  he  was  about  twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  this  instance  he  was  punished 
for  his  old  offence — he  "  would  not  be  whipped." 

This  time  his  injury  from  being  shot  was  light,  compared  with  the  two 
preceding  attacks.  Also  in  connection  with  these  murderous  conflicts,  he 
could  not  forget  that  he  had  been  sold  on  the  auction  block.  But  he  had 
still  deeper  thinking  to  do  yet.  He  determined  that  his  young  master 
should  never  get  "fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  him  on  the  1st  of  January," 
unless  he  got  them  while  he  (Anthony)  was  running.  For  Anthony  had 
fully  made  up  his  mind  that  when  the  last  day  of  December  ended,  his 
bondage  should  end  also,  even  if  he  should  have  to  accept  death  as  a  substi- 
tute. He  then  began  to  think  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and  of  Canada; 
but  who  the  agents  were,  or  how  to  find  the  depot,  was  a  serious  puzzle  to 
him.  But  his  time  was  getting  so  short  he  was  convinced  that  whatever  he 
did  would  have  to  be  done  quickly.  In  this  frame  of  mind  he  found 
a  man  who  professed  to  know  something  about  the  Underground  Rail  Road, 
and  for  "  thirty  dollars  "  promised  to  aid  him  in  the  matter. 

The  thirty  dollars  were  raised  by  the  hardest  effort  and  passed  over  to  the 
pretended  friend,  with  the  expectation  that  it  would  avail  greatly  in  the 
emergency.  But  Anthony  found  himself  sold  for  thirty  dollars,  as  nothing 
was  done  for  him.  However,  the  1st  day  of  January  arrived,  but  Anthony 
was  not  to  be  found  to  answer  to  his  name  at  roll  call.  He  had  "took  out" 
very  early  in  the  morning.  Daily  he  prayed  in  his  place  of  concealment 
how  to  find  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  Ten  months  passed  away,  during  which  time 


ANTHONY  BLOW.  63 

he  suffered  almost  death,  but  persuaded  himself  to  believe  that  even  that 
was  better  than  slavery.  With  Anthony,  as  it  has  been  with  thousands  of 
others  similarly  situated,  just  as  everything  was  looking  the  most  hopeless, 
word  came  to  him  in  his  place  of  concealment  that  a  friend  named  Miukins, 
employed  on  the  steamship  City  of  Eichmond,  would  undertake  to  conceal 
him  on  the  boat,  if  he  could  be  crowded  in  a  certain  place,  which  was  about 
the  only  spot  that  would  be  perfectly  safe.  This  was  glorious  news  to 
Anthony ;  but  it  was  well  for  him  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  situation 
that  awaited  him  on  the  boat,  or  his  heart  might  have  failed  him.  He  was 
willing,  however,  to  risk  his  life  for  freedom,  and,  therefore,  went  joyfully. 

The  hiding-place  was  small  and  he  was  large.  A  sitting  attitude  was 
the  only  way  he  could  possibly  occupy  it.  He  was  contented.  This  place 
was  "  near  the  range,  directly  over  the  boiler,"  and  of  course,  was  very  warm. 
Nevertheless,  Anthony  felt  that  he  would  not  murmur,  as  he  knew  what 
suffering  was  pretty  well,  and  especially  as  he  took  it  for  granted  that  he 
would  be  free  in  about  a  day  and  a  half — the  "usual  time  it  took  the  steamer 
to  make  her  trip.  At  the  appointed  hour  the  steamer  left  Norfolk  for 
Philadelphia,  with  Anthony  sitting  flat  down  in  his  U.  G.  R.  R.  berth, 
thoughtful  and  hopeful.  But  before  the  steamer  had  made  half  her  dis- 
tance the  storm  was  tossing  the  ship  hither  and  thither  fearfully.  Head 
winds  blew  terribly,  and  for  a  number  of  days  the  elements  seemed  per- 
fectly mad.  In  addition  to  the  extraordinary  state  of  the  weather,  when 
the  storm  subsided  the  fog  took  its  place  and  held  the  mastery  of  the  ship 
with  equal  despotism  until  the  end  of  over  seven  days,  when  finally  the 
storm,  wind,  and  fog  all  disappeared,  and  on  the  eighth  day  of  her  boister- 
ous passage  the  steamship  City  of  Richmond  landed  at  the  wharf  of  Phil- 
adelphia, with  this  giant  and  hero  on  board  who  had  suffered  for  ten  months 
in  his  concealment  on  land  and  for  eight  days  on  the  ship. 

Anthony  was  of  very  powerful  physical  proportions,  being  six  feet  three 
inches  in  height,  quite  black,  very  intelligent,  and  of  a  temperament  that 
would  not  submit  to  slavery.  For  some  years  his  master,  Col.  Cunnagan,  had 
hired  him  out  in  Washington,  where  he  was  accused  of  being  in  the  schooner 
Pearl,  with  Capt.  Drayton's  memorable  "  seventy  fugitives  on  board,  bound  for 
Canada."  At  this  time  he  was  stoker  in  a  machine  shop,  and  was  at  work 
on  an  anchor  weighing  "ten  thousand  pounds."  In  the  excitement  over 
the  attempt  to  escape  in  the  Pearl,  many  were  arrested,  and  the  officers  with 
irons  visited  Anthony  at  the  machine  shop  to  arrest  him,  but  he  declined  to 
let  them  put  the  hand-cuffs  on  him,  but  consented  to  go  with  them,  if  per- 
mitted to  do  so  without  being  ironed.  The  officers  yielded,  and  Anthony 
went  willingly  to  the  jail.  Passing  unnoticed  other  interesting  conflicts  in 
his  hard  life,  suffice  it  to  say,  he  left  his  wife,  Ann,  and  three  children, 
Benjamin,  John  and  Alfred,  all  owned  by  Col.  Cunnagan.  In  this  brave- 
hearted  man,  the  Committee  felt  a  deep  interest,  and  accorded  him  their 
usual  hospitalities. 


64  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


PERRY  JOHNSON,  OF  ELKTON,  MARYLAND. 

EYE  KNOCKED  OUT,   ETC. 

Perry's  exit  was  in  November,  1853.  He  was  owned  by  Charles  John- 
son, who  lived  at  Elkton.  The  infliction  of  a  severe  "flogging"  from  the 
hand  of  his  master  awakened  Perry  to  consider  the  importance  of  the  U.  G. 
R.  R.  Perry  had  the  misfortune  to  let  a  "load  of  fodder  upset,"  about 
which  his  master  became  exasperated,  and  in  his  agitated  state  of  mind  he 
succeeded  in  affixing  a  number  of  very  ugly  stationary  marks  on  Perry's 
•back.  However,  this  was  no  new  thing.  Indeed  he  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  his  mistress  even  far  more  keenly  than  from  these  "  ugly  marks." 
He  had  but  one  eye;  the  other  he  had  been  deprived  of  by  a  terrible  stroke 
with  a  cowhide  in  the  "  hand  of  his  mistress."  This  lady  he  pronounced 
to  be  a  "  perfect  savage,"  and  added  that  "  she  was  in  the  habit  of  cowhiding 
any  of  her  slaves  whenever  she  felt  like  it,  which  was  quite  often."  Perry 
was  about  twenty-eight  years  of  age  and  a  man  of  promise.  The  Committee 
attended  to  his  wants  and  forwarded  him  on  North. 


ISAAC  FORMAN,  WILLIAM  DAVIS,  AND  WILLIS  REDICK. 

HEARTS    FULL    OF    JOY    FOR    FREEDOM — VERY    ANXIOUS    FOR  WIVES  IN  SLAVERY. 

These  passengers  all  arrived  together,  concealed,  per  steamship  City  of 
Richmond,  December,  1853.  Isaac  Forman,  the  youngest  of  the  party — 
twenty-three  years  of  age  and  a  dark  mulatto — would  be  considered  by  a 
Southerner  capable  of  judging  as  "very  likely."  He  fled  from  a  widow  by 
the  name  of  Mrs.  Sanders,  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  him  out  for 
"one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a  year."  She  belonged  in  Norfolk,  Va.; 
so  did  Isaac.  For  four  years  Isaac  had  served  in  the  capacity  of  steward 
on  the  steamship  Augusta.  He  stated  that  he  had  a  wife  living  in  Rich- 
mond, and  that  she  was  confined  the  morning  he  took  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  Of 
course  he  could  not  see  her.  The  privilege  of  living  in  Richmond  with  his 
wife  "  had  been  denied  him."  Thus,  fearing  to  render  her  unhappy,  he  was 
obliged  to  conceal  from  her  his  intention  to  escape.  "  Once  or  twice  in  the 
year  was  all  the  privilege  allowed"  him  to  visit  her.  This  only  added  "in- 
sult to  injury,"  in  Isaac's  opinion;  wherefore  he  concluded  that  he  would 
make  one  less  to  have  to  suffer  thus,  and  common  sense  said  he  was  wise  in 
the  matter.  No  particular  charges  are  found  recorded  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R. 
books  against  the  mistress.  He  went  to  Canada. 

In  the  subjoined  letters  (about  his  wife)  is  clearly  revealed  the  sincere 
gratitude  he  felt  towards  those  who  aided  him:  at  the  same  time  it  may  be 


ISAAC  FORMAN.  65 

seen  how  the  thought  of  his  wife  being  in  bondage  grieved  his  heart.  It 
would  have  required  men  with  stone  hearts  to  have  turned  deaf  ears  to 
such  appeals.  Extract  from  letter  soon  after  reaching  Canada — hopeful  and 
happy — 

EXTRACT  OF  LETTER  FROM   ISAAC  FORMAN. 

TORONTO,  Feb.  20th,  1854. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Sir — Your  kind  letter  arrived  safe  at  hand  on  the  18th,  and  I 
was  very  happy  to  receive  it.  I  now  feel  that  I  should  return  you  some  thanks  for  your 
kindness.  Dear  sir  I  do  pray  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  that  the  high  heavens  may 
bless  you  for  your  kindness ;  give  my  love  to  Mr.  Bagnel  and  Mr.  Minkins,  ask  them  if 
they  have  heard  anything  from  my  brother,  tell  Mr.  Bagnel  to  give  my  love  to  my  sister- 
in-law  and  mother  and  all  the  family.  I  am  now  living  at  Russell's  Hotel ;  it  is  the  first 
situation  1  have  had  since  I  have  been  here  and  I  like  it  very  well.  Sir  you  would  oblige 
me  by  letting  me  know  if  Mr.  Minkins  has  seen  my  wife  ;  you  will  please  let  me  know  as 
soon  as  possible.  I  wonder  if  Mr.  Minkins  has  thought  of  any  way  that  he  can  get  my 
wife  away.  I  should  like  to  know  in  a  few  days.  Your  well  wisher,  ISAAC  FORMAN. 

Another  letter  from  Isaac.  He  is  very  gloomy  and  his  heart  is  almost 
breaking  about  his  wife. 

SECOND  LETTER. 

TORONTO,  May  7,  1854. 

MR.  W.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — I  take  this  opportunity  of  writing  you  these  few  lines  and 
hope  when  they  reach  you  they  will  find  you  well.  I  would  have  written  you  before,  but 
I  was  waiting  to  hear  from  my  friend,  Mr.  Brown.  I  judge  his  business  has  been  of  im- 
portance as  the  occasion  why  he  has  not  written  before.  Dear  sir,  nothing  would  have 
prevented  me  from  writing,  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  except  death. 

My  soul  is  vexed,  my  troubles  are  inexpressible.  I  often  feel  as  if  I  were  willing  to  die. 
I  must  see  my  wife  in  short,  if  not,  I  will  die.  What  would  I  not  give  no  tongue  can 
utter.  Just  to  gaze  on  her  sweet  lips  one  moment  I  would  be  willing  to  die  the  next.  I 
am  determined  to  see  her  some  time  or  other.  The  thought  of  being  a  slave  again  is  mis- 
erable. I  hope  heaven  will  smile  upon  me  again,  before  I  am  one  again.  I  will  leave 
Canada  again  shortly,  but  I  don't  name  the  place  that  I  go,  it  may  be  in  the  bottom  of 
the  ocean.  If  I  had  known  as  much  before  I  left,  as  I  do  now,  I  would  never  have  left 
until  I  could  have  found  means  to  have  brought  her  with  me.  You  have  never  suffered 
from  being  absent  from  a  wife,  as  I  have.  I  consider  that  to  be  nearly  superior  to  death, 
and  hope  you  will  do  all  you  can  for  me,  and  inquire  from  your  friends  if  nothing  can  be 
done  for  me.  Please  write  to  me  immediately  on  receipt  of  this,  and  say  something  that 
will  cheer  up  my  drooping  spirits.  You  will  oblige  me  by  seeing  Mr.  Brown  and  ask  him 
if  he  would  oblige  me  by  going  to  Richmond  and  see  my  wife,  and  see  what  arrangements 
he  could  make  with  her,  and  I  would  be  willing  to  pay  all  his  expenses  there  and  back. 
Please  to  see  both  Mr.  Bagnel  and  Mr.  Minkins,  and  ask  them  if  they  have  seen  my  wife. 
I  am  determined  to  see  her,  if  I  die  the  next  moment.  I  can  say  I  was  once  happy,  but 
never  will  be  again,  until  I  see  her;  because  what  is  freedom  to  me,  when  I  know  that  my 
wife  is  in  slavery?  Those  persons  that  you  shipped  a  few  weeks  ago,  remained  at  St.  Cath- 
erine, instead  of  coming  over  to  Toronto.  I  sent  you  two  letters  last  week  and  I  hope 
you  will  please  attend  to  them.  The  post-office  is  shut,  so  I  enclose  the  money  to  pay 
the  post,  and  please  write  me  in  haste. 

I  remain  evermore  your  obedient  servant,  I.  FORMAN. 

5 


66  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

WILLIS  REDICK. 

He  was  owned  by  S.  J.  Wilson,  a  merchant,  living  in  Portsmouth,  Va. 
Willis  was  of  a  very  dark  hue,  thickset,  thirty-two  years  of  age,  and  possessed 
of  a  fair  share  of  mind.  The  owner  had  been  accustomed  to  hire  Willis  out 
for  "one  hundred  dollars  a  year."  Willis  thought  his  lot  "pretty  hard," 
and  his  master  rather  increased  this  notion  by  his  severity,  and  especially  bv 
"threatening"  to  sell  him.  He  had  enjoyed,  as  far  as  it  was  expected  for  a 
slave  to  do,  "five  months  of  married  life,"  but  he  loved  slavery  no  less  on 
this  account.  In  fact  he  had  just  begun  to  consider  what  it  was  to  have  a 
wife  and  children  that  he  "could  not  own  or  protect,"  and  who  were  claimed 
as  another's  property.  Consequently  he  became  quite  restive  tinder  these 
reflections  and  his  master's  ill-usage,  and  concluded  to  "  look  out,"  without 
consulting  either  the  master  or  the  young  wife. 

This  step  looked  exceedingly  hard,  but  what  else  could  the  poor  fellow 
do?  Slavery  existed  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  souls  and 
breaking  tender  hearts. 


WILLIAM  DAVIS. 

William  might  be  described  as  a  good-looking  mulatto,  thirty-one  years 
of  age,  and  capable  of  thinking  for  himself.  He  made  no  grave  complaints 
of  ill-usage  under  his  master,  "Joseph  Reynolds,"  who  lived  at  Newton, 
Portsmouth,  Va.  However,  his  owner  had  occasionally  "  threatened  to 
sell  him."  As  this  was  too  much  for  William's  sensitive  feelings,  he  took 
umbrage  at  it  and  made  a  hasty  and  hazardous  move,  which  resulted  in 
finding  himself  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  The  most  serious  regret  William  had 
to  report  to  the  Committee  was,  that  he  was  compelled  to  "  leave "  his 
"wife,"  Catharine,  and  his  little  daughter,  Louisa,  two  years  and  one  month, 
and  an  infant  son  seven  months  old.  He  evidently  loved  them  very  ten- 
derly, but  saw  no  way  by  which  he  could  aid  them,  as  long  as  he  was  daily 
liable  to  be  put  on  the  auction  block  and  sold  far  South.  This  argument 
was  regarded  by  the  Committee  as  logical  and  unanswerable  ;  consequently 
they  readily  endorsed  his  course,  while  they  deeply  sympathized  with  his 
poor  wife  and  little  ones.  "Before  escaping,"  he  "dared  not"  even  apprise 
his  wife  and  child,  whom  he  had  to  leave  behind  in  the  prison  house. 


JOSEPH  HENRY  CAMP. 

THE  AUCTION  BLOCK  IS  DEFEATED  AND  A  SLAVE  TRADER  LOSES  FOURTEEN  HUN- 
DRED DOLLARS. 

In  November,  1853,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age,  Camp  was  held  to 
"  service  or  labor  "  in  the  City  of  Richmond,  Va.,  by  Dr.  K.  Clark.     Being 


SHERIDAN  FORD.  67 

uncommonly  smart  and  quite  good-looking  at  the  same  time,  he  was  a 
saleable  piece  of  merchandise.  Without  consulting  his  view  of  the  matter 
or  making  the  least  intimation  of  any  change,  the  master  one  day  struck  up 
a  bargain  with  a  trader  for  Joseph,  and  received  Fourteen  Hundred  Dollars 
cash  in  consideration  thereof.  Mr.  Eobert  Parrett,  of  Parson  &  King's 
Express  office,  happened  to  have  a  knowledge  of  what  had  transpired,  and 
thinking  pretty  well  of  Joseph,  confidentially  put  him  in  full  possession  of . 
all  the  facts  in  the  case.  For  reflection  he  hardly  had  five  minutes.  But  he 
at  once  resolved  to  strike  that  day  for  freedom — not  to  go  home  that  evening 
to  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  his  new  master.  In  putting  into  execution 
his  bold  resolve,  he  secreted  himself,  and  so  remained  for  three  weeks.  In 
the  meantime  his  mother,  who  was  a  slave,  resolved  to  escape  also,  but 
after  one  week's  gloomy  foreboding,  she  became  "  faint-hearted  and  gave 
the  struggle  over."  But  Joseph  did  not  know  what  surrender  meant.  His 
sole  thought  was  to  procure  a  ticket  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  for  Canada,  which  by 
persistent  effort  he  succeeded  in  doing.  He  hid  himself  in  a  steamer,  and  by 
this  way  reached  Philadelphia,  where  he  received  every  accommodation  at  the 
usual  depot,  was  provided  with  a  free  ticket,  and  sent  off  rejoicing  for  Canada. 
The  unfortunate  mother  was  "detected  and  sold  South." 


SHERIDAN  FORD. 

SECRETED  IN  THE  WOODS — ESCAPES  IN  A  STEAMER. 

About  the  twenty-ninth  of  January,  1855,  Sheridan  arrived  from  the  Old 
Dominion  and  a  life  of  bondage,  and  was  welcomed  cordially  by  the  Vigi- 
lance Committee.  Miss  Elizabeth  Brown  of  Portsmouth,  Va.  claimed 
Sheridan  as  her  property.  He  spoke  rather  kindly  of  her,  and  felt  that  he 
"  had  not  been  used  very  hard "  as  a  general  thing,  although,  he  wisely 
added,  "  the  best  usage  was  bad  enough."  Sheridan  had  nearly  reached  his 
twenty-eighth  year,  was  tall  and  well  made,  and  possessed  of  a  considerable 
share  of  intelligence. 

Not  a  great  while  before  making  up  his  mind  to  escape,  for  some  trifling 
offence  he  had  been  "stretched  up  with  a  rope  by  his  hands,"  and  "whipped 
unmercifully."  In  addition  to  this  he  had  "got  wind  of  the  fact,"  that  he 
was  to  be  auctioneered  off;  soon  these  things  brought  serious  reflections  to 
Sheridan's  mind,  and  among  other  questions,  he  began  to  ponder  how  he 
could  get  a  ticket  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.,  and  get  out  of  this  "place  of  torment," 
to  where  he  might  have  the  benefit  of  his  own  labor.  In  this  state  of  mind, 
about  the  fourteenth  day  of  November,  he  took  his  first  and  daring  step. 
He  went  not,  however,  to  learned  lawyers  or  able  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
in  his  distress  and  trouble,  but  wended  his  way  "directly  to  the  woods," 
where  he  felt  that  he  would  be  safer  with  the  wild  animals  nnd  reptiles,  in 
solitude,  than  with  the  barbarous  civilization  that  existed  in  Portsmouth. 


68  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

The  first  day  in  the  woods  he  passed  in  prayer  incessantly,  all  alone.  In 
this  particular  place  of  seclusion  he  remained  "  four  days  and  nights  "  "  two 
days  suffered  severely  from  hunger,  cold  and  thirst."  However,  one  who 
was  a  "  friend  "  to  him,  and  knew  of  his  whereabouts,  managed  to  get  some 
food  to  him  and  consoling  words ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  four  days  this 
friend  got  into  some  difficulty  and  thus  Sheridan  was  left  to  "  wade  through 
deep  waters  and  head  winds  "  in  an  almost  hopeless  state.  There  he  could 
not  consent  to  stay  and  starve  to  death.  Accordingly  he  left  and  found  another 
place  of  seclusion— with  a  friend  in  the  town— for  a  pecuniary  consideration. 
A  secret  passage  was  procured  for  him  on  one  of  the  steamers  running 
between  Philadelphia  and  Richmond,  Va.  When  he  left  his  poor  wife^ 
Julia,  she  was  then  "  lying  in  prison  to  be  sold,"  on  the  simple  charge  of 
having  been  suspected  of  conniving  at  her  husband's  escape.  As  a  woman 
she  had  known  something  of  the  "  barbarism  of  slavery,"  from  every-day 
experience,  which  the  large  scars  about  her  head  indicated— according  to 
Sheridan's  testimony.  She  was  the  mother  of  two  children,  but  had  never 
.been  allowed  to  have  the  care  of  either  of  them.  The  husband,  utterly 
powerless  to  offer  her  the  least  sympathy  in  word  or  deed,  left  this  dark 
habitation  of  cruelty,  as  above  referred  to,  with  no  hope  of  ever  seeing  wife 
or  child  again  in  this  world. 

The  Committee  afforded  him  the  usual  aid  and  comfort,  and  passed  him 
on  to  the  next  station,  with  his  face  set  towards  Boston.  He  had  heard  the 
slaveholders  "  curse  "  Boston  so  much,  that  he  concluded  it  must  be  a  pretty 
safe  place  for  the  fugitive. 


JOSEPH  KNEELAND,  ALIAS  JOSEPH  HULSON. 

Joseph  Kneeland  arrived  November  25,  1853.  He  was  a  prepossessing 
man  of  twenty-six,  dark  complexion,  and  intelligent.  At  the  time  of 
Joseph's  escape,  he  was  owned  by  Jacob  Kneeland,  who  had  fallen  heir  to 
him  as  a  part  of  his  father's  estate.  Joseph  spoke  of  his  old  master  as 
having  treated  him  "  pretty  well,"  but  he  had  an  idea  that  his  young  master 
had  a  very  "malignant  spirit;"  for  even  before  the  death  of  his  old  master, 
the  heir  wanted  him,  "  Joe,"  sold,  and  after  the  old  man  died,  matters 
appeared  to  be  coming  to  a  crisis  very  fast.  Even  as  early  as  November, 
the  young  despot  had  distinctly  given  "Joe"  to  understand,  that  he  was  not 
to  be  hired  out  another  year,  intimating  that  he  was  to  "  go  somewhere," 
but  as  to  particulars,  it  was  time  enough  for  Joe  to  know  them. 

Of  course  "  Joe "  looked  at  his  master  "  right  good "  and  saw  right 
through  him,  and  at  the  same  time,  saw  the  U.  G.  R.  R.,  "  darkly."  Daily 
slavery  grew  awfully  mean,  but  on  the  other  hand,  Canada  was  looked  upon 
as  a  very  desirable  country  to  emigrate  to,  and  he  concluded  to  make  his 


EX-PRESIDENT  TYLER  LOSES  AN  "  ARTICLE."  69 

way  there,  as  speedily  as  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  could  safely  convey  him. 
Accordingly  he  soon  carried  his  design  into  practice,  and  on  his  arrival,  the 
Committee  regarded  him  as  a  very  good  subject  for  her  British  Majesty's 
possessions  in  Canada, 


EX-PRESIDENT  TYLER'S  HOUSEHOLD  LOSES  AN  ARISTO- 
CRATIC "ARTICLE." 

James  Hambleton  Christian  is  a  remarkable  specimen  of  the  "  well  fed, 
<fec."  In  talking  with  him  relative  to  his  life  as  a  slave,  he  said  very 
promptly,  "I  have  always  been  treated  well;  if  I  only  have  half  as  good 
times  in  the  North  as  I  have  had  in  the  South,  I  shall  be  perfectly  satisfied. 
Any  time  I  desired  spending  money,  five  or  ten  dollars  were  no  object."  At 
times,  James  had  borrowed  of  his  master,  one,  two,  and  three  hundred 
dollars,  to  loan  out  to  some  of  his  friends.  With  regard  to  apparel  and 
jewelry,  he  had  worn  the  best,  as  an  every-day  adornment.  With  regard  to 
food  also,  he  had  fared  as  well  as  heart  could  wish,  with  abundance  of 
leisure  time  at  his  command.  His  deportment  was  certainly  very  refined 
and  gentlemanly.  About  fifty  per  cent,  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  was  visible 
in  his  features  and  his  hair,  which  gave  him  no  inconsiderable  claim  to 
sympathy  and  care.  He  had  been  to  William  and  Mary's  College  in  his 
younger  days,  to  wait  on  young  master  James  B.  C.,  where,  through  the 
kindness  of  some  of  the  students  he  had  picked  up  a  trifling  amount  of 
book  learning.  To  be  brief,  this  man  was  born  the  slave  of  old  Major 
Christian,  on  the  Glen  Plantation,  Charles  City  county,  Va.  The  Chris- 
tians were  wealthy  and  owned  many  slaves,  and  belonged  in  reality  to  the 
F.  F.  Vs.  On  the  death  of  the  old  Major,  James  fell  into  the  hands  of 
his  son,  Judge  Christian,  who  was  executor  to  his  father's  estate.  Subse- 
quently he  fell  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  Judge's  sisters,  Mrs.  John 
Tyler  (wife  of  Ex-President  Tyler),  and  then  he  became  a  member  of  the 
President's  domestic  household,  was  at  the  White,  House,  under  the  Presi- 
dent, from  1841  to  1845.  Though  but  very  young  at  that  time,  James  was 
only  fit  for  training  in  the  arts,  science,  and  mystery  of  waiting,  in  which 
profession,  much  pains  were  taken  to  qualify  him  completely  for  his  calling. 

After  a  lapse  of  time-,  his  mistress  died.  According  to  her  request, 
after  this  event,  James  and  his  old  mother  were  handed  over  to  her  nephew, 
William  H.  Christian,  Esq.,  a  merchant  of  Richmond.  From  this  gentle- 
man, James  had  the  folly  to  flee. 

Passing  hurriedly  over  interesting  details,  received  from  him  respecting 
his  remarkable  history,  two  or  three  more  incidents  too  good  to  omit  must 
suffice. 


'70  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  How  did  you  like  Mr.  Tyler  ?"  said  an  inquisitive  member  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee.  "  I  didn't  like  Mr.  Tyler  much,"  was  the  reply. 
"Why?"  again  inquired  the  member  of  the  Committee.  "Because  Mr. 
Tyler  was  a  poor  man.  I  never  did  like  poor  people.  I  didn't  like  his 
marrying  into  our  family,  who  were  considered  very  far  Tyler's  superiors." 
"  On  the  plantation,"  he  said,  "  Tyler  was  a  very  cross  man,  and  treated  the 
servants  very  cruelly;  but  the  house  servants  were  treated  much  better, 
owing  to  their  having  belonged  to  his  wife,  who  protected  them  from  perse- 
cution, as  they  had  been  favorite  servants  in  her  father's  family."  James 
estimated  that  "  Tyler  got  about  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  and  twenty-nine 
slaves,  young  and  old,  by  his  wife." 

What  prompted  James  to  leave  such  pleasant  quarters  ?  It  was  this  :  He 
had  become  enamored  of  a  young  and  respectable  free  girl  in  Richmond, 
with  whom  he  could  not  be  united  in  marriage  solely  because  he  was  a  slave, 
and  did  not  own  himself.  The  frequent  sad  separations  of  such  married 
couples  (where  one  or  the  other  was  a  slave)  could  not  be  overlooked ;  conse- 
quently, the  poor  fellow  concluded  that  he  would  stand  a  better  chance  of 
gaining  his  object  in  Canada  than  by  remaining  in  Virginia.  So  he  began 
to  feel  that  he  might  himself  be  sold  some  day,  and  thus  the  resolution  came 
home  to  him  very  forcibly  to  make  tracks  for  Canada. 

In  speaking  of  the  good  treatment  he  had  always  met  with,  a  member  of 
the  Committee  remarked,  "You  must  be  akin  to  some  one  of  your  master's 
family?"  To  which  he  replied,  "I  am  Christian's  son."  Unquestionably  this 
passenger  was  one  of  that  happy  class  so  commonly  referred  to  by  apologists 
for  the  "Patriarchal  Institution."  The  Committee,  feeling  a  deep  interest 
in  his  story,  and  desiring  great  success  to  him  in  his  Underground  efforts  to 
get  rid  of  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  possess  himself  of  his  affianced, 
made  him  heartily  welcome,  feeling  assured  that  the  struggles  and  hard- 
ships he  had  submitted  to  in  escaping,  as  well  as  the  luxuries  he  was  leaving 
behind,  were  nothing  to  be  compared  with  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  a  free 
wife  in  Canada. 


EDWARD  MORGAN,  HENRY  JOHNSON,  JAMES  AND 
STEPHEN  BUTLER. 

"Two  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  REWARD. — The  above  Reward  will  be  paid  for  the  appre- 
hension of  two  blacks,  who  escaped  on  Sunday  last.  It  is  supposed  they  have  made  their 
way  to  Pennsylvania.  $500  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehension  of  either,  so  that  we  can 
get  them  again.  The  oldest  is  named  Edward  Morgan,  about  five  feet  six  or  seven 
inches,  heavily  made — is  a  dark  black,  has  rather  a  down  look  when  spoken  to,  and  is 
about  21  years  of  age. 

"  Henry  Johnson  is  a  colored  negro,  about  five  feet  seven  or  eight  inches,  heavily 
made,  aged  nineteen  years,  has  a  pleasant  countenance,  and  has  a  mark  on  his  neck  below 
the  exr. 


EDWARD  MORGAN.  71 

''Stephen  Butler  is  a  dark-complexioned  negro,  about  five  feet  seven  inches;  has  a 
pleasant  countenance,  with  a  scar  above  his  eye;  plays  on  the  violin;  about  twenty-two 
years  old. 

"Jim  Butler  is  a  dark-complexioned  negro,  five  feet  eight  or  nine  inches;  is  rather 
sullen  when  spoken  to;  face  rough;  aged  about  twenty-one  years.  The  clothing  not  re- 
collected. They  had  black  frock  coats  and  slouch  hats  with  them.  Any  information  of 
them  address  Elizabeth  Brown,  Sandy  Hook  P.  O.,  or  of  Thomas  Johnson,  Abingdon  P. 
0.,  Harford  county,  Md.  "ELIZABETH  BROWN. 

"THOMAS  JOHNSON." 

FROM  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD  RECORDS. 

The  following  memorandum  is  made,  which,  if  not  too  late,  may  afford 
some  light  to  "Elizabeth  Brown  and  Thomas  Johnson,"  if  they  have  not 
already  gone  the  way  of  the  "  lost  cause  " — 

June  4,  1857. — Edward  is  a  hardy  and  firm-looking  young  man  of 
twenty-four  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  medium  size,  and  "  likely," — would 
doubtless  bring  $1,400  in  the  market.  He  had  been  held  as  the  property 
of  the  widow,  "  Betsy  Brown,"  who  resided  near  Mill  Green  P.  O.,  in  Har- 
ford county,  Md.  "  She  was  a  very  bad  woman  ;  would  go  to  church  every 
Sunday,  come  home  and  go  to  fighting  amongst  the  colored  people ;  was 
never  satisfied;  she  treated  my  mother  very  hard,  (said  Ed.) ;  would  beat  her 
with  a  walking-sfick,  &c.  She  was  an  old  woman  and  belonged  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  Over  her  slaves  she  kept  an  overseer,  who  was  a  very 
wicked  man ;  very  bad  on  colored  people ;  his  name  was  '  Bill  Eddy  ;'  Eli- 
zabeth Brown  owned  twelve  head." 

Henry  is  of  a  brown  skin,  a  good-looking  young  man,  only  nineteen  years 
of  age,  whose  prepossessing  appearance  would  insure  a  high  price  for  him  in 
the  market — perhaps  $1,700.  With  Edward,  he  testifies  to  the  meanness  of 
Mrs.  Betsy  Brown,  as  well  as  to  his  own  longing  desire  for  freedom.  Being  a 
fellow-servant  with  Edward,  Henry  was  a  party  to  the  plan  of  escape.  In 
slavery  he  left  his  mother  and  three  sisters,  owned  by  the  "  old  woman " 
from  whom  he  escaped. 

James  is  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  full  black,  and  medium  size.  As 
he  had  been  worked  hard  on  poor  fare,  he  concluded  to  leave,  in  com- 
pany with  his  brother  and  two  cousins,  leaving  his  parents  in  slavery, 
owned  by  the  "  Widow  Pyle,"  who  was  also  the  owner  of  himself.  "  She 
was  upwards  of  eighty,  very  passionate  and  ill-natured,  although  a  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church."  James  may  be  worth  $1,400. 

Stephen  is  a  brother  of  James',  and  is  about  the  same  size,  though  a  year 
older.  His  experience  differed  in  no  material  respect  from  his  brother's;  was 
owned  by  the  same  woman,  whom  he  "hated  for  her  bad  treatment"  of 
him.  Would  bring  $1,400,  perhaps. 

In  substance,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  exact  words,  these  facts 
are  given  as  they  came  from  the  lips  of  the  passengers,  who,  though  having 
been  kept  in  ignorance  and  bondage,  seemed  to  have  their  eyes  fuiiy  open  to 


72  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  wrongs  that  had  been  heaped  upon  them,  and  were  singularly  determined 
to  reach  free  soil  at  all  hazards.  The  Committee  willingly  attended  to  their 
financial  and  other  wants,  and  cheered  them  on  with  encouraging  advice. 

They  were  indebted  to  "The  Baltimore  Sun"  for  the  advertisement  infor- 
mation. And  here  it  may  be  further  added,  that  the  "  Sun  "  was  quite  fa- 
mous for  this  kind  of  U.  G.  R.  R.  literature,  and  on  that  account  alone  the 
Committee  subscribed  for  it  daily,  and  never  failed  to  scan  closely  certain 
columns,  illustrated  with  a  black  man  running  away  with  a  bundle  on  his 
back.  Many  of  these  popular  illustrations  and  advertisements  were  pre- 
served, many  others  were  sent  away  to  friends  at  a  distance,  who  took  a 
special  interest  in  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  matters.  Friends  and  stockholders  in 
England  used  to  take  a  great  interest  in  seeing  how  the  fine  arts,  in  these 
particulars,  were  encouraged  in  the  South  ("  the  land  of  chivalry  "). 


HENRY  PREDO. 

BROKE  JAIL,  JUMPED  OUT   OF  THE   WINDOW  AND  MADE  HIS  ESCAPE. 

Henry  fled  from  Buckstown,  Dorchester  Co.,  Md.,  March,  1857.  Physi- 
cally he  is  a  giant.  About  27  years  of  age,  stout  and  well-made,  quite  black, 
and  no  fool,  as  will  appear  presently.  Only  a  short  time  before  he  escaped, 
his  master  threatened  to  sell  him  south.  To  avoid  that  fate,  therefore,  he 
concluded  to  try  his  luck  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and,  in  company 
with  seven  others— two  of  them  females— be  started  for  Canada.  For 
two  or  three  days  and  nights  they  managed  to  outgeneral  all  their  adver- 
saries, and  succeeded  bravely  in  making  the  best  of  their  way  to  a  Free 
State. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  a  reward  of  $3,000  was  offered  for  their 
arrest.  This  temptation  was  too  great  to  be  resisted,  even  by  the  man  who 
had  been  intrusted  with  the  care  of  them,  and  who  had  faithfully  promised  to 
pilot  them  to  a  safe  place.  One  night,  through  the  treachery  of  their  pre- 
tended conductor,  they  were  all  taken  into  Dover  Jail,  where  the  Sheriff 
and  several  others,  who  had  been  notified  beforehand  by  the  betrayer,  were 
in  readiness  to  receive  them.  Up  stairs  they  were  taken,  the  betrayer  remark- 
ing as  they  were  going  up,  that  they  were  "cold,  but  would  soon  have  a 
good  warming."  On  a  light  being  lit  they  discovered  the  iron  bars  and 
the  fact  that  they  had  been  betrayed.  Their  liberty-loving  spirits  and  pur- 
poses, however,  did  not  quail.  Though  resisted  brutally  by  the  sheriff  with 
revolver  in  hand,  they  made  their  way  down  one  flight  of  stairs,  and  in  the 
moment  of  excitement,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  plunged  into  the  sheriff's 
private  apartment,  where  his  wife  and  children  were  sleeping.  The  wife 
cried  murder  lustily.  A  shovel  full  of  fire,  to  the  great  danger  of  burning 


THOMAS  ELLIOTT.  73 

the  premises,  was  scattered  over  the  room  ;  out  of  the  window  jumped  two 
of  the  female  fugitives.  Our  hero  Henry,  seizing  a  heavy  andiron, 
smashed  out  the  window  entire,  through  which  the  others  leaped  a  dis- 
tance of  twelve  feet.  The  railing  or  wall  around  the  jail,  though  at  first 
it  looked  forbidding,  was  soon  surmounted  by  a  desperate  effort. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  Henry  found  himself  without  the  walls, 
and  also  lost  sight  of  his  comrades  at  the  same  time.  The  last  enemy  he 
spied  was  the  sheriff  in  his  stockings  without  his  shoes.  He  snapped  his 
pistol  at  him,  but  it  did  not  go  off.  Six  of  the  others,  however,  marvel- 
lously got  off  safely  together ;  where  the  eighth  went,  or  how  he  got  off, 
was  not  known. 


DANIEL  HUGHES. 

Daniel  fled  from  Buckstown,  Dorchester  Co.,  also.  His  owner's  name  was 
Richard  Meredith,  a  farmer.  Daniel  is  one  of  the  eight  alluded  to  above. 
In  features  he  is  well  made,  dark  chestnut  color,  and  intelligent,  possessing 
an  ardent  thirst  for  liberty.  The  cause  of  his  escape  was :  "  Worked  hard  in 
all  sorts  of  weather — in  rain  and  snow,"  so  he  thought  he  would  "  go  where 
colored  men  are  free."  His  master  was  considered  the  hardest  man  around. 
His  mistress  was  "  eighty-three  years  of  age,"  "  drank  hard,"  was  "  very 
stormy,"  and  a  "member  of  the  Methodist  Church"  (Airy's  meeting-house). 
He  left  brothers  and  sisters,  and  uncles  and  aunts  behind.  In  the  combat 
at  the  prison  he  played  his  part  manfully. 


THOMAS  ELLIOTT. 

Thomas  is  also  one  of  the  brave  eight  who  broke  out  of  Dover  Jail.  He 
was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  well  made,  wide  awake,  and  of  a 
superb  black  complexion.  He  too  had  been  owned  by  Richard  Meredith. 
Against  the  betrayer,  who  was  a  black  man,  he  had  vengeance  in  store  if  the 
opportunity  should  ever  offer.  Thomas  left  only  one  brother  living ;  his 
"  father  and  mother  were  dead." 

The  excitement  over  the  escape  spread  very  rapidly  next  morning,  and 
desperate  efforts  were  made  to  recapture  the  fugitives,  but  a  few  friends 
there  were  who  had  sympathy  and  immediately  rendered  them  the  needed 
assistance. 

The  appended  note  from  the  faithful  Garrett  to  Samuel  Rhoads,  may 
throw  light  upon  the  occurrence  to  some  extent. 

WILMINGTON,  3d  mo.  13th,  1857. 

DEAR  COUSIN,  SAMUEL  RHOADS  : — I  have  a  letter  this  day  from  an  agent  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road,  near  Dover,  in  this  state,  saying  I  must  be  on  the  look  out  for  six 
brothers  and  two  sisters,  they  were  decoyed  and  betrayed,  he  says  by  a  colored  man 


74  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

named  Thomas  Otwell,  who  pretended  to  be  their  friend,  and  sent  a  while  scamp  ahead 
to  wait  for  them  at  Dover  till  they  arrived ;  they  were  arrested  and  put  in  Jail  there,  with 
Tom's  assistance,  and  some  officers.  On  third  day  morning  about  four  o'clock,  they  broke 
jail;  six  of  them  are  secreted  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  writer  has  not  known  what 
became  of  the  other  two.  The  six  were  to  start  last  night  for  this  place.  I  hear  that 
their  owners  have  persons  stationed  at  several  places  on  the  road  watching.  I  fear  they 
will  be  taken.  If  they  could  lay  quiet  for  ten  days  or  two  weeks,,  they  might  then  get 
up  safe.  I  shall  have  two  men  sent  this  evening  some  four  or  five  miles  below  to  keep 
them  away  from  this  town,  and  send  them  (if  found  to  Chester  County).  Thee  may  show 
this  to  Still  and  McKim,  and  oblige  thy  cousin,  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

Further  light  about  this  exciting  contest,  may  be  gathered  from  a  colored 
conductor  on  the  Road,  in  Delaware,  who  wrote  as  follows  to  a  member  of 
the  Vigilance  Committee  at  Philadelphia. 

CAMDEN,  DEL.,  March  23d,  1857. 

DEAR  SIR; — I  tak'my  pen  in  hand  to  write  to  you,  to  inform  you  what  we  have  had  to 
go  throw  for  the  last  two  weaks.  Thir  wir  six  men  and  two  woman  was  betraid  on  the 
tenth  of  this  month,  thea  had  them  in  prison  but  thea  got  out  was  conveyed  by  a  black 
man,  he  told  them  he  wood  bring  them  to  my  hows,  as  he  wos  told,  he  had  ben  ther 
Befor,  he  has  com  with  Harrett,  a  woman  that  stops  at  my  hous  when  she  pases  tow  and 
throw  yau.  You  don't  no  me  I  supos,  the  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Kennard  dos,  or  Peter  Lowis. 
He  Road  Camden  Circuit,  this  man  led  them  in  dover  prisin  and  left  them  with  a  whit 
man ;  but  tha  tour  out  the  winders  and  jump  out,  so  cum  back  to  camden.  We  put  them 
throug,  we  hav  to  carry  them  19  mils  and  cum  back  the  sam  night  wich  maks  38  mils. 
It  is  tou  much  for  our  littel  horses.  We  must  do  the-  bes  we  can,  ther  is  much  Bisness 
dun  on  this  Road.  We  hav  to  go  throw  dover  and  smerny,  the  two  wors  places  this 
sid  of  mary  land  lin.  If  you  have  herd  or  sean  them  pies  let  me  no.  I  will  Com  to  Phila 
be  for  long  and  then  I  will  call  and  se  you.  There  is  much  to  do  her.  Pies  to  wright,  I 
Remain  your  frend,  WILLIAM  BEINKLY. 

Remember  me  to  Thorn.  Kennard. 

The  balance  of  these  brave  fugitives,  although  not  named  in  this  connec- 

O  *  <J 

tion,  succeeded  in  getting  off  safely.  But  how  the  betrayer,  sheriff  and 
hunters  got  out  of  their  dilemma,  the  Committee  was  never  fully  posted. 

The  Committee  found  great  pleasure  in  assisting  these  passengers,  for 
they  had  the  true  grit.  Such  were  always  doubly  welcome. 


MARY  EPPS,  ALIAS  EMMA  BROWN— JOSEPH  AND   ROBERT 

ROBINSON. 

A  SLAVE  MOTHER  LOSES  HER  SPEECH  AT  THE  SALE    OF  HER  CHILD — BOB    ESCAPES 
FROM  HIS  MASTER,  A  TRADER,  WITH  $1500  IN  NORTH   CAROLINA  MONEY. 

Mary  fled  from  Petersburg  and  the  Robinsons  from  Richmond.  A  fugi- 
tive slave  law-breaking  captain  by  the  name  of  B.,  who  owned  a  schooner, 
and  would  bring  any  kind  of  freight  that  would  pay  the  most,  was  the  con- 
ductor 111  this  instance.  Quite  a  number  of  passengers  at  different  times 


MARY  EPPS.  75 

availed  themselves  of  his  accommodations  and  thus  succeeded  in  reaching 
Canada. 

*  His  risk  was  very  great.  On  this  account  he  claimed,  as  did  certain 
others,  that  it  was  no  more  than  fair  to  charge  for  his  services — indeed  he  did 
not  profess  to  bring  persons  for  nothing,  except  in  rare  instances.  In  this 
matter  the  Committee  did  not  feel  disposed  to  interfere  directly  in  any  way, 
further  than  to  suggest  that  whatever  understanding  was  agreed  upon  by  the 
parties  themselves  should  be  faithfully  adhered  to. 

Many  slaves  in  cities  could  raise,  "  by  hook  or  by  crook,"  fifty  or  one 
hundred  dollars  to  pay  for  a  passage,  providing  they  could  find  one  who 
was  willing  to  risk  aiding  them.  Thus,  while  the  Vigilance  Committee  of 
Philadelphia  especially  neither  charged  nor  accepted  anything  for  their 
services,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  any  of  the  Southern  agents  could 
afford  to  do  likewise. 

The  husband  of  Mary  had  for  a  long  time  wanted  his  own  freedom,  but 
did  not  feel  that  he  could  go  without  his  wife ;  in  fact,  he  resolved  to  get 
her  off  first,  then  to  try  and  escape  himself,  if  possible.  The  first  essential 
step  towards  success,  he  considered,  was  to  save  his  money  and  make  it  an 
object  to  the  captain  to  help  him.  So  when  he  had  managed  to  lay  by  one 
hundred  dollars,  he  willingly  offered  this  sum  to  Captain  B.,  if  he  would 
engage  to  deliver  his  wife  into  the  hands  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  of 
Philadelphia.  The  captain  agreed  to  the  terms  and  fulfilled  his  engage- 
ment to  the  letter.  About  the  1st  of  March,  1855,  Mary  was  presented  to 
the  Vigilance  Committee.  She  was  of  agreeable  manners,  about  forty-five 
years  of  age,  dark  complexion,  round  built,  and  intelligent.  She  had  been 
the  mother  of  fifteen  children,  four  of  whom  had  been  sold  away  from  her; 
one  was  still  held  in  slavery  in  Petersburg ;  the  others  were  all  dead. 

At  the  sale  of  one  of  her  children  she  was  so  affected  with  grief  that  she 
was  thrown  into  violent  convulsions,  which  caused  the  loss  of  her  speech 
for  one  entire  month.  But  this  little  episode  was  not  a  matter  to  excite  sym- 
pathy in  the  breasts  of  the  highly  refined  and  tender-hearted  Christian 
mothers  of  Petersburg.  In  the  mercy  of  Providence,  however,  her  reason 
and  strength  returned. 

She  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  late  Littleton  Reeves,  whom  she  repre- 
sented as  having  been  "kind"  to  her,  much  more  so  than  her  mistress  (Mrs. 
Reeves).  Said  Mary,  "She  being  of  a  jealous  disposition,  caused  me  to  be 
hired  out  with  a  hard  family,  where  I  was  much  abused,  frequently  flogged, 
and  stinted  for  food,"  etc. 

But  the  sweets  of  freedom  in  the  care  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  now 
delighted  her  mind,  and  the  hope  that  her  husband  would  soon  follow  her 
to  Canada,  inspired  her  with  expectations  that  she  would  one  day  "sit  under 
her  own  vine  and  fig  tree  where  none  dared  to  molest  or  make  her  afraid." 

The  Committee  rendered  her  the  usual  assistance,  and  in  due  time,  for- 


76  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

warded  her  on  to  Queen  Victoria's  free  land  in  Canada.     On  her  arrival 
she  wrote  back  as  follows — 

TORONTO,  March  14th,  1855. 

DEAR  MR.  STILL  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  addressing  you  with  these  few  lines  to 
inform  you  that  I  arrived  here  to  day,  and  hope  that  this  may  find  yourself  and  Mrs. 
Still  well,  as  this  leaves  me  at  the  present.  I  will  also  say  to  you,  that  I  had  no  difficulty 
in  getting  along,  the  two  young  men  that  was  with  me  left  me  at  Suspension  Bridge, 
they  went  another  way. 

I  cannot  say  much  about  the  place  as  I  have  ben  here  but  a  short  time  but  so  far  as  I 
have  seen  I  like  very  well,  you  will  give  my  Respect  to  your  lady,  &  Mr  &  Mrs  Brown. 
If  you  have  not  written  to  Petersburg  you  will  please  to  write  as  soon  as  can  I  have 
nothing  More  to  Write  at  present  but  yours  Respectfully 

EMMA  BROWN  (old  name  MARY  EPPS). 

Now,  Joseph  and  Robert  (Mary's  associate  passengers  from  Richmond) 
must  here  be  noticed.  Joseph  was  of  a  dark  orange  color,  medium  size, 
very  active  and  intelligent,  and  doubtless,  well  understood  the  art  of 
behaving  himself.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the  auction  block — having 
been  sold  three  times,  and  had  had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a 
cruel  master  each  time.  Under  these  circumstances  he  had  had  but  few 
privileges.  Sundays  and  week  days  alike  he  was  kept  pretty  severely  bent 
down  to  duty.  He  had  been  beaten  and  knocked  around  shamefully.  He 
had  a  wife,  and  spoke  of  her  in  most  endearing  language,  although,  on 
leaving,  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  apprise  her  of  his  movements,  u  fearing 
that  it  would  not  be  safe  so  to  do."  His  four  little  children,  to  whom  he 
appeared  warmly  attached,  he  left  as  he  did  his  wife — in  Slavery.  He  declared 
that  he  "  stuck  to  them  as  long  as  he  could."  George  E.  Sadler,  the  keeper 
of  an  oyster  house,  held  the  deed  for  "  Joe,"  and  a  most  heartless  wretch 
he  was  in  Joe's  estimation.  The  truth  was,  Joe  could  not  stand  the  burdens 
and  abuses  which  Sadler  was  inclined  to  heap  upon  him.  So  he  concluded 
to  join  his  brother  and  go  off  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R. 

Robert,  his  younger  brother,  was  owned  by  Robert  Slater,  Esq.,  a  regular 
negro  trader.  Eight  years  this  slave's  duties  had  been  at  the  slave  prison, 
and  among  other  daily  offices  he  had  to  attend  to,  was  to  lock  up  the  prison, 
prepare  the  slaves  for  sale,  etc.  Robert  was  a  very  intelligent  young  man, 
and  from  long  and  daily  experience  with  the  customs  and  usages  of  the 
slave  prison,  he  was  as  familiar  with  the  business  as  a  Pennsylvania  farmer 
with  his  barn-yard  stock.  His  account  of  things  was  too  harrowing  for  detail 
here,  except  in  the  briefest  manner,  and  that  only  with  reference  to  a  few 
particulars.  .  In  order  to  prepare  slaves  for  the  market,  it  was  usual  to 
have  them  greased  and  rubbed  to  make  them  look  bright  and  shining. 
And  he  went  on  further  to  state,  that  "  females  as  well  as  males  were  not 
uncommonly  stripped  naked,  lashed  flat  to  a  bench,  and  then  held  by  two 
men,  sometimes  four,  while  the  brutal  trader  would  strap  them  with  a  broad 
leather  strap."  The  strap  being  preferred  to  the  cow-hide,  as  it  would  not 


ROBERT  ROBINSON.  77 

break  the  skin,  and  damage  the  sale.  "  One  hundred  lashes  would  only  be 
a  common  flogging."  The  separation  of  families  was  thought  nothing  of. 
"  Often  I  have  been  flogged  for  refusing  to  flog  others."  While  not  yet 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  Robert  expressed  himself  as  having  become  so 
daily  sick  of  the  brutality  and  suffering  he  could  not  help  witnessing,  that 
he  felt  he  could  not  possibly  stand  it  any  longer,  let  the  cost  be  what  it 
might.  In  this  state  of  mind  he  met  with  Captain  B.  Only  one  obstacle 
stood  in  his  way — material  aid.  It  occurred  to  Robert  that  he  had  frequent 
access  to  the  money  drawer,  and  often  it  contained  the  proceeds  of  fresh 
sales  of  flesh  and  blood ;  and  he  reasoned  that  if  some  of  that  would  help 
him  and  his  brother  to  freedom,  there  could  be  no  harm  in  helping  himself 
the  first  opportunity. 

The  captain  was  all  ready,  and  provided  he  could  get  three  passengers  at 
$100  each  he  would  set  sail  without  much  other  freight.  Of  course  he  was 
too  shrewd  to  get  out  papers  for  Philadelphia.  That  would  betray  him  at 
once.  Washington  or  Baltimore,  or  even  Wilmington,  Del.,  were  names 
which  stood  fair  in  the  eyes  of  Virginia.  Consequently,  being  able  to  pack 
the  fugitives  away  in  a  very  private  hole  of  his  boat,  and  being  only  bound 
for  a  Southern  port,  the  captain  was  willing  to  risk  his  share  of  the  danger. 
"  Very  well,"  said  Robert,  "  to-day  I  will  please  my  master  so  well,  that  I 
will  catch  him  at  an  unguarded  moment,  and  will  ask  him  for  a  pass  to  go  to 
a  ball  to-night  (slave-holders  love  to  see  their  slaves  fiddling  and  dancing  of 
nights),  and  as  I  shall  be  leaving  in  a  hurry,  I  will  take  a  grab  from  the 
day's  sale,  and  when  Slater  hears  of  me  again,  I  will  be  in  Canada."  So 
after  having  attended  to  all  his  disagreeable  duties,  he  made  his  "  grab,"  and 
got  a  hand  full.  He  did  not  know,  however,  how  it  would  hold  out.  That 
evening,  instead  of  participating  with  the  gay  dancers,  he  was  just  one 
degree  lower  down  than  the  regular  bottom  of  Captain  B's.  deck,  with 
several  hundred  dollars  in  his  pocket,  after  paying  the  worthy  captain  one 
hundred  each  for  himself  and  his  brother,  besides  making  the  captain  an  addi- 
tional present  of  nearly  one  hundred.  Wind  and  tide  were  now  what  they 
prayed  for  to  speed  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  schooner,  until  they  might  reach 
the  depot  at  Philadelphia. 

The  Richmond  Dispatch,  an  enterprising  paper  in  the  interest  of  slave- 
holders, which  came  daily  to  the  Committee,  was  received  in  advance  of  the 
passengers,  when  lo !  and  behold,  in  turning  to  the  interesting  column  con- 
taining the  elegant  illustrations  of  "runaway  negroes,"  it  was  seen  that  tlie 
unfortunate  Slater  had  "lost  $1500  in  North  Carolina  money,  and  also  his 
dark  orange-colored,  intelligent,  and  good-looking  turnkey,  Bob."  "  Served 
him  right,  it  is  no  stealing  for  one  piece  of  property  to  go  off  with  another 
piece,"  reasoned  a  member  of  the  Committee. 

In  a  couple  of  days  after  the  Dispatch  brought  the  news,  the  three  U.  G. 
R.  R.  passengers  were  safely  landed  at  the  usual  place,  and  so  accurate  were 


78  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  descriptions  in  the  paper,  that,  on  first  seeing  them,  the  Committee 
recognized  them  instantly,  and,  without  any  previous  ceremonies,  read  to 
them  the  advertisement  relative  to  the  "§1500  in  N.  C.  money,  &c."  and 
put  the  question  to  them  direct:  "Are  you  the  ones?"  "We  are,"  they 
owned  up  without  hesitation.  The  Committee  did  not  see  a  dollar  of  their 
money,  but  understood  they  had  about  $900,  after  paying  the  captain; 
while  Bob  considered  he  made  a  "very  good  grab,"  he  did  not  admit  that 
the  amount  advertised  was  correct.  After  a  reasonable  time  for  recruiting, 
having  been  so  long  in  the  hole  of  the  vessel,  they  took  their  departure  for 
Canada. 

From  Joseph,  the  elder  brother,  is  appended  a  short  letter,  announcing 
their  arrival  and  condition  under  the  British  Lion — 

SAINT  CATHARINE,  April  16,  1855. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  :— Your  letter  of  date  April  7th  I  have  just  got,  it 
had  been  opened  before  it  came  to  me.  I  have  not  received  any  other  letter  from  you 
and  can  get  no  account  of  them  in  the  Post  Office  in  this  place,  I  am  well  and  have  got  a 
good  situation  in  this  city  and  intend  staying  here.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  hear  from 
you  as  soon  as  convenient  and  also  from  all  of  my  friends  near  you.  My  Brother  is  also 
at  work  with  me  and  doing  well. 

There  is  nothing  here  that  would  interest  you  in  the  way  of  news.  There  is  a  Masonic 
Lodge  of  our  people  and  two  churches  and  societys  here  and  some  other  institutions  for 
our  benefit.  Be  kind  enough  to  send  a  few  lines  to  the  Lady  spoken  of  for  that  mocking 
bird  and  much  oblige  me.  Write  me  soon  and  believe  me  your  obedient  Servt 

Love  &  respects  to  Lady  and  daughter  JOSEPH  KOBINSON. 

As  well  as  writing  to  a  member  of  the  Committee,  Joe'  and  Bob  had  the 
assurance  to  write  back  to  the  trader  and  oyster-house  keeper.  In  their 
letter  they  stated  that  they  had  arrived  safely  in  Canada,  and  were  having 
good  times, — in  the  eating  line  had  an  abundance  of  the  best, — also  had 
very  choice  wines  and  brandies,  which  they  supposed  that  they  (trader  and 
oyster-house  keeper)  would  give  a  great  deal  to  have  a  "smack  at."  And 
then  they  gave  them  a  very  cordial  invitation  to  make  them  a  visit,  and 
suggested  that  the  quickest  way  they  could  come,  would  be  by  telegraph, 
which  they  admitted  was  slightly  dangerous,  and  without  first  greasing 
themselves,  and  then  hanging  on  very  fast,  the  journey  might  not  prove 
altogether  advantageous  to  them.  This  was  wormwood  and  gall  to  the 
trader  and  oyster-house  man.  A  most  remarkable  coincidence  was  that, 
about  the  time  this  letter  was  received  in  Richmond,  the  captain  who 
brought  away  the  three  passengers,  made  it  his  business  for  some  reason  or 
other,  to  call  at  the  oyster-house  kept  by  the  owner  of  Joe,  and  while  there, 
this  letter  was  read  and  commented  on  in  torrents  of  Billingsgate  phrases; 
and  the  trader  told  the  captain  that  he  would  give  him  "  two  thousand 
dollars  if  he  would  get  them;"  finally  he  told  him  he  would  "give  evsry 
cent  they  would  bring,  which  would  be  much  over  §2000,"  as  they  were 
"so  very  likely."  How  far  the  captain  talked  approvingly,  he  did  not 


i        GEORGE  SOLOMON.  79 

exactly  tell  the  Committee,  but  they  guessed  he  talked  strong  Democratic 
doctrine  to  them  under  the  frightful  circumstances.  But  he  was  good  at 
concealing  his  feelings,  and  obviously  managed  to  avoid  suspicion. 


GEORGE  SOLOMON,  DANIEL  NEALL,  BENJAMIN  R. 
FLETCHER  AND  MARIA  DORSEY. 

The  above  representatives  of  the  unrequited  laborers  of  the  South  fled 
directly  from  Washington,  D.  C.  Nothing  remarkable  was  discovered  in 
their  stories  of  slave  life;  their  narratives  will  therefore  be  brief. 

George  Solomon  was  owned  by  Daniel  Minor,  of  Moss  Grove,  ~Va. 
George  was  about  thirty-three  years  of  age  ;  mulatto,  intelligent,  and  of  pre- 
possessing appearance.  His  old  master  valued  George's  services  very  highly, 
and  had  often  declared  to  others,  as  well  as  to  George  himself,  that  without 
him  he  should  hardly  know  how  to  manage.  And  frequently  George  was 
told  by  the  old  master  that  at  his  "  death  he  was  not  to  be  a  slave  any  longer, 
as  he  would  have  provision  made  in  his  will  for  his  freedom."  For  a  long 
time  this  old  story  was  clung  to  pretty  faithfully  by  George,  but  his  "old 
master  hung  on  too  long,"  consequently  George's  patience  became  exhausted. 
And  as  he  had  heard  a  good  deal  about  Canada,  U.  G.  R.  R.,  and  the  Abo- 
litionists, he  concluded  that  it  would  do  no  harm  to  hint  to  a  reliable  friend 
or  two  the  names  of  these  hard  places  and  bad  people,  to  see  what  impression 
would  be  made  on  their  minds ;  in  short,  to  see  if  they  were  ready  to  second 
a  motion  to  get  rid  of  bondage.  In  thus  opening  his  mind  to  his  friends,  he 
soon  found  a  willing  accord  in  each  of  their  hearts,  and  they  put  their  heads 
together  to  count  up  the  cost  and  to  fix  a  time  for  leaving  Egypt  and  the  host 
of  Pharaoh  to  do  their  own  "hewing  of  wood  and  drawing  of  water."  Ac- 
cordingly George,  Daniel,  Benjamin  and  Maria,  all  of  one  heart  and  mind, 
one  "  Saturday  night "  resolved  that  the  next  Sunday  should  find  them  on 
the  U.  G.  R.  R.,  with  their  faces  towards  Canada. 

Daniel  was  young,  only  twenty-three,  good  looking,  and  half  white,  with 
a  fair  share  of  intelligence.  As  regards  his  slave  life,  he  acknowledged 
that  he  had  not  had  it  very  rough  as  a  general  thing;  nevertheless,  he  was 
fully  persuaded  that  he  had  "  as  good  a  right  to  his  freedom "  as  his 
"  master  had  to  his,"  and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  contend  for  it. 

Benjamin  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  small  of  stature,  dark  com- 
plexion, of  a  pleasant  countenance,  and  quite  smart.  He  testified,  that  "ill- 
treatment  from  his  master,"  Henry  Martin,  who  would  give  him  "no  chance 
at  all,"  was  the  cause  of  his  leaving.  He  left  a  brother  and  sister,  belonging 
to  Martin,  besides  he  left  two  other  sisters  in  bondage,  Louisa  and  Letty,  but 
his  father  and  mother  were  both  dead.  Therefore,  the  land  of  slave-whips 


80  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  auction-blocks  had  no  charms  for  him.  He  loved  his  sisters,  but  he 
knew  if  he  could  not  protect  himself,  much  less  could  he  protect  them.  So 
he  concluded  to  bid  them  adieu  forever  in  this  world. 

Turning  from  the  three  male  companions  for  the  purpose  of  finding  a  brief 
space  for  Maria,  it  will  be  well  to  state  here  that  females  in  attempting 
to  escape  from  a  life  of  bondage  undertook  three  times  the  risk  of  failure 
that  males  were  liable  to,  not  to  mention  the  additional  trials  and  struggles 
they  had  to  contend  with.  In  justice,  therefore,  to  the  heroic  female  who 
was  willing  to  endure  the  most  extreme  suffering  and  hardship  for  freedom, 
double  honors  were  due. 

Maria,  the  heroine  of  the  party,  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  chestnut 
color,  medium  size,  and  possessed  of  a  good  share  of  common  sense.  She  was 
owned  by  George  Parker.  As  was  a  common  thing  with  slave-holders,  Maria 
had  found  her  owners  hard  to  please,  and  quite  often,  without  the  slightest 
reason,  they  would  threaten  to  "  sell  or  make  a  change."  These  threats 
only  made  matters  worse,  or  rather  it  only  served  to  nerve  Maria  for  the 
conflict.  The  party  walked  almost  the  entire  distance  from  Washington  to 
Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  meantime  George  Parker,  the  so-called  owner  of  Daniel  and 
Maria,  hurriedly  rushed  their  good  names  into  the  ^  Baltimore  Sun,"  after 
the  following  manner — 

"FouR  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ranaway  from  my  house  on  Saturday  night, 
August  30,  my  negro  man  'Daniel/  twenty-five  years  of  age,  bright  yellow  mulatto, 
thick  set  and  stout  made. 

Also,  my  negro  woman,  '  Maria,'  forty  years  of  age,  bright  mulatto.  The  above  re- 
ward will  be  paid  if  delivered  in  Washington  city.  GEORGE  PARKER." 

While  this  advertisement  was  in  the  Baltimore  papers,  doubtless  these 
noble  passengers  were  enjoying  the  hospitalities  of  the  Vigilance  Committee, 
and  finally  a  warm  reception  in  Canada,  by  which  they  were  greatly  pleased. 
Of  Benjamin  and  Daniel,  the  subjoined  letter  from  Rev.  H.  Wilson  is  of 
importance  in  the  way  of  throwing  light  upon  their  whereabouts  in  Canada : 

ST.  CATHARINE,  C.  W.,  Sept.  15th,  1856. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL:— Dear  Sir— Two  young  men  arrived  here  on  Friday  evening 
last  from  Washington,  viz  :  Benjamin  R.  Fletcher  and  Daniel  Neall.  Mr.  Neall  (or  Neale) 
desires  to  have  his  box  of  clothing  forwarded  on  to  him.  It  is  at  Washington  in  the  care 
of  John  Dade,  a  colored  man,  who  lives  at  Doct.  W.  H.  Oilman's,  who  keeps  an  Apothe- 
cary store  on  the  corner  of  4J  and  Pennsylvania  Avenue.  Mr.  Dade  is  a  slave,  but  a  free 
dealer.  You  will  please  write  to  John  Dade,  in  the  care  of  Doct.  W.  H.  Oilman,  on  behalf 
of  Daniel  Neale,  but  make  use  of  the  name  of  George  Harrison,  instead  of  Neale,  and 
Dade  will  understand  it.  Please  have  John  Dade  direct  the  box  by  express  to  you  in 
Philadelphia  ;  he  has  the  means  of  paying  the  charges  on  it  in  advance,  as  far  as  Philadel- 
phia; and  as  soon  as  it  comes,  you  will  please  forward  it  on  to  my  care  at  St.  Catherine. 
Say  to  John  Dade,  that  George  Harrison  sends  his  love  to  his  sister  and  Uncle  Allen 
Sims,  and  all  inquiring  friends.  Mr.  Fletcher  and  Mr.  Neale  both  send  their  respects  to 
you,  and  I  may  add  mine.  Yours  truly,  HIRAM  WILSON. 

P.  S.— Mr.  Benjamin  R.  Fletcher  wishes  to  have  Mr.  Dade  call  on  his  brother  James, 


HENR  Y  BOX  BRO  WN.  81 

and  communicate  to  him  his  affectionate  regards,  and  make  known  to  him  that  he  is  safe, 
and  cheerful  and  happy.  He  desires  his  friends  to  know,  through  Dade,  that  he  found 
Mrs.  Starke  here,  his  brother  Alfred's  wife's  sister ;  that  she  is  well,  and  living  in  St, 
Catharine,  C.  W.,  near  Niagara  Falls.  H.  W. 


HENRY  BOX  BROWN. 

ARRIVED    BY     ADAMS'     EXPRESS. 

Althouo-h  the  name  of  Henry  Box  Brown  has  been  echoed  over  the  land 
for  a  number  of  years,  and  the  simple  facts  connected  with  his  marvelous 
escape  from  slavery  in  a  box  published  widely  through  the  medium  of 
anti-slavery  papers,  nevertheless  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
very  little  is  generally  known  in  relation  to  this  case. 

Briefly,  the  facts  are  these,  which  doubtless  have  never  before  been  fully 
published — 

Brown  was  a  man  of  invention  as  well  as  a  hero.  .  In  point  of  interest, 
however,  his  case  is  no  more  remarkable  than  many  others.  Indeed, 
neither  before  nor  after  escaping  did  he  suffer  one-half  what  many  others 
have  experienced. 

He  was  decidedly  an  unhappy  piece  of  property  in  the  city  of  Richmond, 
Va.  In  the  condition  of  a  slave  he  felt  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
him  to  remain.  Full  well  did  he  know,  however,  that  it  was  no  holiday 
task  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  Virginia  slave-hunters,  or  the  wrath  of  an 
enraged  master  for  committing  the  unpardonable  sin  of  attempting  to  escape 
to  a  land  of  liberty.  So  Brown  counted  well  the  cost  before  venturing  upon 
this  hazardous  undertaking.  Ordinary  modes  of  travel  he  concluded  might 
prove  disastrous  to  his  hopes;  he,  therefore,  hit  upon  a  new  invention 
altogether,  which  was  to  have  himself  boxed  up  and  forwarded  to  Philadel- 
phia direct  by  express.  The  size  of  the  box  and  how  it  was  to  be  made  to 
fit  him  most  comfortably,  was  of  his  own  ordering.  Two  feet  eight  inches 
deep,  two  feet  wide,  and  three  feet  long  were  the  exact  dimensions  of  the 
box,  lined  with  baize.  His  resources  with  regard  to  food  and  water  con- 
sisted of  the  following :  One  bladder  of  water  and  a  few  small  biscuits. 
His  mechanical  implement  to  meet  the  death-struggle  for  fresh  air,  all  told, 
was  one  large  gimlet.  Satisfied  that  it  would  be  far  better  to  peril  his  life 
for  freedom  in  this  way  than  to  remain  under  the  galling  yoke  of  Slavery, 
he  entered  his  box,  which  was  safely  nailed  up  and  hooped  with  five 
hickory  hoops,  and  was  then  addressed  by  his  next  friend,  James  A.  Smith, 
a  shoe  dealer,  to  Wm.  H.  Johnson,  Arch  street,  Philadelphia,  marked,  "This 
side  up  with  care."  In  this  condition  he  was  sent  to  Adams'  Express 
office  in  a  dray,  and  thence  by  overland  express  to  Philadelphia.  It  was 
twenty-six  hours  from  the  time  he  left  Richmond  until  his  arrival  in  the 
City  of  Brotherly  Love.  The  notice,  "  This  side  up,  &c.,"  did  not  avail 
6 


82  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

with  the  different  expressmen,  who  hesitated  not  to  handle  the  box  in  the 
usual  rough  manner  common  to  this  class  of  men.  For  a  while  they 
actually  had  the  box  upside  down,  and  had  him  on  his  head  for  miles.  A 
few  days  before  he  was  expected,  certain  intimation  was  conveyed  to  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Vigilance  Committee  that  a  box  might  be  expected  by  the  three 
o'clock  morning  train  from  the  South,  which  might  contain  a  man.  One  of 
the  most  serious  walks  he  ever  took — and  they  had  not  been  a  few — to 
meet  and  accompany  passengers,  he  took  at  half  past  two  o'clock  that  morn- 
ing to  the  depot.  Not  once,  but  for  more  than  a  score  of  times,  he  fancied 
the  slave  would  be  dead.  He  anxiously  looked  while  the  freight  was  being 
unloaded  from  the  cars,  to  see  if  he  could  recognize  a  box  that  might  con- 
tain a  man;  one  alone  had  that  appearance,  and  he  confessed  it  really 
seemed  as  if  there  was  the  scent  of  death  about  it.  But  on  inquiry,  he  soon 
learned  that  it  was  not  the  one  he  was  looking  after,  and  he  was  free  to  say 
he  experienced  a  marked  sense  of  relief.  That  same  afternoon,  however, 
he  received  from  Richmond  a  telegram,  which  read  thus,  "Your  case  of 
goods  is  shipped  and  will  arrive  to-morrow  morning." 

At  this  exciting  j  imcture  of  affairs,  Mr.  McKim,  who  had  been  engineer- 
ing this  important  undertaking,  deemed  it  expedient  to  change  the  pro- 
gramme slightly  in  one  particular  at  least  to  insure  greater  safety.  In- 
stead of  having  a  member  of  the  Committee  go  again  to  the  depot  for  the 
box,  which  might  excite  suspicion,  it  was  decided  that  it  would  be  safest  to 
have  the  express  bring  it  direct  to  the  Anti-Slavery  Office. 

But  all  apprehension  of  danger  did  not  now  disappear,  for  there  was  no 
room  to  suppose  that  Adams'  Express  office  had  any  sympathy  with  the 
Abolitionist  or  the  fugitive,  consequently  for  Mr.  McKim  to  appear  per- 
sonally at  the  express  office  to  give  directions  with  reference  to  the  coming 
of  a  box  from  Richmond  which  would  be  directed  to  Arch  street,  and  yet 
not  intended  for  that  street,  but  for  the  Anti-Slavery  office  at  107  North 
Fifth  street,  it  needed  of  course  no  great  discernment  to  foresee  that  a  step  of 
this  kind  was  wholly  impracticable  and  that  a  more  indirect  and  covert 
method  would  have  to  be  adopted.  In  this  dreadful  crisis  Mr.  McKim, 
with  his  usual  good  judgment  and  remarkably  quick,  strategical  mind, 
especially  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  U.  G.  R.  R.,  hit  upon  the  following 
plan,  namely,  to  go  to  his  friend,  E.  M.  Davis,*  who  was  then  extensively 
engaged  in  mercantile  business,  and  relate  the  circumstances.  Having  daily 
intercourse  with  said  Adams'  Express  office,  and  being  well  acquainted  with 
the  firm  and  some  of  the  drivers,  Mr.  Davis  could,  as  Mr.  McKim  thought, 
talk  about  "  boxes,  freight,  etc.,"  from  any  part  of  the  country  without  risk. 
Mr.  Davis  heard  Mr.  McKim's  plan  and  instantly  approved  of  it,  and  was 
heartily  at  his  service. 

*  E.  M.  Davis  was  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-Slavery 
Society  and  a  long-tried  Abolitionist,  son-in-law  of  James  and  Lucretia  Mott. 


HENRY  BOX  BROWN.  83 

"Dan,  an  Irishman,  one  of  Adams'  Express  drivers,  is  just  the  fellow  to 
go  to  the  depot  after  the  box,"  said  Davis.  "  He  drinks  a  little  too  much 
whiskey  sometimes,  but  he  will  do  anything  I  ask  him  to  do,  promptly  and 
obligingly.  I'll  trust  Dan,  for  I  believe  he  is  the  very  man."  The  difficulty 
which  Mr.  McKim  had  been  so  anxious  to  overcome  was  thus  pretty 
well  settled.  It  was  agreed  that  Dan  should  go  after  the  box  next  morning 
before  daylight  and  bring  it  to  the  Anti-Slavery  office  direct,  and  to  make  it 
all  the  more  agreeable  for  Dan  to  get  up  out  of  his  warm  bed  and  go  on  this 
errand  before  day,  it  was  decided  that  he  should  have  a  five  dollar  gold 
piece  for  himself.  Thus  these  preliminaries  having  been  satisfactorily 
arranged,  it  only  remained  for  Mr.  Davis  to  see  Dan  and  give  him  instruc- 
tions accordingly,  etc. 

Next  morning,  according  to  arrangement,  the  box  was  at  the  Anti- 
Slavery  office  in  due  time.  The  witnesses  present  to  behold  the  resurrection 
were  J.  M.  McKim,  Professor  C.  D.  Cleveland,  Lewis  Thompson,  and  the 
writer. 

Mr.  McKim  was  deeply  interested ;  but  having  been  long  identified  with 
the  Anti-Slavery  cause  as  one  of  its  oldest  and  ablest  advocates  in  the  darkest 
days  of  slavery  and  mobs,  and  always  found  by  the  side  of  the  fugitive  to 
counsel  and  succor,  he  was  on  this  occasion  perfectly  composed. 

Professor  Cleveland,  however,  was  greatly  moved.  His  zeal  and  earnestness 
in  the  cause  of  freedom,  especially  in  rendering  aid  to  passengers,  knew  no 
limit.  Ordinarily  he  could  not  too  often  visit  these  travelers,  shake  them  too 
warmly  by  the  hand,  or  impart  to  them  too  freely  of  his  substance  to  aid 
them  on  their  journey.  But  now  his  emotion  was  overpowering. 

Mr.  Thompson,  of  the  firm  of  Merrihew  &  Thompson — about  the  only 
printers  in  the  city  who  for  many  years  dared  to  print  such  incendiary  docu- 
ments as  anti-slavery  papers  and  pamphlets — one  of  the  truest  friends 
of  the  slave,  was  composed  and  prepared  to  witness  the  scene. 

All  was  quiet.  The  door  had  been  safely  locked.  The  proceedings  com- 
menced. Mr.  McKim  rapped  quietly  on  the  lid  of  the  box  and  called 
out,  "All  right!"  Instantly  came  the  answer  from  within.  "All  right, 
sir!" 

The  witnesses  will  never  forget  that  moment.  Saw  and  hatchet  quickly 
had  the  five  hickory  hoops  cut  and  the  lid  off,  and  the  marvellous  resurrec- 
tion of  Brown  ensued.  Rising  up  in  his  box,  he  reached  out  his  hand, 
saying,  "How  do  you  do,  gentlemen?"  The  little  assemblage  hardly 
knew  what  to  think  or  do  at  the  moment.  He  was  about  as  wet  as  if  he 
had  come  up  out  of  the  Delaware.  Very  soon  he  remarked  that,  before 
leaving  Richmond  he  had  selected  for  his  arrival-hymn  (if  he  lived)  the 
Psalm  beginning  with  these  words:  "/  waited  patiently  for  the  Lord,  and 
He  heard  my  prayer."  And  most  touchingly  did  he  sing  the  psalm,  much 
to  his  own  relief,  as  well  as  to  the  delight  of  his  small  audience. 


84  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

He  was  then  christened  Henry  Box  Brown,  and  soon  afterwards  was  sent 
to  the  hospitable  residence  of  Jaines  Mott  and  E.  M.  Davis,  on  Ninth  street, 
where,  it  is  needless  to  say,  he  met  a  most  cordial  reception  from  Mrs. 
Lucretia  Mott  and  her  household.  Clothing  and  creature  comforts  were 
furnished  in  abundance,  and  delight  and  joy  filled  all  hearts  in  that  strong- 
hold of  philanthropy. 

As  he  had  been  so  long  doubled  up  in  the  box  he  needed  to  promenade 
considerably  in  the  fresh  air,  so  James  Mott  put  one  of  his  broad-brim  hats 
on  his  head  and  tendered  him  the  hospitalities  of  his  yard  as  well  as  his 
house,  and  while  Brown  promenaded  the  yard  flushed  with  victory,  great 
was  the  joy  of  his  friends. 

After  his  visit  at  Mr.  Mott's,  he  spent  two  days  with  the  writer,  and 
then  took  his  departure  for  Boston,  evidently  feeling  quite  conscious  of 
the  wonderful  feat  he  had  performed,  and  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  safely 
said  that  those  who  witnessed  this  strange  resurrection  were  not  only  elated 
at  his  success,  but  were  made  to  sympathize  more  deeply  than  ever  before 
with  the  slave.  Also  the  noble-hearted  Smith  who  boxed  him  up  was 
made  to  rejoice  over  Brown's  victory,  and  was  thereby  encouraged  to  render 
similar  service  to  two  other  young  bondmen,  who  appealed  to  him  for 
deliverance.  But,  unfortunately,  in  this  attempt  the  undertaking  proved  a 
failure.  Two  boxes  containing  the  young  men  alluded  to  above,  after 
having  been  duly  expressed  and  some  distance  on  the  road,  were,  through 
the  agency  of  the  telegraph,  betrayed,  and  the  heroic  young  fugitives  were 
captured  in  their  boxes  and  dragged  back  to  hopeless  bondage.  Conse- 
quently, through  this  deplorable  failure,  Samuel  A.  Smith  was  arrested,  im- 
prisoned, and  was  called  upon  to  suffer  severely,  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
subjoined  correspondence,  taken  from  the  New  York  Tribune  soon  after  his 
release  from  the  penitentiary. 

THE  DELIVERER  OF  BOX  BROWN — MEETING    OF  THE    COLORED   CITIZENS 

OF  PHILADELPHIA. 

[Correspondence  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune.] 

PHILADELPHIA,  Saturday,  July  5,  1856. 

Samuel  A.  Smith,  who  boxed  up  Henry  Box  Brown  in  Richmond,  Va., 
and  forwarded  him  by  overland  express  to  Philadelphia,  and  who  was  ar- 
rested and  convicted,  eight  years  ago,  for  boxing  up  two  other  slaves,  also 
directed  to  Philadelphia,  having  served  out  his  imprisonment  in  the  Peni- 
tentiary, was  released  on  the  J8th  ultimo,  and  arrived  in  this  city  on  the  21st. 

Though  he  lost  all  his  property;  though  he  was  refused  witnesses  on  his 
trial  (no  officer  could  be  found,  who  would  serve  a  summons  on  a  witness) ; 
though  for  five  long  months,  in  hot  weather,  he  was  kept  heavily  chained 
in  a  cell  four  by  eight  feet  in  dimensions;  though  he  received  five  dreadful 
stabs,  aimed  at  his  heart,  by  a  bribed  assassin,  nevertheless  he  still  rejoices 
in  the  motives  which  prompted  him  to  "  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  let 


HENRY  BOX  BROWN.  85 

the  oppressed  go  free."  Having  resided  nearly  all  his  life  in  the  South, 
where  he  had  traveled  and  seen  much  of  the  "  peculiar  institution/'  and  had 
witnessed  the  most  horrid  enormities  inflicted  upon  the  slave,  whose  cries 
were  ever  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  for  whom  he  had  the  warmest  sympathy, 
Mr.  Smith  could  not  refrain  from  believing  that  the  black  man,  as  well  as  the 
white,  had  God-given  rights.  Consequently,  he  was  not  accustomed  to  shed 
tears  when  a  poor  creature  escaped  from  his  "  kind  master ;"  nor  was  he 
willing  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  his  appeals  and  groans,  when  he  knew  he  was 
thirsting  for  freedom.  From  1828  up  to  the  day  he  was  incarcerated, 
many  had  sought  his  aid  and  counsel,  nor  had  they  sought  in  vain.  In 
various  places  he  operated  with  success.  In  Richmond,  however,  it  seemed 
expedient  to  invent  a  new  plan  for  certain  emergencies,  hence  the  Box  and 
Express  plan  was  devised,  at  the  instance  of  a  few  heroic  slaves,  who  had 
manifested  their  willingness  to  die  in  a  box,  on  the  road  to  liberty,  rather 
than  continue  longer  under  the  yoke.  But  these  heroes  fell  into  the  power  of 
their  enemies.  Mr.  Smith  had  not  been  long  in  the  Penitentiary  before  he 
had  fully  gained  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  Superintendent  and  other 
officers.  Finding  him  to  be  humane  and  generous-hearted — showing  kind- 
ness toward  all,  especially  in  buying  bread,  <fec.,  for  the  starving  prisoners, 
and  by  a  timely  note  of  warning,  which  had  saved  the  life  of  one  of  the 
keepers,  for  whose  destruction  a  bold  plot  had  been  arranged — the  officers 
felt  disposed  to  show  him  such  favors  as  the  law  would  allow.  But  their 
good  intentions  were  soon  frustrated.  The  Inquisition  (commonly  called  the 
Legislature),  being  in  session  in  Richmond,  hearing  that  the  Superintendent 
had  been  speaking  well  of  Smith,  and  circulating  a  petition  for  his  pardon, 
indignantly  demanded  to  know  if  the  rumor  was  well  founded.  Two  weeks 
were  spent  by  the  Inquisition,  and  many  witnesses  were  placed  upon  oath, 
to  solemnly  testify  in  the  matter.  One  of  the  keepers  swore  that  his  life  had 
been  saved  by  Smith.  Col.  Morgan,  the  Superintendent,  frequently  testi- 
fied in  writing  and  verbally  to  Smith's  good  deportment;  acknowledging 
that  he  had  circulated  petitions,  &c. ;  and  took  the  position,  that  he  sin- 
cerely believed,  that  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  institution  to  pardon 
him;  calling  the  attention  of  the  Inquisition,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  fact,  that 
not  unfrequently  pardons  had  been  granted  to  criminals,  under  sentence  of 
death,  for  the  most  cold-blooded  murder,  to  say  nothing  of  other  gross 
crimes.  The  effort  for  pardon  was  soon  abandoned,  for  the  following  reason 
given  by  the  Governor :  u  I  can't,  and  I  won't  pardon  him  !" 

In  view  of  the  unparalleled  injustice  which  Mr.  S.  had  suffered,  as  well  as 
on  account  of  the  aid  he  had  rendered  to  the  slaves,  on  his  arrival  in  this  city 
the  colored  citizens  of  Philadelphia  felt  that  he  was  entitled  to  sympathy 
and  aid,  and  straightway  invited  him  to  remain  a  few  days,  until  arrange- 
ments could  be  made  for  a  mass  meeting  to  receive  him.  Accordingly,  on 
last  Monday  evening,  a  mass  meeting  convened  in  the  Israel  church,  and 


86  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  Rev.  Wm.  T.  Catto  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Wm.  Still  was  ap- 
pointed secretary.  The  chairman  briefly  stated  the  object  of  the  meeting. 
Having  lived  in  the  South,  he  claimed  to  know  something  of  the  workings  of 
the  oppressive  system  of  slavery  generally,  and  declared  that,  notwith- 
standing the  many  exposures  of  the  evil  which  came  under  his  own  obser- 
vation, the  most  vivid  descriptions  fell  far  short  of  the  realities  his  own 
eyes  had  witnessed.  He  then  introduced  Mr.  Smith,  who  arose  and  in  a 
plain  manner  briefly  told  his  story,  assuring  the  audience  that  he  had  al- 
ways hated  slavery,  and  had  taken  great  pleasure  in  helping  many  out  of  it, 
and  though  he  had  suffered  much  physically  and  pecuniarily  for  the  cause' 
sake,  yet  he  murmured  not,  but  rejoiced  in  what  he  had  done.  After  taking 
his  seat,  addresses  were  made  by  the  Rev.  S.  Smith,  Messrs.  Kinnard,  Brun- 
1  ner,  Bradway,  and  others.  The  follosving  preamble  and  resolutions  were 
adopted — 

WHEREAS,  We,  the  colored  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  have  among  us  Samuel  A.  Smith, 
who  was  incarcerated  over  seven  years  in  the  Richmond  Penitentiary,  for  doing  an  act 
that  was  honorable  to  his  feelings  and  his  sense  of  justice  and  humanity,  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  welcome  him  to  this  city  as  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  Freedom. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  tender  him  our  gratitude  for  the  good  he  has  done  to  our 
suffering  race. 

Resolved,  That  we  sympathize  with  him  in  his  losses  and  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  the 
poor,  down-trodden  slave.  W.  S. 

During  his  stay  in  Philadelphia,  on  this  occasion,  he  stopped  for  about  a 
fortnight  with  the  writer,  and  it  was  most  gratifying  to  learn  from  him  that 
he  was  no  new  worker  on  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  But  that  he  had  long  hated 
slavery  thoroughly,  and  although  surrounded  with  perils  on  every  side,  he 
had  not  failed  to  help  a  poor  slave  whenever  the  opportunity  was  presented. 

Pecuniary  aid,  to  some  extent,  was  rendered  him  in  this  city,  for  which  he 
was  grateful,  and  after  being  united  in  marriage,  by  Wm.  H.  Furness,  D.D., 
to  a  lady  who  had  remained  faithful  to  him  through  all  his  sore  trials  and 
sufferings,  he  took  his  departure  for  Western  New  York,  with  a  good  con- 
science and  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  belief  that  in  aiding  his  fellow-man  to 
freedom  he  had  but  simply  obeyed  the  word  of  Him  who  taught  man  to  do 
unto  others  as  he  would  be  done  by. 


TRIAL  OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS  OF  COL.  J.  H.  WHEELER'S 
SLAVES,  JANE  JOHNSON  AND  HER  TWO  LITTLE  BOYS. 

Among  other  duties  devolving  on  the  Vigilance  Committee  when  hearing 
of  slaves  brought  into  the  State  by  their  owners,  was  immediately  to  inform 
such  persons  that  as  they  were  not  fugitives,  but  were  brought  into  the  State 
by  their  masters,  they  were  entitled  to  their  freedom  without  another 
moment's  service,  and  that  they  could  have  the  assistance  of  the  Committee 


TRIAL   OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS.  87 

and  the  advice  of  counsel  without  charge,  by  simply  availing  themselves 
of  these  proffered  favors. 

Many  slave-holders  fully  understood  the  law  in  this  particular,  and  were 
also  equally  posted  with  regard  to  the  vigilance  of  abolitionists.  Consequently 
they  avoided  bringing  slaves  beyond  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  in  traveling 
North.  But  some  slave-holders  were  not  thus  mindful  of  the  laws,  or  were 
too  arrogant  to  take  heed,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  case  of  Colonel  John  H. 
"Wheeler,  of  North  Carolina,  the  United  States  Minister  to  Nicaragua.  In 
passing  through  Philadelphia  from  "Washington,  one  very  warm  July  day  in 
1855,  accompanied  by  three  of  his  slaves,  his  high  official  equilibrium,  as 
well  as  his  assumed  rights  under  the  Constitution,  received  a  terrible  shock 
at  the  hands  of  the  Committee.  Therefore,  for  the  readers  of  these  pages, 
and  in  order  to  completely  illustrate  the  various  phases  of  the  work  of  the 
Committee  in  the  days  of  Slavery,  this  case,  selected  from  many  others,  is  a 
fitting  one.  However,  for  more  than  a  brief  recital  of  some  of  the  more  promi- 
nent incidents,  it  will  not  be  possible  to  find  room  in  this  volume.  And, 
indeed,  the  necessity  of  so  doing  is  precluded'by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Wil- 
liamson in  justice  to  himself  and  the  cause  of  freedom,  with  great  pains  and 
singular  ability,  gathered  the  most  important  facts  bearing  on  his  memorable 
trial  and  imprisonment,  and  published  them  in  a  neat  volume  for  historical 
reference. 

In  order  to  bring  fully  before  the  reader  the  beginning  of  this  interesting 
and  exciting  case,  it  seems  only  necessary  to  publish  the  subjoined  letter/ 
written  by  one  of  the  actors  in  the  drama,  and  addressed  to  the  New  York 
Tribune,  and  an  additional  paragraph  which  may  be  requisite  to  throw  light 
on  a  special  point,  which  Judge  Kane  decided  was  concealed  in  the  "obsti- 
nate" breast  of  Passmore  Williamson,  as  said  Williamson  persistently  refused 
before  the  said  Judge's  court,  to  own  that  he  had  a  knowledge  of  the  mystery 
in  question.  After  which,  a  brief  glance  at  some  of  the  more  important 
points  of  the  case  must  suffice. 

LETTER  COPIED   FROM   THE  NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE. 

[Correspondence  of  The  N.  Y.  Tribune.] 

PHILADELPHIA,  Monday,  July  30,  1855. 

As  the  public  have  not  been  made  acquainted  with  the  facts  and  particulars 
respecting  the  agency  of  Mr.  Passmore  Williamson  and  others,  in  relation  to 
the  slave  case  now  agitating  this  city,  and  especially  as  the  poor  slave  mother 
and  her  two  sons  have  been  so  grossly  misrepresented,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to 
lay  the  facts  before  you,  for  publication  or  otherwise,  as  you  may  think 
proper. 

On  Wednesday  afternoon,  week,  at  4J  o'clock,  the  following  note  was 
placed  in  my  hands  by  a  colored  boy  whom  I  had  never  before  seen,  to  my 
recollection : 


88  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"MR.  STILL — Sir:  Will  you  come  down  to  Bloodgood's  Hotel  as  soon  as 
possible — as  there  are  three  fugitive  slaves  here  and  they  want  liberty.  Their 
master  is  here  with  them,  on  his  way  to  New  York." 

The  note  was  without  date,  and  the  signature  so  indistinctly  written  as 
not  to  be  understood  by  me,  having  evidently  been  penned  in  a  moment  of 
haste. 

Without  delay  I  ran  with  the  note  to  Mr.  P.  Williamson's  office,  Seventh 
and  Arch,  found  him  at  his  desk,  and  gave  it  to  him,  and  after  reading  it,  he 
remarked  that  he  could  not  go  down,  as  he  had  to  go  to  Harrisburg  that 
night  on  business — but  he  advised  me  to  go,  and  to  get  the  names  of  the 
slave-holder  and  the  slaves,  in  order  to  telegraph  to  New  York  to  have  them 
arrested  there,  as  no  time  remained  to  procure  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  here. 

I  could  not  have  been  two  minutes  in  Mr.  W.'s  office  before  starting  in 
haste  for  the  wharf.  To  my  surprise,  however,  when  I  reached  the  wharf, 
there  I  found  Mr.  W.,  his  mind  having  undergone  a  sudden  change;  he  was 
soon  on  the  spot. 

I  saw  three  or  four  colored  persons  in  the  hall  at  Bloodgood's,  none  of 
whom  I  recognized  except  the  boy  who  brought  me  the  note.  Before  having 
time  for  making  inquiry  some  one  said  they  had  gone  on  board  the  boat.  "  Get 
their  description,"  said  Mr.  W.  I  instantly  inquired  of  one  of  the  colored 
persons  for  the  desired  description,  and  was  told  that  she  was  "  a  tall,  dark 
woman,  with  two  little  boys." 

Mr.  W.  and  myself  ran  on  board  of  the  boat,  looked  among  the  pas- 
sengers on  the  first  deck,  but  saw  them  not.  "  They  are  up  on  the  second 
deck,"  an  unknown  voice  uttered.  In  a  second  we  were  in  their  presence. 
We  approached  the  anxious-looking  slave-mother  with  her  two  boys  on  her 
left-hand ;  close  on  her  right  sat  an  ill-favored  white  man  having  a  cane  in 
his  hand  which  I  took  to  be  a  sword-cane.  (As  to  its  being  a  sword-cane, 
however,  I  might  have  been  mistaken.) 

The  first  words  to  the  mother  were :  "  Are  you  traveling?"  "Yes,"  was  the 
prompt  answer.  "  With  whom  ?"  She  nodded  her  head  toward  the  ill-favored 
man,  signifying  with  him.  Fidgeting  on  his  seat,  he  said  something,  exactly 
what  I  do  not  now  recollect.  In  reply  I  remarked :  "  Do  they  belong  to 
you,  Sir?"  "  Yes,  they  are  in  my  charge,"  was  his  answer.  Turning  from 
him  to  the  mother  and  her  sons,  in  substance,  and  word  for  word,  as  near  as 
I  can  remember,  the  following  remarks  were  earnestly  though  calmly  ad- 
dressed by  the  individuals  who  rejoiced  to  meet  them  on  free  soil,  and  who 
felt  unmistakably  assured  that  they  were  justified  by  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania 
as  well  as  the  Law  of  God,  in  informing  them  of  their  rights  : 

"  You  are  entitled  to  your  freedom  according  to  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania, 
having  been  brought  into  the  State  by  your  owner.  If  you  prefer  freedom  to 
slavery,  as  we  suppose  everybody  does,  you  have  the  chance  to  accept  it  now. 
Act  calmly — don't  be  frightened  by  your  master — you  are  as  much  entitled 


TRIAL   OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS.  89 

to  your  freedom  as  we  are,  or  as  he  is — be  determined  and  you  need  have  no 
fears  but  that  you  will  be  protected  by  the  law.  Judges  have  time  and  again 
decided  cases  in  this  city  and  State  similar  to  yours  in  favor  of  freedom ! 
Of  course,  if  you  want  to  remain  a  slave  with  your  master,  we  cannot  force 
you  to  leave ;  we  only  want  to  make  you  sensible  of  your  rights.  Remember •, 
if  you  lose  this  cJiance  you  may  never  get  such  another"  etc. 

This  advice  to  the  woman  was  made  in  the  hearing  of  a  number  of  per- 
sons present,  white  and  colored ;  and  one  elderly  white  gentleman  of  genteel 
address,  who  seemed  to  take  much  interest  in  what  was  going  on,  remarked 
that  they  would  have  the  same  chance  for  their  freedom  in  New  Jersey  and 
New  York  as  they  then  had — seeming  to  sympathize  with  the  woman,  etc. 

During  the  few  moments  in  which  the  above  remarks  were  made,  the  slave- 
holder frequently  interrupted — said  she  understood  all  about  the  laws  making 
her  free,  and  her  right  to  leave  if  she  wanted  to;  but  contended  that  she  did 
not  want  to  leave — that  she  was  on  a  visit  to  New  York  to  see  her  friends — 
afterward  wished  to  return  to  her  three  children  whom  she  left  in  Virginia,  from 
whom  it  would  be  HARD  to  separate  her.  Furthermore,  he  diligently  tried  to 
constrain  her  to  say  that  she  did  not  want  to  be  interfered  with — that  she 
wanted  to  go  with  him — that  she  was  on  a  visit  to  New  York — had  children 
in  the  South,  etc. ;  but  the  woman's  desire  to  be  free  was  altogether  too  strong 
to  allow  her  to  make  a  single  acknowledgment  favorable  to  his  wishes  in  the 
matter.  On  the  contrary,  she  repeatedly  said,  distinctly  and  firmly,  u  1  am 
not  free,  but  I  want  my  freedom — ALWAYS  wanted  to  be  free  !  !  but  he  holds  me" 

While  the  slaveholder  claimed  that  she  belonged  to  him,  he  said  that  she 
was  free  !  Again  he  said  that  he  was  going  to  give  her  her  freedom,  etc. 
When  his  eyes  would  be  off  of  hers,  such  eagerness  as  her  looks  expressed, 
indicative  of  her  entreaty  that  we  would  not  forsake  her  and  her  little  ones 
in  their  weakness,  it  had  never  been  my  lot  to  witness  before,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances. 

The  last  bell  tolled !  The  last  moment  for  further  delay  passed !  The 
arm  of  the  woman  being  slightly  touched,  accompanied  with  the  word, 
"  Come  !"  she  instantly  arose.  "  Go  along — go  along !"  said  some,  who 
sympathized,  to  the  boys,  at  the  same  time  taking  hold  of  their  arms.  By 
this  time  the  parties  were  fairly  moving  toward  the  stairway  leading  to  the 
deck  below.  Instantly  on  their  starting,  the  slave-holder  rushed  at  the  woman 
and  her  children,  to  prevent  their  leaving ;  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  he 
simultaneously  took  hold  of  the  woman  and  Mr.  Williamson,  which  resistance 
on  his  part  caused  Mr.  W.  to  take  hold  of  him  and  set  him  aside  quickly. 

The  passengers  were  looking  on  all  around,  but  none  interfered  in  behalf  of 
the  slaveholder  except  one  man,  whom  I  took  to  be  another  slaveholder.  He 
said  harshly,  "  Let  them  alone  ;  they  are  his  property  !"  The  youngest  boy, 
about  7  years  of  age — too  young  to  know  what  these  things  meant — cried 
"  Massa  John  !  Massa  John !"  The  elder  boy,  11  years  of  age,  took  the 


90  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

matter  more  dispassionately,  and  the  mother  quite  calmly.  The  mother  and 
her  sympathizers  all  moved  down  the  stairs  together  in  the  presence  of  quite 
a  number  of  spectators  on  the  first  deck  and  on  the  wharf,  all  of  whom,  as 
far  as  I  was  able  to  discern,  seemed  to  look  upon  the  whole  affair  with  the 
greatest  indifference.  The  woman  and  children  were  assisted,  but  not  forced 
to  leave.  Nor  were  there  any  violence  or  threatenings  as  I  saw  or  heard. 
The  only  words  that  I  heard  from  any  one  of  an  objectionable  character,  were : 
"  Knock  him  down ;  knock  him  down  !"  but  who  uttered  it  or  who  was 
meant  I  knew  not,  nor  have  I  since  been  informed.  However,  if  it  was 
uttered  by  a  colored  man,  I  regret  it,  as  there  was  not  the  slightest  cause  for 
such  language,  especially  as  the  sympathies  of  the  spectators  and  citizens 
seemed  to  justify  the  course  pursued. 

While  passing  off  of  the  wharf  and  down  Delaware-avenue  to  Dock  st., 
and  up  Dock  to  Front,  where  a  carriage  w&s  procured,  the  slaveholder  and 
one  police  officer  were  of  the  party,  if  no  more. 

The  youngest  boy  on  being  put  in  the  carriage  was  told  that  he  was  "  a 
fool  for  crying  so  after  '  Massa  John/  who  would  sell  him  if  he  ever  caught 
him."  Not  another  whine  was  heard  on  the  subject. 

The  carriage  drove  down  town  slowly,  the  horses  being  fatigued  and  the 
weather  intensely  hot ;  the  inmates  were  put  out  on  Tenth  street — not  at  any 
house — after  which  they  soon  found  hospitable  friends  and  quietude.  The 
excitement  of  the  moment  having  passed  by,  the  mother  seemed  very  cheerful, 
and  rejoiced  greatly  that  herself  and  boys  had  been,  as  she  thought,  so  "provi- 
dentially delivered  from  the  house  of  bondage  !"  For  the  first  time  in  her 
life  she  could  look  upon  herself  and  children  and  feel  free ! 

Having  felt  the  iron  in  her  heart  for  the  best  half  of  her  days — having 
been  sold  with  her  children  on  the  auction  block — having  had  one  of  her 
children  sold  far  away  from  her  without  hope  of  her  seeing  him  again — she 
very  naturally  and  wisely  concluded  to  go  to  Canada,  fearing  if  she  re- 
mained in  this  city — as  some  assured  her  she  could  do  with  entire  safety — 
that  she  might  again  find  herself  in  the  clutches  of  the  tyrant  from  whom 
she  had  fled. 

A  few  items  of  what  she  related  concerning  the  character  of  her  master 
may  be  interesting  to  the  reader — 

"Within  the  last  two  years  he  had  sold  all  his  slaves — between  thirty  and 
forty  in  number — having  purchased  the  present  ones  in  that  space  of  time. 
She  said  that  before  leaving  Washington,  coming  on  the  cars,  and  at  his 
father-in-law's  in  this  city,  a  number  of  persons  had  told  him  that  in  bring- 
ing his  slaves  into  Pennsylvania  they  would  be  free.  When  told  at  his 
father-in-law's,  as  she  overheard  it,  that  he  "  could  not  have  done  a  worse 
thing,"  &c.,  he  replied  that  "  Jane  would  not  leave  him." 

As  much,  however,  as  he  affected  to  have  such  implicit  confidence  in  Jane, 
he  scarcely  allowed  her  to  be  out  of  his  presence  a  moment  while  in  this 


TRIAL  OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS.  91 

city.  To  use  Jane's  own  language,  he  was  "  on  her  heels  every  minute," 
fearing  that  some  one  might  get  to  her  ears  the  sweet  music  of  freedom.  By 
the  way,  Jane  had  it  deep  in  her  heart  before  leaving  the  South,  and  was 
bent  on  succeeding  in  New  York,  if  disappointed  in  Philadelphia. 

At  Bloodgood's,  after  having  been  belated  and  left  by  the  2  o'clock  train, 
while  waiting  for  the  5  o'clock  line,  his  appetite  tempted  her  "  master  "  to  take 
a  hasty  dinner.  So  after  placing  Jane  where  bethought  she  would  be  pretty 
secure  from  "  evil  communications  "  from  the  colored  waiters,  and  after  giv- 
ing her  a  double  counselling,  he  made  his  way  to  the  table ;  remained 
but  a  little  while,  however,  before  leaving  to  look  after  Jane  ;  finding  her 
composed,  looking  over  a  bannister  near  where  he  left  her,  he  returned  to  the 
table  again  and  finished  his  meal. 

But,  alas,  for  the  slave-holder !  Jane  had  her  "  top  eye  open,"  and  in  that 
brief  space  had  appealed  to  the  sympathies  of  a  person  whom  she  ventured 
to  trust,  saying,  "I  and  my  children  are  slaves,  and  we  want  liberty  !"  I 
am  not  certain,  but  suppose  that  person,  in  the  goodness  of  his  heart,  was 
the  cause  of  the  note  being  sent  to  the  Anti-Slavery  office,  and  hence  the 
result. 

As  to  her  going  on  to  New  York  to  see  her  friends,  and  wishing  to  return 
to  her  three  children  in  the  South,  and  his  going  to  free  her,  &c.,  Jane  de- 
clared repeatedly  and  very  positively,  that  there  was  not  a  particle  of  truth 
in  what  her  master  said  on  these  points.  The  truth  is  she  had  not  the 
slightest  hope  of  freedom  through  any  act  of  his.  She  had  only  left  one  boy 
in  the  South,  who  had  been  sold  far  away,  where  she  scarcely  ever  heard 
from  him,  indeed  never  expected  to  see  him  any  more. 

In  appearance  Jane  is  tall  and  well  formed,  high  and  large  forehead,  of 
genteel  manners,  chestnut  color,  and  seems  to  possess,  naturally,  uncommon 
good  sense,  though  of  course  she  has  never  been  allowed  to  read. 

Thus  I  have  given  as  truthful  a  report  as  I  am  capable  of  doing,  of  Jane 
and  the  circumstances  connected  with  her  deliverance.  W.  STILL. 

P.  S. — Of  the  five  colored  porters  who  promptly  appeared,  with  warm 
hearts  throbbing  in  sympathy  with  the  mother  and  her  children,  too  much 
cannot  be  said  in  commendation.  In  the  present  case  they  acted  nobly, 
whatever  may  be  said  of  their  general  character,  of  which  I  know  nothing. 
How  human  beings,  who  have  ever  tasted  oppression,  could  have  acted 
differently  under  the  circumstances  I  cannot  conceive. 

The  mystery  alluded  to,  which  the  above  letter  did  not  contain,  and  which 
the  court  failed  to  make  Mr.  Williamson  reveal,  might  have  been  truthfully 
explained  in  these  words.  The  carriage  was  procured  at  the  wharf,  while 
Col.  Wheeler  and  Mr.  Williamson  were  debating  the  question  relative  to  the 
action  of  the  Committee,  and  at  that  instant,  Jane  and  her  two  boys  were  in- 
vited into  it  and  accompanied  by  the  writer,  who  procured  it,  were  driven 
down  town,  and  on  Tenth  Street,  below  Lombard,  the  inmates  were  invited 


92  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

out  of  it,  and  the  said  conductor  paid  the  driver  and  discharged  him.  For 
prudential  reasons  he  took  them  to  a  temporary  resting-place,  where  they 
could  tarry  until  after  dark ;  then  they  were  invited  to  his  own  residence, 
where  they  were  made  welcome,  and  in  due  time  forwarded  East.  Now, 
what  disposition  was  made  of  them  after  they  had  left  the  wharf,  while 
.  Williamson  and  Wheeler  were  discussing  matters — (as  was  clearly  sworn  to 
by  Passmore,  in  his  answer  to  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus) — he  Williamson 
did  not  know.  That  evening,  before  seeing  the  member  of  the  Committee, 
with  whom  he  acted  in  concert  on  the  boat,  and  who  had  entire  charge  of 
Jane  and  her  boys,  he  left  for  Harrisburg,  to  fulfill  business  engagements. 
The  next  morning  his  father  (Thomas  Williamson)  brought  the  writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus  (which  had  been  served  at  Passmore's  office  after  he  left)  to 
the  Anti-Slavery  Office.  In  his  calm  manner  he  handed  it  to  the  writer,  at 
the  same  time  remarking  that  "  Passmore  had  gone  to  Harrisburg,"  and 
added,  "  thee  had  better  attend  to  it "  (the  writ).  Edward  Hopper,  Esq., 
was  applied  to  with  the  writ,  and  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Williamson,  ap- 
peared before  the  court,  and  stated  "  that  the  writ  had  not  been  served,  as 
Mr.  W.  was  out  of  town,"  etc. 

After  this  statement,  the  Judge  postponed  further  action  until  the  next 
day.  In  the  meanwhile,  Mr.  Williamson  returned  and  found  the  writ 
awaiting  him,  and  an  agitated  state  of  feeling  throughout  the  city  besides. 
Now  it  is  very  certain,  that  he  did  not  seek  to  know  from  those  in  the 
secret,  where  Jane  Johnson  and  her  boys  were  taken  after  they  left  the 
whacf,  or  as  to  what  disposition  had  been  made  of  them,  in  any  way;  except 
to  ask  simply,  "  are  they  safe  ?"  (and  when  told  "  yes,"  he  smiled)  conse- 
quently, he  might  have  been  examined  for  a  week,  by  the  most  skillful 
lawyer,  at  the  Philadelphia  bar,  but  he  could  not  have  answered  other  than 
he  did  in  making  his  return  to  the  writ,  before  Judge  Kane,  namely :  "  That 
the  persons  named  in  the  writ,  nor  either  of  them,  are  now  nor  was  at  the  time 
of  issuing  of  the  writ,  or  the  original  writ,  or  at  any  other  time  in  the  custody, 
power,  or  possession  of  the  respondent,  nor  by  him  confined  or  restrained ; 
wherefore  he  cannot  have  the  bodies,"  etc. 

Thus,  while  Mr.  W.  was  subjected  to  the  severest  trial  of  his  devotion  to 
Freedom,  his  noble  bearing  throughout,  won  for  him  the  admiration  and 
sympathy  of  the  friends  of  humanity  and  liberty  throughout  the  entire 
land,  and  in  proof  of  his  fidelity,  he  most  cheerfully  submitted  to  imprison- 
ment rather  than  desert  his  principles.  But  the  truth  was  not  wanted  in 
this  instance  by  the  enemies  of  Freedom;  obedience  to  Slavery  was 
demanded  to  satisfy  the  South.  The  opportunity  seemed  favorable  for 
teaching  abolitionists  and  negroes,  that  they  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  a 
"  chivalrous  southern  gentleman,"  while  passing  through  Philadelphia  with 
his  slaves.  Thus,  to  make  an  effective  blow,  all  the  pro-slavery  elements 
of  Philadelphia  were  brought  into  action,  and  matters  looked  for  a  time  as 


TRIAL  OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS.  93 

though  Slavery  in  this  instance  would  have  everything  its  own  way.  Pass- 
more  was  locked  up  in  prison  on  the  flimsy  pretext  of  contempt  of  court,  and 
true  bills  were  found  against  him  and  half  a  dozen  colored  men,  charging 
them  with  "riot,"  "forcible  abduction,"  and  "assault  and  battery,"  and 
there  was  no  lack  of  hard  swearing  on  the  part  of  Col.  Wheeler  and  his  pro- 
slavery  sympathizers  in  substantiation  of  these  grave  charges.  But  the 
pro-slaveryites  had  counted  without  their  host — Passmore  would  not  yield 
an  inch,  but  stood  as  firmly  by  his  principles  in  prison,  as  he  did  on  the 
boat.  Indeed,  it  was  soon  evident,  that  his  resolute  course  was  bringing 
floods  of  sympathy  from  the  ablest  and  best  minds  throughout  the  North. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  occasion  was  rapidly  awakening  thousands  daily, 
who  had  hitherto  manifested  little  or  no  interest  at  all  on  the  subject,  to  the 
wrongs  of  the  slave. 

It  was  soon  discovered  by  the  "  chivalry  "  that  keeping  Mr.  Williamson  in 
prison  would  indirectly  greatly  aid  the  cause  of  Freedom — that  every  day 
he  remained  would  make  numerous  converts  to  the  cause  of  liberty ;  that 
Mr.  Williamson  was  doing  ten-fold  more  in  prison  for  the  cause  of  univer- 
sal liberty  than  he  could  possibly  do  while  pursuing  his  ordinary  vocation. 

With  regard  to  the  colored  men  under  bonds,  Col.  Wheeler  and  his  satellites 
felt  very  confident  that  there  was  no  room  for  them  to  escape.  They  must 
have  had  reason  so  to  think,  judging  from  the  hard  swearing  they  did, 
before  the  committing  magistrate.  Consequently,  in  the  order  of  events, 
while  Passmore  was  still  in  prison,  receiving  visits  from  hosts  of  friends,  and 
letters  of  sympathy  from  all  parts  of  the  North,  William  Still,  William 
Curtis,  James  P.  Braddock,  John  Ballard,  James  Martin  and  Isaiah  Moore, 
were  brought  into  court  for  trial.  The  first  name  on  the  list  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  court  was  called  up  first. 

Against  this  individual,  it  was  pretty  well  understood  by  the  friends  of 
the  slave,  that  no  lack  of  pains  and  false  swearing  would  be  resorted  to  on 
the  part  of  Wheeler  and  his  witnesses,  to  gain  a  verdict. 

Mr.  McKim  and  other  noted  abolitionists  managing  the  defense,  were 
equally  alive  to  the  importance  of  overwhelming  the  enemy  in  this  par- 
ticular issue.  The  Hon.  Charles  Gibbons,  was  engaged  to  defend  William 
Still,  and  William  S.  Pierce,  Esq.,  and  William  B.  Birney,  Esq.,  the  other 
five  colored  defendants. 

In  order  to  make  the  victory  complete,  the  anti-slavery  friends  deemed  it 
of  the  highest  importance  to  have  Jane  Johnson  in  court,  to  face  her  master, 
and  under  oath  to  sweep  away  his  "  refuge  of  lies,"  with  regard  to  her  being 
"abducted,"  and  her  unwillingness  to  "leave  her  master,"  etc.  So  Mr. 
McKim  and  the  friends  very  privately  arrange^  to  have  Jane  Johnson  on 
hand  at  the  opening  of  the  defense. 

Mrs.  Lucretia  Mott,  Mrs.  McKim,  Miss  Sarah  Pugh  and  Mrs.  Plumly, 
volunteered  to  accompany  this  poor  slave  mother  to  the  court-house  and 


94  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

to  occupy  seats  by  her  side,  while  she  should  face  her  master,  and  boldly, 
on  oath,  contradict  all  his  hard  swearing.  A  better  subject  for  the  occasion 
than  Jane,  could  not  have  been  desired.  She  entered  the  court  room  veiled, 
and  of  course  was  not  known  by  the  crowd,  as  pains  had  been  taken  to  keep 
the  public  in  ignorance  of  the  fact,  that  she  was  to  be  brought  on  to  bear 
witness.  So  that,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  second  witness  on  the  part  of  the 
defense,  "Jane  Johnson"  was  called  for,  in  a  shrill  voice.  Deliberately, 
Jane  arose  and  answered,  in  a  lady-like  manner  to  her  name,  and  was  then 
the  observed  of  all  observers.  Never  before  had  such  a  scene  been  wit- 
nessed in  Philadelphia.  It  was  indescribable.  Substantially,  her  testi- 
mony on  this  occasion,  was  in  keeping  with  the  subjoined  affidavit,  which 
was  as  follows — 
"State  of  New  York,  City  and  County  of  New  York. 

"Jane  Johnson  being  sworn,  makes  oath  and  says — 

"  My  name  is  Jane — Jane  Johnson ;  I  was  the  slave  of  Mr.  Wheeler  of 
Washington ;  he  bought  me  and  my  two  children,  about  two  years  ago,  of 
Mr.  Cornelius  Crew,  of  Richmond,  Va.;  my  youngest  child  is  between  six 
and  seven  years  old,  the  other  between  ten  and  eleven  ;  I  have  one  other 
child  only,  and  he  is  in  Richmond ;  I  have  not  seen  him  for  about  two 
years;  never  expect  to  see  him  again;  Mr.  Wheeler  brought  me  and  my  two 
children  to  Philadelphia,  on  the  way  to  Nicaragua,  to  wait  on  his  wife ;  I 
didn't  want  to  go  without  my  two  children,  and  he  consented  to  take  them  ; 
we  came  to  Philadelphia  by  the  cars;  stopped  at  Mr.  Sully's,  Mr.  Wheeler's 
father-in-law,  a  few  moments ;  then  went  to  the  steamboat  for  New  York  at 
2  o'clock,  but  were  too  late ;  we  went  into  Bloodgood's  Hotel ;  Mr.  Wheeler 
went  to  dinner;  Mr.  Wheeler  had  told  me  in  Washington  to  have  nothing 
to  say  to  colored  persons,  and  if  any  of  them  spoke  to  me,  to  say  I  was  a 
free  woman  traveling  with  a  minister;  we  staid  at  Bloodgood's  till  5  o'clock; 
Mr.  Wheeler  kept  his  eye  on  me  all  the  time  except  when  he  was  at  dinner ; 
he  left  his  dinner  to  come  and  see  if  I  was  safe,  and  then  went  back  again ; 
while  he  was  at  dinner,  I  saw  a  colored  woman  and  told  her  I  was  a  slave 
woman,  that  my  master  had  told  me  not  to  speak  to  colored  people,  and  that 
if  any  of  them  spoke  to  me  to  say  that  I  was  free ;  but  I  am  not  free ;  but 
I  want  to  be  free;  she  said  :  l  poor  thing,  I  pity  you  ;'  after  that  I  saw  a 
colored  man  and  said  the  same  thing  to  him,  he  said  he  would  telegraph  to 
New  York,  and  two  men  would  meet  me  at  9  o'clock  and  take  me  with 
them ;  after  that  we  went  on  board  the  boat,  Mr.  Wheeler  sat  beside  me  on 
the  deck ;  I  saw  a  colored  gentleman  come  on  board,  he  beckoned  to  me ;  I 
nodded  my  head,  and  could  not  go ;  Mr.  Wheeler  was  beside  me  and  I  was 
afraid ;  a  white  gentleman  then  came  and  said  to  Mr.  Wheeler,  '  I  want  to 
speak  to  your  servant,  and  tell  her  of  her  rights ;'  Mr.  Wheeler  rose  and 
said,  'If  you  have  anything  to  say,  say  it  to  me — she  knows  her  rights;' 
the  white  gentleman  asked  me  if  I  wanted  to  be  free;  I  said  'I  do,  but  I 


JANE  JOHNSON. 


PASSMORE  WILLIAMSON. 


TRIAL   OF  THE  EMANCIPATORS.  95 

belong  to  this  gentleman  and  I  can't  have  it;'  he  replied,  'Yes,  you  can, 
come  with  us,  you  are  as  free  as  your  master,  if  you  want  your  freedom 
come  now ;  if  you  go  back  to  Washington  you  may  never  get  it ;'  I  rose  to 
go,  Mr.  Wheeler  spoke,  and  said,  'I  will  give  you  your  freedom,'  but  he 
had  never  promised  it  before,  and  I  knew  he  would  never  give  it  to  me ;  the 
white  gentleman  held  out  his  hand  and  I  went  toward  him ;  I  was  ready  for 
the  word  before  it  was  given  me ;  I  took  the  children  by  the  hands,  who 
both  cried,  for  they  were  frightened,  but  both  stopped  when  they  got  on 
shore;  a  colored  man  carried  the  little  one,  I  led  the  other  by  the  hand.  We 
walked  down  the  street  till  we  got  to  a  hack ;  nobody  forced  me  away ; 
nobody  pulled  me,  and  nobody  led  me;  I  went  away  of  my  own  free  will; 
I  always  wished  to  be  free  and  meant  to  be  free  when  I  came  North ;  I 
hardly  expected  it  in  Philadelphia,  but  I  thought  I  should  get  free  in  New 
York;  I  have  been  comfortable  and  happy  since  I  left  Mr.  Wheeler,  and 
so  are  the  children ;  I  don't  want  to  go  back ;  I  could  have  gone  in  Phila- 
delphia if  I  had  wanted  to  ;  I  could  go  now;  but  I  had  rather  die  than  go 
back.  I  wish  to  make  this  statement  before  a  magistrate,  because  I  under- 
stand that  Mr.  Williamson  is  in  prison  on  my  account,  and  I  hope  the  truth 
may  be  of  benefit  to  him." 

her 

JANE  ^   JOHNSON. 

mark. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  her  honest  and  straightforward  testi- 
mony would  have  been  sufficient  to  cause  even  the  most  relentless  slave- 
holder to  abandon  at  once  a  pursuit  so  monstrous  and  utterly  hopeless  as 
Wheeler's  was.  But  although  he  was  sadly  confused  and  put  to  shame,  he 
hung  on  to  the  "  lost.cause  "  tenaciously.  And  his  counsel,  David  Webster, 
Esq.,  and  the  United  States  District  Attorney,  Vandyke,  completely  im- 
bued with  the  pro-slavery  spirit,  were  equally  as  unyielding.  And  thus, 
with  a  zeal  befitting  the  most  worthy  object  imaginable,  they  labored  with 
untiring  effort  to  convict  the  colored  men. 

By  this  policy,  however,  the  counsel  for  the  defense  was  doubly  aroused. 
Mr.  Gibbons,  in  the  most  eloquent  and  indignant  strains,  perfectly  annihi- 
lated the  "distinguished  Colonel  John  H.  Wheeler,  United  States  Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary  near  the  Island  of  Nicaragua,"  taking  special  pains 
to  ring  the  changes  repeatedly  on  his  long  appellations.  Mr.  Gibbons  ap- 
peared to  be  precisely  in  the  right  mood  to  make  himself  surpassingly  forci- 
ble and  eloquent,  on  whatever  point  of  law  he  chose  to  touch  bearing  on  the 
case;  or  in  whatever  direction  he  chose  to  glance  at  the  injustice  and  cruelty 
of  the  South.  Most  vividly  did  he  draw  the  contrast  between  the  States  of 
"Georgia"  and  "Pennsylvania,"  with  regard  to  the  atrocious  laws  of 
Georgia.  Scarcely  less  vivid  is  the  impression  after  a  lapse  of  sixteen  years, 
than  when  this  eloquent  speech  was  made.  With  the  District  Attorney, 
Wm.  B.  Mann,  Esq.,  and  his  Honor,  Judge  Kelley,  the  defendants  had  no 


96  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

cause  to  complain.  Throughout  the  entire  proceedings,  they  had  reason  to 
feel,  that  neither  of  these  officials  sympathized  in  the  least  with  Wheeler  or 
Slavery.  Indeed  in  the  Judge's  charge  and  also  in  the  District  Attorney's 
closing  speech  the  ring  of  freedom  could  be  distinctly  heard — much  more  so 
than  was  agreeable  to  Wheeler  and  his  Pro-Slavery  sympathizers.  The  case 
of  Wm.  Still  ended  in  his  acquittal ;  the  other  five  colored  men  were  taken 
up  in  order.  And  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  Messrs.  Peirce  and 
Birney  did  full  justice  to  all  concerned.  Mr.  Peirce,  especially,  was  one  of 
the  oldest,  ablest  and  most  faithful  lawyers  to  the  slave  of  the  Philadelphia 
Bar.  He  never  was  known,  it  may  safely  be  said,  to  hesitate  in  the  darkest 
days  of  Slavery  to  give  his  time  and  talents  to  the  fugitive,  even  in  the  most 
hopeless  cases,  and  when,  from  the  unpopularity  of  such  a  course,  serious  sacri- 
fices would  be  likely  to  result.  Consequently  he  was  but  at  home  in  this 
case,  and  most  nobly  did  he  defend  his  clients,  with  the  same  earnestness 
that  a  man  would  defend  his  fireside  against  the  approach  of  burglars. 
At  the  conclusion  of  the  trial,  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  "not  guilty," 
as  to  all  the  persons  in  the  first  count,  charging  them  with  riot.  In  the 
second  count,  charging  them  with  "  Assault  and  Battery  "  (on  Col.  Wheeler) 
Ballard  and  Curtis  were  found  "  guilty,"  the  rest  "  not  guilty."  The  guilty 
were  given  about  a  week  in  jail.  Thus  ended  this  act  in  the  Wheeler 
drama. 

The  following  extract  is  taken  from  the  correspondence  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  touching  Jane  Johnson's  presence  in  the  court,  and  will  be  interest- 
ing on  that  account : 

"  But  it  was  a  bold  and  perilous  move  on  the  part  of  her  friends,  and  the 
deepest  apprehensions  were  felt  for  a  while,  for  the  result.  The  United 
States  Marshal  was  there  with  his  warrant  and  an  extra  force  to  execute  it. 
The  officers  of  the  court  and  other  State  officers  were  there  to  protect  the 
witness  and  vindicate  the  laws  of  the  State.  Vandyke,  the  United  States 
District  Attorney,  swore  he  would  take  her.  The  State  officers  swore  he 
should  not,  and  for  a  while  it  seemed  that  nothing  could  avert  a  bloody 
scene.  It  was  expected  that  the  conflict  would  take  place  at  the  door, 
when  she  should  leave  the  room,  so  that  when  she  and  her  friends  went  out, 
and  for  some  time  after,  the  most  intense  suspense  pervaded  the  court-room. 
She  was,  however,  allowed  to  enter  the  carriage  that  awaited  her  without 
disturbance.  She  was  accompanied  by  Mr.  McKim,  Secretary  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Anti-Slavery  Society,  Lucretia  Mott  and  George  Corson,  one  of  our 
most  manly  and  intrepid  police  officers.  The  carriage  was  followed  by 
another  filled  with  officers  as  a  guard ;  and  thus  escorted  she  was  taken  back 
in  safety  to  the  house  from  which  she  had  been  brought.  Her  title  to 
Freedom  under  the  laws  of  the  State  will  hardly  again  be  brought  into 
question. 

Mr.  Williamson  was  committed  to  prison  by  Judge  Kane  for  contempt  of 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  97 

Court,  on  the  27th  day  of  July,  1855,  and  was  released  on  the  3d  day  of 
November  the  same  year,  having  gained,  in  the  estimation  of  the  friends 
of  Freedom  every  where,  a  triumph  and  a  fame  which  but  few  men  in  the 
great  moral  battle  for  Freedom  could  claim. 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH. 

SIXTY  PASSENGERS  CAME  IN  ONE  MONTH— TWENTY- EIGHT  IN  ONE  ARRIVAL — GREAT 

PANIC  AND  INDIGNATION  MEETING — INTERESTING  CORRESPONDENCE  FROM 

MASTERS  AND  FUGITIVES. 

The  great  number  of  cases  to  be  here  noticed  forbids  more  than  a  brief 
reference  to  each  passenger.  As  they  arrived  in  parties,  their  narratives  will 
be  given  in  due  order  as  found  on  the  book  of  records : 

William  Griffen,  Henry  Moor,  James  Camper,  Noah  Ennells  and  Levin 
Parker.  This  party  came  from  Cambridge,  Md. 

WILLIAM  is  thirty-four  years  of  age,  of  medium  size  and  substantial  ap- 
pearance. He  fled  from  James  Waters,  Esq.,  a  lawyer,  living  in  Cam- 
bridge. He  was  "wealthy,  close,  and  stingy,"  and  owned  nine  head  of 
slaves  and  a  farm,  on  which  William  served.  He  was  used  very  hard,  which 
was  the  cause  of  his  escape,  though  the  idea  that  he  was  entitled  to  his  free- 
dom had  been  entertained  for  the  previous  twelve  years.  On  preparing  to  take 
the  Underground,  he  armed  himself  with  a  big  butcher-knife,  and  resolved, 
if  attacked,  to  make  his  enemies  stand  back.  His  master  was  a  member  of 
the  Methodist  Church. 

HENRY  is  tall,  copper-colored,  and  about  thirty  years  of  age.  He  com- 
plained not  so  much  of  bad  usage  as  of  the  utter  distaste  he  had  to  working 
all  the  time  for  the  "  white  people  for  nothing."  He  was  also  decidedly  of 
the  opinion  that  every  man  should  have  his  liberty.  Four  years  ago  his 
wife  was  "sold  away  to  Georgia"  by  her  young  master;  since  which  time 
not  a  word  had  he  heard  of  her.  She  left  three  children,  and  he,  in  escaping, 
also  had  to  leave  them  in  the  same  hands  that  sold  their  mother.  He 
was  owned  by  Levin  Dale,  a  farmer  near  Cambridge.  Henry  was  armed 
with  a  six-barreled  revolver,  a  large  knife,  and  a  determined  mind. 

JAMES  is  twenty-four  years  of  age,  quite  black,  small  size,  keen  look,  and 
full  of  hope  for  the  "  best  part  of  Canada."  He  fled  from  Henry  Hooper, 
"  a  (lashing  young  man  and  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church.''  Left  be- 
cause he  "did  not  enjoy  privileges"  as  he  wished  to  do.  He  was  armed 
with  two  pistols  and  a  dirk  to  defend  himself. 

NOAH  is  only  nineteen,  quite  dark,  well-proportioned,  and  possessed  of  a 
fair  average  of  common  sense.  He  was  owned  by  "  Black-head  Bill  Le- 
Count,"  who  "followed  drinking,  chewing  tobacco,  catching  l  runaways,'  and 
hanging  around  the  court-house."  However,  he  owned  six  head  of  slaves, 
and  had  a  "  rough  wife,"  who  belonged  to  the  Methodist  Church.  Left  be- 
7 


98  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

cause  he  "  expected  every  day  to  be  sold  " — his  master  being  largely  in 
"  debt."  Brought  with  him  a  butcher-knife. 

LEVIN  is  twenty-two,  rather  short  built,  medium  size  and  well  colored. 
He  fled  from  Lawrence  G.  Colson,  "  a  very  bad  man,  fond  of  drinking,  great 
to  fight  and  swear,  and  hard  to  please.  His  mistress  was  "  real  rough  ;  very 
bad,  worse  than  he  was  as  '  fur '  as  she  could  be."  Having  been  stinted 
with  food  and  clothing  and  worked  hard,  was  the  apology  offered  by  Levin 
for  running  off. 

STEBNEY  SWAN,  John  Stinger,  Robert  Emerson,  Anthony  Pugh  and  Isa- 
bella   .  This  company  came  from  Portsmouth,  Va.  Stebney  is  thirty- 
four  years  of  age,  medium  size,  mulatto,  and  quite  wide  awake.  He  was 
owned  by  an  oystermau  by  the  name  of  Jos.  Carter,  who  lived  near  Ports- 
mouth. Naturally  enough  his  master  "  drank  hard,  gambled  "  extensively, 
and  in  every  other  respect  was  a  very  ordinary  man.  Nevertheless,  he 
"  owned  twenty-five  head,"  and  had  a  wife  and  six  children.  Stebney  testi- 
fied that  he  had  not  been  used  hard,  though  he  had  been  on  the  "  auction- 
block  three  times."  Left  because  he  was  "tired  of  being  a  servant."  Armed 
with  a  broad-axe  and  hatchet,  he  started,  joined  by  the  above-named  com- 
panions, and  came  in  a  skiff,  by  sea.  Robert  Lee  was  the  brave  Captain 
engaged  to  pilot  this  Slavery-sick  party  from  the  prison-house  of  bondage. 
And  although  every  rod  of  rowing  was  attended  with  inconceivable  peril, 
the  desired  haven  was  safely  reached,  and  the  overjoyed  voyagers  conducted 
to  the  Vigilance  Committee. 

JOHN  is  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  so  near  white  that  a  microscope 
would  be  required  to  discern  his  colored  origin.  His  father  was  white,  and 
his  mother  nearly  so.  He  also  had  been  owned  by  the  oysterman  alluded  to 
above ;  had  been  captain  of  one  of  his  oyster-boats,  until  recently.  And  but 
for  his  attempt  some  months  back  to  make  his  escape,  he  might  have  been 
this  day  in  the  care  of  his  kind-hearted  master.  But,  because  of  this  way- 
ward step  on  the  part  of  John,  his  master  felt  called  upon  to  humble  him. 
Accordingly,  the  captaincy  was  taken  from  him,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
struggle  on  in  a  less  honorable  position.  Occasionally  John's  mind  would  be 
refreshed  by  his  master  relating  the  hard  times  in  the  North,  the  great  starva- 
tion among  the  blacks,  etc.  He  would  also  tell  John  how  much  better  off  he 
was  as  a  "  slave  with  a  kind  master  to  provide  for  all  his  wants,"  etc.  Not- 
withstanding all  this  counsel,  John  did  not  rest  contented  until  he  was  on  the 
Underground  Rail  Road. 

ROBERT  was  only  nineteen,  with  an  intelligent  face  and  prepossessing  man- 
ners; reads,  writes  and  ciphers;  and  is  about  half  Anglo-Saxon.  He  fled 
from  Wm.  H.  Wilson,  Esq.,  Cashier  of  the  Virginia  Bank.  Until  within 
the  four  years  previous  to  Robert's  escape,  the  cashier  was  spoken  of  as  a 
"  very  good  man  ;"  but  in  consequence  of  speculations  in  a  large  Hotel  in 
Portsmouth,  and  the  then  financial  embarrassments,  "he  had  become  seri- 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  99 

ously  involved,"  and  decidedly  changed  in  his  manners.     Robert  noticed 
this,  and  concluded  he  had  "  better  get  out  of  danger  as  soon  as  possible." 

ANTHONY  and  Isabella  were  an  engaged  couple,  and  desired  to  cast  their 
lot  where  husband  and  wife  could  not  be  separated  on  the  auction-block. 

The  following  are  of  the  Cambridge  party,  above  alluded  to.     All  left 
together,  but  for  prudential  reasons  separated  before  reaching  Philadelphia. 
The  company   that  left  Cambridge  on  the  24th   of  October  may   be  thus 
recognized:    Aaron  Cornish   and  wife,  with  their  six   children;  Solomon, 
George  Anthony,  Joseph,  Edward  James,  Perry  Lake,  and  a  nameless  babe, 
all  very  likely  ;    Kit  Anthony  and  wife  Leah,  and  three  children,  Adam, 
Mary,  and  Murray;  Joseph  Hill  and  wife  Alice,  and  their  son  Henry;   also 
Joseph's  sister.     Add  to  the  above,  Marshall  Dutton  and  George  Light, 
both  single  young  men,  and  we  have  twenty-eight  in  one  arrival,  as  hearty- 
looking,  brave  and  interesting  specimens  of  Slavery  as  could  well  be  pro- 
duced from   Maryland.     Before   setting   out  they  counted   well   the   cost. 
Being  aware  that  fifteen  had  left  their  neighborhood  only  a  few  days  ahead 
of  them,  and  that  every  slave-holder  and  slave-catcher  throughout  the  com- 
munity, were  on  the  alert,  and  raging  furiously  against  the  inroads  of  the 
Underground  Rail   Road,    they   provided  themselves  with   the   following 
weapons  of  defense:    three  revolvers,  three  double-barreled  pistols,  three 
single-barreled  pistols,  three  sword-canes,  four  butcher  knives,  one  bowie- 
knife,  and  one  paw.*     Thus,  fully  resolved  upon  freedom  or  death,  with 
scarcely  provisions  enough  for  a  single  day,  while  the  rain  and  storm  was 
piteously  descending,  fathers  and  mothers  with  children  in  their  arms  (Aaron 
Cornish  had  two) — the  entire  party  started.    Of  course,  their  provisions  gave 
out  before  they  were  fairly  on  the  way,  but  not  so  with  the  storm.     It 
continued   to   pour  upon  them  for  nearly  three  days.      With  nothing  to 
appease  the  gnawings  of  hunger  but  parched  corn  and  a  few  dry  crackers, 
wet  and  cold,  with  several  of  the  children  sick,  some  of  their  feet  bare  and 
worn,  and  one  of  the  mothers  with  an  infant  in  her  arms,  incapable  of  par- 
taking of  the  diet, — it  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  ordeal  they  were  passing. 
It  was  enough  to  cause  the  bravest  hearts  to  falter.     But  not  for  a  moment 
did  they  allow  themselves  to  look  back.     It  was  exceedingly  agreeable  to 
hear  even  the  little  children  testify  that  in  the  most  trying  hour  on  the  road, 
not  for  a  moment  did  they  want  to  go  back.     The  following  advertisement, 
taken  from  The  Cambridge  Democrat  of  November  4,  shows  how  the  Rev. 
Levi  Traverse  felt  about  Aaron — 

$300  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  from  the  neighborhood 
of  Town  Point,  on  Saturday  night,  the  24th  inst.,  my  negro  man,  AAEON 
CORNISH,  about  35  years  old.  He  is  abojit  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  black, 
good-looking,  rather  pleasant  countenance,  and  carries  himself  with  a  confident 
manner.  He  went  off  with  his  wife,  DAFFNEY,  a  negro  woman  belonging  to 
Reuben  E.  Phillips.  I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  taken  out  of  the  county, 
and  $200  if  taken  in  the  county ;  in  either  case  to  be  lodged  in  Cambridge  Jail. 
October  25,  1857.  LEVI  D.  TRAVEHSE. 

*  A  paw  is  a  weapon  with  iron  prongs,  four  inches  long,  to  be  grasped  with  the  hand  and  used  in 
close  encaunter. 


100  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

To  fully  understand  the  Rev.  Mr.  Traverse's  authority  for  taking  the 
liberty  he  did  with  Aaron's  good  name,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  briefly 
a  paragraph  of  private  information  from  Aaron,  relative  to  his  master. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Traverse  belonged  to  the  Methodist  Church,  and  was 
described  by  Aaron  as  a  "  bad  young  man;  rattle-brained;  with  the  appear- 
ance of  not  having  good  sense, — not  enough  to  manage  the  great  amount  of 
property  (he  had  been  left  wealthy)  in  his  possession."  Aaron's  servitude 
commenced  under  this  spiritual  protector  in  May  prior  to  the  escape,  imme- 
diately after  the  death  of  his  old  master.  His  deceased  master,  William  D. 
Traverse,  by  the  way,  was  the  father-in-law,  and  at  the  same  time  own 
uncle  of  Aaron's  reverend  owner.  Though  the  young  master,  for  marrying 
his  own  cousin  and  uncle's  daughter,  had  been  for  years  the  subject  of  the 
old  gentleman's  wrath,  and  was  not  allowed  to  come  near  his  house,  or  to 
entertain  any  reasonable  hope  of  getting  any  of  his  father-in-laVs  estate, 
nevertheless,  scarcely  had  the  old  man  breathed  his  last,  ere  the  young 
preacher  seized  upon  the  inheritance,  slaves  and  all;  at  least  he  claimed  two- 
thirds,  allowing  for  the  widow  one-third.  Unhesitatingly  he  had  taken 
possession  of  all  the  slaves  (some  thirty  head),  and  was  making  them  feel 
his  power  to  the  fullest  extent.  To  Aaron  this  increased  oppression  was 
exceedingly  crushing,  as  he  had  been  hoping  at  the  death  of  his  old  master 
to  be  free.  Indeed,  it  was  understood  that  the  old  man  had  his  will  made, 
and  freedom  provided  for  the  slaves.  But,  strangely  enough,  at  his  death 
no  will  could  be  found.  Aaron  was  firmly  of  the  conviction  that  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Traverse  knew  what  became  of  it.  Between  the  widow  and 
the  son-in-law,  in  consequence  of  his  aggressive  steps,  existed  much  hostility, 
which  strongly  indicated  the  approach  of  a  law-suit ;  therefore,  except  by 
escaping,  Aaron  could  not  see  the  faintest  hope  of  freedom.  Under  his  old 
master,  the  favor  of  hiring  his  time  had  been  granted  him.  He  had  also 
been  allowed  by  his  wife's  mistress  (Miss  Jane  Carter,  of  Baltimore),  to 
have  his  wife  and  children  home  with  him — that  is,  until  his  children  would 
grow  to  the  age  of  eight  and  ten  years,  then  they  would  be  taken  away  and 
hired  out  at  twelve  or  fifteen  dollars  a  year  at  first.  Her  oldest  boy,  sixteen, 
hired  the  year  he  left  for  forty  dollars.  They  had  had  ten  children ;  two  had 
died,  two  they  were  compelled  to  leave  in  chains ;  the  rest  they  brought 
away.  Not  one  dollar's  expense  had  they  been  to  their  mistress.  The 
industrious  Aaron  not  only  had  to  pay  his  own  hire,  but  was  obliged  to  do 
enough  over- work  to  support  his  large  family. 

Though  he  said  he  had  no  special  complaint  to  make  against  his  old  mas- 
ter,, through  whom  he,  with  the  rest  of  the  slaves,  hoped  to  obtain  freedom, 
Aaron,  nevertheless,  spoke  of  him  as  a  man  of  violent  temper,  severe  on  his 
slaves,  drinking  hard,  etc.,  though  he  was  a  man  of  wealth  and  stood  high 
in  the  community.  One  of  Aaron's  brothers,  and  others,  had  been  sold  South 
by  him.  It  was  on  account  of  his  inveterate  hatred  of  his  son-in-law,  who, 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  101 

he  declared,  should  never  have  his  property  (having  no  other  heir  but  his 
niece,  except  his  widow),  that  the  slaves  relied  on  his  promise  to  free  them. 
Thus,  in  view  of  the  facts  referred  to,  Aaron  was  led  to  commit  the  unpar- 
donable sin  of  running  away  with  his  wife  Daftney,  who,  by  the  way,  looked 
like  a  woman  fully  capable  of  taking  care  of  herself  and  children,  instead  of 
having  them  stolen  away  from  her,  as  though  they  were  pigs. 

JOSEPH  VINEY  and  family — Joseph  was  "held  to  service  or  labor,"  by 
Charles  Bryant,  of  Alexandria,  Va.  Joseph  had  very  nearly  finished  paying 
for  himself.  His  wife  and  children  were  held  by  Samuel  Pattison,  Esq.,  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  "a  great  big  man,"  "  with  red  eyes,  bald 
head,  drank  pretty  freely,"  and  in  the  language  of  Joseph,  "  wouldn't  bear 
nothing."  Two  of  Joseph's  brothers-in-law  had  been  sold  by  his  master. 
Against  Mrs.  Pattison  his  complaint  was,  that  "she  was  mean,  sneaking,  and 
did  not  want  to  give  half  enough  to  eat." 

For  the  enlightenment  of  all  Christendom,  and  coming  posterity  espe- 
cially, the  following  advertisement  and  letter  are  recorded,  with  the  hope  that 
they  will  have  an  important  historical  value.  The  writer  was  at  great  pains 
to  obtain  these  interesting  documents,  directly  after  the  arrival  of  the  memo- 
rable Twenty-Eight ;  and  shortly  afterwards  furnished  to  the  New  York 
Tribune,  in  a  prudential  manner,  a  brief  sketch  of  these  very  passengers, 
including  the  advertisements,  but  not  the  letter.  It  was  safely  laid  away  for 
history — 

$2,000  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber  on  Saturday  night,  the  24th 
inst,  FOURTEEN  HEAD  OF  NEGROES,  viz :  Four  men,  two  women,  one  boy  and 
seven  children.  KIT  is  about  35  years  of  age,  five  feet  six  or  seven  inches  high, 
dark  chestnut  color,  and  has  a  scar  on  one  of  his  thumbs.  JOE  is  about  30  years 
old,  very  black,  his  teeth  are  very  white,  and  is  about  five  feet  eight  inches  high.  HENRY 
is  about  22  years  old,  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  of  dark  chestnut  color  and  large  front 
teeth.  JOE  is  about  20  years  old,  about  five  feet  six  inches  high,  heavy  built  and  black. 
TOM  is  about  16  years  old,  about  five  feet  high,  light  chestnut  color.  SUSAN  is  about  35 
years  old,  dark  chestnut  color,  and  rather  stout  built ;  speaks  rather  slow,  and  has  with 
her  FOUR  CHILDREN,  varying  from  one  to  seven  years  of  age.  LEAH  is  about  28  years 
old,  about  five  feet  high,  dark  chestnut  color,  with  THREE  CHILDREN,  two  boys  and  one 
girl,  from  one  to  eight  years  old. 

I  will  give  $1,000  if  taken  in  the  county,  $1,500  if  taken  out  of  the  county  and  in  the 
State,  and  $2,000  if  taken  out  of  the  State  ;  in  either  case  to  be  lodged  in  Cambridge  (Md.) 
Jail,  so  that  I  can  get  them  again ;  or  I  will  give  a  fair  proportion  of  the  above  reward  if 
any  part  be  secured.  SAMUEL  PATTISON, 

October  26,  1857.  Near  Cambridge,  Md. 

P.  S. — Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  discovered  that  my  negro  woman,  SARAH 
JANE,  25  years  old,  stout  built  and  chestnut  color,  has  also  run  off.  S.  P. 

SAMUEL  PATTISOX'S  LETTER. 

CAMBRIDGE,  Nov.  16th,  1857. 

L.  W.  THOMPSON  : — SIR,  this  morning  I  received  your  letter  wishing  an  accurate  de- 
scription of  my  Negroes  which  ran  away  on  the  24th  of  last  month  and  the  amt  of  reward 
offered  &o  &c.     The  description  is  as  follows.     Kit  is  about  35  years  old,  five  feet,  six  or  . 
seven  inches  high,  dark  chestnut^color  and  has  a  scar  on  one  of  his  thumbs,  he  has  a  very 


102  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

quick  step  and  walks  very  straight,  and  can  read  and  write.  Joe,  is  about  30  years  old, 
very  black  and  about  five  feet  eight  inches  high,  has  a  very  pleasing  appearance,  he  has 
a  free  wife  who  left  with  him  she  is  a  light  molatoo,  she  has  a  child  not  over  one  year  old. 
Henry  is  about  22  years  old,  five  feet,  ten  inches  high,  of  dark  chestnut  coller  and  large 
front  teeth,  he  stoops  a  little  in  his  walk  and  has  a  downward  look.  Joe  is  about  20  years 
old,  about  five  feet  six  inches  high,  heavy  built,  and  has  a  grum  look  and  voice  dull,  and 
black.  Tom  is  about  16  years  old  about  five  feet  high  light  chestnut  coller,  smart  active 
boy,  and  swagers  in  his  walk.  Susan  is  about  35  years  old,  dark  chesnut  coller  and  stout 
built,  speaks  rather  slow  and  has  with  her  four  children,  three  boys  and  one  girl — the  girl 
has  a  thumb  or  finger  on  her  left  hand  (part  of  it)  cut  off,  the  children  are  from  9  months 
to  8  years  old.  (the  youngest  a  boy  9  months  and  the  oldest  whose  name  is  Lloyd  is  about 
8  years  old)  The  husband  of  Susan  (Joe  Viney)  started  off  with  her,  he  is  a  slave,  be- 
longing to  a  gentleman  in  Alexandria  D.  C.  he  is  about  40  years  old  and  dark  chesnut 
cotler  rather  slender  built  and  about  five  feet  seven  or  eight  inches  high,  he  is  also  the 
Father  of  Henry,  Joe  and  Tom.  A  reward  of  $400.  will  be  given  for  his  apprehension. 
Leah  is  about  28  years  old  about  five  feet  high  dark  chesnut  coller,  with  three  children. 
2  Boys  and  1  girl,  they  are  from  one  to  eight  years  old,  the  oldest  boy  is  called  Adam, 
Leah  is  the  wife  of  Kit,  the  first  named  man  in  the  list.  Sarah  Jane  is  about  25  years 
old,  stout  built  and  chesnut  coller,  quick  and  active  in  her  walk.  Making  in  all  15  head, 
men,  women  and  children  belonging  to  me,  or  16  head  including  Joe  Viney,  the  husband 
of  my  woman  Susan. 

A  Reward  of  $2250.  will  be  given  for  my  negroes  if  taken  out  of  the  State  of  Maryland 
and  lodged  in  Cambridge  or  Baltimore  Jail,  so  that  I  can  get  them  or  a  fair  proportion 
for  any  part  of  them.  And  including  Joe  Viney's  reward  $2650  00. 

At  the  same  time  eight  other  negroes  belonging  to  a  neighbor  of  mine  ran  off,  for  which 
a  reward  of  $1400  00  has  been  offered  for  them. 

If  you  should  want  any  information,  witnesses  to  prove  or  indentify  the  negroes,  write 
immediately  on  to  me.  Or  if  you  should  need  any  information  with  regard  to  proving 
the  negroes,  before  I  could  reach  Philadelphia,  you  can  call  on  Mr.  Burroughs  at  Martin  & 
Smith's  store,  Market  Street,  No  308.  Phila  and  he  can  refer  you  to  a  gentleman  who 
knows  the  negroes.  Yours  &c  SAML.  PATTISON. 

This  letter  was  in  answer  to  one  written  in  Philadelphia  and  signed,  "  L. 
W.  Thompson."  It  is  not  improbable  that  Mr.  Pattison's  loss  had  pro- 
duced such  a  high  state  of  mental  excitement  that  he  was  hardly  in  a  con- 
dition for  cool  reflection,  or  he  would  have  weighed  the  matter  a  little  more 
carefully  before  exposing  himself  to  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  agents.  But  the  letter 
possesses  two  commendable  features,  nevertheless.  It  was  tolerably  well 
written  and  prompt. 

Here  is  a  wonderful  exhibition  of  affection  for  his  contented  and  happy 
negroes.  Whether  Mr.  Pattison  suspended  on  suddenly  learning  that  he 
was  minus  fifteen  head,  the  writer  cannot  say.  But  that  there  was  a  great 
slave  hunt  in  every  direction  there  is  no  room  to  doubt.  Though  much 
more  might  be  said  about  the  parties  concerned,  it  must  suffice  to  add  that 
they  came  to  the  Vigilance  Committee  in  a  very  sad  plight — in  tattered 
garments,  hungry,  sick,  and  penniless ;  but  they  were  kindly  clothed,  fed, 
doctored,  and  sent  on  their  way  rejoicing. 

DANIEL  STANLY,  Nat  Amby,  John  Scott,  Hannah  Peters,  Henrietta 
Dobson,  Elizabeth  Amby,  Josiah  Stanly,  Caroline  Stanly,  Daniel  Stanly,  jr., 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  103 

John  Stanly  and  Miller  Stanly  (arrival  from  Cambridge.)  Daniel  is  about 
35,  well-made  and  wide-awake.  Fortunately,  in  emancipating  himself,  he 
also,  through  great  perseverance,  secured  the  freedom  of  his  wife  and  six 
children  ;  one  child  he  was  compelled  to  leave  behind.  Daniel  belonged  to 
Robert  Calender,  a  farmer,  and,  "except  when  in  a  passion,"  said  to  be 
"pretty  clever."  However,  considering  as  a  father,  that  it  was  his  "duty  to 
do  all  he  could  "  for  his  children,  and  that  all  work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a 
dull  boy,  Daniel  felt  bound  to  seek  refuge  in  Canada.  His  wife  and  children 
were  owned  by  "Samuel  Count,  an  old,  bald-headed,  bad  man,"  who  "had 
of  late  years  been  selling  and  buying  slaves  as  a  business,"  though  he  stood 
high  and  was  a  "big  bug  in  Cambridge."  The  children  were  truly  likely- 
looking. 

Nat  is  no  ordinary  man.  Like  a  certain  other  Nat  known  to  history,  his 
honest  and  independent  bearing  in  every  respect  was  that  of  a  natural 
hero.  He  was  full  black,  and  about  six  feet  high ;  of  powerful  physical  pro- 
portions, and  of  more  than  ordinary  intellectual  capacities.  With  the 
strongest  desire  to  make  the  Port  of  Canada  safely,  he  had  resolved  to  be 
"  carried  back,"  if  attacked  by  the  slave  hunters,  "  only  as  a  dead  man."  He 
was  held  to  service  by  John  Muir,  a  wealthy  farmer,  and  the  owner  of  40  or 
50  slaves.  "  Muir  would  drink  and  was  generally  devilish."  Two  of  Nat's 
sisters  and  one  of  his  brothers  had  been  "sold  away  to  Georgia  by  him." 
Therefore,  admonished  by  threats  and  fears  of  having  to  pass  through  the 
same  fiery  furnace,  Nat  was  led  to  consider  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  scheme.  It  was 
through  the  marriage  of  Nat's  mistress  to  his  present  owner  that  he  came 
into  Muir's  hands.  "  Up  to  the  time  of  her  death,"  he  had  been  encouraged 
to  "  hope  "  that  he  would  be  "  free  ;"  indeed,  he  was  assured  by  her  "  dying 
testimony  that  the  slaves  were  not  to  be  sold."  But  regardless  of  the 
promises  and  will  of  his  departed  wife,  Muir  soon  extinguished  all  hopes  of 
freedom  from  that  quarter.  But  not  believing  that  God  had  put  one  man 
here  to  "  be  the  servant  of  another — to  work,"  and  get  none  of  the  benefit  of 
his  labor,  Nat  armed  himself  with  a  good  pistol  and  a  big  knife,  and  taking 
his  wife  with  him,  bade  adieu  forever  to  bondage.  Observing  that  Lizzie 
(Nat's  wife)  looked  pretty  decided  and  resolute,  a  member  of  the  committee 
remarked,  "Would  your  wife  fight  for  freedom?"  "I  have  heard  her  say 
she  would  wade  through  blood  and  tears  for  her  freedom,"  said  Nat,  in  the 

O  '  ' 

most  serious  mood. 

The  following  advertisement  from  The  Cambridge  Democrat  of  Nov.  4, 
speaks  for  itself — 

$300  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  on  Saturday  night  last,  17th 
inst.,  my  negro  woman  Lizzie,  about  28  years  old.  She  is  medium  sized,  dark  com- 
plexion, good-looking,  with  rather  a  down  look.  When  spoken  to,  replies  quickly. 
She  was  well  dressed,  wearing  a  red  and  green  blanket  shawl,  and  carried  with  her 
a  variety  of  clothing.  She  ran  off  in  company  with  her  husband,  Nat  Amby  (belonging 
to  John  Muir,  Esq.),  who  is  about  6  feet  in  height,  with  slight  impediment  in  his  speech, 
dark  chestnut  color,  and  a  large  scar  on  the  side  of  his  neck. 


104  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD.  « 

I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  taken  in  this  County,  or  one-half  of  what  she  sells  for  if 
taken  out  of  the  County  or  State.  In  either  case  to  be  lodged  in  Cambridge  Jail. 

Cambridge,  Oct.  21,  1857.  ALEXANDER  H.  BAYLY. 

P.  S.— For  the  apprehension  of  the  above-named  negro  man  Nat,  and  delivery  in  Cam- 
bridge Jail,  I  will  give  $500  reward.  JOHN  Mum. 

Now  since  Nat's  master  has  been  introduced  in  the  above  order,  it  seems 
but  appropriate  that  Nat  should  be  heard  too;  consequently  the  following 
letter  is  inserted  for  what  it  is  worth : 

AUBURN,  June  10th,  1858. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Sir,  will  you  be  so  Kind  as  to  write  a  letter  to  affey  White  in 
straw  berry  alley  in  Baltimore  city  on  the  point  Say  to  her  at  nat  Ambey  that  I  wish  to 
Know  from  her  the  Last  Letar  that  Joseph  Ambie  and  Henry  Ambie  two  Brothers  and 
Ann  Warfield  a  couisin  of  them  two  boys  I  state  above  I  would  like  to  hear  from  my 
mother  sichy  Ambie  you  will  Please  write  to  my  mother  and  tell  her  that  I  am  well  and 
doing  well  and  state  to  her  that  I  perform  my  Relissius  dutys  and  I  would  like  to  hear 
from  her  and  want  to  know  if  she  is  performing  her  Relissius  dutys  yet  and  send  me  word 
from  all  her  children  I  left  behind  say  to  affey  White  that  I  wish  her  to  write  me  a  Let- 
ter in  Hast  my  wife  is  well  and  doing  well  and  my  nephew  is  doing  well  Please  teli 
affey  White  when  she  writes  to  me  to  Let  me  know  where  Joseph  and  Henry  Ambie  is 

Mr.  Still  Please  Look  on  your  Book  and  you  will  find  my  name  on  your  Book  They 
was  eleven  of  us  children  and  all  when  we  came  through  and  I  feal  interrested  about  my 
Brothers  I  have  never  heard  from  them  since  I  Left  home  you  will  Please  Be  Kind 
annough  to  attend  to  this  Letter  When  you  send  the  answer  to  this  Letter  you  will 
Please  send  it  to  P.  R.  Freeman  Auburn  City  Cayuga  County  New  York 

Yours  Truly  NAT  AMBIE. 

WILLIAM  is  25,  complexion  brown,  intellect  naturally  good,  with  no  favor- 
able notions  of  the  peculiar  institution.  He  was  armed  with  a  formidable 
dirk-knife,  and  declared  he  would  use  it  if  attacked,  rather  than  be  dragged 
back  to  bondage. 

HANNAH  is  a  hearty-looidng  young  woman  of  23  or  24,  with  a  countenance 
that  indicated  that  liberty  was  what  she  wanted  and  was  contending  for,  and 
that  she  could  not  willingly  submit  to  the  yoke.  Though  she  came  with  the 
Cambridge  party,  she  did  not  come  from  Cambridge,  but  from  Marshall 
Hope,  Caroline  County,  where  she  had  been  owned  by  Charles  Peters,  a  man 
who  had  distinguished  himself  by  getting  "  drunk,  scratching  and  fighting, 
etc.,"  not  unfrequently  in  his  own  family  even.  She  had  no  parents  that  she 
knew  of.  Left  because  they  used  her  "  so  bad,  beat  and  knocked  "  her  about. 

"  JACK  SCOTT."  Jack  is  about  thirty-six  years  of  age,  substantially  built, 
dark  color,  and  of  quiet  and  prepossessing  manners.  He  was  owned  by 
David  B.  Turner,  Esq.,  a  dry  goods  merchant  of  New  York.  By  birth, 
Turner  was  a  Virginian,  and  a  regular  slave-holder.  His  slaves  were  kept 
hired  out  by  the  year.  As  Jack  had  had  but  slight  acquaintance  with  his 
New  York  owner,  he  says  but  very  little  about  him.  He  was  moved  to 
leave  simply  because  he  had  got  tired  of  working  for  the  "  white  people  for 
nothing."  Fled  from  Richmond,  Va.  Jack  went  to  Canada  direct.  The 
following  letter  furnishes  a  clew  to  his  whereabouts,  plans,  etc. 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  105 

MONTREAL,  September  1st  1859. 

DEAR  SIR  :— It  is  with  extreme  pleasure  that  I  set  down  to  inclose  you  a  few  lines  to 
let  you  know  that  I  am  well  &  I  hope  when  these  few  lines  come  to  hand  they  may  find 
you  &  your  family  in  good  health  and  prosperity  I  left  your  house  Nov.  3d,  1857,  for 
Canada  I  Received  a  letter  here  from  James  Carter  in  Peters  burg,  saying  that  my  wife 
would  leave  there  about  the  28th  or  the  first  September  and  that  he  would  send  her  on  by 
way  of  Philadelphia  to  you  to  send  on  to  Montreal  if  she  come  on  you  be  please  to  send 
her  on  and  as  there  is.  so  many  boats  coming  here  all  times  a  day  I  may  not  know  what 
time  she  will.  So  you  be  please  to  give  her  this  direction,  she  can  get  a  cab  and  go  to  the 
Donegana  Hotel  and  Edmund  Turner  is  there  he  will  take  you  where  I  lives  and  if  he  is 
not  there  cabman  take  you  to  Mr  Taylors  on  Durham  St.  nearly  opposite  to  the  Methodist 
Church.  Nothing  more  at  present  but  Remain  your  well  wisher  JOHN  SCOTT. 

C.  KITCHENS. — This  individual  took  his  departure  from  Milford,  Del., 
where  he  was  owned  by  Wm.  Hill,  a  farmer,  who  took  special  delight  in 
having  "  fighting  done  on  the  place."  This  passenger  was  one  of  our  least 
intelligent  travelers.  He  was  about  22. 

MAJOR  Ross. — Major  fled  from  John  Jay,  a  farmer  residing  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Havre  de  Grace,  Md.  But  for  the  mean  treatment  received  from 
Mr.  Jay,  Major  might  have  been  foolish  enough  to  have  remained  all  his 
days  in  chains.  "  It's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any  good." 

HENRY  OBERNE. — Henry  was  to  be  free  at  28,  but  preferred  having  it 
at  21,  especially  as  he  was  not  certain  that  28  would  ever  come.  He  is  of 
chestnut  color,  well  made,  &c.,  and  came  from  Seaford,  Md. 

PERRY  BURTON. — Perry  is  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  decidedly 
colored,  medium  size,  and  only  of  ordinary  intellect.  He  acknowledged  John 
R.  Burton,  a  farmer  on  Indian  River,  as  his  master,  and  escaped  because  he 
wanted  "some  day  for  himself." 

ALFRED  HUBERT,  Israel  Whitney  and  John  Thompson.  Alfred  is  of 
powerful  muscular  appearance  and  naturally  of  a  good  intellect.  He  is  full 
dark  chestnut  color,  and  would  doubtless  fetch  a  high  price.  He  was  owned 
by  Mrs.  Matilda  Niles,  from  whom  he  had  hired  his  time,  paying  $110 
yearly.  He  had  no  fault  to  find  with  his  mistre&s,  except  he  observed  she 
had  a  young  family  growing  up,  into  whose  hands  he  feared  he  might  un- 
luckily fall  some  day,  and  saw  no  way  of  avoiding  it  but  by  flight.  Being 
only  twenty-eight,  he  may  yet  make  his  mark. 

ISRAEL,  was  owned  by  Elijah  Money.  All  that  he  could  say  in  favor  of 
his  master  was,  that  he  treated  him  "  respectfully,"  though  he  "  drank  hard." 
Israel  was  about  thirty-six,  and  another  excellent  specimen  of  an  able-bodied 
arid  wide-awake  man.  He  hired  his  time  at  the  rate  of  $120  a  year,  and 
had  to  find  his  wife  and  child  in  the  bargain.  He  came  from  Alexandria,  Va. 

INTERESTING  LETTER  FROM  ISRAEL. 

HAMILTON,  Oct.  16.  1858. 

WILLIAM  STILL — My  Dear  Friend: — I  saw  Carter  and  his  friend  a  few  days  ago,  and 
they  told  me,  that  you  was  well.  On  the  seventh  of  October  my  wife  came  to  Hamilton. 
Mr.  A.  Hurberd,  who  came  from  Virginia  with  me,  is  going  to  get  married  the  20th  of 


106  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

November,  next.  I  wish  you  would  write  to  me  how  many  of  my  friends  you  have  seen 
since  October,  1857.  Montgomery  Green  keeps  a  barber  shop  in  Cayuga,  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  I  have  not  heard  of  Oscar  Ball  but  once  since  I  came  here,  and  then  he  was 
well  and  doing  well.  George  Carroll  is  in  Hamilton.  The  times  are  very  dull  at  present, 
and  have  been  ever  since  I  came  here.  Please  write  soon.  Nothing  more  at  present,  only 
I  still  remain  in  Hamilton,  C.  W.  ISRAEL  WHITNEY. 

JOHX  is  nineteen  years  of  age,  mulatto,  spare  made,  but  not  lacking  in 
courage,  mother  wit  or  perseverance.  He  was  born  in  Fauquier  county, 
Va.,  and,  after  experiencing  Slavery  for  a  number  of  years  there — being  sold 
two  or  three  times  to  the  "  highest  bidder  " — he  was  finally  purchased  by  a 
cotton  planter  named  Hezekiah  Thompson,  residing  at  Huntsville,  Alabama. 
Immediately  after  the  sale  Hezekiah  bundled  his  new  "purchase"  off  to 
Alabama,  where  he  succeeded  in  keeping  him  only  about  two  years,  for  at 
the  end  of  that  time  John  determined  to  strike  a  blow  for  liberty.  The  in- 
centive to  this  step  was  the  inhuman  treatment  he  was  subjected  to.  Cruel 
indeed  did  he  find  it  there.  His  master  was  a  young  man,  "  fond  of  drinking 
and  carousing,  and  always  ready  for  a  fight  or  a  knock-down."  A  short  time 
before  John  left  his  master  whipped  him  so  severely  with  the  "bull  whip"  that 
he  could  not  use  his  arm  for  three  or  four  days.  Seeing  but  one  way  of 
escape  (and  that  more  perilous  than  the  way  William  and  Ellen  Craft,  or 
Henry  Box  Brown  traveled),  he  resolved  to  try  it.  It  was  to  get  on  the 
top  of  the  car,  instead  of  inside  of  it,  and  thus  ride  of  nights,  till  nearly  day- 
light, when,  at  a  stopping-place  on  the  road,  he  would  slip  off  the  car,  and 
conceal  himself  in  the  woods  until  under  cover  of  the  next  night  he  could 
manage  to  get  on  the  top  of  another  car.  By  this  most  hazardous  mode  of 
travel  he  reached  Virginia. 

It  may  be  best  not  to  attempt  to  describe  how  he  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
his  owners  in  Alabama ;  or  how  severely  he  was  pinched  with  hunger  in 
traveling ;  or  how,  when  he  reached  his  old  neighborhood  in  Virginia,  he 
could  not  venture  to  inquire  for  his  mother,  brothers  or  sisters,  to  receive 
from  them  an  affectionate  word,  an  encouraging  smile,  a  crust  of  bread,  or  a 
drink  of  water. 

Success  attended  his  efforts  for  more  than  two  weeks;  but  alas,  after 
having  got  back  north  of  Richmond,  on  his  way  home  to  Alexandria,  he 
was  captured  and  put  in  prison  ;  his  master  being  informed  of  the  fact,  came 
on  and  took  possession  of  him  again.  At  first  he  refused  to  sell  him  ;  said 
he  "had  money  enough  and  owned  about  thirty  slaves;"  therefore  wished  to 
"  take  him  back  to  make  an  example  of  him."  However,  through  the  persua- 
sion of  an  uncle  of  his,  he  consented  to  sell.  Accordingly,  John  was  put  on 
the  auction-block  and  bought  for  $1,300  by  Green  McMurray,  a  regular 
trader  in  Richmond.  McMurray  again  offered  him  for  sale,  but  in  conse- 
quence of  hard  times  and  the  high  price  demanded,  John  did  not  go  off,  at 
least  not  in  the  way  the  trader  desired  to  dispose  of  him,  but  did,  neverthe- 
less, succeed  in  going  off  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Thus  once  more 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH. 


107 


he  reached  his  old  home,  Alexandria.  His  mother  was  in  one  place,  and  his 
six  brothers  and  sisters  evidently  scattered,  where  he  knew  not.  Since  he 
was  five  years  of  age,  not  one  of  them  had  he  seen. 

If  such  sufferings  and  trials  were  not  entitled  to  claim  for  the  sufferer  the 
honor  of  a  hero,  where  in  all  Christendom  could  one  be  found  who  could 
prove  a  better  title  to  that  appellation  ? 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Committee  extended  to  him  brotherly  kind- 
ness, sympathized  with  him  deeply,  and  sent  hinfon  his  way  rejoicing. 

Of  his  subsequent  career  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  at 
London  shows  that  he  found  no  rest  for  the  soles  of  his  feet  under  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  in  New  York  : 

I  hope  that  you  will  remember  John  Thompson,  who  passed  through  your  hands,  I 
think,  in  October,  1857,  at  the  same  time  that  Mr.  Cooper,  from  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, came  on.  I  was  engaged  at  New  York,  in  the  barber  business,  with  a  friend,  and 
was  doing  very  well,  when  I  was  betrayed  and  obliged  to  sail  for  England  very  suddenly, 
my  master  being  in  the  city  to  arrest  me.  (LONDON,  December  21st.  1860.) 


JEREMIAH  COLBTJRN. — Jeremiah  is  a  bright  mulatto,  of  prepossessing 
appearance,  reads  and  writes,  and  is  quite  intelligent.  He  fled  from  Charles- 
ton, where  he  had  been  owned  by  Mrs.  E.  Williamson,  an  old  lady  about 
seventy-five,  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  opposed  to  Freedom. 
As  far  as  he  was  concerned,  however,  he  said,  she  had  treated  him  well ; 
but,  knowing  that  the  old  lady  would  not  be  long  here,  he  judged  it  was 
best  to  look  out  in  time.  Consequently,  he  availed  himself  of  an  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  ticket,  and  bade  adieu  to  that  hot-bed  of  secession,  South 


108  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Carolina.  Indeed,  he  was  fair  enough  to  pass  for  white,  and  actually  came 
the  entire  journey  from  Charleston  to  this  city  under  the  garb  of  a  white 
gentleman.  With  regard  to  gentlemanly  bearing,  however,  he  was  all  right 
in  this  particular.  Nevertheless,  as  he  had  been  a  slave  all  his  days,  he 
found  that  it  required  no  small  amount  of  nerve  to  succeed  in  running  the 
gauntlet  with  slave-holders  and  slave -catchers  for  so  long  a  journey. 

The  following  pointed  epistle,  from  Jeremiah  Colburn  alias  William 
Cooper,  beautifully  illustrates  the  effects  of  Freedom  on  many  a  passenger 
who  received  hospitalities  at  the  Philadelphia  depot — 

SYRACUSE,  June  9th,  1858. 

MR.  STILL: — Dear  Sir: — One  of  your  Underground  R.  R.  Passenger  Drop  you  these 
few  Lines  to  let  you  see  that  he  have  not  forgoteu  you  one  who  have  Done  so  much  for 
him  well  sir  I  am  still  in  Syracuse,  well  in  regard  to  what  I  am  Doing  for  a  Living  I  no 
you  would  like  to  hear,  I  am  in  the  Painting  Business,  and  have  as  ranch  at  that  as  I  can 
do,  and  enough  to  Last  me  all  the  Summer,  I  had  a  knolledge  of  Painting  Before  I  Left 
the  South,  the  Hotell  where  I  was  working  Last  winter  the  Proprietor  fail  &  shot  up  in 
the  Spring  and  I  Loose  evry  thing  that  I  was  working  for  all  Last  winter.  I  have  Kitten 
a  Letter  to  my  Friend  P.  Christianson  some  time  a  goo  &  have  never  Received  an 
Answer,  I  hope  this  wont  Be  the  case  with  this  one,  I  have  an  idea  sir,  next  winter  iff  I 
can  this  summer  make  Enough  to  Pay  Expenses,  to  goo  to  that  school  at  McGrowville  & 
spend  my  winter  their.  I  am  going  sir  to  try  to  Prepair  myself  for  a  Lectuer,  I  am 
going  sir  By  the  Help  of  god  to  try  and  Do  something  for  the  Caus  to  help  my  Poor 
Breathern  that  are  suffering  under  the  yoke.  Do  give  my  Respect  to  Mrs  Stills  &  Per- 
ticular  to  Miss  Julia  Kelly,  I  supose  she  is  still  with  you  yet.  I  am  in  great  hast  you 
must  excuse  my  short  letter.  I  hope  these  few  Lines  may  fine  you  as  they  Leave  me 
quite  well.  It  will  afford  me  much  Pleasure  to  hear  from  you. 

yours  Truly,  WILLIAM  COOPER. 

John  Thompson  is  still  here  and  Doing  well. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  young  Charlestonian  had  rather  exalted  notions 
in  his  head.  He  was  contemplating  going  to  McGrawville  College,  for  the 
purpose  of  preparing  himself  for  the  lecturing  field.  Was  it  not  rather 
strange  that  he  did  not  want  to  return  to  his  "kind  hearted  old  mistress?" 

THOMAS  HENRY,  NATHAN  COLLINS  AND  HIS  WIFE  MARY  ELLEN. — Tho- 
mas is  about  twenty-six,  quite  dark,  rather  of  a  raw-boned  make,  indicating 
that  times  with  him  had  been  other  than  smooth.  A  certain  Josiah  Wilson 
owned  Thomas.  He  was  a  cross,  rugged  man,  allowing  not  half  enough  to 
eat,  and  worked  his  slaves  late  and  early.  Especially  within  the  last  two  or 
three  months  previous  to  the  escape,  he  had  been  intensely  savage,  in  con- 
sequence of  having  lost,  not  long  before,  two  of  his  servants.  Ever  since 
that  misfortune,  he  had  frequently  talked  of  "putting  the  rest  in  his 
pocket."  This  distressing  threat  made  the  rest  love  him  none  the  more ; 
but,  to  make  assurances  doubly  sure,  after  giving  them  their  supper  every 
evening,  which  consisted  of  delicious  "skimmed  milk,  corn  cake  and  a 
herring  each,"  he  would  very  carefully  send  them  up  in  the  loft  over  the 
kitchen,  and  there  "  lock  them  up,"  to  remain  until  called  the  next  morning 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  109 

at  three  or  four  o'clock  to  go  to  work  again.  Destitute  of  money,  clothing, 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  way,  situated  as  they  were  they  concluded  to.  make 
an  effort  for  Canada. 

NATHAN  was  also  a  fellow-servant  with  Thomas,  and  of  course  owned  by 
Wilson.  Nathan's  wife,  however,  was  owned  by  Wilson's  son,  Abram. 
Nathan  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  not  very  dark.  He  had  a 
remarkably  large  head  on  his  shoulders  and  was  the  picture  of  determina- 
tion, and  apparently  was  exactly  the  kind  of  a  subject  that  might  be 
desirable  in  the  British  possessions,  in  the  forest  or  on  the  farm. 

His  wife,  Mary  Ellen,  is  a  brown-skinned,  country-looking  young1  woman, 
about  twenty  years  of  age.  In  escaping,  they  had  to  break  jail,  in  the  dead 
of  nio-ht,  while  all  were  asleep  in  the  big  house ;  and  thus  they  succeeded. 
What  Mr.  Wilson  did,  said  or  thought  about  these  "shiftless"  creatures  we 
are  not  prepared  to  say ;  we  may,  notwithstanding,  reasonably  infer  that  the 
Underground  has  come  in  for  a  liberal  share  of  his  indignation  and  wrath. 
The  above  travelers  came  from  near  New  Market,  Md.  The  few  rags  they 
were  clad  in  were  not  really  worth  the  price  that  a  woman  would  ask  for 
washing  them,  yet  they  brought  with  them  about  all  they  had.  Thus  they 
had  to  be  newly  rigged  at  the  expense  of  the  Vigilance  Committee. 

The  Cambridge  Democrat,  of  Nov.  4,  1857,  from  which  the  advertise- 
ments were  cut,  said — 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  people  of  this  county,  Jield  in  Cambridge,  on  the  2d  of  November, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  better  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  slave-owners;  among 
other  things  that  were  done,  it  was  resolved  to  enforce  the  various  acts  of  Assembly  *  * 
*  *  relating  to  servants  and  slaves. 

"  The  act  of  1715,  chap.  44,  sec.  2,  provides  '  that  from  and  after  the  publication  thereof 
no  servant  or  servants  whatsoever,  within  this  province,  whether  by  indenture  or  by  the 
custom  of  the  counties,  or  hired  for  wages  shall  travel  by  land  or  water  ten  miles  from 
the  house  of  his,  her  or  their  master,  mistress  or  dame,  without  a  note  under  their  hands, 
or  under  the  hands  of  his,  her  or  their  overseer,  if  any  be,  under  the  penalty  of  being 
taken  for  a  runaway,  and  to  suffer  such  penalties  as  hereafter  provided  against  runaways.' 
The.  Act  of  1806,  chap.  81,  sec.  5,  provides,  '  That  any  person  taking  up  such  runaway, 
shall  have  and  receive  $6,'  to  be  paid  by  the  master  or  owner.  It  was  also  determined  to 
have  put  in  force  the  act  of  1825,  chap.  161,  and  the  act  of  1839,  chap.  320,  relative  to 
idle,  vagabond,  free  negroes,  providing  for  their  sale  or  banishment  from  the  State.  All 
persons  interested,  are  hereby  notified  that  the  aforesaid  laws,  in  particular,  will  be 
enforced,  and  all  officers  failing  to  enforce  them  will  be  presented  to  the  Grand  Jury,  and 
those  who  desire  to  avoid  the  penalties  of  the  aforesaid  statutes  are  requested  to  conform 
to  these  provisions." 

As  to  the  modus  operand!  by  which  so  many  men,  women  and  children 
were  delivered  and  safely  forwarded  to  Canada,  despite  slave-hunters  and  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  the  subjoined  letters,  from  different  agents  and  depots, 
will  throw  important  light  on  the  question. 

Men  and  women  aided  in  this  cause  who  were  influenced  by  no  oath  of 
secresy,  who  received  not  a  farthing  for  their  labors,  who  believed  that  God 


110  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

had  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  all  mankind  to  love  liberty,  and  had  com- 
manded men  to  "  feel  for  those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,"  "  to  break 
every  yoke  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free."  But  here  are  the  letters,  bearing 
at  least  on  some  of  the  travelers  : 

WILMINGTON,  10th  Mo.  31st,  1857. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  WILLIAM  STILL: — I  write  to  inform  Ihee  that  we  have  either  17 
or  27,  I  am  not  certain  which,  of  that  large  Gang  of  God's  poor,  and  I  hope  they  are  safe. 
The  man  who  has  them  in  charge  informed  me  there  were  27  safe  and  one  boy  lost  during 
last  night,  about  14  years  of  age,  without  shoes ;  we  have  felt  some  anxiety  about  him,  for 
fear  he  may  be  taken  up  and  betray  the  rest.  I  have  since  been  informed  there  are  but  17 
so  that  I  cannot  at  present  tell  which  is  correct.  I  have  several  looking  oat  for  the  lad ; 
they  will  be  kept  from  Phila.  for  the  present.  My  principal  object  in  writing  thee  at  this 
time  is  to  inform  thee  of  what  one  of  our  constables  told  me  this  morning ;  he  told  me  that 
a  colored  man  in  Phila.  who  professed  to  be  a  great  friend  of  the  colored  people  was  a 
traitor ;  that  he  had  been  written  to  by  an  Abolitionist  in  Baltimore,  to  keep  a  look  out 
for  those  slaves  that  left  Cambridge  this  night  week,  told  him  they  would  be  likely  to 
pass  through  Wilmington  on  6th  day  or  7th  day  night,  and  the  colored  man  in  Phila.  had 
written  to  the  master  of  part  of  them  telling  him  the  above,  and  the  master  arrived  here 
yesterday  in  consequence  of  the  information,  and  told  one  of  our  constables  the  above  ;  the 
man  told  the  name  of  the  Baltimore  writer,  which  he  had  forgotten,  but  declined  telling 
the  name  of  the  colored  man  in  Phila.  I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  find  out  who  he  is,  and 
should  I  be  able  to  learn  the  name  of  the  Baltimore  friend,  I  will  put  him  on  his  Guard, 
respecting  his  Phila.  correspondents.  As  ever  thy  friend,  and  the  friend  of  Humanity, 
without  regard  to  color  or  clime.  THOS.  GARRETT. 

How  much  truth  there  was  in  the  "  constable's  "  story  to  the  effect,  "  that 
a  colored  man  in  Philadelphia,  who  professed  to  be  a  great  friend  of  the 
colored  people,  was  a  traitor,  etc.,"  the  Committee  never  learned.  As  a 
general  thing,  colored  people  were  true  to  the  fugitive  slave;  but  now  and 
then  some  unprincipled  individuals,  under  various  pretenses,  would  cause  us 
great  anxiety. 

LETTER  FROM  JOHN  AUGUSTA. 

NORRISTOWN  Oct  18th  1857  2  o'clock  P  M 

DEAR  SIR  : — There  is  Six  men  and  women  and  Five  children  making  Eleven  Persons. 
If  you  are  willing  to  Receve  them  write  to  me  imediately  and  I  will  bring  them  to  your 
To  morrow  Evening  I  would  not  Have  wrote  this  But  the  Times  are  so  much  worse  Fi- 
nancialy  that  I  thought  It  best  to  hear  From  you  Before  I  Brought  such  a  Crowd  Down 
Pleas  Answer  this  and  Oblige  JOHN  AUGUSTA. 

This  document  has  somewhat  of  a  military  appearance  about  it.  It  is 
short  and  to  the  point.  Friend  Augusta  was  well  known  in  Norristown  as 
a  first-rate  hair-dresser  and  a  prompt  and  trustworthy  Underground  Rail 
Road  agent.  Of  course  a  speedy  answer  was  returned  to  his  note,  and  he 
was  instructed  to  bring  the  eleven  passengers  on  to  the  Committee  in 
Brotherly  Love. 


THE  ARRIVALS  OF  A  SINGLE  MONTH.  HI 


LETTER  FROM   MISS  Q.   LEWIS  ABOUT   A   PORTIOX  OF  THE  SAME   "  MEMORABLE 

TWENTY-EIGHT." 

SUNNYSIDE,  Nov.  Gtli,  1857. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — Eight  more  of  the  large  company  reached  our  place  last  night,  direct 
from  Ercildown.  The  eight  constitute  one  family  of  them,  the  husband  and  wife  with  four 
children  under  eight  years  of  age,  wish  tickets  for  Elmira.  Three  sons,  nearly  grown,  will 
be  forwarded  to  Phila.,  probably  by  the  train  which  passes  Phoenixville  at  seven  o'clock 
of  to-morrow  evenin<*  the  seventh.  It  would  be  safest  to  meet  them  there.  We  shall 
Bend  them  to  Elijah  with  the  request  for  them  to  be  sent  there.  And  I  presume  they  will 
be.  If  they  should  not  arrive  you  may  suppose  it  did  not  suit  Elijah  to  send  them. 

We  will  send  the  money  for  the  tickets  by  C.  C.  Burleigh,  who  will  be  in  Phila.  on  second 
day  morning.  If  you  please,  you  will  forward  the  tickets  by  to-morrow's  mail  as  we  do 
not  have  a  mail  again  till  third  day.  Yours  hastily,  G.  LEWIS. 

Please  give  directions  for  forwarding  to  Elmira  and  name  the  price  of  tickets. 

At  first  Miss  Lewis  thought  of  forwarding  only  a  part  of  her  fugitive 
guests  to  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia,  but  on  further  consideration,  all 
were  safely  sent  along  in  due  time,  and  the  Committee  took  great  pains  to 
have  them  made  as  comfortable  as  possible,  as  the  cases  of  these  mothers 
and  children  especially  called  forth  the  deepest  sympathy. 

In  this  connection  it  seems  but  fitting  to  allude  to  Captain  Lee's  suffer- 
ings on  account  of  his  having  brought  away  in  a  skiff,  by  sea,  a  party  of 
four,  alluded  to  in  the  beginning  of  this  single  month's  report. 

Unfortunately  he  was  suspected,  arrested,  tried,  convicted,  and  torn  from 
his  wife  and  two  little  children,  and  sent  to  the  Richmond  Penitentiary  for 
twenty-five  years.  Before  being  sent  away  from  Portsmouth,  Va.,  where  he 
was  tried,  for  ten  days  in  succession  in  the  prison  five  lashes  a  day  were  laid 
heavily  on  his  bare  back.  The  further  suffererings  of  poor  Lee  and  his 
heart-broken  wife,  and  his  little  daughter  and  son,  are  too  painful  for  minute 
recital.  In  this  city  the  friends  of  Freedom  did  all  in  their  power  to  comfort 
Mrs.  Lee,  and  administered  aid  to  her  and  her  children ;  but  she  broke 
down  under  her  mournful  fate,  and  went  to  that  bourne  from  whence  no 
traveler  ever  returns. 

Captain  Lee  suffered  untold  misery  in  prison,  until  he,  also,  not  a  great 
while  before  the  Union  forces  took  possession  of  Richmond,  sank  beneath 
the  severity  of  his  treatment,  and  went  likewise  to  the  grave.  The  two 
children  for  a  long  time  were  under  the  care  of  Mr.  "Wm.  Ingram  of  I^hila- 
dclphia,  who  voluntarily,  from  pure  benevolence,  proved  himself  to  be  a 
father  and  a  friend  to  them.  To  their  poor  mother  also  he  had  been  a 
true  friend. 

The  way  in  which  Captain  Lee  came  to  be  convicted,  if  the  Committee  were 
correctly  informed  and  they  think  they  were,  was  substantially  in  this  wise : 
In  the  darkness  of  the  night,  four  men,  two  of  them  constables,  one  of  the 


112  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

other  two,  the  owner  of  one  of  the  slaves  who  had  been  aided  away  by  Lee, 
seized  the  wife  of  one  of  the  fugitives  and  took  her  to  the  woods,  where  the 
fiends  stripped  every  particle  of  clothing  from  her  person,  tied  her  to  a  tree, 
and  armed  with  knives,  cowhides  and  a  shovel,  swore  vengeance  against  her, 
declaring  they  would  kill  her  if  she  did  not  testify  against  Lee.  At  first 
she  refused  to  reveal  the  secret ;  indeed  she  knew  but  little  to  reveal ;  but 
her  savage  tormentors  beat  her  almost  to  death.  Under  this  barbarous  in- 
fliction she  was  constrained  to  implicate  Captain  Lee,  which  was  about  all  the 
evidence  the  prosecution  had  against  him.  And  in  reality  her  evidence,  for 
two  reasons,  should  not  have  weighed  a  straw,  as  it  was  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  Virginia,  to  admit  the  testimony  of  colored  persons  against 
white ;  then  again  for  the  reason  that  this  testimony  was  obtained  wholly 
by  brute  force. 

But  in  this  instance,  this  woman  on  whom  the  murderous  attack  had 
been  made,  was  brought  into  court  on  Lee's  trial  and  was  bid  to  simply 
make  her  statement  with  regard  to  Lee's  connection  with  the  escape  of  her 
husband.  This  she  did  of  course.  And  in  the  eyes  of  this  chivalric  court, 
this  procedure  "  was  all  right."  But  thank  God  the  events  since  those 
dark  and  dreadful  days,  afford  abundant  proof  that  the  All-seeing  Eye  was 
not  asleep  to  the  daily  sufferings  of  the  poor  bondman. 


A  SLAVE  GIRL'S  NARRATIVE. 

CORDELIA  LONEY,  SLAVE  OF  MRS.  JOSEPH  CAHELL  (WIDOW  OF  THE  LATE  HOST. 

JOSEPH  CAHELL,  OF  VA.),  OF  FREDERICKSBTJRG,  VA.— CORDELIA'S  ESCAPE 

FROM  HER  MISTRESS  IN  PHILADELPHIA. 

Rarely  did  the  peculiar  institution  present  the  relations  of  mistress  and 
maid-servant  in  a  light  so  apparently  favorable  as  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Joseph 
Cahell  (widow  of  the  late  Hon.  Jos  Cahell,  of  Va.),  and  her  slave,  Cordelia. 
The  Vigilance  Committee's  first  knowledge  of  either  of  these  memorable 
personages  was  brought  about  in  the  following  manner. 

About  the  30th  of  March,  in  the  year  1859,  a  member  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee  was  notified  by  a  colored  servant,  living  at  a  fashionable  boarding- 
house  on  Chestnut  street  that  a  lady  with  a  slave  woman  from  Fredericks- 
burg,  Va,,  was  boarding  at  said  house,  and,  that  said  slave  woman  desired 
to  receive  counsel  and  aid  from  the  Committee,  as  she  was  anxious  to  secure 
her  freedom,  before  her  mistress  returned  to  the  South.  On  further  consul- 
tation about  the  matter,  a  suitable  hour  was  named  for  the  meeting  of  the 
Committee  and  the  Slave  at  the  above  named  boardings-house.  Finding  that 


A  SLA  VE  GIRL'S  NARRA  TIVE.  113 

the  woman  was  thoroughly  reliable,  the  Committee  told  her  "  that  two  modes 
of  deliverance  were  open  before  her.  One  was  to  take  her  trunk  and  all 
her  clothing  and  quietly  retire."  The  other  was  to  "  sue  out  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,,  and  bring  the  mistress  before  the  Court,  where  she  would 
l)e  required,  under  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  to  show  cause  why  she  restrained 
this  woman  of  her  freedom."  Cordelia  concluded  to  adopt  the  former  ex- 
pedient, provided  the  Committee  would  protect  her.  Without  hesitation  the 
Committee  answered  her,  that  to  the  extent  of  their  ability,  she  should  have 
their  aid  with  pleasure,  without  delay.  Consequently  a  member  of  the 
Committee  was  directed  to  be  on  hand  at  a  given  hour  that  evening,  as 
Cordelia  would  certainly  be  ready  to  leave  her  mistress  to  take  care  of 
herself.  Thus,  at  the  appointed  hour,  Cordelia,  very  deliberately,  accom- 
panied the  Committee  away  from  her  "  kind  hearted  old  mistress." 

In  the  quiet  and  security  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  Room,  Cordelia 
related  substantially  the  following  brief  story  touching  her  relationship  as 
a  slave  to  Mrs.  Joseph  Cahell.  In  this  case,  as  with  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  others,  as  the  old  adage  fitly  expresses  it,  "  All  is  not  gold 
that  glitters."  Under  this  apparently  pious  and  noble-minded  lady,  it  will 
be  seen,  that  Cordelia  had  known  naught  but  misery  and  sorrow. 

Mrs.  Cahell,  having  engaged  board  for  a  month  at  a  fashionable  private 
boarding-house  on  Chestnut  street,  took  an  early  opportunity  to  caution 
Cordelia  against  going  into  the  streets,  and  against  having  anything  to  say 
or  do  with  "free  niggers  in  particular" ;  withal,  she  appeared  unusually  kind, 
so  much  so,  that  before  retiring  to  bed  in  the  evening,  she  would  call  Cordelia 
to  her  chamber,  and  by  her  side  would  take  her  Prayer-book  and  Bible,  and 
go  through  the  forms  of  devotional  service.  She  stood  very  high  both 
as  a  church  communicant  and  a  lady  in  society. 

For  a  fortnight  it  seemed  as  though  her  prayers  were  to  be  answered,  for 
Cordelia  apparently  bore  herself  as  submissively  as  ever,  and  Madame  re- 
ceived calls  and  accepted  invitations  from  some  of  the  elite  of  the  city,  with- 
out suspecting  any  intention  on  the  part  of  Cordelia  to  escape.  But  Cordelia 
could  not  forget  how  her  children  had  all  been  sold  by  her  mistress! 

Cordelia  was  about  fifty-seven  years  of  age,  with  about  an  equal  proportion 
of  colored  and  white  blood  in  her  veins;  very  neat,  respectful  and  pre- 
possessing in  manner. 

From  her  birth  to  the  hour  of  her  escape  she  had  worn  the  yoke  under 
Mrs.  C.,  as  her  most  efficient  and  reliable  maid-servant.  She  had  been-  at 
her  mistress'  beck  and  call  as  seamstress,  dressing-maid,  nurse  in  the  sick- 
room, etc.,  etc.,  under  circumstances  that  might  appear  to  the  casual  observer 
uncommonly  favorable  for  a  slave.  Indeed,  on  his  first  interview  with  her, 
the  Committee  man  was  so  forcibly  impressed  with  the  belief,  that  her  con- 
dition in  Virginia  had  been  favorable,  that  he  hesitated  to  ask  her  if  she  did 
not  desire  her  liberty.  A  few  moments'  conversation  with  her,  however,  con- 
8 


114  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

vinced  him  of  her  good  sense  and  decision  of  purpose  with  regard  to  this 
matter.  For,  in  answer  to  the  first  question  he  put  to  her,  she  answered, 
that  "  As  many  creature  comforts  and  religious  privileges  as  she  had  been 
the  recipient  of  under  her  '  kind  mistress/  still  she  '  wanted  to  be  free/  and 
'  was  bound  to  leave/  that  she  had  been  *  treated  very  cruelly  /  that  her 
children  had  *  all  been  sold  away '  from  her;  that  she  had  been  threatened 
with  sale  herself  '  on  the  first  insult/  "  etc. 

She  was  willing  to  take  the  entire  responsibility  of  taking  care  of 
herself.  On  the  suggestion  of  a  friend,  before  leaving  her  mistress,  she 
was  disposed  to  sue  for  her  freedom,  but,  upon  a  reconsideration  of  the 
matter,  she  chose  rather  to  accept  the  hospitality  of  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  and  leave  in  a  quiet  way  and  go  to  Canada,  where  she  would  be  free 
indeed.  Accordingly  she  left  her  mistress  and  was  soon  a  free  woman. 

The  following  sad  experience  she  related  calmly,  in  the  presence  of  several 
friends,  an  evening  or  two  after  she  left  her  mistress: 

Two  sons  and  two  daughters  had  been  sold  from  her  by  her  mistress, 
within  the  last  three  years,  since  the  death  of  her  master.  Three  of  her 
children  had  been  sold  to  the  Richmond  market  and  the  other  in  Nelson 
county. 

Paulina  was  the  first  sold,  two  years  ago  last  May.  Nat  was  the  next; 
he  was  sold  to  Abram  "VVarrick,  of  Richmond.  Paulina  was  sold  before 
it  was  named  to  her  mother  that  it  had  entered  her  mistress's  mind  to  dis- 
pose of  her. '  Nancy,  from  infancy,  had  been  in  poor  health.  Nevertheless, 
she  had  been  obliged  to  take  her  place  in  the  field  with  the  rest  of  the  slaves, 
of  more  rugged  constitution,  until  she  had  passed  her  twentieth  year,  and 
had  become  a  mother.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  overseer  and  his  wife 
complained  to  the  mistress  that  her  health  was  really  too  bad  for  a  field  hand 
and  begged  that  she  might  be  taken  where  her  duties  would  be  less  oppres- 
sive. Accordingly,  she  was  withdrawn  from  the  field,  and  was  set  to  spin- 
ning and  weaving.  When  too  sick  to  work  her  mistress  invariably  took  the 
ground,  that  "  nothing  was  the  matter,"  notwithstanding  the  fact,  that  her 
family  physician,  Dr.  Ellsom,  had  pronounced  her  "  quite  weakly  and  sick." 

In  an  angry  mood  one  day,  Mrs.  Cahell  declared  she  would  cure  her ;  and 
again  sent  her  to  the  field,  "  with  orders  to  the  overseer,  to  whip  her  every 
day,  and  make  her  work  or  kill  her."  Again  the  overseer  said  it  was  "  no 
use  to  try,  for  her  health  would  not  stand  it,"  and  she  was  forthwith  re- 
turned. The  mistress  then  concluded  to  sell  her. 

One  Sabbath  evening  a  nephew  of  hers,  who  resided  in  New  Orleans,  hap- 
pened to  be  on  a  visit  to  his  aunt,  when  it  occurred  to  her,  that  she  had 
"  better  get  Nancy  off  if  possible."  Accordingly,  Nancy  was  called  in  for 
examination.  Being  dressed  in  her  "  Sunday  best "  and  "  before  a  poor 
candle-light,"  she  appeared  to  good  advantage;  and  the  nephew  concluded 
to  start  with  her  on  the  following  Tuesday  morning.  However,  the  next 


A  SLAVE  GIRL'S  NARRATIVE.  115 

morning,  he  happened  to  see  her  by  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  in  her  working 
garments,  which  satisfied  him  that  he  had  been  grossly  deceived;  that  she 
would  barely  live  to  reach  New  Orleans ;  he  positively  refused  to  carry 
out  the  previous  evening's  contract,  thus  leaving  her  in  the  hands  of  her 
mistress,  with  the  advice,  that  she  should  "  doctor  her  up." 

The  mistress,  not  disposed  to  be  defeated,  obviated  the  difficulty  by  select- 
ing a  little  boy,  made  a  lot  of  the  two,  and  thus  made  it  an  inducement  to  a 
purchaser  to  buy  the  sick  woman ;  the  boy  and  the  woman  brought  $700. 

In  the  sale  of  her  children,  Cordelia  was  as  little  regarded  as  if  she  had 
been  a  cow. 

"  I  felt  wretched,"  she  said,  with  emphasis,  "  when  I  heard  that  Nancy 
had  been  sold,"  which  was  not  until  after  she  had  been  removed.  "  But," 
she  continued,  "  I  was  not  at  liberty  to  make  my  grief  known  to  a  single 
white  soul.  I  wept  and  couldn't  help  it."  But  remembering  that  she  was 
liable,  "  on  the  first  insult,"  to  be  sold  herself,  she  sought  no  sympathy 
from  her  mistress,  whom  she  describes  as  "  a  woman  who  shows  as  little 
kindness  towards  her  servants  as  any  woman  in  the  States  of  America.  She 
neither  likes  to  feed  nor  clothe  well." 

With  regard  to  flogging,  however,  in  days  past,  she  had  been  up  to  the 
mark.  "  A  many  a  slap  and  blow  "  had  Cordelia  .received  since  she  arrived 
at  womanhood,  directly  from  the  madam's  own  hand. 

One  day  smarting  under  cruel  treatment,  she  appealed  fe  her  mistress  in 
the  following  strain:  "I  stood  by  your  mother  in  all  her  sickness  and  nursed 
her  till  she  died  !"  "  I  waited  on  your  niece,  night  and  day  for  months,  till 
she  died."  "  I  waited  upon  your  husband  all  my  life — in  his  sickness 
especially,  and  shrouded  him  in  death,  etc.,  yet  I  am  treated  cruelly."  It 
was  of  no  avail. 

Her  mistress,  at  one  time,  was  the  owner  of  about  five  hundred  slaves,  but 
within  the  last  few  years  she  had  greatly  lessened  the  number  by  sales. 

She  stood  very  high  as  a  lady,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Episcopal 
Church. 

To  punish  Cordelia,  on  several  occasions,  she  had  been  sent  to  one  of  the 
plantations  to  work  as  a  field  hand.  Fortunately,  however,  she  found  the 
overseers  more  compassionate  than  her  mistress,  though  she  received  no  par- 
ticular favors  from  any  of  them. 

Asking  her  to  name  the  overseers,  etc.,  she  did  so.  The  first  was  "Marks, 
a  thin-visaged,  poor-looking  man,  great  for  swearing."  The  second  was 
"Gilbert  Brower,  a  very  rash,  portly  man."  The  third  was  "Buck  Young, 
a  stout  man,  and  very  sharp."  The  fourth  was  "  Lynn  Powell,  a  tall  man 
with  red  whiskers,  very  contrary  and  spiteful."  There  was  also  a  fifth  one, 
but  his  name  was  lost. 

Thus  Cordelia's  experience,  though  chiefly  confined  to  the  "  great  house," 
extended  occasionally  over  the  corn  and  tobacco  fields,  among  the  overseers 


116  THE  UNDERGROUND  BAIL  ROAD. 

and  field  hands  generally.  But  under  no  circumstances  could  she  find  it  in 
her  heart  to  be  thankful  for  the  privileges  of  Slavery. 

After  leaving  her  mistress  she  learned,  with  no  little  degree  of  pleasure, 
that  a  perplexed  state  of  things  existed  at  the  boarding-house ;  that  her 
mistress  was  seriously  puzzled  to  imagine  how  she  would  get  her  shoes  and 
stockings  on  and  off;  how  she  would  get  her  head  combed,  get  dressed,  be 
attended  to  in  sickness,  etc.,  as  she  (Cordelia),  had  been  compelled  to  dis- 
charge these  offices  all  her  life. 

Most  of  the  boarders,  being  slave-holders,  naturally  sympathized  in  her 
affliction ;  and  some  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  offer  a  reward  to  some  of  the 
colored  servants  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  her  whereabouts.  Some  charged 
the  servants  with  having  a  hand  in  her  leaving,  but  all  agreed  that  "  she 
had  left  a  very  kind  and  indulgent  mistress,"  and  had  acted  very  foolishly 
in  running  out  of  Slavery  into  Freedom. 

A  certain  Doctor  of  Divinity,  the  pastor  of  an  Episcopal  church  in  this 
city  and  a  friend  of  the  mistress,  hearing  of  her  distress,  by  request  or 
Voluntarily,  undertook  to  find  out  Cordelia's  place  of  seclusion.  Hailing  on 
the  street  a  certain  colored  man  with  a  familiar  face,  who  he  thought  knew 
nearly  all  the  colored  people  about  town,  he  related  to  him  the  predicament 
of  his  lady  friend  from  the  South,  remarked  how  kindly  she  had  always 
treated  her  servants,  signified  that  Cordelia  would  rue  the  change,  and  be 
left  to  suffer  among  the  "  miserable  blacks  down  town,"  that  she  would  not 
be  able  to  take  care  of  herself;  quoted  Scripture  justifying  Slavery,  and 
finally  suggested  that  he  (the  colored  man)  would  be  doing  a  duty  and  a 
kindness  to  the  fugitive  by  using  his  influence  to  "  find  her  and  prevail  upon 
her  to  return." 

It  so  happened  that  the  colored  man  thus  addressed,  was  Thomas  Dorsey, 
the  well-known  fashionable  caterer  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  had  the  ex- 
perience of  quite  a  number  of  years  as  a  slave  at  the  South, — had  himself  once 
been  pursued  as  a  fugitive,  and  having,  by  his  industry  in  the  condition  of 
Freedom,  acquired  a  handsome  estate,  he  felt  entirely  qualified  to  reply  to 
the  reverend  gentleman,  which  he  did,  though  in  not  very  respectful  phrases, 
telling  him  that  Cordelia  had  as  good  a  right  to  her  liberty  as  he  had,  or 
her  mistress  either;  that  God  had  never  intended  one  man  to  be  the  slave 
of  another ;  that  it  was  all  false  about  the  slaves  being  better  off  than  the 
free  colored  people;  that  he  would  find  as  many  "poor,  miserably  degraded," 
of  his  own  color  "  down-town,"  as  among  the  "  degraded  blacks ";  and  con- 
cluded by  telling  him  that  he  would  "rather  give  her  a  hundred  dollars 
to  help  her  off,  than  to  do  aught  to  make  known  her  whereabouts,  if  he 
knew  ever  so  much  about  her." 

What  further  steps  were  taken  by  the  discomfited  divine,  the  mistress,  or 
her  boarding-house  sympathizers,  the  Committee  was  not  informed. 

But  with  regard  to  Cordelia  :  she  took  her  departure  for  Canada,  in  the 


'MEETING  OF  BLIND  FATHER  AND  HIS  SONS.  117 

midst  of  the  Daniel  Webster  (fugitive)  trial,  with  the  hope  of  being  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  the  remainder  of  her  life  in  Freedom  and  peace.  Being  a 
member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  and  professing  to  be  a  Christian,  she  was 
persuaded  that,  by  industry  and  assistance  of  the  Lord,  a  way  would  be 
opened  to  the  seeker  of  Freedom  even  in  a  strange  land  and  among 
strangers. 

This  story  appeared  in  part  in  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  having  been 
furnished  by  the  writer,  without  his  name  to  it.  It  is  certainly  none  the  less 
interesting  now,  as  it  may  be  read  in  the  light  of  Universal  Emancipation. 


ARRIVAL  OF  JACKSON,  ISAAC  AND  EDMONDSON  TURNER 
FROM  PETERSBURG. 

TOUCHING  SCENE  ON  MEETING  THEIR  OLD  BLIND   FATHER  AT  THE  U.  G.  R.  R.  DEPOT. 
LETTERS  AND  WARNING  TO  SLAVEHOLDERS. 

About  the  latter  part  of  December,  1857,  Isaac  and  Edmondson,  brothers, 
succeeded  in  making  their  escape  together  from  Petersburg,  Va.  They 
barely  escaped  the  auction  block,  as  their  mistress,  Mrs.  Ann  Colley,  a 
widow,  had  just  completed  arrangements  for  their  sale  on  the  coming  first 
day  of  January.  In  this  kind  of  property,  however,  Mrs.  Colley  had  not 
largely  invested.  In  the  days  of  her  prosperity,  while  all  was  happy  and 
contented,  she  could  only  boast  of  "  four  head :"  these  brothers,  Jackson, 
Isaac  and  Edmondson  and  one  other.  In  May,  1857,  Jackson  had  fled  and 
was  received  by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  who  placed  him  upon  their  books 
briefly  in  the  following  light : 

"  RUNAWAY — Fifty  Dollars  Reward, — Ran  away  some  time  in  May  last,  my  Servant- 
man,  who  calls  himself  Jackson  Turner.  He  is  about  27  years  of  age,  and  has  one  of  his 
front  teeth  out.  He  is  quite  black,  with  thick  lips,  a  little  bow-legged,  and  looks  down 
when  spoken  to.  I  will  give  a  reward  of  Fifty  dollars  if  taken  out  of  the  city,  and 
twenty  five  Dollars  if  taken  within  the  city.  I  forewarn  all  masters  of  vessels  from  har- 
boring or  employing  the  said  slave ;  all  persons  who  disregard  this  Notice  will  be  pun- 
ished as  the  law  directs.  ANN  COLLET. 
Petersburg,  June  8th,  1857." 

JACKSON  is  quite  dark,  medium  size,  and  well  informed  for  one  in  his 
condition.  In  Slavery,  he  had  been  "pressed  hard."  His  hire,  "ten 
dollars  per  month  "  he  was  obliged  to  produce  at  the  end  of  each  month,  no 
matter  how  much  he  had  been  called  upon  to  expend  for  "  doctor  bills,  &c." 
The  woman  he  called  mistress  went  by  the  name  of  Ann  Colley,  a  widow, 
living  near^Petersburg.  "  She  was  very  quarrelsome,"  although  a  "  member 
of  the  Methodist  Church."  Jackson  seeing  that  his  mistress  was  yearly 
growing  "  harder  and  harder,"  concluded  to  try  and  better  his  condition  if 
possible."  Having  a  free  wife  in  the  North,  who  was  in  the  habit  of 


118  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

communicating  with  him,  he  was  kept  fully  awake  to  the  love  of  Freedom. 
The  Underground  Rail  Road  expense  the  Committee  gladly  bore.  No  fur- 
ther record  of  Jackson  was  made.  Jackson  found  his  poor  old  father  here, 
where  he  had  resided  for  a  number  of  years  in  a  state  of  almost  total  blind- 
ness, and  of  course  in  much  parental  anxiety  about  his  boys  in  chains.  On 
the  arrival  of  Jackson,  his  heart  overflowed  with  joy  and  gratitude  not  easily 
described,  as  the  old  man  had  hardly  been  able  to  muster  faith  enough  to 
believe  that  he  should  ever  look  with  his  dim  eyes  upon  one  of  his  sons 
in  Freedom.  After  a  day  or  two's  tarrying,  Jackson  took  his  departure  for 
safer  and  more  healthful  localities, — her  "British  Majesty's  possessions." 
The  old  man  remained  only  to  feel  more  keenly  than  ever,  the  pang  of 
having  sons  still  toiling  in  hopeless  servitude. 

In  less  than  seven  months  after  Jackson  had  shaken  off  the  yoke,  to  the 
unspeakable  joy  of  the  father,  Isaac  and  Edmondson  succeeded  in  following 
their  brother's  example,  and  were  made  happy  partakers  of  the  benefits  and 
blessings  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  of  Philadelphia.  On  first  meeting  his 
two  boys,  at  the  Underground  Rail  Road  Depot,  the  old  man  took  each 
one  in  his  arms,  and  as  looking  through  a  glass  darkly,  straining  every 
nerve  of  his  almost  lost  sight,  exclaiming,  whilst  hugging  them  closer  and 
closer  to  his  bosom  for  some  minutes,  in  tears  of  joy  and  wonder,  "  My  son 
Isaac,  is  this  you  ?  my  son  Isaac,  is  this  you,  &c.  ?"  The  scene  was  calcu- 
lated to  awaken  the  deepest  emotion  and  to  bring  tears  to  eyes  not  accus- 
tomed to  weep.  Little  had  the  old  man  dreamed  in  his  days  of  sadness,  that 
he  should  share  such  a  feast  of  joy  over  the  deliverance  of  his  sons.  But  it 
is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  picture  the  affecting  scene  at  this  reunion,  for  that 
would  be  impossible.  Of  their  slave  life,  the  records  contain  but  a  short 
notice,  simply  as  follows : 

"  ISAAC  is  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  hearty-looking,  well  made,  dark 
color  and  intelligent.  He  was  owned  by  Mrs.  Ann  Colley,  a  widow,  resid- 
ing near  Petersburg,  Va.  Isaac  and  Edmondson  were  to  have  been  sold, 
on  New  Year's  day ;  a  few  days  hence.  How  sad  her  disappointment  must 
have  been  on  finding  them  gone,  may  be  more  easily  imagined  than  de- 
scribed." 

EDMONDSON  is  about  twenty-five,  a  brother  of  Isaac,  and  a  smart,  good- 
looking  young  man,  was  owned  by  Mrs.  Colley  also.  "  This  is  just  the  class 
of  fugitives  to  make  good  subjects  for  John  Bull,"  thought  the  Committee, 
feeling  pretty  well  assured  that  they  would  make  good  reports  after  having 
enjoyed  free  air  in  Canada  for  a  short  time.  Of  course,  the  Committee 
enjoined  upon  them  very  earnestly  "  not  to  forget  their  brethren  left  behind 
groaning  in  fetters ;  but  to  prove  by  their  industry,  uprightness,  economy, 
sobriety  and  thrift,  by  the  remembrance  of  their  former  days  of  oppression 
and  their  obligations  to  their  God,  that  they  were  worthy  of  the  country  to 
which  they  were  going,  and  so  to  help  break  the  bands  of  the  oppressors,  and 


MEETING  OF  BLIND  FATHER  AND  HIS  SONS,  H9 

undo  the  heavy  burdens  of  the  oppressed."  Similar  advice  was  impressed 
upon  the  minds  of  all  travelers  passing  over  this  branch  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  From  hundreds  thus  admonished,  letters  came  affording  the 
most  gratifying  evidence  that  the  counsel  of  the  Committee  was  not  in 
vain.  The  appended  letter  from  the  youngest  brother,  written  with  his 
own  hand,  will  indicate  his  feelings  and  views  in  Canada : 

HAMILTON,  CANADA  WEST  Mar.  1, 1858. 

MB.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  taken  the  opportunity  to  enform  you  yur  letter  came 
to  hand  27th  I  ware  glad  to  hear  from  you  and  yer  famly  i  hope  this  letter  May  fine  you 
and  the  famly  Well  i  am  Well  my  self  My  Brother  join  me  in  Love  to  you  and  all  the 
frend.  I  ware  sorry  to  hear  of  the  death  of  Mrs  freaman.  We  all  must  die  sune  or  Late 
this  a  date  we  all  must  pay  we  must  Perpar  for  the  time  she  ware  a  nise  lady  dear  sir  the 
all  is  well  and  san  thar  love  to  you  Emerline  have  Ben  sick  But  is  better  at  this  time.  I 
saw  the  hills  the  war  well  and  san  thar  Love  to  you.  I  war  sory  to  hear  that  My 
brother  war  sol  i  am  glad  that  i  did  come  away  when  i  did  god  works  all  the  things  for 
the  Best  he  is  young  he  may  get  a  long  in  the  wole  May  god  Bless  hem  ef  you  have  any 
News  from  Petersburg  Va  Plas  Rite  me  a  word  when  you  anser  this  Letter  and  ef  any 
person  came  form  home  Letter  Me  know.  Please  sen  me  one  of  your  Paper  that  had  the 
under  grands  R  wrod  give  My  Love  to  Mr  Careter  and  his  family  I  am  Seving  with  a 
barber  at  this  time  he  have  promust  to  give  me  the  trad  ef  i  can  lane  it  he  is  much  of  a 
gentman.  Mr  Still  sir  i  have  writing  a  letter  to  Mr  Brown  of  Petersburg  Va  Pleas  reed 
it  and  ef  you  think  it  right  Plas  sen  it  by  the  Mail  or  by  hand  you  wall  see  how  i  have 
writen  it  the  will  know  how  sent  it  by  the  way  this  writing  ef  the  ancer  it  you  can  sen  it 
to  Me  i  have  tol  them  direc  to  yor  care  for  Ed.  t.  Smith  Philadelphia  i  hope  it  may  be 
right  i  promorst  to  rite  to  hear  Please  rite  to  me  sune  and  let  me  know  ef  you  do  sen  it  on 
write  wit  you  did  with  that  ma  a  bught  the  cappet  Bage  do  not  fergit  to  rite  tal  John  he 
mite  rite  to  Me.  I  am  doing  as  well  is  i  can  at  this  time  but  i  get  no  wagges  But  my 
Bord  but  is  satfid  at  that  thes  hard  time  and  glad  that  i  am  Hear  and  in  good  helth. 
Northing  More  at  this  time  yor  truly  EDMUND  TUENER. 

The  same  writer  sent  to  the  Corresponding  Secretary  the  following  "  Warn- 
ing to  Slave-holders."  At  the  time  these  documents  were  received,  Slave- 
holders were  never  more  defiant.  The  right  to  trample  on  the  weak  in 
oppression  was  indisputable.  "  Cinnamon  and  odors,  and  ointments,  and 
frankincense,  and  wine,  and  oil,  and  fine  flour  and  wheat,  and  beasts,  and 
sheep,  and  horses,  and  chariots,  and  slaves,  and  souls  of  men,"  slave-holders 
believed  doubtless  were  theirs  by  Divine  Right.  Little  dreaming  that  in 
less  than  three  short  years — "  Therefore  shall  her  plagues  come  in  one  day, 
death,  and  mourning,  and  famine."  In  view  of  the  marvelous  changes 
which  have  been  wrought  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  this  warning 
to  slave-holders  from  one  who  felt  the  sting  of  Slavery,  as  evincing  a  par- 
ticular phase  of  simple  faith  and  Christian  charity  is  entitled  to  a  place  in 
these  records. 

A   WARNING   TO   SLAVE-HOLDERS. 

Well  may  the  Southern  slaveholder  say,  that  holding  their  Fellow  men  in  Bondage  is  no 
(sin,  because  it  is  their  delight  as  the  Egyptians,  so  do  they  ;  but  nevertheless  God  in  his 


120  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

own  good  time  will  bring  them  out  by  a  mighty  hand,  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  sacred  oracles 
of  truth,  that  Ethiopia  shall  soon  stretch  out  her  hands  to  God,  speaking  in  the  positive 
(shall).  And  my  prayer  is  to  you,  oh,  slaveholder,  in  the  name  of  that  God  who  in  the 
beginning  said,  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light.  Let  my  People  go  that  they  may 
serve  me;  thereby  good  may  come  unto  thee  and  to  thy  children's  children.  Slave-holder 
have  you  seriously  thought  upon  the  condition  yourselves,  family  and  slaves ;  have  you 
read  where  Christ  has  enjoined  upon  all  his  creatures  to  read  his  word,  thereby  that  they 
may  have  no  excuse  when  coming  before  his  judgment  seat?  But  you  say  he  shall  not 
read  his  word,  consequently  his  sin  will  be  upon  your  head.  I  think  every  man  has  as 
much  as  he  can  do  to  answer  for  his  own  sins.  And  now  my  dear  slave-holder,  who  with 
you  are  bound  and  fast  hastening  to  judgment?  As  one  that  loves  your  soul  repent  ye, 
therefore,  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out  when  the  time  of  refresh- 
ing shall  come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 
In  the  language  of  the  poet : 

Stop,  poor  sinner,  stop  and  think, 

Before  you  further  go ; 
Think  upon  the  brink  of  death 

Of  everlasting  woe. 
Say,  have  you  an  arm  like  God, 

That  you  his  will  oppose  ? 
Fear  you  not  that  iron  rod 

With  which  he  breaks  his  foes? 
Is  the  prayer  of  one  that  loves  your  souls.  EDMUND  TUENEB. 

N.  B.  The  signature  bears  the  name  of  one  who  knows  and  felt  the  sting  of  Slavery ; 
but  now,  thanks  be  to  God,  I  am  now  where  the  poisonous  breath  taints  not  our  air,  but 
every  one  is  sitting  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  where  none  dare  to  make  him 
ashamed  or  afraid.  EDMUND  TURNER,  formerly  of  Petersburg,  Va. 

HAMILTON,  June  22d,  1858,  C.  W. 

To  ME.  WM.  STILL,  DEAE  SIB: — A  favorable  opportunity  affords  the  pleasure  of  acknow- 
ledging the  receipt  of  letters  and  papers;  certainly  in  this  region  they  were  highly  appreci- 
ated, and  I  hope  the  time  may  come  that  your  kindness  will  be  reciprocated  we  are  al  well 
at  present,  but  times  continue  dull.  I  also  deeply  regret  the  excitement  recently  on  the 
account  of  those  slaves,  you  will  favor  me  by  keeping  me  posted  upon  the  subject.  Those 
words  written  to  slaveholder  is  the  thought  of  one  who  had  sufferd,  and  now  I  thought  it 
a  duty  incumbent  upon  me  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  &c.,  by  sending  these  few  lines 
where  the  slaveholder  may  hear.  You  will  still  further  oblige  your  humble  servant  also, 
to  correct  any  inaccuracy.  My  respects  to  you  and  your  family  and  all  inquiring  friends. 
Your  friend  and  well  wisher,  EDMUND  TURNER. 

The  then  impending  judgments  seen  by  an  eye  of  faith  as  set  forth  in  this 
"  Warning,"  soon  fell  with  crushing  weight  upon  the  oppressor,  and  Slavery 
died.  But  the  old  blind  father  of  Jackson,  Isaac  and  Edmondson,  still 
lives  and  may  be  seen  daily  on  the  streets  of  Philadelphia ;  and  though 
"  halt,  and  lame,  and  blind,  and  poor,"  doubtless  resulting  from  his  early 
oppression,  he  can  thank  God  and  rejoice  that  he  has  lived  to  see  Slavery 
abolished. 


ROBERT  BROWN.  121 

ROBERT  BROWN,  ALIAS  THOMAS  JONES. 

CROSSING  THE  RIVER  ON   HORSEBACK  IN  THE  NIGHT. 

,  In  very  desperate  straits  many  new  inventions  were  sought  after  by 
deep-thinking  and  resolute  slaves,  determined  to  be  free  at  any  cost.  But 
it  must  here  be  admitted,  that,  in  looking  carefully  over  the  more  perilous 
methods  resorted  to,  Robert  Brown,  alias  Thomas  Jones,  stands  second 
to  none,  with  regard  to  deeds  of  bold  daring.  This  hero  escaped  from 
Martinsburg,  Va.,  in  1856.  He  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  mulatto,  about 
thirty-eight  years  of  age,  could  read  and  write,  and  was  naturally  sharp- 
witted.  He  had  formerly  been  owned  by  Col.  John  F.  Franic,  whom 
Robert  charged  with  various  offences  of  a  serious  domestic  character. 

Furthermore,  he  also  alleged,  that  his  "  mistress  was  cruel  to  all  the 
slaves,"  declaring  that  "  they  (the  slaves),  could  not  live  with  her,"  that 
"  she  had  to  hire  servants,"  etc. 

In  order  to  effect  his  escape,  Robert  was  obliged  to  swim  the  Potomac 
river  on  horseback,  on  Christmas  night,  while  the  cold,  wind,  storm,  and 
darkness  were  indescribably  dismal.  This  daring  bondman,  rather  than 
•submit  to  his  oppressor  any  longer,  perilled  his  life  as  above  stated.  Where 
he  crossed  the  river  was  about  a  half  a  mile  wide.  Where  could  be  found 
in  history  a  more  noble  and  daring  struggle  for  Freedom  ? 

The  wife  of  his  bosom  and  his  four  children,  only  five  days  before  he 
fled,  were  sold  to  a  trader  in  Richmond,  Va.,  for  no  other  offence  than 
Bimply  "  because  she  had  resisted  "  the  lustful  designs  of  her  master,  being 
"true  to  her  own  companion."  After  this  poor  slave  mother  and  her 
children  were  cast  into  prison  for  sale,  the  husband  and  some  of  his  friends 
tried  hard  to  find  a  purchaser  in  the  neighborhood ;  but  the  malicious  and 
brutal  master  refused  to  sell  her — wishing  to  gratify  his  malice  to  the 
utmost,  and  to  punish  his  victims  all  that  lay  in  his  power,  he  sent  them  to 
the  place  above  named. 

In  this  trying  hour,  the  severed  and  bleeding  heart  of  the  husband 
resolved  to  escape  at  all  hazards,  taking  with  him  a  daguerreotype  likeness 
of  his  wife  which  he  happened  to  have  on  hand,  and  a  lock  of  hair  from 
her  head,  and  from  each  of  the  children,  as  mementoes  of  his  unbounded 
.(though  sundered)  affection  for  them. 

After  crossing  the  river,  his  wet  clothing  freezing  to  him,  he  rode  all 
night,  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles.  In  the  morning  he  left  his  faithful 
horse  tied  to  a  fence,  quite  broken  down.  He  then  commenced  his  dreary 
journey  on  foot — cold  and  hungry — in  a  strange  place,  where  it  was  quite 
unsafe  to  make  known  his  condition  and  wants.  Thus  for  a  day  or  two, 
without  food  or  shelter,  he  traveled  until  his  feet  were  literally  worn  out, 
and  in  this  condition  he  arrived  at  Harrisburg,  where  he  found  friends. 
Passing  over  many  of  the  interesting  incidents  on  the  road,  suffice  it  to  say, 


122  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

he  arrived  safely  in  this  city,  on  New  Year's  night,  1857,  about  two  hours 
before  day  break  (the  telegraph  having  announced  his  coming  from  Harris- 
burg),  having  been  a  week  on  the  way.  The  night  he  arrived  was  very 
cold  ;  besides,  the  Underground  train,  that  morning,  was  about  three  hours 
behind  time ;  in  waiting  for  it,  entirely  out  in  the  cold,  a  member  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee  thought  he  was  frosted.  But  when  he  came  to 
listen  to  the  story  of  the  Fugitive's  sufferings,  his  mind  changed. 

Scarcely  had  Robert  entered  the  house  of  one  of  the  Committee,  where 
he  was  kindly  received,  when  he  took  from  his  pocket  his  wife's  likeness, 
speaking  very  touchingly  while  gazing  upon  it  and  showing  it.  Subse- 
quently, in  speaking  of  his  family,  he  showed  the  locks  of  hair  referred  to, 
which  he  had  carefully  rolled  up  in  paper  separately.  Unrolling  them,  he 
said,  "  this  is  my  wife's ;"  "  this  is  from  my  oldest  daughter,  eleven  years 
old;"  "and  this  is  from  my  next  oldest ;"  "and  this  from  the  next,"  "and 
this  from  my  infant,  only  eight  weeks  old."  These  mementoes  he  cherished 
with  the  utmost  care  as  the  last  remains  of  his  affectionate  family.  At  the 
sight  of  these  locks  of  hair  so  tenderly  preserved,  the  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee could  fully  appreciate  the  resolution  of  the  fugitive  in  plunging  into 
the  Potomac,  on  the  back  of  a  dumb  beast,  in  order  to  flee  from  a  place  and 
people  who  had  made  such  barbarous  havoc  in  his  household. 

His  wife,  as  represented  by  the  likeness,  was  of  fair  complexion,  prepos- 
sessing, and  good  looking — perhaps  not  over  thirty-three  years  of  age. 


ANTHONY  LONEY,  ALIAS  WILLIAM  ARMSTEAD. 

ANTHONY  had  been  serving  under  the  yoke  of  Warring  Talvert,  of  Rich- 
mond, Va.  Anthony  was  of  a  rich  black  complexion,  medium  size,  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age.  He  was  intelligent,  and  a  member  of  the  Baptist 
Church.  His  master  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  held 
family  prayers  with  the  servants.  But  Anthony  believed  seriously,  that  his 
master  was  no  more  than  a  "  whitened  sepulchre,"  one  who  was  fond  of 
saying,  "  Lord,  Lord,"  but  did  not  do  what  the  Lord  bade  him,  conse- 
quently Anthony  felt,  that  before  the  Great  Judge  his  "  master's  many 
prayers  "  would  not  benefit  him,  as  long  as  he  continued  to  hold  his  fellow- 
men  in  bondage.  He  left  a  father,  Samuel  Loney,  and  mother,  Rebecca 
also,  one  sister  and  four  brothers.  His  old  father  had  bought  him- 
self and  was  free ;  likewise  his  mother,  being  very  old,  had  been  allowed  to 
go  free.  Anthony  escaped  in  May,  1857. 


CORNELIUS  SCOTT. 

Cornelius  took  passage   per  the  Underground   Rail   Road,   in   March, 
1857,   from  the  neighborhood  of  Salvingtou,   Stafford  county,  Va.     He 


SAMUEL    WILLIAMS.  123 

stated  that  he  had  been  claimed  by  Henry  L.  Brooke,  whom  he  declared 
to  be  a  "  hard  drinker  and  a  hard  swearer."  Cornelius  had  been  very 
much  bleached  by  the  Patriarchal  Institution,  and  he  was  shrewd  enough 
to  take  advantage  of  this  circumstance.  In  regions  of  country  where  men 
were  less  critical  and  less  experienced  than  Southerners,  as  to  how  the 
bleaching  process  was  brought  about,  Cornelius  Scott  would  have  had  no 
difficulty  whatever  in  passing  for  a  white  man  of  the  most  improved  Anglo- 
Saxon  type.  Although  a  young  man  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and 
quite  stout,  his  fair  complexion  was  decidedly  against  him.  He  concluded, 
that  for  this  very  reason,  he  would  not  have  been  valued  at  more  than  five 
hundred  dollars  in  the  market.  He  left  his  mother  (Ann  Stubbs,  and  half 
brother,  Isaiah),  and  traveled  as  a  white  man. 


SAMUEL  WILLIAMS,  ALIAS  JOHN  WILLIAMS. 

This  candidate  for  Canada  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  the  clutches  of 
his  mistress,  Mrs.  Elvina  Duncans,  widow  of  the  late  Rev.  James  Duncans, 
who  lived  near  Cumberland,  Md.  He  had  very  serious  complaints  to  allege 
against  his  mistress,  "  who  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church."  To 
use  his  own  language,  "  the  servants  in  the  house  were  treated  worse  than 
dogs."  John  was  thirty-two  years  of  age,  dark  chestnut  color,  well  made, 
prepossessing  in  appearance,  and  he  "  fled  to  keep  from  being  sold."  With 
the  Underground  Rail  Road  he  was  "  highly  delighted."  Nor  was  he  less 
pleased  with  the  thought,  that  he  had  caused  his  mistress,  who  was  "  one 
of  the  worst  women  who  ever  lived,"  to  lose  twelve  hundred  dollars  by  him. 
He  escaped  in  March,  1857.  He  did  not  admit  that  he  loved  slavery  any 
the  better  for  the  reason  that  his  master  was  a  preacher,  or  that  his  mistress 
was  the  wife  of  a  preacher.  Although  a  common  farm  hand,  Samuel  had 
common  sense,  and  for  a  long  time  previous  had  been'  watching  closely  the 
conduct  of  his  mistress,  and  at  the  same  time  had  been  laying  his  plans  for 
escaping  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  the  first  chance. 

$100  REWAKD  ! — My  negro  man  Richard  has  been  missing  since  Sunday  night, 
March  22d.  I  will  give  $100  to  any  one  who  will  secure  him  or  deliver  him  to  me. 
Richard  is  thirty  years  old,  but  looks  older ;  very  short  legs,  dark,  but  rather 
bright  color,  broad  cheek  bones,  a  respectful  and  serious  manner,  generally  looks 
away  when  spoken  to,  small  moustache  and  beard  (but  he  may  have  them  off).  He  is  a  re- 
markably intelligent  man,  and  can  turn  his  hand  to  anything.  He  took  with  him  a  bag 
made  of  Brussels  carpet,  with  my  name  written  in  large,  rough  letters  on  the  bottom,  and 
a  good  stock  of  coarse  and  fine  clothes,  among  them  a  navy  cap  and  a  low-crowned  hat. 
He  has  been  seen  about  New  Kent  C.  H.,  and  on  the  Pamunky  river,  and  is  no  doubt 
trying  to  get  off  in  some  vessel  bound  North. 

April  18th,  1857.  J.  W.  RANDOLPH,  Richmond,  Va. 

Even  at  this  late  date,  it  may  perhaps  afford  Mr.  R.  a  degree  of  satis- 


'124  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

faction  to  know  what  became  of  Richard;  but  if  this  should  not  be  the  case, 
Richard's  children,  or  mother,  or  father,  if  they  are  living,  may  possibly 
see  these  pages,  and  thereby  be  made  glad  by  learning  of  Richard's  wisdom 
as  a  traveler,  in  the  terrible  days  of  slave-hunting.  Consequently  here  is 
what  was  recorded  of  him,  April  3d,  1857,  at  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
Station,  just  before  a  free  ticket  was  tendered  him  for  Canada.  "Richard 
is  thirty-three  years  of  age,  small  of  stature,  dark  color,  smart  and  resolute. 
He  was  owned  by  Captain  Tucker,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  from  whom 
he  fled."  He  was  "  tired  of  serving,  and  wanted  to  marry,"  was  the  cause  of 
his  escape.  He  had  no  complaint  of  bad  treatment  to  make  against  his 
owner;  indeed  he  said,  that  he  had  been  "used  well  all  his  life."  Never- 
theless, Richard  felt  that  this  Underground  Rail  Road  was  the  "  greatest 
road  he  ever  saw." 

When   the  war  broke  out,  Richard  girded  on  his  knapsack  and  went  to 
help  Uncle  Sara  humble  Richmond  and  break  the  yoke. 


BARNABY  GRIGBY,  ALIAS  JOHN  BOYER,  AND  MARY  ELIZA- 
BETH, HIS  WIFE;  FRANK  WANZER,  ALIAS  ROBERT 
SCOTT ;  EMILY  FOSTER,  ALIAS  ANN  WOOD. 

(TWO  OTHERS  WHO  STARTED  WITH  THEM  WERE  CAPTURED.) 

All  these  persons  journeyed  together  from  Loudon  Co.,  Va.  on  horse- 
back and  in  a  carriage  for  more  than  one  hundred  miles.  Availing  them- 
selves of  a  holiday  and  their  master's  horses  and  carriage,  they  as  deliber- 
ately started  for  Canada,  as  though  they  had  never  been  taught  that  it  was 
their  duty,  as  servants,  to  "obey  their  masters."  In  this  particular  showing 
a  most  utter  disregard  of  the  interest  of  their  "kind-hearted  and  indulgent 
owners."  They  left  home  on  Monday,  Christmas  Eve,  1855,  under  the 
leadership  of  Frank  Wanzer,  and  arrived  in  Columbia  the  following  Wed- 
nesday at  one  o'clock.  As  willfully  as  they  had  thus  made  their  way 
along,  they  had  not  found  it  smooth  sailing  by  any  means.  The  biting 
frost  and  snow  rendered  their  travel  anything  but  agreeable.  Nor  did 
they  escape  the  gnawings  of  hunger,  traveling  day  and  night.  And 
whilst  these  "  articles  "  were  in  the  very  act  of  running  away  with  them- 
selves and  their  kind  master's  best  horses  and  carriage — when  about  one 
hundred  miles  from  home,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cheat  river,  Maryland, 
they  were  attacked  by  "  six  white  men,  and  a  boy,"  who,  doubtless,  sup- 
posing that  their  intentions  were  of  a  "  wicked  and  unlawful  character  "  felt 
it  to  be  their  duty  in  kindness  to  their  masters,  if  not  to  the  travelers  to 
demand  of  them  an  account  of  themselves.  In  other  words,  the  assailants 


BARNABY  GRIGBY  AND   OTHERS.  125 

positively  commanded  the  fugitives  to  "  show  what  right  "  they  possessed,  to 
be  found  in  a  condition  apparently  so  unwarranted. 

The  spokesman  amongst  the  fugitives,  affecting  no  ordinary  amount  of 
dignity,  told  their  assailants  plainly,  that  "  no  gentleman  would  interfere 
with  persons  riding  along  civilly  "  —  not  allowing  it  to  be  supposed  that  they 
were  slaves,  of  course.  These  "  gentlemen,"  however,  were  not  willing  to 
accept  this  account  of  the  travelers,  as  their  very  decided  steps  indicated. 
Having  the  law  on  their  side,  they  were  for  compelling  the  fugitives  to 
surrender  without  further  parley. 

At  this  juncture,  the  fugitives  verily  believing  that  the  time  had  arrived 
for  the  practical  use  of  their  pistols  and  dirks,  pulled  them  out  of  their 
concealment  —  the  young  women  as  well  as  the  young  men  —  and  declared 
they  would  not  be  "  taken  !"  One  of  the  white  men  raised  his  gun, 
pointing  the  muzzle  directly  towards  one  of  the  young  women,  with  the 
threat  that  he  would  "shoot,"  etc.  "Shoot!  shoot!!  shoot!!!"  she  ex- 
claimed, with  a  double  barrelled  pistol  in  one  hand  and  a  long  dirk  knife  in 
the  other,  utterly  unterrified  and  fully  ready  for  a  death  struggle.  The 
male  leader  of  the  fugitives  by  this  time  had  "  pulled  back  the  hammers  " 
of  his  "  pistols,"  and  was  about  to  fire  !  Their  adversaries  seeing  the  wea- 
pons, and  the  unflinching  determination  on  the  part  of  the  runaways  to 
stand  their  ground,  "  spill  blood,  kill,  or  die,"  rather  than  be  "  taken,"  very 
prudently  "  sidled  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  road,"  leaving  at  least  four 
of  the  victors  to  travel  on  their  way. 

At  this  moment  the  four  in  the  carriage  lost  sight  of  the  two  on  horse- 
back. Soon  after  the  separation  they  heard  firing,  but  what  the  result 
was,  they  knew  not.  They  were  fearful,  however,  that  their  companions 
had  been  captured. 

The  following  paragraph,  which  was  shortly  afterwards  taken  from  a 
Southern  paper,  leaves  no  room  to  doubt,  as  to  the  fate  of  the  two. 


fugitive  'slaves  from  Virginia  were  arrested  at  the  Maryland  line,  near  Hood's 
Mill,  on  Christmas  day,  but,  after  a  severe  fight,  four  of  them  escaped  and  have  not  since 
been  heard  of.  They  came  from  Loudolin  and  Fauquier  counties. 

Though  the  four  who  were  successful,  saw  no  "  severe  fight,"  it  is  not  un- 
reasonable to  suppose,  that  there  was  a  fight,  nevertheless;  but  not  till  after 
the  number  of  the  fugitives  had  been  reduced  to  two,  instead  of  six.  As 
chivalrous  as  slave-holders  and  slave-catchers  were,  they  knew  the  value  of 
their  precious  lives  and  the  fearful  risk  of  attempting  a  capture,  when  the 
numbers  were  equal. 

The  party  in  the  carriage,  after  the  conflict,  went  on  their  way  rejoicing. 

The  young  men,  one  cold  night,  when  they  were  compelled  to  take  rest  in 
the  woods  and  snow,  in  vain  strove  to  keep  the  feet  of  their  female  compan- 
ions from  freezing  by  lying  on  them  ;  but  the  frost  was  merciless  and  bit 


126  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

them  severely,  as  their  feet  very  plainly  showed.  The  following  dis- 
jointed report  was  cut  from  the  Frederick  (Md.)  Examiner,  soon  after  the 
occurrence  took  place : 

"  Six  slaves,  four  men  and  two  women,  fugitives  from  Virginia,  having  with  them  two 
spring  wagons  and  four  horses,  came  to  Hood's  Mill,  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
near  the  dividing  line  between  Frederick  and  Carroll  counties,  on  Christmas  day.  After 
feeding  their  animals,  one  of  them  told  a  Mr.  Dixon  whence  they  came;  believing  them  to 
be  fugitives,  he  spread  the  alarm,  and  some  eight  or  ten  persons  gathered  round  to  arrest 
them ;  but  the  negroes  drawing  revolvers  and  bowie-knives,  kept  their  assailants  at  bay, 
until  five  of  the  party  succeeded  in  escaping  in  one  of  the  wagons,  and  as  the  last  one 
jumped  on  a  horse  to  flee,  he  was  fired  at,  the  load  taking  effect  in  the  small  of  the  back. 
The  prisoner  says  he  belongs  to  Charles  W.  Simpson,  Esq.,  of  Fauquier  county,  Va.,  and 
ran  away  with  the  others  on  the  preceding  evening." 

This  report  from  the  Examiner)  while  it  is  not  wholly  correct,  evidently 
relates  to  the  fugitives  above  described.  Why  the  reporter  made  such 
glaring  mistakes,  may  be  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  the  bold  stand 
made  by  the  fugitives  was  so  bewildering  and  alarming,  that  the  "  assail- 
ants "  were  not  in  a  proper  condition  to  make  correct  statements.  Neverthe- 
less the  Examiner's  report  was  preserved  with  other  records,  and  is  here 
given  for  what  it  is  worth. 

These  victors  were  individually  noted  on  the  Record  thus  :  Barnaby  was 
owned  by  William  Rogers,  a  farmer,  who  was  considered  a  "  moderate  slave- 
holder," although  of  late  "  addicted  to  intemperance."  He  was  the  owner 
of  about  one  "  dozen  head  of  slaves,"  and  had  besides  a  wife  and  two  chil- 
dren. 

Barnaby's  chances  for  making  extra  "change "for  himself  were  never 
favorable;  sometimes  of  "nights"  he  would  manage  to  earn  a  "trifle."  He 
was  prompted  to  escape  because  he  "  wanted  to  live  by  the  sweat  of  his 
own  brow,"  believing  that  all  men  ought  so  to  live.  This  was  the  only 
reason  he  gave  for  fleeing. 

Mary  Elizabeth  had  been  owned  by  Townsend  McVee  (likewise  a  farmer), 
and  in  Mary's  judgment,  he  was  "  Severe,"  but  she  added,  "  his  wife  made 
him  so."  McVee  owned  about  twenty-five  slaves ;  "  he  hardly  allowed 
them  to  talk — would  not  allow  them  to  raise  chickens,"  and  "only  allowed 
Mary  three  dresses  a  year ;"  the  rest  she  had  to  get  as  she  could.  Sometimes 
McVee  would  sell  slaves — last  year  he  sold  two.  Mary  said  that  she  could 
not  say  anything  good  of  her  mistress.  On  the  contrary,  she  declared  that 
her  mistress  "  knew  no  mercy  nor  showed  any  favor." 

It  was  on  account  of  this  "  domineering  spirit,"  that  Mary  was  induced 
to  escape. 

Frank  was  owned  by  Luther  Sullivan,  "  the  meanest  man  in  Virginia," 
he  said ;  he  treated  his  people  just  as  bad  as  he  could  in  every  respect. 
"  Sullivan,"  added  Frank,  "  would  'lowance  the  slaves  and  stint  them  to 
save  food  and  get  rich,"  and  "  would  sell  and  whip,"  etc.  To  Frank's 


BARNAB  Y  ORIGB  Y  AND  0  TREES.  127 

knowledge,  he  had  sold  some  twenty-five  head.  "He  sold  my  mother  and 
her  two  children  to  Georgia  some  four  years  previous."  But  the  motive 
which  hurried  Frank  to  make  his  flight  was  his  laboring  under  the  ap- 
prehension that  his  master  had  some  "  pretty  heavy  creditors  who  might 
come  on  him  at  any  time."  Frank,  therefore,  wanted  to  be  from  home  in 
Canada  when  these  gentry  should  make  their  visit.  My  poor  mother  has 
been  often  flogged  by  master,  said  Frank.  As  to  his  mistress,  he  said  she 
was  "  tolerably  good." 

Ann  Wood  was  owned  by  McVee  also,  and  was  own  sister  to  Elizabeth. 
Ann  very  fully  sustained  her  sister  Elizabeth's  statement  respecting  the 
character  of  her  master. 

The  above-mentioned  four,  were  all  young  and  likely.  Barnaby  was 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  mulatto,  medium  size,  and  intelligent  —  his 
wife  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  quite  dark,  good-looking,  and  of 
pleasant  appearance.  Frank  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  mulatto,  and  very 
smart ;  Ann  was  twenty-two,  good-looking,  and  smart.  After  their  pressing 
wants  had  been  met  by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  and  after  partial  recuper- 
ation from  their  hard  travel,  etc.,  they  were  forwarded  on  to  the  Vigilance 
Committee  in  New  York.  In  Syracuse,  Frank  (the  leader),  who  was 
engaged  to  Emily,  concluded  that  the  knot  might  as  well  be  tied  on  the  U. 
G.  R.  R.,  although  penniless,  as  to  delay  the  matter  a  single  day  longer. 
Doubtless,  the  bravery,  struggles,  and  trials  of  Emily  throughout  the 
journey,  had,  in  his  estimation,  added  not  a  little  to  her  charms.  Thus  after 
consulting  with  her  on  the  matter,  her  approval  was  soon  obtained,  she  being 
too  prudent  and  wise  to  refuse  the  hand  of  one  who  had  proved  himself  so 
true  a  friend  to  Freedom,  as  well  as  so  devoted  to  her.  The  twain  were 
accordingly  made  one  at  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  Station,  in  Syracuse,  by  Superinten- 
dent— Rev.  J.  W.  Loguen.  After  this  joyful  event,  they  proceeded  to 
Toronto,  and  were  there  gladly  received  by  the  Ladies7  Society  for  aiding 
colored  refugees. 

The  following  letter  from  Mrs.  Agnes  Willis,  wife  of  the  distinguished 
Rev.  Dr.  Willis,  brought  the  gratifying  intelligence  that  these  brave  young 
adventurers,  fell  into  the  hands  of  distinguished  characters  and  warm  friends 

of  Freedom : 

TORONTO,  28th  January,  Monday  evening,  1856. 

ME.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  very  great  pleasure  in  making  you  aware  that  the  fol- 
lowing respectable  person3  have  arrived  here  in  safety  without  being  annoyed  in  any  way 
after  you  saw  them.  The  women,  two  of  them,  viz :  Mrs.  Greegsby  and  Mrs.  Graham, 
have  been  rather  ailing,  but  we  hope  they  will  very  soon  be.  well.  They  have  been 
attended  to  by  the  Ladies'  Society,  and  are  most  grateful  for  any  attention  they  have  re- 
ceived. The  solitary  person,  Mrs.  Graves,  has  also  been  attended  to;  also  her  box  will 
be  looked  after.  She  is  pretty  well,  but  rather  dull ;  however,  she  will  get  friends  and 
feel  more  at  home  by  and  bye.  Mrs.  Wanzer  is  quite  well ;  and  also  young  William 
Henry  Sanderson.  They  are  all  of  them  in  pretty  good  spirits,  and  I  have  no  doubt  they 
will  succeed  in  whatever  business  they  take  up.  In  the  mean  time  the  men  are  chopping 


128  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

wood,  and  the  ladies  are  getting  plenty  sewing.     We  are  always  glad  to  see  our  colored 
refugees  safe  here.     I  remain,  dear  sir,  yours  respectfully,  AGNES  WILLIS, 

Treasurer  to  the  Ladies'  Society  to  aid  colored  refugees. 

For  a  time  Frank  enjoyed  his  newly  won  freedom  and  happy  bride  with 
bright  prospects  all  around ;  but  the  thought  of  having  left  sisters  and  other 
relatives  in  bondage  was  a  source  of  sadness  in  the  midst  of  his  joy.  He 
was  not  long,  however,  in  making  up  his  mind  that  he  would  deliver  them 
or  u  die  in  the  attempt."  Deliberately  forming  his  plans  to  go  South,  he 
resolved  to  take  upon  himself  the  entire  responsibility  of  all  the  risks  to  be 
encountered.  Not  a  word  did  he  reveal  to  a  living  soul  of  what  he 
was  about  to  undertake.  With  "  twenty-two  dollars  "  in  cash  and  "  three 
pistols  "  in  his  pockets,  he  started  in  the  lightning  train  from  Toronto  for 
Virginia.  On  reaching  Columbia  in  this  State,  he  deemed  it  not  safe  to  go 
any  further  by  public  conveyance,  consequently  he  commenced  his  long 
journey  on  foot,  and  as  he  neared  the  slave  territory  he  traveled  by  night 
altogether.  For  two  weeks,  night  and  day,  he  avoided  trusting  himself  in 
any  house,  consequently  was  compelled  to  lodge  in  the  woods.  Nevertheless, 
during  that  space  of  time  he  succeeded  in  delivering  one  of  his  sisters  and 
her  husband,  and  another  friend  in  the  bargain.  You  can  scarcely  imagine 
the  Committee's  amazement  on  his  return,  as  they  looked  upon  him  and 
listened  to  his  "  noble  deeds  of  daring "  and  his  triumph.  A  more  brave 
and  self-possessed  man  they  had  never  seen. 

He  knew  what  Slavery  was  and  the  dangers  surrounding  him  on  his 
mission,  but  possessing  true  courage  unlike  most  men,  he  pictured  no 
alarming  difficulties  in  a  distance  of  nearly  one  thousand  miles  by  the 
mail  route,  through  the  enemy's  country,  where  he  might  have  in  truth  said, 
"  I  could  not  pass  without  running  the  gauntlet  of  mobs  and  assassins, 
prisons  and  penitentiaries,  bailiffs  and  constables,  &c."  If  this  hero  had 
dwelt  upon  and  magnified  the  obstacles  in  his  way  he  would  most  assuredly 
have  kept  off  the  enemy's  country,  and  his  sister  and  friends  would  have 
remained  in  chains. 

The  following  were  the  persons  delivered  by  Frank  Wanzer.  They  were 
his  trophies,  and  this  noble  act  of  Frank's  should  ever  be  held  as  a  memorial 
and  honor.  The  Committee's  brief  record  made  on  their  arrival  runs  thus : 

"August  18,  1856.  Frank  "VVanzer,  Robert  Stewart,  alias  Gasberry 
Robison,  Vincent  Smith,  alias  John  Jackson,  Betsey  Smith,  wife  of  Vincent 
Smith,  alias  Fanny  Jackson.  They  all  came  from  Alder,  Loudon  county, 
Virginia." 

Robert  is  about  thirty  years  of  age,  medium  size,  dark  chestnut  color, 
intelligent  and  resolute.  He  was  held  by  the  widow  Hutchinson,  who  was 
also  the  owner  of  about  one  hundred  others.  Robert  regarded  her  as  a  "  very 
hard  mistress "  until  the  death  of  her  husband,  which  took  place  the 
Fall  previous  to  his  escape.  That  sad  affliction,  he  thought,  was  the  cause 


WILLIAM  JORDON.  129 

of  a  considerable  change  in  her  treatment  of  her  slaves.  But  yet  "  nothing 
was  said  about  freedom,"  on  her  part.  This  reticence  Robert  understood  to 
mean,  that  she  was  still  unconverted  on  this  great  cardinal  principle  at  least. 
As  he  could  see  no  prospect  of  freedom  through  her  agency,  when  Frank 
approached  him  with  a  good  report  from  Canada  and  his  friends  there,  he 
could  scarcely  wait  to  listen  to  the  glorious  news;  he  was  so  willing  and  anxious 
to  get  out  of  slavery.  His  dear  old  mother,  Sarah  Davis,  and  four  brothers 
and  two  sisters,  William,  Thomas,  Frederick  and  Samuel,  Violet  and  Ellen, 
were  all  owned  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Dear  as  they  were  to  him,  he  saw  no 
way  to  take  them  with  him,  nor  was  he  prepared  to  remain  a  day  longer  under 
the  yoke ;  so  he  decided  to  accompany  Frank,  let  the  cost  be  what  it  might. 

Vincent  is  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  very  "  likely-looking,"  dark 
color,  and  more  than  ordinarily  intelligent  for  one  having  only  the  common 
chances  of  slaves. 

He  was  owned  by  the  estate  of  Nathan  Skinner,  who  was  "  looked  upon," 
by  those  who  knew  him,  "as  a  good  slave-holder."  In  slave  property, 
however,  he  was  only  interested  to  the  number  of  twelve  head.  Skinner 
"neither  sold  nor  emancipated."  A  year  and  a  half  before  Vincent  es- 
caped, his  master  was  called  to  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship,  and  there 
in  the  spirit  land  Vincent  was  willing  to  let  him  remain,  without  much 
more  to  add  about  him. 

Vincent  left  his  mother,  Judah  Smith,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  Edwin, 
Angeline,  Sina  Ann,  Adaline  Susan,  George,  John  and  Lewis,  all  belonging 
to  the  estate  of  Skinner. 

Vincent  was  fortunate  enough  to  bring  his  wife  along  with  him.  She  was 
about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  of  a  brown  color,  and  smart,  and  was  owned 
by  the  daughter  of  the  widow  Hutchinson.  This  mistress  was  said  to  be  a 
"  clever  woman." 


WILLIAM  JORDON,  ALIAS  WILLIAM  PRICE. 

Under  Governor  Badger,  of  North  Carolina,  William  had  experienced 
Slavery  in  its  most  hateful  form.  True,  he  had  only  been  twelve  months 
under  the  yoke  of  this  high  functionary.  But  William's  experience  in  this 
short  space  of  time,  was  of  a  nature  very  painful. 

Previous  to  coming  into  the  governor's  hands,  William  was  held  as  the 
property  of  Mrs.  Mary  Jordon,  who  owned  large  numbers  of  slaves. 
Whether  the  governor  was  moved  by  this  consideration,  or  by  the  fascina- 
ting charms  of  Mrs.  Jordon,  or  both,  William  was  not  able  to  decide.  But 
the  governor  offered  her  his  hand,  and  they  became  united  in  wedlock.  By 
this  circumstance,  William  was  brought  into  his  unhappy  relations  with  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  This  was  the  third  time 
9 


130  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  governor  had  been  married.  Thus  it  may  be  seen,  that  the  governor 
was  a  firm  believer  in  wives  as  well  as  slaves.  Commonly  he  was  regarded 
as  a  man  of  wealth.  William  being  an  intelligent  piece  of  property,  his 
knowledge  of  the  governor's  rules  and  customs  was  quite  complete,  as  he 
readily  answered  such  questions  as  were  propounded  to  him.  In  this  way  a 
great  amount  of  interesting  information  was  learned  from  William  respect- 
ing the  governor,  slaves,  on  the  plantation,  in  the  swamps,  etc.  The 
governor  owned  large  plantations,  and  was  interested  in  raising  cotton,  corn, 
and  peas,  and  was  also  a  practical  planter.  He  was  willing  to  trust  neither 
overseers  nor  slaves  any  further  than  he  could  help. 

The  governor  and  his  wife  were  both  equally  severe  towards  them ;  would 
stint  them  shamefully  in  clothing  and  food,  though  they  did  not  get  flogged 
quite  as  often  as  some  others  on  neighboring  plantations.  Frequently,  the 
governor  would  be  out  on  the  plantation  from  early  in  the  morning  till 
noon,  inspecting  the  operations  of  the  overseers  and  slaves. 

In  order  to  serve  the  governor,  William  had  been  separated  from  his  wife 
by  sale,  which  was  the  cause  of  his  escape.  He  parted  not  with  his  com- 
panion willingly.  At  the  time,  however,  he  was  promised  that  he  should 
have  some  favors  shown  him; — could  make  over-work,  and  earn  a  little 
money,  and  once  or  twice  in  the  year,  have  the  opportunity  of  making  visits 
to  her.  Two  hundred  miles  was  the  distance  between  them. 

He  had  not  been  long  on  the  governor's  plantation  before  his  honor  gave 
him  distinctly  to  understand  that  the  idea  of  his  going  two  hundred  miles 
to  see  his  wife  was  all  nonsense,  and  entirely  out  of  the  question.  "If  I  said 
so,  I  did  not  mean  it,"  said  his  honor,  when  the  slave,  on  a  certain  occasion, 
alluded  to  the  conditions  on  which  he  consented  to  leave  home,  etc. 

Against  this  cruel  decision  of  the  governor,  William's  heart  revolted,  for 
he  was  warmly  attached  to  his  wife,  and  so  he  made  up  his  mind,  if  he 
could  not  see  her  "  once  or  twice  a  year  even,"  as  he  had  been  promised,  he 
had  rather  "die,"  or  live  in  a  "cave  in -the  wood,"  than  to  remain  all  his 
life  under  the  governor's  yoke.  Obeying  the  dictates  of  his  feelings,  he  went 
to  the  woods.  For  ten  months  before  he  was  successful  in  finding  the  Under- 
ground Road,  this  brave-hearted  young  fugitive  abode  in  the  swamps — three 
months  in  a  cave — surrounded  with  bears,  wild  cats,  rattle-snakes  and  the  like. 

While  in  the  swamps  and  cave,  he  was  not  troubled,  however,  about 
ferocious  animals  and  venomous  reptiles.  He  feared  only  man! 

From  his  own  story  there  was  no  escaping  the  conclusion,  that  if  the  choice 
had  been  left  to  him,  he  would  have  preferred  at  any  time  to  have  encoun- 
tered at  the  mouth  of  his  cave  a  ferocious  bear  than  his  master,  the 
governor  of  North  Carolina.  How  he  managed  to  subsist,  and  ultimately 
effected  his  escape,  was  listened  to  with  the  deepest  interest,  though  the 
recital  of  these  incidents  must  here  be  very  brief. 

After  night  he  would  come  out  of  his  cave,  and,  in  some  instances,  would 


WILLIAM  JORDON.  !31 

succeed  in  making  his  way  to  a  plantation,  and  if  he  could  get  nothing  else, 
he  would  help  himself  to  a  "pig,"  or  anything  else  he  could  conveniently 
convert  into  food.  Also,  as  opportunity  would  offer,  a  friend  of  his  would 
favor  him  with  some  meal,  etc.  "With  this  mode  of  living  he  labored  to 
content  himself  until  he  could  do  better.  During  these  ten  months  he 
suffered  indescribable  hardships,  but  he  felt  that  his  condition  in  the  cave 
was  far  preferable  to  that  on  the  plantation,  under  the  control  of  his  Excel- 
lency, the  Governor.  All  this  time,  however,  "William  had  a  true  friend, 
with  whom  he  could  communicate;  one  who  was  wide  awake,  and  was  on 
the  alert  to  find  a  reliable  captain  from  the  North,  who  would  consent 
to  take  this  "  property,"  or  "  freight,"  for  a  consideration.  He  heard  at 
last  of  a  certain  Captain,  who  was  then  doing  quite  a  successful  business 
in  an  Underground  way.  This  good  news  was  conveyed  to  William,  and 
afforded  him  a  ray  of  hope  in  the  wilderness.  As  Providence  would  have 
it,  his  hope  did  not  meet  with  disappointment ;  nor  did  his  ten  months' 
trial,  warring  against  the  barbarism  of  Slavery,  seem  too  great  to  endure  for 
Freedom.  He  was  about  to  leave  his  cave  and  his  animal  and  reptile 
neighbors, — his  heart  swelling  with  gladness, — but  the  thought  of  soon  being 
beyond  the  reach  of  his  mistress  and  master  thrilled  him  with  inexpressible 
delight.  He  was  brought  away  by  Captain  F.,  and  turned  over  to  the 
Committee,  who  were  made  to  rejoice  with  him  over  the  signal  victory  he 
had  gained  in  his  martyr-like  endeavors  to  throw  off  the  yoke,  and  of  course 
they  took  much  pleasure  in  aiding  him.  William  was  of  a  dark  color, 
stout  made  physically,  and  well  knew  the  value  of  Freedom,  and  how  to 
hate  and  combat  Slavery.  It  will  be  seen  by  the  appended  letter  of  Thomas 
Garrett,  that  William  had  the  good  luck  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  this  tried 
friend,  by  whom  he  was  aided  to  Philadelphia : 

WILMINGTON,  12th  mo.,  19th,  1855. 

DEAR  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — The  bearer  of  this  is  one  of  the  twenty-one  that  I 
thought  had  all  gone  North  ;  he  left  home  on  Christmas  day,  one  year  since,  wandered 
about  the  forests  of  North  Carolina  for  about  ten  months,  and  then  came  here  with  those 
forwarded  to  New  Bedford,  where  he  is  anxious  to  go.  I  have  furnished  him  with  a 
pretty  good  pair  of  boots,  and  gave  him  money  to  pay  his  passage  to  Philadelphia.  He 
has  been  at  work  in  the  country  near  here  for  some  three  weeks,  till  taken  sick  ;  he  is,  by 
no  means,  well,  but  thinks  he  had  better  try  to  get  further  North,  which  I  hope  his  friends 
in  Philadelphia  will  aid  him  to  do.  I  handed  this  morning  Captain  Lambson's*  wife 
twenty  dollars  to  help  fee  a  lawyer  to  defend  him.  She  leaves  this  morning,  with  her 
child,  for  Norfolk,  to  be  at  the  trial  before  the  Commissioner  on  the  24th  instant.  Pass- 
more  Williamson  agreed  to  raise  fifty  dollars  for  him.  As  none  came  to  hand,  and  a  good 
chance  to  send  it  by  his  wife,  I  thought  best  to  advance  that  much. 

Thy  friend,  THOS.  GAREETT. 

4 

*  Captain  Lambson  had  been  suspected  of  having  aided  in  the  escape  of  slaves  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Norfolk,  and  was  in  prison  awaiting  his  trial. 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


JOSEPH  GRANT  AND  JOHN  SPEAKS. 

TWO  PASSENGERS  ON  THE  UNDERGROUND    RAIL  ROAD,  VIA  LIVERPOOL. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that,  owing  to  circumstances,  the  account  of  these 
persons  has  not  been  fully  preserved.  Could  justice  be  done  them,  probably 
their  narratives  would  not  be  surpassed  in  interest  by  any  other  in  the  history 
of  fugitives.  In  1857,  when  these  remarkable  travelers  came  under  the 
notice  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  as  Slavery  seemed  likely  to  last  for 
generations,  and  there  was  but  little  expectation  that  these  records  would 
ever  have  the  historical  value  which  they  now  possess,  care  was  not  always 
taken  to  prepare  and  preserve  them.  Besides,  the  cases  coming  under  the 
notice  of  the  Committee,  were  so  numerous  and  so '  interesting,  that  it 
seemed  almost  impossible  to  do  them  anything  like  justice.  In  many  instances 
the  rapt  attention  paid  by  friends,  when  listening  to  the  sad  recitals  of  such 
passengers,  would  unavoidably  consume  so  much  time  that  but  little  oppor- 
tunity was  afforded  to  make  any  record  of  them.  Particularly  was  this  the 
case  with  regard  to  the  above-mentioned  individuals.  The  story  of  each 
was  so  long  and  sad,  that  a  member  of  the  Committee  in  attempting  to  write 
it  out,  found  that  the  two  narratives  would  take  volumes.  That  all  traces, 
of  these  heroes  might  not  be  lost,  a  mere  fragment  is  all  that  was  preserved. 

The  original  names  of  these  adventurers,  were  Joseph  Grant  and  John 
Speaks.  Between  two  and  three  years  before  escaping,  they  were  sold  from 
Maryland  to  John  B.  Campbell  a  negro  trader,  living  in  Baltimore,  and 
thence  to  Campbell's  brother,  another  trader  in  New  Orleans,  and  subse- 
quently to  Daniel  McBeans  and  Mr.  Henry,  of  Harrison  county,  Mississippi. 

Though  both  had  to  pass  through  nearly  the  same  trial,  and  belonged  to 
the  same  masters,  this  recital  must  be  confined  chiefly  to  the  incidents  in 
the  career  of  Joseph.  He  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  well  made, 
quite  black,  intelligent  and  self-possessed  in  his  manner. 

He  was  owned  in  Maryland  by  Mrs.  Mary  Gibson,  who  resided  at  St. 
Michael's  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  She  was  a  nice  woman  he  said,  but  her 
property  was  under  mortgage  and  had  to  be  sold,  and  he  was  in  danger  of 
sharing  the  same  fate. 

Joseph  was  a  married  man,  and  spoke  tenderly  of  his  wife.  She  "  pro- 
mised" him  when  he  was  sold  that  she  would  "  never  marry,"  and  earnestly 
entreated  him,  if  he  "  ever  met  with  the  luck,  to  come  and  see  her."  She 
was  unaware  perhaps  at  that  time  of  the  great  distance  that  was  to  divide 
them ;  his  feelings  on*being  thus  sundered  need  not  be  stated.  However,  he 
had  scarcely  been  in  Mississippi  three  weeks,  ere  his  desire  to  return  to  his 
wife,  and  the  place  of  his  nativity  constrained  him  to  attempt  to  return ; 


JOSEPH  GRANT  AND  JOHN  SPEAKS.  133 

accordingly  he  set  off,  crossing  a  lake  eighty  miles  wide  in  a  small  boat,  he 
reached  Kent  Island.  There  he  was  captured  by  the  watchman  on  the  Is- 
land, who  with  pistols,  dirk  and  cutlass  in  hand,  threatened  if  he  resisted  that 
death  would  be  his  instant  doom.  Of  course  he  was  returned  to  his  master. 

He  remained  there  a  few  months,  but  could  content  himself  no  longer  to 
endure  the  ills  of  his  condition.  So  he  again  started  for  home,  walked  to 
Mobile,  and  thence  he  succeeded  in  stowing  himself  away  in  a  steamboat 
and  was  thus  conveyed  to  Montgomery,  a  distance  of  five  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  through  solid  slave  territory.  Again  he  was  captured  and  re- 
turned to  his  owners ;  one  of  whom  always  went  for  immediate  punishment, 
the  other  being  mild  thought  persuasion  the  better  plan  in  such  cases. 
On  the  whole,  Joseph  thus  far  had  been  pretty  fortunate,  considering  the 
magnitude  of  his  offence. 

A  third  time  he  summoned  courage  and  steered  his  course  homewards 
towards  Maryland,  but  as  in  the  preceding  attempts,  he  was  again  unsuc- 
cessful. 

In  this  instance  Mr.  Henry,  the  harsh  owner,  was  exasperated,  and  the 
mild  one's  patience  so  exhausted  that  they  concluded  that  nothing  short  of 
stern  measures  would  cause  Joe  to  reform.  Said  Mr.  Henry;  "  1  had  rather 
lose  my  right  arm  than  for  him  to  get  off  without  being  punished,  after  having 
put  us  to  so  much  trouble." 

Joseph  will  now  speak  for  himself. 

"  He  (master)  sent  the  overseer  to  tie  me.  I  told  him  I  would  not  be 
tied.  I  ran  and  stayed  away  four  days,  which  made  Mr.  Henry  very 
anxious.  Mr.  Beans  told  the  servants  if  they  saw  me,  to  tell  me  to  come 
back  and  I  should  not  be  hurt.  Thinking  that  Mr.  Beans  had  always 
stood  to  his  word,  I  was  over  persuaded  and  came  back.  He  sent  for  me 
in  his  parlor,  talked  the  matter  over,  sent  me  to  the  steamboat  (perhaps  the 
one  he  tried  to  escape  on.)  After  getting  cleverly  on  board  the  captain  told 
me,  I  am  sorry  to  tell  you,  you  have  to  be  tied.  I  was  tied  and  Mr.  Henry 
was  sent  for.  He  came ;  '  Well,  I  have  got  you  at  last,  beg  my  pardon 
and  promise  you  will  never  run  away  again  and  I  will  not  be  so  hard  on 
you.'  I  could  not  do  it.  He  then  gave  me  three  hundred  lashes  well  laid  on. 
I  was  stripped  entirely  naked,  and  my  flesh  was  as  raw  as  a  piece  of  beef. 
He  made  John  (the  companion  who  escaped  with  him)  hold  one  of  my  feet 
which  I  broke  loose  while  being  whipped,  and  when  done  made  him  bathe 
me  in  salt  and  water. 

"Then  I  resolved  to  'go  or  die '  in  the  attempt.  Before  starting,  one 
week,  I  could  not  work.  On  getting  better  we  went  to  Ship  Island ;  the 
sailors,  who  were  Englishmen,  were  very  sorry  to  hear  of  the  treatment  we 
had  received,  and  counselled  us  how  we  might  get  free." 

The  counsel  was  heeded,  and  in  due  time  they  found  themselves  in  Liver- 
pool. There  their  stay  was  brief.  Utterly  destitute  of  money,  education, 


134  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  in  a  strange  land,  they  very  naturally  turned  their  eyes  again  in  the 
direction  of  their  native  land.  Accordingly  their  host,  the  keeper  of  a  sailor's 
boarding-house,  shipped  them  to  Philadelphia. 

But  to  go  back,  Joseph  saw  many  things  in  New  Orleans  and  Mississippi 
of  a  nature  too  horrible  to  relate,  among  which  were  the  following : 

I  have  seen  Mr.  Beans  whip  one  of  his  slaves  to  death,  at  the  tree  to 
which  he  was  tied. 

Mr.  Henry  would  make  them  lie  down  across  a  log,  stripped  naked,  and 
with  every  stroke  would  lay  the  flesh  open.  Being  used  to  it,  some  would 
lie  on  the  log  without  being  tied. 

In  New  Orleans,  I  have  seen  women  stretched  out  just  as  naked  as  my 
hand,  on  boxes,  and  given  one  hundred  and  fifty  lashes,  four  men  hold- 
ing them.  I  have  helped  hold  them  myself:  when  released  they  could 
hardly  sit  or  walk.  This  whipping  was  at  the  "  Fancy  House" 

The  "chain-gangs"  he  also  saw  in  constant  operation.  Four  and  five 
slaves  chained  together  and  at  work  on  the  streets,  cleaning,  &c.,  was  a  com- 
mon sight.  He  could  hardly  tell  Sunday  from  Monday  in  New  Orleans, 
the  slaves  were  kept  so  constantly  going. 


WILLIAM  N.  TAYLOR. 

ONE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD.— Ban  away  from  Richmond  City 
on  Tuesday,  the  2d  of  June,  a  negro  man  named  WM.  N.  TAYLOE,  belonging 
to  Mrs.  Margaret  Tyler  of  Hanover  county. 

Said  negro  was  hired  to  Fitzhugh  Mayo,  Tobacconist ;  is  quite  black,  of  gen- 
teel and  easy  manners,  about  five  feet  ten  or  eleven  inches  high,  has  one  front 
tooth  broken,  and  is  about  35  years  old. 

He  is  supposed  either  to  have  made  his  escape  North,  or  attempted  to  do 
so.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  his  delivery  to  Messrs.  Hill  and  Rawlings,  in 
Richmond,  or  secured  in  jail,  so  that  I  get  him  again. 

JAS.  G.  TYLEE,  Trustee  for  Margaret  Tyler. 
June  8th  &c2t —  Richmond  Enquirer,  June  9,  57. 

William  unquestionably  possessed  a  fair  share  of  common  sense,  and  just 
enough  distaste  to  Slavery  to  arouse  him  most  resolutely  to  seek  his  free- 
dom. 

The  advertisement  of  James  G.  Tyler  was  not  altogether  accurate  with 
regard  to  his  description  of  William  ;  but  notwithstanding,  in  handing 
William  down  to  posterity,  the  description  of  Tyler  has  been  adopted  in- 
stead of  the  one  engrossed  in  the  records  by  the  Committee.  But  as  a 
simple  matter  of  fair  play,  it  seems  fitting,  that  the  description  given  by 
William,  while  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  of  his  master,  &c.,  should 
come  in  just  here. 

William  acknowledged  that  he  was  the  property  of  Walter  H.  Tyler, 
brother  of  EX-PRESIDENT  TYLER,  who  was  described  as  follows :  "  He 
(master)  was  about  sixty-five  years  of  age ;  was  a  barbarous  man,  very  in- 


JACOB  W4TERS  AND  ALFRED  GOULDEN.  135 

temperate,  horse  racer,,  chicken-cock  fighter  and  gambler.  He  had  owned 
as  high  as  forty  head  of  slaves,  but  he  had  gambled  them  all  away.  He  was 
a  doctor,  circulated  high  amongst  southerners,  though  he  never  lived 
agreeably  with  his  wife,  would  curse  her  and  call  her  all  kinds  of  names 
that  he  should  not  call  a  lady.  From  a  boy  of  nine  up  to  the  time  I  was 
fifteen  or  sixteen,  I  don't  reckon  he  whipped  me  less  than  a  hundred  times. 
He  shot  at  me  once  with  a  double-barrelled  gun. 

"  What  made  me  leave  was  because  I  worked  for  him  all  my  life-time 
and  he  never  gave  me  but  two  dollars  and  fifteen  cents  in  all  his  life.  I 
was  hired  out  this  year  for  two  hundred  dollars,  but  when  I  would  go  to 
him  to  make  complaints  of  hard  treatment  from  the  man  I  was  hired  to,  he 
would  say :  "  G— d  d n  it,  don't  come  to  me,  all  I  want  is  my  money." 

Mr.  Tyler  was  a  thin  raw-boned  man,  with  a  long  nose,  the  picture  of  the 
president.  His  wife  was  a  tolerably  well-disposed  woman  in  some  instances 
— she  was  a  tall,  thin-visaged  woman,  and  stood  high  in  the  community. 
Through  her  I  fell  into  the  hands  of  Tyler.  At  present  she  owns  about 
fifty  slaves.  His  own  slaves,  spoken  of  as  having  been  gambled  away, 
came  by  his  father — he  has  been  married  the  second  time." 

Twice  William  had  been  sold  and  bought  in,  on  account  of  his  master's 
creditors,  and  for  many  months  had  been  expecting  to  be  sold  again,  to  meet 
pressing  claims  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff  against  Tyler.  Hs,  by  the  way, 
"now  lives  in  Hanover  county,  about  eighteen  miles  from  Richmond,  and 
for  fear  of  the  sheriff,  makes  himself  very  scarce  in  that  city." 

At  fourteen  years  of  age,  William  was  sold  for  eight  hundred  dollars ;  he 
would  have  brought  in  1857,  probably  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  dollars;  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  good  and  regular  standing. 


LOUISA  BROWN. 


LOUISA  is  a  good-looking,  well-grown,  intelligent  mulatto  girl  of  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  was  owned  by  a  widow  woman  of  Baltimore,  Md.  To 
keep  from  being  sold,  she  was  prompted  to  try  her  fortune  on  the  U.  G.  E.  R., 
for  Freedom  in  Canada,  under  the  protection  of  the  British  Lion. 


JACOB  WATERS  AND  ALFRED  GOULDEN. 

JACOB  is  twenty-one  years  of  age,  dark  chestnut  color,  medium  size,  and 
of  prepossessing  manners.  Fled  from  near  Frederick,  Md.,  from  the  clutches 
of  a  farmer  by  the  name  of  William  Dorsey,  who  was  described  as  a  severe 


136  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

master,  and  had  sold  two  of  Jacob's  sisters,  South,  only  three  years  prior  to 
his  escape.     Jacob  left  three  brothers  in  chains. 

ALFRED  is  twenty-three  years  of  age,  in  stature  quite  small,  full  black,  and 
bears  the  marks  of  ill  usage.  Though  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
his  master,  Fletcher  Jackson,  "  thought  nothing  of  taking  the  shovel  to 
Alfred's  head ;  or  of  knocking  him,  and  stamping  his  head  with  the  heels  of 
his  boots."  Repeatedly,  of  late,  he  had  been  shockingly  beaten.  To  escape 
those  terrible  visitations,  therefore,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  seek  a  refuge  in 
Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE. 

JEFFERSON  PIPKINS,   ALIAS  DAVID  JONES,   LOUISA  PIPKINS,   ELIZABETH  BRIT,  HAR- 
RIET BROWN,  ALIAS  JANE  WOOTON,   GRACY  MURRY,   ALIAS  SOPHIA  SIMS, 
EDWARD   WILLIAMS,  ALIAS  HENRY  JOHNSON,   CHAS.   LEE,   ALIAS 
THOMAS  BUSHIER. 

Six  very  clever-looking  passengers,  all  in  one  party  from  Baltimore,  Md., 
the  first  Sunday  in  April,  1853.  Baltimore  used  to  be  in  the  days  of 
Slavery  one  of  the  most  difficult  places  in  the  South  for  even  free  colored 
people  to  get  away  from,  much  more  for  slaves.  The  rule  forbade  any 
colored  person  leaving  there  by  rail  road  or  steamboat,  without  such  applicant 
had  been  weighed,  measured,  and  then  given  a  bond  signed  by  unquestionable 
signatures,  well  known.  Baltimore  was  rigid  in  the  extreme,  and  was  a 
never-failing  source  of  annoyance,  trouble  and  expense  to  colored  people 
generally,  and  not  unfrequently  to  slave-holders  too,  when  they  were  travel- 
ing North  with  "  colored  servants."  Just  as  they  were  ready  to  start,  the 
"  Rules  "  would  forbid  colored  servants  until  the  law  was  complied  with. 
Parties  hurrying  on  would  on  account  of  this  obstruction  "  have  to  wait  until 
their  hurry  was  over."  As  this  was  all  done  in  the  interest  of  Slavery,  the 
matter  was  not  very  loudly  condemned.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this 
weighing,  measuring  and  requiring  of  bonds,  many  travelers  by  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  took  passage  from  Baltimore. 

The  enterprising  individual,  whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  nar- 
rative, came  directly  from  this  stronghold  of  Slavery.  The  widow  Pipkins 
held  the  title  deed  for  Jefferson.  She  was  unfortunate  in  losing  him,  as 
she  was  living  in  ease  and  luxury  off  of  Jefferson's  sweat  and  labor.  Louisa, 
Harriet  and  Grace  owed  service  to  Geo.  Stewart  of  Baltimore ;  Edward  was 
owned  by  Chas.  Moondo,  and  Chas.  Lee  by  the  above  Stewart. 

Those  who  would  have  taken  this  party  for  stupid,  or  for  know-nothings, 
would  have  found  themselves  very  much  mistaken.  Indeed  they  were  far 
from  being  dull  or  sleepy  on  the  subject  of  Slavery  at  any  rate.  They  had 
considered  pretty  thoroughly  how  wrongfully  they,  with  all  others  in  similar 
circumstances,  had  been  year  in  and  year  out  subjected  to  unrequited  toil  so 


SE  VERAL  ARRIVALS  FR  OM  DIFFERENT  PL  A  CES.  137 

resolved  to  leave  masters  and  mistresses  to  shift  for  themselves,  while  they 
would  try  their  fortunes  in  Canada. 

Four  of  the  party  ranged  in  age  from  twenty  to  twenty-eight  years  of 
age,  and  the  other  two  from  thirty-seven  to  forty.  The  Committee  on 
whom  they  called,  rendered  them  due  aid  and  advice,  and  forwarded  them  to 
the  Committee  in  New  York. 

The  following  letter  from  Jefferson,  appealing  for  assistance  on  behalf  of 
his  children  in  Slavery,  was  peculiarly  touching,  as  were  all  similar  letters. 
But  the  mournful  thought  that  these  appeals,  sighs,  tears  and  prayers  would 
continue  in  most  cases  to  be  made  till  death,  that  nothing  could  be  done 
directly  for  the  deliverance  of  such  sufferers  was  often  as  painful  as  the 
escape  from  the  auction  block  was  gratifying. 

LETTER  FROM  JEFFERSON  PIPKINS. 

Sept.  28,  1856. 

To  WM.  STILL.  SIB  : — I  take  the  liberty  of  writing  to  you  a  few  lines  concerning  my 
children,  for  I  am  very,anxious  to  get  them  and  I  wish  you  to  please  try  what  you  can 
do  for  me.  Their  names  are  Charles  and  Patrick  and  are  living  with  Mrs.  Joseph  G. 
Wray  Murphysborough  Hartford  county,  North  Carolina ;  Emma  lives  with  a  Lawyer 
Baker  in  Gatesville  North  Carolina  and  Susan  lives  in  Portsmouth  Virginia  and  is  stop- 
ping with  Dr.  Collins  sister  a  Mrs.  Nash  you  can  find  her  out  by  enquiring  for  Dr.  Collins 
at  the  ferry  boat  at  Portsmouth,  and  Rose  a  coloured  woman  at  the  Crawford  House  can 
tell  where  she  is.  And  I  trust  you  will  try  what  you  think  will  be  the  best  way.  And 
you  will  do  me  a  great  favour.  Yours  Respectfully,  JEFFERSON  PIPKINS. 

P.  S.  I  am  living  at  Yorkville  near  Toronto  Canada  West.  My  wife  sends  her  best  re- 
spects to  Mrs.  Still. 


SEVERAL  ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLACES. 

In  order  to  economize  time  and  space,  with  a  view  to  giving  an  account 
of  as  many  of  the  travelers  as  possible,  it  seems  expedient,  where  a  number  of 
arrivals  come  in  close  proximity  to  each  other,  to  report  them  briefly,  under 
one  head. 

HENRY  ANDERSON,  alias  WILLIAM  ANDERSON.  In  outward  appear- 
ance Henry  was  uninteresting.  As  he  asserted,  and  as  his  appearance  indi- 
cated, he  had  experienced  a  large  share  of  "  rugged  "  usage.  Being  far  in 
the  South,  and  in  the  hands  of  a  brutal  "  Captain  of  a  small  boat,"  chances 
of  freedom  or  of  moderate  treatment,  had  rarely  ever  presented  themselves 
in  any  aspect.  On  the  3d  of  the  preceding  March  he  was  sold  to  a  negro 
trader — the  thought  of  having  to  live  under  a  trader  was  so  terrible,  he 
was  moved  to  escape,  leaving  his  wife,  to  whom  he  had  only  been  married 
three  months.  Henry  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  quite  black  and  a  little 
below  the  medium  size. 

He  fled  from  Beaufort,  North  Carolina.     The  system  of  slavery  in  all 


138  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  region  of  country  whence  Henry  came,  exhibited  generally  great  bru- 
tality and  cruelty. 

CHARLES  CONGO  AND  WIFE,  MARGARET.  Charles  and  his  wife  were 
fortunate  in  managing  to  flee  together.  Their  attachment  to  each  other 
was  evidently  true.  They  were  both  owned  by  a  farmer,  who  went  by  the 
name  of  David  Stewart,  and  resided  in  Maryland.  As  Charles'  owner  did 
not  require  their  services  at  home,  as  he  had  more  of  that  kind  of  stock  than 
he  had  use  for — he  hired  them  out  to  another  farmer — Charles  for  $105 
per  annum;  how  much  for  the  wife  they  could  not  tell.  She,  however, 
was  not  blessed  with  good  health,  though  she  was  not  favored  any  more 
on  that  account.  Charles'  affection  for  his  wife,  on  seeing  how  hard  she 
had  to  labor  when  not  well,  aroused  him  to  seek  their  freedom  by  flight. 
He  resolved  to  spare  no  pains,  to  give  himself  no  rest  until  they  were  both 
free.  Accordingly  the  Underground  Rail  Road  was  'sought  and  found. 
Charles  was  twenty-eight,  with  a  good  head  and  striking  face,  as  well  as 
otherwise  well  made;  chestnut  color  and  intelligent,  though  unable  to  read. 
Left  two  sisters  in  bondage.  Margaret  was  about  the  same  age  as  her 
husband,  a  nice-looking  brown-skinned  woman ;  worth  $500.  Charles  was 
valued  at  $1200. 

The  atmosphere  throughout  the  neighborhood  where  Charles  and  Mar- 
garet had  lived  and  breathed,  and  had  their  existence,  was  heavily  oppressed 
with  slavery.  No  education  for  the  freeman  of  color,  much  less  for  the 
slave.  The  order  of  the  day  was  literally,  as  far  as  colored  men  were  con- 
cerned :  "  No  rights  which  white  men  were  bound  to  respect." 

CHASKEY  BROWN,  Win.  Henry  Washington,  James  Alfred  Frisley,  and 
Charles  Henry  Salter.  Chaskey  is  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  quite 
black,  medium  size,  sound  body  and  intelligent  appearance,  nevertheless  he 
resembled  a  "  farm  hand  "  in  every  particular.  His  master  was  known  by 
the  name  of  Major  James  H.  Gales,  and  he  was  the  owner  of  a  farm  with 
eighteen  men,  women  and  children,  slaves  to  toil  for  him.  The  Major  in 
disposition  was  very  abusive  and  profane,  though  old  and  grey-headed. 
His  wife  was  pretty  much  the  same  kind  of  a  woman  as  he  was  a  man  ;  one 
who  delighted  in  making  the  slaves  tremble  at  her  bidding.  Chaskey  was 
a  member  of  the  "  Still  Pond  church,"  of  Kent  county,  Md.  Often  Chaskey 
was  made  to  feel  the  lash  on  his  back,  notwithstanding  his  good  standing  in 
the  church.  He  had  a  wife  and  one  child.  In  escaping,  he  was  obliged  to 
leave  them  both.  Chaskey  was  valued  at  $1200.' 

WILLIAM  HENRY  was  about  20  years  of  age,  and  belonged  to  Doctor 
B.  Grain,  of  Baltimore,  who  hired  him  out  to  a  farmer.  Not  relishing  the 
idea  of  having  to  work  all  his  life  in  bondage,  destitute  of  all  privileges, 
he  resolved  to  seek  a  refuge  in  Canada.  He  left  his  mother,  four  sisters  and 
two  brothers. 

JAMES  is  twenty-four  years  of  age,  well   made,  quite  black  and  pretty 


SE  VERAL  ARRIVALS  FR  OM  DIFFERENT  PL  A  CES.  139 

shrewd.  He  too  was  unable  to  see  how  it  was  that  he  should  be  worked,  and 
flogged,  and  sold,  at  the  pleasure  of  his  master  and  "  getting  nothing ;"  he 
"  had  rather  work  for  himself."  His  master  was  a  "  speckled-faced — pretty 
large  stomach  many  but  was  not  very  abuseful."  He  only  owned  one  other. 

CHARLES  HENRY  is  about  thirty  years  of  age,  of  good  proportion,  nice- 
looking  and  intelligent ;  but  to  rough  usage  he  was  no  stranger.  To  select 
his  own  master  was  a  privilege  not  allowed;  privileges  of  all  kinds  were 
rare  with  him.  So  he  resolved  to  flee.  Left  his  mother,  three  sisters  and 
five  brothers  in  slavery.  He  was  a  member  of  "  Albany  Chapel,"  at  Mas- 
sey's  Cross  Koads,  and  a  slave  of  Dr.  B.  Grain.  Charles  left  his  wife  Anna, 
living  near  the  head  of  Sassafras,  Md.  The  separation  was  painful,  as  was 
everything  belonging  to  the  system  of  Slavery. 

These  were  all  gladly  received  by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  and  the  hand 
of  friendship  warmly  extended  to  them ;  and  the  best  of  counsel  and  en- 
couragement was  offered  ;  material  aid,  food  and  clothing  were  also  furnished 
as  they  had  need,  and  they  were  sent  on  their  way  rejoicing  to  Canada. 

STEPHEN  TAYLOR,  Charles  Brown,  Charles  Henry  Hollis,  and  Luther 
Dorsey.  Stephen  was  a  fine  young  man,  of  twenty  years  of  age ;  he 
fled  to  keep  from  being  sold.  He  "  supposed  his  master  wanted  money." 
His  master  was  a  "  tall,  spare-faced  man,  with  long  whiskers,  very  wicked 
and  very  quick-tempered,"  and  was  known  by  the  name  of  James  Smithen, 
of  Sandy  Hook,  Harford  county,  Md.  His  wife  was  also  a  very  "close 
woman."  They  had  four  children  growing  up  to  occupy  their  places  as  op- 
pressors. Stephen  was  not  satisfied  to  serve  either  old  or  young  masters  any 
longer,  and  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  the  first  opportunity.  Before  this 
watchful  and  resolute  purpose  the  way  opened,  and  he  soon  found  it  compa- 
ratively easy  to  find  his  way  from  Maryland  to  Pennsylvania,  and  likewise 
into  the  hands  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  to  whom  he  made  known  fully 
the  character  of  the  place  and  people  whence  he  had  fled,  the  dangers  he 
was  exposed  to  from  slave-hunters,  and  the  strong  hope  he  cherished  of 
reaching  free  land  soon.  Being  a  young  man  of  promise,  Stephen  was  ad- 
vised earnestly  to  apply  his  mind  to  seek  an  education,  and  to  use  every 
possible  endeavor  to  raise  himself  in  the  scale  of  manhood,  morally,  reli- 
giously and  intellectually ;  and  he  seemed  to  drink  in  the  admonitions  thus 
given  with  a  relish.  After  recruiting,  and  all  necessary  arrangements  had 
been  made  for  his  comfort  and  passage  to  Canada,  he  was  duly  forwarded. 
"One  more  slave-holder  is  minus  another  slave  worth  at  least  $1200,  which 
is  something  to  rejoice  over,"  said  Committee.  Stephen's  parents  were  dead; 
one  brother  was  the  only  near  relative  he  left  in  chains. 

CHARLES  BROWN  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  quite  black,  and 
bore  the  marks  of  having  been  used  hard,  though  his  stout  and  hearty 
appearance  would  have  rendered  him  very  desirable  to  a  trader.  He  fled 
from  William  Wheeling,  of  Sandy  Hook,  Md.  He  spoke  of  his  master  as 


140  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

a  "  pretty  bad  man,"  who  was  "  always  quarreling,"  and  "  would  drink, 
swear  and  lie."  Left  simply  because  he  "  never  got  anything  for  his  labor." 
On  taking  his  departure  for  Canada,  he  was  called  upon  to  bid  adieu  to  his 
mother  and  three  brothers,  all  under  the  yoke.  His  master  he  describes 
thus — 

"  His  face  was  long,  cheek-bones  high,  middling  tall,  and  about  twenty-six 
years  of  age."  With  this  specimen  of  humanity,  Charles  was  very  much 
dissatisfied,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  not  to  stand  the  burdens  of  Slavery  a 
day  longer  than  he  could  safely  make  his  way  to  the  North.  And  in  making 
an  effort  to  reach  Canada,  he  was  quite  willing  to  suffer  many  things.  So 
the  first  chance  Charles  got,  he  started,  and  Providence  smiled  upon  his 
resolution ;  he  found  himself  a  joyful  passenger  on  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  being  entertained  free,  and  receiving  attentions  from  the  Company  all 
along  the  line  through  to  her  British  Majesty's  boundlessly  free  territory 
in  the  Canadas. 

True,  the  thought  of  his  mother  and  brothers,  left  in  the  prison  house, 
largely  marred  his  joy,  as  it  did  also  the  Committee's,  still  the  Committee 
felt  that  Charles  had  gained  his  Freedom  honorably,  and  at  the  same  time, 
had  left  his  master  a  poorer,  if  not  a  wiser  man,  by  at  least  f  1200. 

CHARLES  HENRY  was  a  good-looking  young  man,  only  twenty  years 
of  age,  and  appeared  to  possess  double  as  much  natural  sense  as  he  would 
require  to  take  care  of  himself.  John  Webster  of  Sandy  Hook,  claimed 
Charles'  time,  body  and  mind,  and  this  was  what  made  Charles  unhappy. 
Uneducated  as  he  was,  he  was  too  sensible  to  believe  that  Webster  had  any 
God-given  right  to  his  manhood.  Consequently,  he  left  because  his  master 
"did  not  treat  him  right."  Webster  was  a  tall  man,  with  large  black 
whiskers,  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  owned  Charles'  two  sisters.  Charles 
was  sorry  for  the  fate  of  his  sisters,  but  he  could  not  help  them  if  he  re- 
mained. Staying  to  wear  the  yoke,  he  felt  would  rather  make  it  worse 
instead  of  better  for  all  concerned. 

LUTHER  DORSEY  is  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  rather  smart,  black, 
well  made  and  well  calculated  for  a  Canadian.  He  was  prompted  to  escape 
purely  from  the  desire  to  be  "free."  He  fled  from  a  "  very  insulting 
man,"  by  the  name  of  Edward  Schriner,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Sairs- 
ville  Mills,  Frederick  Co.,  Md.  This  Schriner  was  described  as  a  "  low 
chunky  man,  with  gram  look,  big  mouth,  etc.,"  and  was  a  member  of  the 
German  Reformed  Church.  "  Don't  swear,  though  might  as  well ;  he  was 
so  bad  other  ways." 

LUTHER  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church  at  Jones  Hill.  Left 
his  father  in  chains ;  his  mother  had  wisely  escaped  to  Canada  years  back, 
when  he  was  but  a  boy.  Where  she  was  then,  he  could  not  tell,  but  hoped 
to  meet  her  in  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND.  141 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND. 

JEKEMIAH  W.   SMITH  AND  WIFE  JULIA. 

Richmond  was  a  city  noted  for  its  activity  and  enterprise  in  slave  trade. 
Several  slave  pens  and  prisons  were  constantly  kept  up  to  accommodate  the 
trade.  And  slave  auctions  were  as  common  in  Richmond  as  dress  goods 
auctions  in  Philadelphia;  notwithstanding  this  fact,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  Underground  Rail  Road  brought  away  large  numbers  of  passen- 
gers from  Richmond,  Petersburg  and  Norfolk,  and  not  a  few  of  them  lived 
comparatively  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  the  auction  block.  Many  of  those 
from  these  localities  were  amongst  the  most  intelligent  and  respectable 
slaves  in  the  South,  and  except  at  times  when  disheartened  by  some  grave 
disaster  which  had  befallen  the  road,  as,  for  instance,  when  some  friendly 
captain  or  conductor  was  discovered  in  aiding  fugitives,  many  of  the  thinking 
bondmen  were  daily  maneuvering  and  watching  for  opportunities  to  escape 
or  aid  their  friends  so  to  do.  This  state  of  things  of  course  made  the 
naturally  hot  blood  of  Virginians  fairly  boil.  They  had  preached  long  and 
loudly  about  the  contented  and  happy  condition  of  the  slaves, — that  the 
chief  end  of  the  black  man  was  to  worship  and  serve  the  white  man,  with 
joy  and  delight,  with  more  willingness  and  obedience  indeed  than  he  would 
be  expected  to  serve  his  Maker.  So  the  slave-holders  were  utterly  at  a 
loss  to  account  for  the  unnatural  desire  on  the  part  of  the  slaves  to  escape  to 
the  North  where  they  affirmed  they  would  be  far  less  happy  in  freedom  than 
in  the  hands  of  those  so  "  kind  and  indulgent  towards  them."  Despite  all 
this,  daily  the  disposition  increased,  with  the  more  intelligent  slaves,  to  dis- 
trust the  statements  of  their  masters  especially  when  they  spoke  against  the 
North.  For  instance  if  the  master  was  heard  to  curse  Boston  the  slave  was 
then  satisfied  that  Boston  was  just  the  place  he  would  like  to  go  to;  or  if 
the  master  told  the  slave  that  the  blacks  in  Canada  were  freezing  and  starv- 
ing to  death  by  hundreds,  his  hope  of  trying  to  reach  Canada  was  made  ten- 
fold stronger ;  he  was  willing  to  risk  all  the  starving  and  freezing  that  the 
country  could  afford ;  his  eagerness  to  find  a  conductor  then  would  become 
almost  painful. . 

The  situations  of  Jeremiah  and  Julia  Smith,  however,  were  not  considered 
very  hard,  indeed  they  had  fared  rather  better  than  most  slaves  in  Virginia, 
nevertheless  it  will  be  seen  that  they  desired  to  better  their  condition,  to 
keep  off  of  the  auction-block  at  least.  Jeremiah  could  claim  to  have  no 
mixture  in  his  blood,  as  his  color  was  of  such  a  pure  black ;  but  with  the 
way  of  the  world,  in  respect  to  shrewdness  and  intelligence,  he  had  evidently 
been  actively  conversant.  He  was  about  twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  in 
stature  only  medium,  with  poor  health. 

The  name  of  James  Kinnard,  whom  he  was  obliged  to  call  master  and 
serve,  was  disgusting  to  him.  Kinnard,  he  said,  was  a  "close  and  severe 


142  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

man."  At  the  same  time  he  was  not  considered  by  the  community  "a  hard 
man."  From  the  age  of  fifteen  years  Jeremiah  ha'd  been  hired  out,  for 
which  his  owner  had  received  from  $50  to  $130  per  annum.  In  conse- 
quence of  his  master's  custom  of  thus  letting  out  Jeremiah,  the  master  had 
avoided  doctors'  bills,  &c.  For  the  last  two  years  prior  to  his  escape,  how- 
ever, Jeremiah's  health  had  been  very  treacherous,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  master  had  been  compelled  to  receive  only  $50  a  year,  sick  or  well. 
About  one  month  before  Jeremiah  left,  he  was  to  have  been  taken  on  his 
master's  farm,  with  the  hope  that  he  could  be  made  more  profitable  there 
than  he  was  in  being  hired  out. 

His  owner  had  thought  once  of  selling  him,  perhaps  fearing  that  Jere- 
miah might  unluckily  die  on  his  hands.  So  he  put  him  in  prison  and 
advertised ;  but  as  he  had  the  asthma  pretty  badly  at  that  time,  he  was  not 
saleable,  the  traders  even  declined  to  buy  him. 

"While  these  troubles  were  presenting  themselves  to  Jeremiah,  Julia, 
his  wife,  was  still  more  seriously  involved,  which  added  to  Jeremiah's  per- 
plexities, of  course. 

Julia  was  of  a  dark  brown  color,  of  medium  size,  and  thirty  years  of  age. 
Fourteen  years  she  had  been  the  slave  of  A.  Judson  Crane,  and  under  him 
she  had  performed  the  duties  of  nurse,  chamber-maid,  etc.,  "faithfully  and 
satisfactorily,"  as  the  certificate  furnished  her  by  this  owner  witnessed.  She 
actually  possessing  a  certificate,  which  he,  Crane,  gave  her  to  enable  her  to 
find  a  new  master,  as  she  was  then  about  to  be  sold.  Her  master  had  ex- 
perienced a  failure  in  business.  This  was  the  reason  why  she  was  to  be  sold. 

Mrs.  Crane,  her  mistress,  had  always  promised  Julia  that  she  should  be 
free  at  her  death.  But,  unexpectedly,  as  Mrs.  Crane  was  on  her  journey 
home  from  Cape  May,  where  she  had  been  for  her  health  the  summer  before 
Julia  escaped,  she  died  suddenly  in  Philadelphia.  Julia,  however,  had  been 
sold  twice  before  her  mistress'  death ;  once  to  the  trader,  Reed,  and  afterwards 
to  John  Freeland,  and  again  was  on  the  eve  of  being  sold.  Freeland,  her 
last  owner,  thought  she  was  unhappy  because  she  was  denied  the  privilege 
of  going  home  of  nights  to  her  husband,  instead  of  being  on  hand  at  the 
beck  and  call  of  her  master  and  mistress  day  and  night.  So  the  very  day 
Julia  and  her  husband  escaped,  arrangements  had  been  made  to  put  her  up 
at  auction  a  third  time.  But  both  Julia  and  her  husband  had  seen  enough 
of  Slavery  to  leave  no  room  to  hope  that  they  could  ever  find  peace  or  rest 
so  long  as  they  remained.  So  there  and  then,  they  resolved  to  strike  for 
Canada,  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  By  a  little  good  management, 
berths  were  procured  for  them  on  one  of  the  Richmond  steamers  (berths 
not  known  to  the  officers  of  the  boat),  and  they  were  safely  landed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  and  a  most  agreeable  interview  was 
had. 

The  Committee  extended  to  them  the  usual  hospitalities,  in  the  way  of 


EIGHT  ARRIVALS.  143 

board,  accommodations,  and  free  tickets  Canada  ward,  and  wished  them 
a  safe  and  speedy  passage.  The  passengers  departed,  exceedingly  light- 
hearted,  Feb.  1,  1854. 


EIGHT  ARRIVALS : 

JAMES  MASSEY,   PERRY  HENRY  TRUSTY,   GEORGE  RHOADS,  JAMES  RHOADS, 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  SARAH   ELIZABETH  RHOADS  AND  CHILD, 

MARY  ELIZABETH  STEVENSON. 

Doubtless  there  was  a  sensation  in  "  the  camp/'  when  this  gang  was  found 
missing. 

JAMES  was  a  likely-looking  young  man  of  twenty  years  of  age,  dark, 
tall,  and  sensible ;  and  worth,  if  we  may  judge,  about  $1,600.  He  was 
owned  by  a  farmer  named  James  Pittman,  a  "  crabid  kind  of  a  man,"  grey- 
headed, with  a  broken  leg;  drank  very  hard,  at  which  times  he  would  swear 
that  he  would  "  sell  them  all  to  Georgia;"  this  threat  was  always  unpleasant 
to  the  ears  of  James,  but  it  seemed  to  be  a  satisfaction  to  the  master.  Fear- 
ing that  it  would  be  put  into  execution,  James  thought  he  had  better  let  no 
time  be  lost  in  getting  on  towards  Canada,  though  he  was  entitled  to  his 
Freedom  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  Left  his  father,  four  brothers  and  two 
sisters.  Also  left  his  wife,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  the  previous 
Christmas. 

His  master's  further  stock  of  slaves  consisted  of  two  women,  a  young 
man  and  a  child.  The  name  of  his  old  mistress  was  Amelia.  She  was 
"  right  nice,"  James  admitted.  One  of  James'  brothers  had  been  sold  to 
Georgia  by  Pittman,  although  he  was  also  entitled  to  his  Freedom  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five. 

His  near  relatives  left  in  bondage  lived  near  Level  Square,  Queen  Ann's 
county,  Maryland.  His  wife's  name  was  Henrietta.  "  She  was  free." 

Interesting  letter  from  James  Massey  to  his  wife.  It  was  forwarded  to 
the  corresponding  secretary,  to  be  sent  to  her,  but  no  opportunity  was 
afforded  so  to  do,  safely. 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  April  24, 1857. 

DEAR  WIFE — I  take  this  opertunity  to  inform  you  that  I  have  Arive  in  St.  Catharines 
this  Eving,  After  Jorney  of  too  weeks,  and  now  find  mysilf  on  free  ground  and  wish  that 
you  was  here  with  me  But  you  are  not  here,  when  we  parted  I  did  not  know  that  I 
should  come  away  so  soon  as  I  did,  But  for  that  of  causin  you  pain  I  left  as  I  did,  I  hope 
that  you  will  try  to  come.  But  if  you  cannot,  write  to  me  as  soon  as  you  can  and  tell 
me  all  that  you  can  But  dont  be  Desscuredged  I  was  sory  to  leave  you,  and  I  could  not 
help  it  for  you  know  that  I  promest  see  you  to  sister,  But  I  was  persuaded  By  Another 
man  go  part  with  it  grived  mutch,  you  must  not  think  that  I  did  not  care  for  you.  I 
cannot  tell  how  I  come,  for  I  was  some  times  on  the  earth  and  some  times  under  the 
earth  Do  not  Bee  afraid  to  come  But  start  and  keep  trying,  if  you  are  afrid  fitch  your 
tow  sister  with  you  for  compeny  and  I  will  take  care  of  you  and  treat  you  like  a  lady  so 


144  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

long  as  you  live.  The  talk  of  cold  in  this  place  is  all  a  humbug,  it  is  wormer  here  than  it 
was  there  when  I  left,  your  father  and  mother  has  allways  treated  me  like  their  own  child 
I  have  no  fault  to  find  in  them.  I  send  my  Respects  to  them  Both  and  I  hope  that  they 
will  remember  me  in  Prayer,  if  you  make  a  start  come  to  Philidelpa  tell  father  and 
mother  that  I  am  safe  and  hope  that  they  will  not  morn  after  me  I  shall  ever  Remember 
them.  No  more  at  present  But  yours  in  Body  and  mind,  and  if  we  no  meet  on  Earth  I 
hope  that  we  shall  meet  in  heven.  Your  husbern.  Good  night. 

JAME  MASEY. 

PERRY  was  about  thirty-one  years  of  age,  round-made,  of  dark  complex- 
ion, and  looked  quite  gratified  with  his  expedition,  and  the  prospect  of 
becoming  a  British  subject  instead  of  a  Maryland  slave.  He  was  not  free, 
however,  from  the  sad  thought  of  having  left  his  wife  and  three  children  in 
the  "prison  house"  nor  of  the  fact  that  his  own  dear  mother  was  brutally 
stabbed  to  the  heart  with  a  butcher  knife  by  her  young  master,  while  he 
(Perry)  was  a  babe ;  nor  of  a  more  recent  tragedy  by  which  a  fellow-ser- 
vant, only  a  short  while  before  he  fled,  was  also  murdered  by  a  stab  in  the 
groin  from  another  young  master.  "  Powerful  bad  "  treatment,  and  "  no 
pay,"  was  the  only  reward  poor  Perry  had  ever  received  for  his  life  services. 
Perry  could  only  remember  his  having  received  from  his  master,  in  all, 
eleven  cents.  Left  a  brother  and  sister  in  Slavery.  Perry  was  worth 
$1200  perhaps. 

PERRY  was  compelled  to  leave  his  wife  and  three  children — namely, 
Hannah  (wife),  Perry  Henry,  William  Thomas  and  Alexander,  who  were 
owned  by  John'  McGuire,  of  Caroline  county,  Maryland.  Perry  was  a 
fellow-servant  of  James  Massey,  and  was  held  by  the  same  owner  who  held 
James.  It  is  but  just,  to  say,  that  it  was  not  in  the  Pittman  family  that  his 
mother  and  his  fellow-servant  had  been  so  barbarously  murdered.  These 
occurrences  took  place  before  they  came  into  the  hands  of  Pittman. 

The  provocation  for  which  his  fellow-servant  was  killed,  was  said  to  be 
very  trifling.  In  a  moment  of  rage,  his  young  master,  John  Piper,  plunged 
the  blade  of  a  small  knife  into  Perry's  groin,  which  resulted  in  his  death 
twenty-six  hours  afterwards.  For  one  day  only  the  young  master  kept  him- 
self concealed,  then  he  came  forward  and  said  he  "  did  it  in  self-defense," 
and  there  the  matter  ended.  The  half  will  never  be  told  of  the  barbarism 
of  Slavery. 

PERRY'S  letter  subjoined,  explains  where  he  went,  and  how  his  mind  was 
occupied  with  thoughts  of  his  wife,  children  and  friends. 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.  June  21, 1857. 

DEAR  SIR. — I  take  this  opportunity  to  inform  you  that  I  am  well  at  present,  and  hope 
that  these  few  lines  may  find  you  injoying  the  same  Blessing,  I  have  Been  for  some 
time  now,  But  have  not  written  to  you  Before,  But  you  must  Excuse  me.  I  want  you  to 
give  my  Respects  to  all  my  inquiring  friends  and  to  my  wife,  I  should  have  let  you  know 
But  I  was  afraid  and  all  three  of  my  little  children  too,  P.  H.  Trusty  if  he  was  mine  Wm. 
T.  Trusty  and  to  Alexander  I  have  been  A  man  agge  But  was  assurd  nuthin,  H.  Trusty, 
a  hard  grand  citt.  I  should  lie  know  how  times  is,  Henry  Turner  if  you  get  this  keep  it 


EIGHT  ARRIVALS.  145 

and  read  it  to  yourself  and  not  let  any  one  else  But  yourself,  tell  ann  Henry,  Samuel 
Henry,  Jacob  Bryant,  Wm  Claton,  Mr  James  at  Almira  Receved  at  Mr  Jones  house  the 
Best  I  could  I  have  Been  healthy  since  I  arrived  here.  My  Best  Respect  to  all  and  my 
thanks  for  past  favours.  No  more  at  present  But  Remain  youre  obedented  Servent  &c. 

HENRY  TRUSTY. 
Please  send  me  an  answer  as  son  as  you  get  this,  an^  oblige  yours, 

MR  TRUSTY. 

GEORGE  RHOADS  19  a  young  man  of  twenty  five  years  of  age,  chestnut 
color,  face  round,  and  hating  Slavery  heartily.  He  had  come  from 
under  the  control  of  John  P.  Dellum  a  farmer,  and  a  crabbed  master,  who 
"  would  swear  very  much  when  crossed,  and  would  drink  moderately  every 
day,"  except  sometimes  he  would  " take  a  spree"  and  would  then  get  pretty 
high.  Withal  he  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church  at  Perry- 
ville,  Maryland ;  he  was  a  single  man  and  followed  farming.  Within  the 
last  two  or  three  years,  he  had  sold  a  man  and  woman;  hence,  George 
thought  it  was  time  to  take  warning.  Accordingly  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  try  for  Canada,  via  Underground  Rail  Road.  As  his  master  had  always 
declared  that  if  one  run  off,  he  would  sell  the  rest  to  Georgia,  George  very 
wisely  concluded  that  as  an  effort  would  have  to  be  made,  they  had  better 
leave  their  master  with  as  "  few  as  possible  to  be  troubled  with  selling." 
Consequently,  a  consultation  was  had  between  the  brothers,  which  resulted 
in  the  exit  of  a  party  of  eight.  The  market  price  for  George  would  be  about 
$1400.  A  horrid  example  professed  Christians  set  before  the  world,  while 
holding  slaves  and  upholding  Slavery. 

JAMES  RHOADS,  brother  of  George,  was  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
medium  size,  dark  color,  intelligent  and  manly,  and  would  doubtless  have 
brought,  in  the  Richmond  market,  $1700.  Fortunately  he  brought  his  wife 
and  child  with  him.  James  was  also  held  by  the  same  task-master  who 
held  George.  Often  had  he  been  visited  with  severe  stripes,  and  had  borne 
his  full  share  of  suffering  from  his  master. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  one  of  the  same  party,  was  only  about  fifteen 
years  of  age ;  he  was  tall  enough,  however,  to  pass  for  a  young  man  of 
twenty.  George  was  of  an  excellent,  fast,  dark  color.  Of  course,  mentally 
he  was  undeveloped,  nevertheless,  possessed  of  enough  mother-wit  to  make 
good  his  escape.  In  the  slave  market  he  might  have  been  valued  at  $800. 
George  was  claimed  as  the  lawful  property  of  Benjamin  Sylves — a  Presby- 
terian, who  owned  besides,  two  men,  three  girls,  and  a  boy.  He  was  "toler- 
able good  "  sometimes,  and  sometimes  "  bad."  Some  of  the  slaves  supposed 
themselves  to  be  on  the  eve  of  being  emancipated  about  the  time  George 
left ;  but  of  this  there  was  no  certainty.  George,  however,  was  not  among 
this  hopeful  number,  consequently,  he  thought  that  he  would  start  in  time, 
and  would  be  ready  to  shout  for  Freedom  quite  as  soon  as  any  other  of  his 
fellow-bondmen.  George  left  a  father  and  three  sisters.  Sarah  Elizabeth 
Rhoads,  wife  of  James  Rhoads,  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  a  tall,  dark, 
10 


146  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

young  woman,  who  had  had  no  chances  for  mental  improvement,  except 
such  as  were  usual  on  a  farm,  stocked  with  slaves,  where  learning  to  read 
the  Bible  was  against  the  "rules."  Sarah  was  a  young  slave  mother  with  a 
babe  (of  course  a  slave)  only  eight  months  old.  She  was  regarded  as  having 
been  exceedingly  fortunate  in  having  rescued  herself  and  child  from  the 
horrid  fate  of  slaves. 

MARY  ELIZABETH  STEPHENSON  is  a  promising-looking  young  woman, 
of  twenty  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  and  well  made.  Hard  treatment 
had  been  her  lot.  Left  her  mother,  two  sisters  and  four  brothers  in  bond- 
age. Worth  $1100. 

Although  these  travelers  were  of  the  "  field  hand  "  class,  who  had  never 
been  permitted  to  see  much  off  of  the  farm,  and  had  been  deprived  of  hear- 
ing intelligent  people  talk,  yet  the  spirit  of  Freedom,  so  natural  to  man,  was 
quite  uppermost  with  all  of  them.  The  members  of  the  Committee  who  saw 
them,  were  abundantly  satisfied  that  these  candidates  for  Canada  would  prove 
that  they  were  able  to  "  take  care  of  themselves." 

Their  wants  were  attended  to  in  the  usual  manner,  and  they  were  sent  on 
their  way  rejoicing,  the  Committee  feeling  quite  a  deep  interest  in  them.  It 
looked  like  business  to  see  so  many  passing  over  the  Road. 


CHARLES  THOMPSON, 

CARRIER  OF   "THE  'NATIONAL  AMERICAN,"  OFF  FOR  CANADA. 

The  subjoined  "pass"  was  brought  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road  sta- 
tion in  Philadelphia  by  Charles,  and  while  it  was  interesting  as  throwing 
light  upon  his  escape,  it  is  important  also  as  a  specimen  of  the  way  the  "pass  " 
system  was  carried  on  in  the  dark  days  of  Slavery  in  Virginia: 

"  NAT.  AMERICAN  OFFICE, 

Richmond,  July  20th,  1857. 

Permit  Charles  to  pass  and  repass  from  this  office  to  the  residence  of  Rev.  B.  Manly's 
on  Clay  St.,  near  llth,  at  any  hour  of  the  night  for  one  month.  WM.  W.  HAEDWICK." 

It  is  a  very  short  document,  but  it  used  to  be  very  unsafe  for  a  slave  in 
Richmond,  or  any  other  Southern  city,  to  be  found  out  in  the  evening 
without  a  legal  paper  of  this  description.  The  penalties  for  being  found  un- 
prepared to  face  the  police  were  fines,  imprisonment  and  floggings.  The 
satisfaction  it  seemed  always  to  afford  these  guardians  of  the  city  to  find  either 
males  or  females  trespassing  in  this  particular,  was  unmistakable.  It  gave 
them  '(the  police)  the  opportunity  to  prove  to  those  they  served  (slave- 
holders), that  they  were  the  right  men  in  the  right  place,  guarding  their  in- 
terests. Then  again  they  got  the  fine  for  pocket  money,  and  likewise  the 


CHARLES  THOMPSON.  147 

still  greater  pleasure  of  administering  the  flogging.  Who  would  want  an 
office,  if  no  opportunity  should  turn  up  whereby  proof  could  be  adduced"  of 
adequate  qualifications  to  meet  emergencies?  But  Charles  was  too  wide 
awake  to  be  caught  without  his  pass  day  or  night.  Consequently  he  hung 
on  to  it,  even  after  starting  on  his  voyage  to  Canada.  He,  however,  will- 
ingly surrendered  it  to  a  member  of  the  Committee  at  his  special  request. 

But  in  every  way  Charles  was  quite  a  remarkable  man.  It  afforded  the 
Committee  great  pleasure  to  make  his  acquaintance,  and  much  practical  and 
useful  information  was  gathered  from  his  story,  which  was  felt  to  be  truthful. 

The  Committee  feeling  assured  that  this  "  chattel "  must  have  been  the 
subject  of  much  inquiry  and  anxiety  from  the  nature  of  his  former  position, 
as  a  prominent  piece  of  property,  as  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church,  as 
taking  "first  premiums"  in  making  tobacco,  and  as  a  paper  carrier  in  the 
National  American  office,  felt  called  upon  to  note  fully  his  movements  before 
and  after  leaving  Richmond. 

In  stature  he  was  medium  size,  color  quite  dark,  hair  long  and  bushy — 
rather  of  a  raw-boned  and  rugged  appearance,  modest  and  self-possessed ; 
with  much  more  intelligence  than  would  be  supposed  from  first  observation. 
On  his  arrival,  ere  he  had  "  shaken  hands  with  the  (British)  Lion's  paw," 
(which  he  was  desirous  of  doing),  or  changed  the  habiliments  in  which  he 
escaped,  having  listened  to  the  recital  of  his  thrilling  tale,  and  wishing  to  get  it 
word  for  word  as  it  flowed  naturally  from  his  brave  lips,  at  a  late  hour  of  the 
night  a  member  of  the  Committee  remarked  to  him,  with  pencil  in  hand,  that 
he  wanted  to  take  down  some  account  of  his  life.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "we  shall 
have  to  be  brief.  Please  answer  as  correctly  as  you  can  the  following  ques- 
tions :"  "  How  old  are  you  ?"  "  Thirty-two  years  old  the  1st  day  of  last 
June."  "Were  you  born  a  slave?"  "Yes."  "How  have  you  been  treated?" 
"  Badly  all  the  time  for  the  last  twelve  years."  "  What  do  you  mean  by 
being  treated  badly  ?"  "  Have  been  whipped,  and  they  never  give  me  any- 
thing ;  some  people  give  their  servants  at  Christmas  a  dollar  and  a  half  and 
two  dollars,  and  some  five,  but  my  master  would  never  give  me  anything." 
"  What  was  the  name  of  your  master  ?"  "  Fleming  Bibbs."  "  Where  did 
he  live?"  "  In  Caroline  county,  fifty  miles  above  Richmond."  "  What  did 
he  do  ?"  "  He  was  a  farmer."  "  Did  you  ever  live  with  him  ?"  "  Never 
did ;  always  hired  me  out,  and  then  I  couldn't  please  him."  "  What  kind  of 
a  man  was  he  ?"  "  A  man  with  a  very  severe  temper ;  would  drink  at  all 
times,  though  would  do  it  slyly."  "  Was  he  a  member  of  any  church  ?" 
"  Baptist  church — would  curse  at  his  servants  as  if  he  wern't  in  any 
church."  "Were  his  family  members  of  church,  too?"  "Yes."  "  What 
kind  of  family  had  he  ?"  "His  wife  was  a  tolerable  fair  woman,  but  his 
sons  were  dissipated,  all  of  them  rowdier  and  gamblers.  His  sons  has  had 
children  by  the  servants.  One  of  his  daughters  had  a  child  by  his  grandson 
last  April.  They  are  traders,  buy  and  sell." 


148  .  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  How  many  slaves  did  he  own  ?  "  "  Sam,  Richmond,  Henry,  Dennis, 
Jesse,  Addison,  Hilliard,  Jenny,  Lucius,  Julia,  Charlotte,  Easte,  Joe, 
Taylor,  Louisa,  two  more  small  children  and  Jim."  Did  any  of  them  know 
that  you  were  going  to  leave  ?  "  No,  I  saw  my  brother  Tuesday,  but  never 
told  him  a  word  about  it."  "  What  put  it  into  your  head  to  leave?"  "It 
was  bad  treatment ;  for  being  put  in  jail  for  sale  the  7th  of  last  January ; 
was  whipped  in  jail  and  after  I  came  out  the  only  thing  they  told  me  was 
that  I  had  been  selling  newspapers  about  the  streets,  and  was  half  free." 

"  Where  did  you  live  then  ? "  "  In  Richmond,  Va. ;  for  twenty-two 
years  I  have  been  living  out."  "  How  much  did  your  master  receive  a 
year  for  your  hire?"  "From  sixty-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars." 
"Did  you  have  to  find  yourself?"  "The  people  who  hired  me  found  me. 
The  general  rule  is  in  Richmond,  for  a  week's  board,  seventy-five  cents  is 
allowed;  if  he  gets  any  more  than  that  he  has  got  to  find  it  himself." 
" How  about  Sunday  clothing ?"  "Find  them  yourself ?"  "  How  about 
a  house  to  live  in?  "  "  Have  that  to  find  yourself."  "  Suppose  you  have  a 
wife  and  family."  "It  makes  no  difference,  they  don't  allow  you  anything 
for  that  at  all."  "  Suppose  you  are  sick  who  pays  your  doctor's  bill  ?  " 
"  He  (master)  pays  that."  "  How  do  you  manage  to  make  a  little  extra 
money  ?  "  "  By  getting  up  before  day  and  carrying  out  papers  and  doing 
other  jobs,  cleaning  up  single  men's  rooms  and  the  like  of  that."  "  What 
have  you  been  employed  at  in  Richmond  ? "  "  Been  working  in  tobacco 
factory  in  general ;  this  year  I  was  hired  at  a  printing-office.  The  National 
American.  I  carried  papers."  "Had  you  a  wife?"  "I  did,  but  her 
master  was  a  very  bad  man  and  was  opposed  to  me,  and  was  against  my 
coming  to  his  place  to  see  my  wife,  and  he  persuaded  her  to  take  another 
husband  in  preference  to  me;  being  in  his  hands  she  took  his  advice.'' 
"  How  long  ago  was  that  ?  "  "  Very  near  twelve  months  ;  she  got  married 
last  fall."  "  Had  you  any  children?"  "Yes."  "How  many?"  "Five." 
"  Where  are  they  ?  "  "  Three  are  with  Joel  Luck,  her  master,  one  with  his 
sister  Eliza,  and  the  other  belongs  to  Judge  Hudgins,  of  Bowling  Green 
Court  House."  "  Do  you  ever  expect  to  see  them  again?"  "No,  not  till 
the  day  of  the  Great  I  am!"  "Did  you  ever  have  any  chance  of  schooling?" 
"Not  a  day  in  my  life."  "Can  yon  read?"  "No,  sir,  nor  write  my  own 
name."  "  What  do  you  think  of  Slavery  any  how?  "  "  I  think  it's  a  great 
curse,  and  I  think  the  Baptists  in  Richmond  will  go  to  the  deepest  hell,  if 
there  is  any,  for  they  are  so  wicked  they  will  work  you  all  day  and  part  of 
the  night,  and  wear  cloaks  and  long  faces,  and  try  to  get  all  the  work  out 
of  you  they  can  by  telling  you  about  Jesus  Christ.  All  the  extra  money 
you  make  they  think  you  will  give  to  hear  talk  about  Jesus  Christ.  Out 
of  their  extra  money  they  have  to  pay  a  white  man  Five  hundred  dollars  a 
year  for  preaching."  "  What  kind  of  preaching  does  he  give  them?  "  "  He 
tells  them  if  they  die  in  their  sins  they  will  go  to  hell ;  don't  tell  them  any 


CHARLES  THOMPSON.  149 

thing  about  their  elevation ;  he  would  tell  them  to  obey  their  masters  and 
mistresses,  for  good  servants  make  good  masters."  "  Did  you  belong  to 
the  Baptist  Church?"  "Yes,  Second  Baptist  Church."  "Did  you  feel 
that  the  preaching  you  heard  was  the  true  Gospel?"  "One  part  of 
it,  and  one  part  burnt  me  as  bad  as  ever  insult  did.  They  would  tell 
us  that  we  must  take  money  out  of  our  pockets  to  send  it  to  Africa,  to 
enlighten  the  African  race.  I  think  that  we  were  about  as  blind  in  Rich- 
mond as  the  African  race  is  in  Africa.  All  they  want  you  to  know,  is 
to  have  sense  enough  to  say  master  and  mistress,  and  run  like  lightning, 
when  they  speak  to  you,  to  do  exactly  what  they  want  you  to  do."  "  When 
you  made  up  your  mind  to  escape,  where  did  you  think  you  would  go  to  ?" 
"  I  made  up  my  mind  not  to  stop  short  of  the  .British  protection  ;  to  shake 
hands  with  the  Lion's  paw."  "  Were  you  not  afraid  of  being  captured  on 
the  way,  of  being  devoured  by  the  abolitionists,  or  of  freezing  and  starv- 
ing in  Canada  ?"  "  Well,  I  had  often  thought  that  I  would  be  in  a  bad 
condition  to  come  here,  without  money  and  clothes,  but  I  made  up  my  mind 
to  come,  live  or  die."  "  What  are  your  impressions  from  what  little  you 
have  seen  of  Freedom  ?"  "  I  think  it  is  intended  for  all  men,  and  all  men 
ought  to  have  it."  "  Suppose  your  master  was  to  appear  before  you,  and 
offer  you  the  privilege  of  returning  to  Slavery  or  death  on  the  spot,  which 
Would  be  your  choice?"  "Die  right  there.  I  made  up  my  mind  before  I 
started."  "  Do  you  think  that  many  of  the  slaves  are  anxious  about  their 
Freedom  ?"  "  The  third  part  of  them  ain't  anxious  about  it,  because  the 
white  people  have  blinded  them,  telling  about  the  North, — they  can't  live 
fare;  telling  them  that  the  people  are  worse  off  than  they  are  there;  they 
say  that  the  '  niggers '  in  the  North  have  no  houses  to  live  in,  stand  about 
freezing,  dirty,  no  clothes  to  wear.  They  all  would  be  very  glad  to  get  their 
time,  but  want  to  stay  where  they  are."  Just  at  this  point  of  the  interview, 
the  hour  of  midnight  admonished  us  that  it  was  time  to  retire.  Accord- 
ingly, said  Mr.  Thompson,  "  I  guess  we  had  better  close,"  adding,  if  he 
"could  only  write,  he  could  give  seven  volumes!"  Also,  said  he,  "give  my 
best  respects  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Hardwicke,  and  Mr.  Perry  in  the  National 
American  office,  and  tell  them  I  wish  they  will  pay  the  two  boys  who  carry  the 
papers  for  me,  for  they  are  as  ignorant  of  this  matter  as  you  are." 

Charles  was  duly  forwarded  to  Canada  to  shake  hands  with  the  Lion's 
paw,  and  from  the  accounts  which  came  from  him  to  the  Committee,  he  was 
highly  delighted.  The  following  letter  from  him  aiforded  gratifying  evi- 
dence, that  he  neither  forgot  his  God  nor  his  friends  in  freedom : 

DETROIT,  Sept.  17, 1862. 

DEAR  BROTHER  IN  CHRIST  : — It  affords  me  the  greatest  pleasure  imaginable  in  the  time 
I  shall  occupy  in  penning  these  few  lines  to  you  and  your  dear  loving  wife ;  not  be- 
cause I  can  write  them  to  you  myself,  but  for  the  love  and  regard  I  have  for  you,  for  I 


150  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

never  can  forget  a  man  who  will  show  kindness  to  his  neighbor  when  in  distress.  I  re- 
member when  I  was  in  distress  and  out  of  doors,  you  took  me  in;  I  was  hungry,  and  you 
fed  me;  for  these  things  God  will  reward  you,  dear  brother.  I  am  getting  along  as  well 
as  I  can  expect.  Since  I  have  been  out  Lere,  I  have  endeavored  to  make  every  day  tell 
for  itself,  and  I  can  say,  no  doubt,  what  a  great  many  men  cannot  say,  that  I  have  made 
good  use  of  all  the  time  that  God  has  given  me,  and  not  one  weelc  has  been  spent  in  idle- 
ness. Brother  William,  I  expect  to  visit  you  some  time  next  summer  to  sit  and  have  a 
talk  with  you  and  Mrs.  Still.  I  hope  to  see  that  time,  if  it  is  God's  will.  You  will  re- 
member me,  with  my  wife,  to  Mrs.  Still.  Give  my  best  respects  to  all  inquiring  friends, 
and  believe  me  to  be  yours  forever.  Well  wishes  both  soul  and  body.  Please  write  to 
me  sometimes.  C.  W.  THOMPSON. 


BLOOD  FLOWED  FREELY. 

ABRAM  GALLOWAY  AND  RICHARD  EDEN,    TWO  PASSENGERS  SECRETED  IN  A  VESSEL 

LOADED  WITH  SPIRITS  OF  TURPENTINE.      SHROUDS  PREPARED  TO  PREVENT 

BEING  SMOKED  TO  DEATH. 

The  Philadelphia  branch  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  was  not  for- 
tunate in  having  very  frequent  arrivals  from  North  Carolina.  Of  course 
such  of  her  slave  population  as  managed  to  become  initiated  in  the  myste- 
ries of  traveling  North  by  the  Underground  Rail  Road  were  sensible  enough 
to  find  out  nearer  and  safer  routes  than  through  Pennsylvania.  Neverthe- 
less the  Vigilance  Committee  of  Philadelphia  occasionally  had  the  pleasure 
of  receiving  some  heroes  who  were  worthy  to  be  classed  among  the  bravest 
of  the  brave,  no  matter  who  they  may  be  who  have  claims  to  this  distinction. 

In  proof  of  this  bold  assertion  the  two  individuals  whose  names  stand 
at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  are  presented.  Abram  was  only  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  mulatto,  five  feet  six  inches  high,  intelligent  and  the  pic- 
ture of  good  health.  "What  was  your  master's  name?"  inquired  a 
member  of  the  Committee.  "Milton  Hawkins,"  answered  Abram.  "What 
business  did  Milton  Hawkins  follow?"  again  queried  said  member.  "He 
was  chief  engineer  on  t\\e  Wilmington  and  Manchester  Rail  Road  "  (not  a 
branch  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road),  responded  Richard.  "Describe 
him,"  said  the  member.  "  He  was  a  slim  built,  tall  man  with  whiskers. 
He  was  a  man  of  very  good  disposition.  I  always  belonged  to  him ;  he 
owned  three.  He  always  said  he  would  sell  before  he  would  use  a  whip. 
His  wife  was  a  very  mean  woman ;  she  would  whip  contrary  to  his  orders." 
"Who  was  your  father?"  was  further  inquired.  "John  Wesley  Galloway," 
was  the  prompt  response.  "  Describe  your  father  ?  "  "  He  was  captain  of 
a  government  vessel ;  he  recognized  me  as  his  son,  and  protected  me  as  far 
as  he  was  allowed  so  to  do;  he  lived  at  Smithfield,  North  Carolina. 
Abram's  master,  Milton  Hawkins,  lived  at  Wilmington,  N.  C."  "  What 
prompted  you  to  escape  ? "  was  next  asked.  "  Because  times  were  hard 
and  I  could  not  come  up  with  my  wages  as  I  was  required  to  do,  so  I 


HON.  ABRAM  GALLOWAY. 

i  Secreted  in  a  vessel  loaded  with  turpentine.) 


BLOOD  FLOWED  FREELY.  151 

thought  I  would  try  and  do  better."  At  this  juncture  Abrara  explained 
substantially  in  what  sense  times  were  hard,  &c.  In  the  first  place  he  was 
not  allowed  to  own  himself;  he,  however,  preferred  hiring  his  time  to  serv- 
ing in  the  usual  way.  This  favor  was  granted  Abram ;  but  he  was  com- 
pelled to  pay  $15  per  month  for  his  time,  besides  finding  himself  in  clothing, 
food,  paying  doctor  bills,  and  a  head  tax  of  $15  a  year. 

Even  under  this  master,  who  was  a  man  of  very  good  disposition,  Abram 
was  not  contented.  In  the  second  place,  he  "  always  thought  Slavery  was 
wrong,"  although  he  had  "never  suffered  any  personal  abuse."  Toiling 
month  after  month  the  year  round  to  support  his  master  and  not  himself, 
was  the  one  intolerable  thought.  Abram  and  Richard  were  intimate 
friends,  and  lived  near  each  other.  Being  similarly  situated,  they  could 
venture  to  communicate  the  secret  feelings  of  their  hearts  to  each  other. 
Richard  was  four  years  older  than  Abram,  with  not  quite  so  much  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  in  his  veins,  but  was  equally  as  intelligent,  and  was  by 
trade,  a  "  fashionable  barber,"  well-known  to  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of 
Wilmington.  Richard  owed  service  to  Mrs.  Mary  Loren,  a  widow.  "  She 
was  very  kind  and  tender  to  all  her  slaves."  "  If  I  was  sick,"  said 
Richard,  "she  would  treat  me  the  same  as  a  mother  would."  She  was  the 
owner  of  twenty,  men,  women  and  children,  who  were  all  hired  out,  except 
the  children  too  young  for  hire.  Besides  having  his  food,  clothing  and 
doctor's  expenses  to  meet,  he  had  to  pay  the  "  very  kind  and  tender-hearted 
widow  "  $12.50  per  month,  and  head  tax  to  the  State,  amounting  to  twenty- 
five  cents  per  month.  It  so  happened,  that  Richard  at  this  time,  was 
involved  in  a  matrimonial  difficulty.  Contrary  to  the  laws  of  North  Caro- 
lina, he  had  lately  married  a  free  girl,  which  was  an  indictable  offence,  and 
for  which  the  penalty  was  then  in  soak  for  him — said  penalty  to  consist  of 
thirty-nine  lashes,  and  imprisonment  at  the  discretion  of  the  judge. 

So  Abram  and  Richard  put  their  heads  together,  and  resolved  to  try  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  They  concluded  that  liberty  was  worth  dying 
for,  and  that  it  was  their  duty  to  strike  for  Freedom  even  if  it  should 
cost  them  their  lives.  The  next  thing  needed,  was  information  about  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  Before  a  great  while  the  captain  of  a  schooner 
turned  up,  from  Wilmington,  Delaware.  Learning  that  his  voyage  extended  to 
Philadelphia,  they  sought  to  find  out  whether  this  captain  was  true  to  Free- 
dom. To  ascertain  this  fact  required  no  little  address.  It  had  to  be  done 
in  such  a  way,  that  even  the  captain  would  not  really  understand  what  they 
were  up  to,  should  he  be  found  untrue.  In  this  instance,  however,  he  was 
the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  and  very  well  understood  his  business. 

Abram  and  Richard  made  arrangements  with  him  to  bring  them  away; 
they  learned  when  the  vessel  would  start,  and  that  she  was  loaded  with  tar, 
rosin,  and  spirits  of  turpentine,  amongst  which  the  captain  was  to  secrete 
them.  But  here  came  the  difficulty.  In  order  that  slaves  might  not  be 


152  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

secreted  in  vessels,  the  slave-holders  of  North  Carolina  had  procured  the 
enactment  of  a  law  requiring  all  vessels  coming  North  to  be  smoked. 

To  escape  this  dilemma,  the  inventive  genius  of  Abram  and  Richard  soon 
devised  a  safe-guard  against  the  smoke.  This  safe-guard  consisted  in  silk 
oil  cloth  shrouds,  made  large,  with  drawing  strings,  which,  when  pulled  over 
their  heads,  might  be  drawn  very  tightly  around  their  waists,  whilst  the 
process  of  smoking  might  be  in  operation.  A  bladder  of  water  and  towels 
were  provided,  the  latter  to  be  wet  and  held  to  their  nostrils,  should  there 
be  need.  In  this  manner  they  had  determined  to  struggle  against  death  for 
liberty.  The  hour  approached  for  being  at  the  wharf.  At  the  appointed 
time  they  were  on  hand  ready  to  go  on  the  boat;  the  captain  secreted  them, 
according  to  agreement.  They  were  ready  to  run  the  risk  of  being  smoked 
to  death;  but  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  the  law  was  not  carried  into 
effect  in  this  instance,  so  that  the  "smell  of  smoke  was  not  upon  them." 
The  effect  of  the  turpentine,  however,  of  the  nature  of  which  they  were  totally 
ignorant,  was  worse,  if  possible,  than  the  smoke  would  have  been.  The 
blood  was  literally  drawn  from  them  at  every  pore  in  frightful  quantities. 
But  as  heroes  of  the  bravest  type  they  resolved  to  continue  steadfast  as  long 
as  a  pulse  continued  to  beat,  and  thus  they  finally  conquered. 

The  invigorating  northern  air  and  the  kind  treatment  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee  acted  like  a  charm  upon  them,  and  they  improved  very  rapidly 
from  their  exhaustive  and  heavy  loss  of  blood.  Desiring  to  retain  some  me- 
morial of  them,  a  member  of  the  Committee  begged  one  of  their  silk 
shrouds,  and  likewise  procured  an  artist  to  take  the  photograph  of  one  of 
them ;  which  keepsakes  have  been  valued  very  highly.  In  the  regular  o/der 
of  arrangements  the  wants  of  Abram  and  Richard  were  duly  met  by  the 
Committee,  financially  and  otherwise,  and  they  were  forwarded  to  Canada. 
After  their  safe  arrival  in  Canada,  Richard  addressed  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee thus : 

KINGSTON,  July  20,  1857. 

MB.  WILLIAM  STILL — Dear  Friend: — I  take  the  opertunity  of  wrighting  a  few  lines 
to  let  you  no  that  we  air  all  in  good  health  hoping  thos  few  lines  may  find  you  and  your 
family  engoying  the  same  blessing.  We  arived  in  King  all  saft  Canada  West  Abrara 
Galway  gos  to  work  this  morning  at  $1  75  per  day  and  John  pediford  is  at  work  for  mr 
george  mink  and  i  will  opne  a  shop  for  my  self  jn  a  few  days  My  wif  will  send  a  daug- 
retipe  to  your  cair  whitch  you  will  pleas  to  send  on  to  me  Richard  Edons  to  the  cair  of 
George  Mink  Kingston  C  W  Yours  with  Respect,  RICHARD  EDONS. 

Abram,  his  comrade,  allied  himself  faithfully  to  John  Bull  until  Uncle 
Sam  became  involved  in  the  contest  with  the  rebels.  In  this  hour  of  need 
Abram  hastened  back  to  North  Carolina  to  help  fight  the  battles  of  Free- 
dom. How  well  he  acted  his  part,  we  are  not  informed.  We  only  know 
that,  after  the  war  was  over,  in  the  reconstruction  of  North  Carolina,  Abram 
was  promoted  to  a  seat  in  its  Senate.  He  died  in  office  only  a  few  months 
since.  The  portrait  is  almost  a  "fac-simile.'' 


JOHN  PETTIFOOT.  153 


JOHN  PETTIFOOT. 

Anglo-African  and  Anglo-Saxon  were  about  equally  mixed  in  the 
organization  of  Mr.  Pettifoot.  His  education,  with  regard  to  books,  was 
quite  limited.  He  had,  however,  managed  to  steal  the  art  of  reading  and 
writing,  to  a  certain  extent.  Notwithstanding  the  Patriarchal  Institution 
of  the  South,  he  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  rebel  at  heart,  conse- 
quently he  resolved  to  take  a  trip  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  to  Canada. 
So,  greatly  to  the  surprise  of  those  whom  he  was  serving,  he  was  one 
morning  inquired  for  in  vain.  No  one  could  tell  what  had  become  of  Jack 
no  more  than  if  he  had  vanished  like  a  ghost.  Doubtless  Messrs.  McHenry 
and  McCulloch  were  under  the  impression  that  newspapers  and  money 
possessed  great  power  and  could,  under  the  circumstances,  be  used  with  entire 
effect.  The  following  advertisement  is  evidence,  that  Jack  was  much  needed 
at  the  tobacco  factory. 

$100  REWARD — For  the  apprehension  and  delivery  to  us  of  a  MULATTO 
MAN,  named  John  Massenberg,  or  John  Henry  Pettifoot,  who  has  been  passing 
as  free,  under  the  name  of  Sydney.  He  is  about  5  feet  6  or  8  inches  high,  spare 
made,  bright,  with  a  bushy  head  of  hair,  curled  under  and  a  small  moustache. 
Absconded  a  few  days  ago  from  our  Tobacco  Factory.  McHENEY  &  McCuLLocn. 

ju  16  3t. 

Jack  was  aware  that  a  trap  of  this  kind  would  most  likely  be  set  for  him, 
and  that  the  large  quantity  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  his  veins  would  not 
save  him.  He  was  aware,  too,  that  he  was  the  reputed  son  of  a  white  gen- 
tleman, who  was  a  professional  dentist,  by  the  name  of  Dr.  Peter  Cards. 
The  Doctor,  however,  had  been  called  away  by  death,  so  Jack  could  see  no 
hope  or  virtue  in  having  a  white  father,  although  a  "  chivalric  gentleman," 
while  living,  and  a  man  of  high  standing  amongst  slave-holders.  Jack  was 
a  member  of  the  Baptist  church,  too,  and  hoped  he  was  a  good  Christian ; 
but  he  could  look  for  no  favors  from  the  Church,  or  sympathy  on  the  score 
of  his  being  a  Christian.  He  knew  very  well  were  it  known,  that  he  had 
the  love  of  freedom  in  his  heart,  or  the  idea  of  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  in  his  head,  he  would  be  regarded  as  having  committed  the  "  unpar- 
donable sin."  So  Jack  looked  to  none  of  these  "broken  reeds"  in  Rich- 
mond in  the  hour  of  his  trial,  but  to  Him  above,  whom  he  had  not  seen, 
and  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He  felt  pretty  well  satisfied,  that  if 
Providence  would  aid  him,  and  he  could  get  a  conductor  to  put  him  on  the 
right  road  to  Canada,  he  would  be  all  right.  Accordingly,  he  acted  up  to 
his  best  light,  and  thus  he  succeeded  admirably,  as  the  sequel  shows. 

"  JOHN  HENRY  PETTIFOOT.  John  is  a  likely  young  man,  quite  bright 
in  color  and  in  intellect  also.  He  was  the  son  of  Peter  Cards,  a  dentist  by 
profession,  and  a  white  man  by  complexion.  As  a  general  thing,  he  had 
been  used  'very  well;'  had  no  fault  to  find,  except  this  year,  being  hired  to 


154  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

McHenry  &  McCulloch,  tobacconists,  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  whom  he  found 
rather  more  oppressive  than  he  agreed  for,  and  supposing  that  he  had  '  no 
right'  to  work  for  any  body  for  nothing,  he  'picked  up  his  bed  and 
walked.'  His  mistress  had  told  him  that  he  was  l  willed  free,'  at  her  death, 
but  John  was  not  willing  to  wait  her  "  motions  to  die." 

He  had  a  wife  in  Richmond,  but  was  not  allowed  to  visit  her.  He  left 
one  sister  and  a  step-father  in  bondage.  Mr.  Pettifoot  reached  Philadelphia 
by  the  Richmond  line  of  steamers,  stowed  away  among  the  pots  and  cooking 
utensils.  On  reaching  the  city,  he  at  once  surrendered  himself  into  the  hands 
of  the  Committee,  and  was  duly  looked  after  by  the  regular  acting  members. 


EMANUEL  T.  WHITE. 

EMANUEL  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  with  seven-eighths 
of  white  blood  in  his  veins,  medium  size,  and  a  very  smart  and 
likely-looking  piece  of  property  generally.  He  had  the  good  fortune  to 
escape  from  Edward  H.  Hubbert,  a  ship  timber  merchant  of  Norfolk,  Va. 
Under  Hubbert's  yoke  he  had  served  only  five  years,  having  been  bought 
by  him  from  a  certain  Aldridge  Mandrey,  who  was  described  as  a  "  very 
cruel  man,"  and  would  "  rather  fight  than  eat."  "  I  have  licks  that  will 
carry  me  to  my  grave,  and  will  be  there  till  the  flesh  rots  off  my  bones," 
said  Emanuel,  adding  that  his  master  was  a  "  devil"  though  a  member  of  the 
Reformed  Methodist  Church.  But  his  mistress,  he  said,  was  a  "  right  nice 
little  woman,  and  kept  many  licks  off  me."  "  If  you  said  you  were  sick, 
he  would  whip  it  out  of  you."  From  Mandrey  he  once  fled,  and  was  gone 
two  months,  but  was  captured  at  Williamsburg,  Va.,  and  received  a  severe 
flogging,  and  carried  home.  Hubbert  finally  sold  Emanuel  to  a  Mr.  Grig- 
way  of  Norfolk;  with  Emanuel  Mr.  G.  was  pretty  well  suited,  but  his  wife 
was  not — he  had  "  too  much  white  blood  in  him  "  for  her.  Grigway  and 
his  wife  were  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

In  this  unhappy  condition  Emanuel  found  a  conductor  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  A  secret  passage  was  secured  for  him  on  one  of  the  Richmond 
steamers,  and  thus  he  escaped  from  his  servitude.  The  Committee  attended 
to  his  wants,  and  forwarded  him  on  as  usual.  From  Syracuse,  where  he  was 
breathing  quite  freely  under  the  protection  of  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Loguen,  he 
wrote  the  following  letter : 

SYRACUSE,  July  29, 1857. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND,  MB.  STILL  : — I  got  safe  through  to  Syracuse,  and  found  the  house 
of  our  friend,  Mr.  J.  W.  Loguen.  Many  thanks  to  you  for  your  kindness  to  me.  I  wish 
to  say  to  you,  dear  sir,  that  I  expect  my  clothes  will  be  sent  to  Dr.  Landa,  and  I  wish,  if 
you  please,  get  them  and  send  them  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Loguen,  at  Syracuse,  for  me.  He 
will  be  in  possession  of  my  whereabouts  and  will  send  them  to  me.  Remember  me  to 
Mr.  Landa  and  Miss  Milieu  Jespan,  and  much  to  you  and  your  family. 

Truly  Yours,  MANUAL  T.  WHITE. 


ESCAPE  OF  A  CHILD  FOURTEEN  MONTHS  OLD.  155 

THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  CHILD  FOURTEEN  MONTHS  OLD. 

There  is  found  the  following  brief  memorandum  on  the  Records  of 
the  Underground  Rail  Road  Book,  dated  July,  1857  : 

"  A  little  child  of  fourteen  months  old  was  conveyed  to  its  mother,  who 
had  been  compelled  to  flee  without  it  nearly  nine  months  ago." 

While  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  coming  of  this  slave  child  were 
deeply  interesting,  no  further  particulars  than  the  simple  notice  above  were 
at  that  time  recorded.  Fortunately,  however,  letters  from  the  good  friends, 
who  plucked  this  infant  from  the  jaws  of  Slavery,  have  been  preserved  to 
throw  light  on  this  little  one,  and  to  show  how  true-hearted  sympathizers 
with  the  Slave  labored  amid  dangers  and  difficulties  to  save,  the  helpless 
bondman  from  oppression.  It  will  be  observed,  that  both  these  friends  wrote 
from  "Washington,  D.  C.,  the  seat  of  Government,  where,  if  Slavery  was  not 
seen  in  its  worst  aspects,  the  Government  in  its  support  of  Slavery  appeared 
in  a  most  revolting  light. 

LETTER   FEOM    "j.    B." 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  12,  1857. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Some  of  our  citizens,  I  am  told,  lately  left  here  for  Philadelphia,  three  of 
whom  were  arrested  and  brought  back. 

I  beg  you  will  inform  me  whether  two  others — (I.,  whose  wife  is  in  Philadelphia,  was 
one  of  them),  ever  reached  your  city. 

To-morrow  morning  Mrs.  Weems,  with  her  baby,  will  start  for  Philadelphia  and  see  you 
probably  over  night.  Yours  Truly,  J.  B. 

"  J.  B."  was  not  only  a  trusty  and  capable  conductor  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  in  Washington,  but  was  also  a  practical  lawyer,  at  the 
same  time.  His  lawyer-like  letter,  in  view  of  the  critical  nature  of  the  case, 
contained  but  few  words,  and  those  few  naturally  enough  were  susceptible 
of  more  than  one  construction. 

Doubtless  those  styled  "  our  citizens," — "  three  of  whom  were  arrested 
and  brought  back/' — were  causing  great  anxiety  to  this  correspondent,  not 
knowing  how  soon  he  might  find  himself  implicated  in  the  "  running  off," 
etc.  So,  while  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty,  to  still  aid  the  child,  he  was  deter- 
mined, if  the  enemy  intercepted  his  letter,  he  should  not  find  much  comfort 
or  information.  The  cause  was  safe  in  such  careful  hands.  The  following 
letters,  bearing  on  the  same  case,  are  also  from  another  good  conductor,  who 
was  then  living  in  Washington. 

LETTERS   FROM    E.    L.    STEVENS. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  8, 1857. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  write  you  now  to  let  you  know  that  the  children  of  E.  are  yet  well, 
and  that  Mrs.  Arrah  Weems  will  start  with  one  of  them  for  Philadelphia  to-morrow  or 
next  day.  She  will  be  with  you  probably  in  the  day  train.  She  goes  for  the  purpose  of 


156  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

making  an  effort  to  redeem  her  last  child,  now  in  Slavery.  The  whole  amount  necessary 
is  raised,  except  about  $300.  She  will  take  her  credentials  with  her,  and  you  can  place 
the  most  implicit  reliance  on  her  statements.  The  story  in  regard  to  the  Weems'  family 
was  published  in  Frederick  Douglass'  paper  two  years  ago.  Since  then  the  two  middle 
boys  have  been  redeemed  and  there  is  only  one  left  in  Slavery,  and  he  is  in  Alabama.  The 
master  has  agreed  to  take  for  him  just  what  he  gave,  $1100.  Mr.  Lewis  Tappan  has  his 
letter  and  the  money,  except  the  amount  specified.  There  were  about  $5000  raised  in 
England  to  redeem  this  family,  and  they  are  now  all  free  except  this  one.  And  there  never 
was  a  more  excellent  and  worthy  family  than  the  Weems'  family.  I  do  hope,  that  Mrs. 
W.  will  find  friends  who  can  advance  the  amount  required. 

Truly  Yours,  E.  L.  STEVENS. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  13th,  1857. 

MY  FRIEND  : — Your  kind  letter  in  reply  to  mine  about  Arrah  was  duly  received.  Aa 
she  is  doubtless  with  you  before  this,  she  will  explain  all.  I  propose  that  a  second  jour- 
ney be  made  by  her  or  some  one  else,  in  order  to  take  the  other.  They  have  been  a  great 
burden  to  the  good  folks  here  and  should  have  been  at  home  long  ere  this.  Arrah  will 
explain  everything.  I  want,  however,  to  say  a  word  in  her  behalf.  If  there  is  a 
person  in  the  world,  that  deserves  the  hearty  co-operation  of  every  friend  of  humanity, 
that  person  is  Arrah  Weems,  who  now,  after  a  long  series  of  self-sacrificing  labor  to  aid 
others  in  their  struggle  for  their  God-given  rights,  solicits  a  small  amount  to  redeem 
the  last  one  of  her  own  children  in  Slavery.  Never  have  I  had  my  sympathies  so 
aroused  in  behalf  of  any  object  as  in  behalf  of  this  most  worthy  family.  She  can  tell 
you  what  I  have  done.  And  I  do  hope,  that  our  friends  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
will  assist  her  to  make  up  the  full  amount  required  for  the  purchase  of  the  boy. 

After  she  does  what  she  can  in  P.,  will  you  give  her  the  proper  direction  about  getting 
to  New  York  and  to  Mr.  Tappan's  ?  Inform  him  of  what  she  has  done,  &c. 

Please  write  me  as  soon  as  you  can  as  to  whether  she  arrived  safely,  &c.  Give  me  your 
opinion,  also,  as  to  the  proposal  about  the  other.  Had  you  not  better  keep  the  little  one 
in  P.  till  the  other  is  taken  there?  Inform  me  also  where  E.  is,  how  she  is  getting  along, 
&c.,  who  living  with,  &c.  Yours  Truly,  E.  L.  S. 

In  this  instance,  also,  as  in  the  case  of  "  J.  B.,"  the  care  and  anxiety 
of  other  souls,  besides  this  child,  crying  for  deliverance,  weighed  heavily 
on  the  mind  of  Mr.  Stevens,  as  may  be  inferred  from  certain  references  in 
his  letters.  Mr.  Stevens'  love  of  humanity,  and  impartial  freedom,  even  in 
those  dark  days  of  Slavery,  when  it  was  both  unpopular  and  unsafe  to  allow 
the  cries  of  the  bondman  to  awaken  the  feeling  of  humanity  to  assist  the 
suffering,  was  constantly  leading  him  to  take  sides  with  the  oppressed,  and 
as  he  appears  in  this  correspondence,  so  it  was  his  wont  daily  to  aid  the 
helpless,  who  were  all  around  him.  Arrah  Weems,  who  had  the  care  of  the 
child,  alluded  to  so  touchingly  by  Mr.  Stevens,  had  known,  to  her  heart's 
sorrow,  how  intensely  painful  it  was  to  a  mother's  feelings  to  have  her  chil- 
dren torn  from  her  by  a  cruel  master  and  sold.  For  Arrah  had  had  a 
number  of  children  sold,  and  was  at  that  very  time  striving  diligently  to 
raise  money  to  redeem  the  last  one  of  them.  And  through  such  kind- 
hearted  friends  as  Mr.  Stevens,  the  peculiar  hardships  of  this  interesting 
family  of  Weems'  were  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  thousands  of  philanthro- 
pists in  this  country  and  England,  and  liberal  contributions  had  already 


ESCAPE  OF  A  YO  UNO  SLA  VE  MO  THER.  \  57 

been  made  by  friends  of  the  Slave  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean.  It  may  now 
be  seen,  that  while  this  child  had  not  been  a  conscious  sufferer  from  the 
wicked  system  of  Slavery,  it  had  been  the  object  of  very  great  anxiety  and 
suffering  to  several  persons,  who  had  individually  perilled  their  own  free- 
dom for  its  redemption.  This  child,  however,  was  safely  brought  to  the 
Vigilance  Committee,  in  Philadelphia,  and  was  duly  forwarded,  vid  friends 
in  New  York,  to  its  mother,  in  Syracuse,  where  she  had  stopped  to  work 
and  wait  for  her  little  one,  left  behind  at  the  time  she  escaped. 


ESCAPE  OF  A  YOUNG  SLAVE  MOTHER. 

LEFT   HER   LITTLE    BABY-BOY,    LITTLE   GIRL   AND   HUSBAND    BEHIND. 

She  anxiously  waits  their  coming  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y.  Not  until  after  the 
foregoing  story  headed,  the  "  Escape  of  a  Child,"  etc.,  had  been  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  printer  and  was  in  type,  was  the  story  of  the  mother  discov- 
ered, although  it  was  among  the  records  preserved.  Under  changed  names, 
in  many  instances,  it  has  been  found  to  be  no  easy  matter  to  cull  from  a 
great  variety  of  letters,  records  and  advertisements,  just  when  wanted,  all  the 
particulars  essential  to  complete  many  of  these  narratives.  The  case  of  the 
child,  alluded  to  above,  is  a  case  in  point.  Thus,  however,  while  it  is  im- 
possible to  introduce  the  mother's  story  in  its  proper  place,  yet,  since  it  has 
been  found,  it  is  too  important  and  interesting  to  be  left  out.  It  is  here 
given  as  follows: 

$300  REWARD.— KAN  AWAY  from  the  subscriber  on  Saturday,  the  30th 
of  August,  1856,  my  SERVANT  WOMAN,  named   EMELINE    CHAPMAN, 

about  25  years  of  age;  quite  dark,  slender  built,  speaks  short,  and  stammers  some; 

with  two  children,  one  a  female  about  two  and  a  half  years  old;  the  other  a  male,  seven 
or  eight  months  old,  bright  color.  I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  they  are  delivered  to 
me  in  Washington.  MRS.  EMILY  THOMPSON, 

s2a-TTJ,  Th&st§  Capitol  Hill,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Emeline  Chapman,  so  particularly  described  in  the  "  Baltimore  Sun"  of 
the  23d  of  September,  1856,  arrived  by  the  regular  Underground  Rail  Road 
train  from  Washington.  In  order  to  escape  the  responsibility  attached  to 
her  original  name,  she  adopted  the  name  of  Susan  Bell.  Thus  for  free- 
dom she  was  willing  to  forego  her  name,  her  husband,  and  even  her  little 
children.  It  was  a  serious  sacrifice;  but  she  had  been  threatened  with  the 
auction  block,  and  she  well  understood  what  that  meant.  With  regard  to 
usage,  having  lived  away  from  her  owner,  Emeline  did  not  complain  of 
any  very  hard  times.  True,  she  had  been  kept  at  work  very  constantly, 
and  her  owner  had  very  faithfully  received  all  her  hire.  Emeline  had  not 
even  been  allowed  enough  of  her  hire  to  find  herself  in  clothing,  or  any- 
thing for  the  support  of  her  two  children — for  these  non-essentials,  her 
kind  mistress  allowed  her  to  seek  elsewhere,  as  best  she  could.  Emeline's 
husband  was  named  John  Henry;  her  little  girl  she  called  Margaret 


158  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Arm,  and  her  babe  she  had  named  after  its  father,  all  with  the  brand  of 
Slavery  upon  them.  The  love  of  freedom,  in  the  breast  of  this  spirited 
young  Slave-wife  and  mother,  did  not  extinguish  the  love  she  bore  to  her 
husband  and  children,  however  otherwise  her  course,  in  leaving  them,  as  she 
did,  might  appear.  For  it  was  just  this  kind  of  heroic  and  self-sacrificing 
struggle,  that  appealed  to  the  hearts  of  men  and  compelled  attention. 
The  letters  of  Biglow  and  Stevens,  relative  to  the  little  child,  prove  this 
fact,  and  additional  testimony  found  in  the  appended  letter  from  Rev.  J.  W. 
Loguen  conclusively  confirms  the  same.  Indeed,  who  could  close  his  eyes 
and  ears  to  the  plaintive  cries  of  such  a  mother  ?  Who  could  refrain  from 
aiding  on  to  freedom  children  honored  in  such  a  heroic  parent  ? 

SYRACUSE,  Oct.  5,  1856. 

DEAR  FRIEND  STILL  : — I  write  to  you  for  Mrs.  Susan  Bell,  who  was  at  your  city  some 
time  in  September  last.  She  is  from  Washington  city.  She  left  her  dear  little  children 
behind  (two  children).  She  is  stopping  in  our  city,  and  wants  to  hear  from  her  children 
very  much  indeed.  She  wishes  to  know  if  you  have  heard  from  Mr.  Biglow,  of  Washing- 
ton city.  She  will  remain  here  until  she  can  hear  from  you.  She  feels  very  anxious  about 
her  children,  I  will  assure  you.  I  should  have  written  before  this,  but  I  have  been  from 
home  much  of  the  time  since  she  came  to  our  city.  She  wants  to  know  if  Mr.  Biglow  has 
heard  any  thing- about  her  husband.  If  you  have  not  written  to  Mr.  Biglow,  she  wishes 
you  would.  She  sends  her  love  to  you  and  your  dear  family.  She  says  that  you  were 
all  kind  to  her.  and  she  does  not  forget  it.  You  will  direct  your  letter  to  me,  dear  brother, 
and  I  will  see  that  she  gets  it. 

Miss  F.  E.  Watkins  left  our  house  yesterday  for  Ithaca,  and  other  places  in  that  part  of 
the  State.  Frederick  Douglass,  Wm.  J.  Watkins  and  others  were  with  us  last  week  ; 
Gerritt  Smith  with  others.  Miss  Watkins  is  doing  great  good  in  our  part  of  the  State. 
We  think  much  indeed  of  her.  She  is  euch  a  good  and  glorious  speaker,  that  we  are  all 
charmed  with  her.  We  have  had  thirty-one  fugitives  in  the  last  twenty-seven  days;  but 
you.  no  doubt,  have  had  many  more  than  that.  I  hope  the  good  Lord  may  bless  you  and 
spare  you  long  to  do  good  to  the  hunted  and  outraged  among  our  brethren. 

Yours  truly,  J.  W.  LOGUEN, 

Agent  of  the  Underground  Kail  Koad. 


SAMUEL  W.  JOHNSON. 

ARRIVAL  FROM  THE   "DAILY  DISPATCH7'  OFFICE. 

"  SAM"  was  doing  Slave  labor  at  the  office  of  the  Richmond  "Daily  Dis- 
patch," as  a  carrier  of  that  thoroughly  pro-slavery  sheet.  "  Sam  "  had  pos- 
sessed himself  somehow  of  a  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing  a  little,  and 
for  the  news  of  the  day  he  had  quite  an  itching  ear.  Also  with  regard  to 
his  freedom  he  was  quite  solicitous.  Being  of  an  ambitious  turn  of  mind,  he 
hired  his  time,  for  which  he  paid  his  master  $175  per  annum  in  regular 
quarterly  payments.  Besides  paying  this  amount,  he  had  to  find  himself  in 
board,  clothing,  and  pay  doctor's  expenses.  He  had  had  more  than  one 
owner  in  his  life.  The  last  one,  however,  he  spoke  of  thus :  "  His  name  is 


SAMUEL  W.  JOHNSON.  159 

James  B.  Foster,  of  Richmond,  a  very  hard  man.  He  owns  three  more 
Slaves  besides  myself."  In  escaping,  "  Sam  "  was  obliged  to  leave  his  wife, 
who  was  owned  by  Christian  Bourdon.  His  attachment  to  her,  judging 
from  his  frequent  warm  expressions  of  affection,  was  very  strong.  But,  as 
strong  as  it  was,  he  felt  that  he  could  not  consent  to  remain  in  slavery 
any  longer.  "Sam"  had  luckily  come  across  a  copy  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin, 
and  in  perusing  it,  all  his  notions  with  regard  to  "  Masters  and  Servants," 
soon  underwent  an  entire  change,  and  he  began  to  cast  his  eyes  around  him 
to  see  how  he  might  get  his  freedom.  One  who  was  thoroughly  awake  as 
he  was  to  the  idea  of  being  free,  with  a  fair  share  of  courage,  could  now 
and  then  meet  with  the  opportunity  to  escape  by  the  steamers  or 
schooners  coming  North.  Thus  Samuel  found  the  way  open  and  on  one  of 
the  steamers  came  to  Philadelphia.  On  arriving,  he  was  put  at  once  in  the 
charge  of  the  Committee.  While  in  their  hands  he  seemed  filled  with  as- 
tonishment at  his  own  achievements,  and  such  spontaneous  expressions  as 
naturally  flowed  from  his  heart  thrilled  and  amazed  his  new  found  friends, 
and  abundant  satisfaction  was  afforded,  that  Samuel  Washington  Johnson 
would  do  no  discredit  to  his  fugitive  comrades  in  Canada.  So  the  Com- 
mittee gladly  aided  him  on  his  journey. 

After  arriving  in  Canada,  Samuel  wrote  frequently  and  intelligently.  The 
subjoined  letter  to  his  wife  shows  how  deeply  he  was  attached  to  her,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  what  his  views  were  of  Slavery.  The  member  of  the 
Committee  to  whom  it  was  sent  with  the  request,  that  it  should  be  forwarded 
to  her,  did  not  meet  with  the  opportunity  of  doing  so.  A  copy  of  it  was 
preserved  with  other  Underground  Rail  Road  documents. 

LETTER   FROM   SAMUEL   W.    JOHNSON   TO   HIS   WIFE. 

My  Dear  Wife  I  now  embrace  this  golden  opportunity  of  writing  a  few  Lines  to  in- 
form you  that  1  am  well  at  present  engoying  good  health  and  hope  that  these  few  lines 
may  find  you  well  also  My  dearest  wife  I  have  Left  you  and  now  I  am  in  a  foreign  land 
about  fourteen  hundred  miles  from  you  but  though  my  wife  my  thoughts  are  upon  you 
all  the  time  My  dearest  Frances  I  hope  you  will  remember  me  now  gust  as  same  as  you 
did  when  I  were  there  with  you  because  my  mind  are  with  you  night  and  day  the  Love 
that  I  bear  for  you  in  my  breast  is  greater  than  I  thought  it  was  if  I  had  thought  I  had  so 
much  Love  for  you  I  dont  think  I  ever  could  Left  being  I  have  escape  I  and  has  fled  into 
a  land  of  freedom  I  can  but  stop  and  look  over  my  past  Life  and  eay  what  a  fool  I  was 
for  staying  in  bondage  as  Long  My  dear  wife  I  dont  want  you  to  get  married  before  you 
send  me  some  letters  because  I  never  shall  get  married  until  I  see  you  again  My  mind 
dont  deceive  and  it  appears  to  me  as  if  I  shall  see  you  again  at  my  time  of  writing  this 
letter  I  am  desitute  of  money  I  have  not  got  in  no  business  yet  but  when  I  do  get  into 
busin'ess  I  shall  write  you  and  also  remember  you  Tell  my  Mother  and  Brother  and  all 
enquiring  friends  that  I  am  now  safe  in  free  state  I  cant  tell  where  I  am  at  present  but 
Direct  your  Letters  to  Mr.  William  Still  in  Philadelphia  and  I  will  get  them  Answer 
this  as  soon  as  you  can  if  you  please  for  if  you  write  the  same  day  you  receive  it  it  will 
take  a  fortnight  to  reach  me  No  more  to  relate  at  present,  but  still  remain  your  affec- 
tionate husband  Mr.  Still  please  defore  this  piece  out  if  you  please 

SAMUEL  WASHINGTON  JOHNSON. 


160  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Whether  Samuel  ever  met  with  the  opportunity  of  communicating  with 
his  wife,  the  writer  cannot  say.  But  of  all  the  trials  which  Slaves  had 
to  endure,  the  separations  of  husbands  and  wives  were  the  most  difficult 
to  bear  up  under.  Although  feeling  keenly  the  loss  of  his  wife,  Samuel's 
breast  swelled  with  the  thought  of  freedom,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  letter 
which  he  wrote  immediately  after  landing  in  Canada : 

ST.  CATHAEINE,  UPPER  CANADA  WEST. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  am  now  in  safety  I  arrived  at  home  safe  on  the  llth  inst  at 
12  o'clock  M.  So  I  hope  that  you  will  now  take  it  upon  yourself  to  inform  me  something 
of  that  letter  I  left  at  your  house  that  night  when  I  left  there  and  write  me  word  how  you 
are  and  how  is  your  wife  I  wish  you  may  excuse  this  letter  for  I  am  so  full  that  I  can- 
not express  my  mind  at  all  I  am  only  got  $1.50  and  I  feel  as  if  I  had  an  independent 
fortune  but  I  dont  want  you  to  think  that  I  am  going  to  be  idle  because  I  am  on  free 
ground  and  I  shall  always  work  though  I  am  not  got  nothing  to  do  at  present  Direct 
your  letter  to  the  post  office  as  soon  as  possible. 

SAMUEL  W.  JOHNSON. 


FAMILY  FKOM  BALTIMORE. 

STEPHEN  AMOS,  alias  HENRY  JOHNSON,  HARRIET,  alias  MARY  JANE 
JOHNSON  (man  and  wife),  and  their  four  children,  ANN  REBECCA,  WM.  H., 
ELIZABETH  and  MARY  ELLEN.  Doubtless,  in  the  eyes  of  a  Slaveholder,  a  more 
"  likely-looking  "  family  could  not  readily  be  found  in  Baltimore,  than  the 
one  to  be  now  briefly  noticed.  The  mother  and  her  children  were  owned  by 
a  young  slave-holder,  who  went  by  the  name  of  William  Giddings,  and 
resided  in  Prince  George's  county,  Md.  Harriet  acknowledged,  that  she 
had  been  treated  "tolerably  well  in  earlier  days"  for  one  in  her  condition; 
but,  as  in  so  many  instances  in  the  experience  of  Slaves,  latterly,  times  had 
changed  with  her  and  she  was  compelled  to  serve  under  a  new  master  who 
oft-times  treated  her  "  very  severely."  OH  one  occasion,  seven  years  pre- 
viously, a  brother  of  her  owner  for  a  trifling  offence  struck  and  kicked 
her  so  brutally,  that  she  was  immediately  thrown  into  a  fit  of  sickness,  which 
lasted  "  all  one  summer  " — from  this  she  finally  recovered. 

On  another  occasion,  about  one  year  previous  to  her  escape,  she  was  seized 
by  her  owner  and  thrust  into  prison  to  be  sold.  In  this  instance  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Uncle  of  Harriet's  master  saved  her  from  the  auction  block. 
The  young  master,  was  under  age,  and  at  the  same  time  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  his  Uncle.  The  young  master  had  early  acquired  an  ardent  taste 
for  fast  horses,  gambling,  etc.  Harriet  felt,  that  her  chances  for  the  future 
in  the  hands  of  such  a  brutal  master  could  not  be  other  than  miserable. 
Her  husband  had  formerly  been  owned  by  John  S.  Giddings,  who  was  said 
to  have  been  a  "  mild  man."  He  had  allowed  Stephen  (her  husband)  to 
buy  himself,  and  for  eighteen  months  prior  to  the  flight,  he  had  been 


FAMIL  Y  FROM  BAL TIMORE.  161 

what  was  called  a  free  man.  It  should  also  be  further  stated  in  justice  to 
Stephen's  master,  that  he  was  so  disgusted  with  the  manner  in  which 
Stephen's  wife  was  treated,  that  he  went  so  far  as  to  counsel  Stephen  to 
escape  with  his  wife  and  children.  Here  at  least  is  one  instance  where  a 
Maryland  slave-holder  lends  his  influence  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
cause.  The  counsel  was  accepted,  and  the  family  started  on  their  perilous 
flight.  And  although  they  necessarily  had  manifest  trials  and  difficulties  to 
discourage  and  beset  them,  they  battled  bravely  with  all  these  odds  and 
reached  the  Vigilance  Committee  safely.  Harriet  was  a  bright  mulatto, 
with  marked  features  of  character,  and  well  made,  with  good  address  and 
quite  intelligent.  She  was  about  twenty-six  years  of  age.  The  children 
also  were  remarkably  fine-looking  little  creatures,  but  too  young  to  know 
the  horrors  of  Slavery.  The  Committee  at  once  relieved  them  of  their  heavy 
load  of  anxiety  by  cheering  words  and  administering  to  their  necessities  with 
regard  to  food,  money,  etc.  After  the  family  had  somewhat  recovered  from 
the  fatigue  and  travel-worn  condition  in  which  they  arrived,  and  were  pre- 
pared to  resume  their  journey,  the  Committee  gave  them  the  strictest  caution 
with  regard  to  avoiding  slave-hunters,  and  also  in  reference  to  such  points 
on  the  road  where  they  would  be  most  in  danger  of  going  astray  from  a 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  way.  .  Then,  with  indescribable  feelings  of  sym- 
pathy, free  tickets  were  tendered  them,  and  they  having  been  conducted  to 
the  depot,  were  sent  on  their  way  rejoicing. 


ELIJAH  HILTON. 

FEOM   RICHMOND. 

After  many  years  of  hard  toiling  for  the  support  of  others,  the  yoke 
pressed  so  heavily  upon  Elijah's  shoulders,  that  he  could  not  endure  Slave 
life  any  longer.  In  the  hope  of  getting  rid  of  his  bondage,  by  dexterous 
management  and  a  resolute  mind,  which  most  determined  and  thoughtful 
men  exercise  when  undertaking  to  accomplish  great  objects,  he  set  about 
contriving  to  gain  his  freedom.  In  proof  of  Elijah's  truthfulness,  the  adver- 
tisement of  Mr.  R.  J.  Christians  is  here  offered,  as  taken  from  a  Richmond 
paper,  about  the  time  that  Elijah  passed  through  Philadelphia  on  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road,  in  1857. 

RAN  AW  AT— $500  REWARD.— Left  the  Tobacco  Factory  of  the  sub- 
scriber, on  the  14th  inst.,  on  the  pretence  of  being  sick,  a  mulatto  man,  named 
ELIJAH,  the  property  of  Maj.  Edward  Johnson,  of  Chesterfield  county.  He  is 
about  5  feet  8  or  10  inches  high,  spare  made,  bushy  hair,  and  very  genteel  ap- 
pearance ;  he  is  supposed  to  be  making  his  way  North.  The  above  reward  will 
be  paid  if  delivered  at  my  factory.  Ro.  J.  CHRISTIANS. 

jy  21— ts. 

From  his  infancy  up  to  the  hour  of  his  escape,  not  a  breath  of  free  air 
11 


162  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

had  he  ever  been  permitted  to  breathe.  He  was  first  owned  by  Mrs.  Caro- 
line Johnson,  "  a  stingy  widow,  the  owner  of  about  fifty  slaves,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  Dr.  Plummer's  church."  Elijah,  at  her  death,  was  willed  to  her  son, 
Major  Johnson,  who  was  in  the  United  States  service.  Elijah  spoke  of 
him  as  a  "  favorable  man,"  but  added,  "  I'd  rather  be  free.  I  believe  I  can 
treat  myself  better  than  he  can  or  anybody  else."  For  the  last  nineteen 
years  he  had  been  hired  out,  sometimes  as  waiter,  sometimes  in  a  tobacco 
factory,  and  for  five  years  in  the  Coal  Mines. 

At  the  mines  he  was  treated  very  brutally,  but  at  Cornelius  Hall's  To- 
bacco factory,  the  suffering  he  had  to  endure  seems  almost  incredible.  The 
poor  fellow,  with  the  scars  upon  his  person  and  the  unmistakable  earnestness 
of  his  manner,  only  needed  to  be  seen  and  heard  to  satisfy  the  most  incre- 
dulous of  the  truth  of  his  story.  For  refusing  to  be  flogged,  one  time 
at  Hall's  Factory,  the  overseer,  in  a  rage,  "took  up  a  hickory  club"  and 
laid  his  head  "  open  on  each  side."  Overpowered  and  wounded,  he  was 
stripped  naked  and  compelled  to  receive  THREE  HUNDRED  LASHES,  by  which 
he  was  literally  excoriated  from  head  to  foot.  For  six  months  afterwards 
he  was  "  laid  up."  Last  year  he  was  hired  out  for  "one  hundred  and  eighty 
dollars,"  out  of  which  he  "  received  but  five  dollars."  This  year  he  brought 
"  one  hundred  and  ninety  dollars."  Up  to  the  time  he  escaped,  he  had  re- 
ceived "  two  dollars,"  and  the  promise  of  "  more  at  Christmas."  Left 
brothers  and  sisters,  all  ignorant  of  his  way  of  escape.  The  following  pass 
brought  away  by  Elijah  speaks  for  itself,  and  will  doubtless  be  interesting 
to  some  of  our  readers  who  are  ignorant  of  what  used  to  be  Republican  usages 

in  the  "  land  of  the  Free." 

RICHMOND,  July  3d,  1857. 

Permit  the  Bearer  Elijah  to  pass  to  and  from  my  FACTORY,  to  Frederick  Williams, 

In  the  Vallie, 
for  one  month,  untill  11  o'clock  at  night.  By  A.  B.  Wells, 

R.  J.  CHRISTIAN. 
[PiNE  APPLE  FACTOKY.] 

As  usual,  the  Vigilance  Committee  tendered  aid  to  Elijah,  and  forwarded 
him  on  to  Canada,  whence  he  wrote  back  as  follows : 

TOEONTO,  Canada  West,  July  28. 

Dear  friend  in  due  respect  to  your  humanity  and  nobility  I  now  take  my  pen  in  hand 
to  inform  you  of  my  health  I  am  enjoying  a  reasonable  proportion  of  health  at  this 
time  and  hope  when  these  few  lines  come  to  hand  they  may  find  you  and  family  the  same 
dear  Sir  I  am  in  Toronto  and  are  working  at  my  ole  branch  of  business  with  meny  of  my 
friends  I  want  you  to  send  those  to  toronto  to  Mr  Tueharts'on  Edward  St  what  I  have 
been  talking  about  is  my  Clothes  I  came  from  Richmond  Va  and  expect  my  things  to  come 
to  you  So  when  they  come  to  you  then  you  will  send  them  to  Jesse  Tuehart  Edward 
St  no  43. 

I  must  close  by  saying  I  have  no  more  at  present    I  still  remain  your  brother, 

•  ELIJAH  HILTON. 


SOLOMON  BRO  WN  AND   WILLIAM  HOGG,  alias  JOHN  SMITH.      163 


SOLOMON  BROWN. 

ARRIVED   PER  CITY   OF   RICHMOND. 

This  candidate  for  Canada  managed  to  secure  a  private  berth  on  the  steam- 
ship City  of  Richmond.  He  was  thus  enabled  to  leave  his  old  mistress, 
Mary  A.  Ely,  in  Norfolk,  the  place  of  her  abode,  and  the  field  of  his  servi- 
tude. Solomon  was  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  rather  under  the  medium 
size,  dark  color,  and  of  much  natural  ability.  He  viewed  Slavery  as  a  great 
hardship,  and  for  a  length  of  time  had  been  watching  for  an  opportunity  to 
free  himself.  He  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  his  time  of  his  mistress, 
for  which  he  paid  ten  dollars  per  month.  This  amount  failed  to  satisfy 
the  mistress,  as  she  was  inclined  to  sell  him  to  North  Carolina,  where  Slave 
stock,  at  that  time,  was  commanding  high  prices.  The  idea  of  North 
Carolina  and  a  newvmaster  made  Solomon  rather  nervous,  and  he  was 
thereby  prompted  to  escape.  On  reaching  the  Committee  he  manifested 
very  high  appreciation  of  the  attention  paid  him,  and  after  duly  resting  for 
a  day,  he  was  sent  on  his  way  rejoicing.  Seven  days  after  leaving  Phila- 
delphia, he  wrote  back  from  Canada  as  follows : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  Feb.  20th,  1854. 

MR.  STILL — DEAR  SIR  : — It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  have  to  inform  you,  that  I  have 
arrived  safe  in  a  land  of  freedom.  Thanks  to  kind  friends  that  helped  me  here.  Thank 
God  that  I  am  treading  on  free  soil.  I  expect  to  go  to  work  to-morrow  in  a  steam  factory. 

I  would  like  to  have  you,  if  it  is  not  too  much  trouble,  see  Mr.  Minhett,  the  steward  on 
the  boat  that  I  came  out  on,  when  he  gets  to  Norfolk,  to  go  to  the  place  where  my  clothes 
are,  and  bring  them  to  you,  and  you  direct  them  to  the  care  of  Rev.  Hiram  Wilson,  St. 
Catharines,  Niagara  District,  Canada  West,  by  rail-road  via  Suspension  Bridge.  You  men- 
tioned if  I  saw  Mr.  Foreman.  I  was  to  deliver  a  message — he  is  not  here.  I  saw  two 
yesterday  in  church,  from  Norfolk,  that  I  had  known  there.  You  will  send  my  name, 
James  Henry,  as  you  knew  me  by  that  name;  direct  my  things  to  James  Henry.  My 
love  to  your  wife  and  children. 

Yours  Respectfully,  SOLOMON  BROWN. 


WILLIAM  HOGG,  ALIAS  JOHN  SMITH. 

TRAVELER  FROM  MARYLAND. 

WILLIAM  fled  from  Lewis  Roberts,  who  followed  farming  in  Baltimore 
county,  Md.  In  speaking  of  him,  William  gave  him  the  character  of  being 
a  "fierce  and  rough  man,"  who  owned  nine  head  of  slaves.  Two  of  Wil- 
liam's sisters  were  held  by  Roberts,  when  he  left.  His  excuse  for  running 
away  was,  "ill-treatment."  In  traveling  North,  he  walked  to  Columbia  (in 
Pennsylvania),  and  there  took  the  cars  for  Philadelphia.  The  Committee 
took  charge  of  him,  and  having  given  him  the  usual  aid,  sent  him  hopefully 
on  his  way.  After  safely  reaching  Canada,  the  thought  of  his  wife  in  a  land 


164  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

of  bondage,  pressed  so  deeply  upon  his  mind,  that  he  was  prompted  to  make 
an  effort  to  rescue  her.  The  following  letter,  written  on  his  behalf  by  the 
Rev.  H.  Wilson,  indicates  his  feelings  and  wishes  with  regard  to  her : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  Canada  West,  24th  July,  1854. 

DEAR  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Your  encouraging  letter,  to  John  Smith,  was  duly 
received  by  him,  and  I  am  requested  to  write  again  on  his  behalf.  His  colored  friend  in 
Baltimore  county,  who  would  favor  his  designs,  is  Thomas  Cook,  whom  he  wishes  you  to 
address,  Baltimore  post-office,  care  of  Mr.  Thomas  Spicer. 

He  has  received  a  letter  from  Thomas  Cook,  dated  the  6th  of  June,  but  it  was  a  long 
time  reaching  him.  He  wishes  you  to  say  to  Cook,  that  he  got  his  letter,  and  that  he 
would  like  to  have  him  call  on  his  wife  and  make  known  to  her,  that  he  is  in  good  health, 
doing  well  here,  and  would  like  to  have  her  come  on  as  soon  as  she  can. 

As  she  is  a  free  woman,  there  will,  doubtless,  be  no  difficulty  in  her  coming  right 
through.  He  is  working  in  the  neighborhood  of  St.  Catharines,  but  twelve  miles  from 
Niagara  Falls.  You  will  please  recollect  to  address  Thomas  Cook,  in  the  care  of  Thomas 
Spicer,  Baltimore  Post-office.  Smith's  wife  is  at,  or  near  the  place  he  came  from,  and, 
doubtless,  Thomas  Cook  knows  all  about  her  condition  and  circumstances.  Please  write 
again  to  John  Smith,  in  my  care,  if  you  please,  and  request  Thomas  Cook  to  do  the  same. 
Very  respectfully  yours  in  the  cause  of  philanthropy.  HIEAM  WILSON. 


TWO  FEMALE  PASSENGERS  FROM  MARYLAND. 

As  the  way  of  travel,  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  even  for  the  sterner  sex,  was  hard  enough  to  test 
the  strongest  nerves,  and  to  try  the  faith  of  the  bravest  of  the  brave, 
every  woman,  who  won  her  freedom,   by  this  perilous  undertaking,  de- 
serves commemoration.     It  is,  therefore,  a  pleasure  to  thus  transfer  from 
the  old  Record  book  the  names  of  Ann  Johnson  and  Lavina  Woolfley,  who 
fled  from  Maryland  in  1857.     Their  lives,  however,  had  not  been  in  any 
way  very  remarkable.     Ann  was  tall,  and  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  with  an 
intelligent  countenance,  and  about  twenty-four  years  of  age.     She  had  filled 
various  situations  as  a  Slave.     Sometimes  she  was  required  to  serve  in  the 
kitchen,  at  other  times  she  was  required  to  toil  in  the  field,  with  the  plow, 
hoe,  and  the  like.     Samuel  Harrington,  of  Cambridge  District,  Maryland, 
was  the  name  of  the  man  for  whose  benefit  Ann  labored  during  her  younger 
days.     She  had  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  he  was  a  very  "  ill-natured 
man  ;"  he  however,  was  a  member  of  the  "old  time  Methodist  Church."  In 
Slave  property  he  had  invested  only  to  the  extent  of  some  five  or  six  head. 
About  three  years  previous  to  Ann's  escape,  one  of  her  brothers  fled  and 
went  to  Canada.     This  circumstance  so  enraged  the  owner,  that  he  declared 
he  would  "  sell  all "  he  owned.     Accordingly  Ann  was  soon  put  on  the 
auction  block,  and  was  bought  by  a  man  who  went  by  the  name  of  William 
Moore.     Moore  was  a  married  man,  who,  with  his  wife,  was  addicted  to  in- 


CAPTAIN  F.  AND  THE  MA  YOR  OF  NORFOLK.  105 

temperance  and  carousing.  Ann  found  that  she  had  simply  got  "out 
of  the  fire  into  the  frying-pan."  She  was  really  at  a  loss  to  tell  when 
her  lot  was  the  harder,  whether  under  the  "  rum  drinker,"  or  the  old 
time  Methodist.  In  this  state  of  mind  she  decided  to  leave  all  and  go  to 
Canada,  the  refuge  for  the  fleeing  bondman.  Lavina,  Ann's  companion, 
was  the  wife  of  James  Woolfley.  She  and  her  husband  set  out  together,  with 
six  others,  and  were  of  the  party  of  eight  who  were  betrayed  into  Dover 
jail,  as  has  already  been  described  in  these  pages.  After  fighting  their 
way  out  of  the  jail,  they  separated  (for  prudential  reasons).  The  husband 
of  Lavina,  immediately  after  the  conflict  at  the  jail,  passed  on  to  Canada, 
leaving  his  wife  under  the  protection  of  friends.  Since  that  time  several 
mo/iths  had  elapsed,  but  of  each  other  nothing  had  been  known,  before  she 
received  information  on  her  arrival  at  Philadelphia.  The  Committee  was 
glad  to  inform  her,  that  her  husband  had  safely  passed  on  to  Canada,  and 
that  she  would  be  aided  on  also,  where  they  could  enjoy  freedom  in  a  free 
country. 


CAPTAIN  F.  AND  THE  MAYOR  OF  NORFOLK. 

TWENTY-ONE  PASSENGERS   SECRETED   IN   A   BOAT.      NOVEMBER,  1855. 

CAPTAIN"  F.  was  certainly  no  ordinary  man.  Although  he  had  been 
living  a  sea-faring  life  for  many  years,  and  the  marks  of  this  calling  were 
plainly  enough  visible  in  his  manners  and  speech,  he  was,  nevertheless, 
unlike  the  great  mass  of  this  class  of  men,  not  addicted  to  intemperance  and 
profanity.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  a  man  of  thought,  and  possessed,  in  a 
large  measure,  those  humane  traits  of  character  which  lead  men  to  sympa- 
thize with  suffering  humanity  wherever  met  with. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  first  impressions  gathered  from  a 
hasty  survey  of  his  rough  and  rugged  appearance,  his  large  head,  large 
mouth,  large  eyes,  and  heavy  eye-brows,  with  a  natural  gift  at  keeping 
concealed  the  inner-workings  of  his  mind  and  feelings,  were  not  calculated 
to  inspire  the  belief,  that  he  was  fitted  to  be  entrusted  with  the  lives  of  un- 
protected females,  and  helpless  children;  that  he  could  take  pleasure  in 
risking  his  own  life  to  rescue  them  from  the  hell  of  Slavery;  that  he  could 
deliberately  enter  the  enemy's  domain,  and  with  the  faith  of  a  martyr,  face 
the  dread  slave-holder,  with  his  Bowie-knives  and  revolvers — Slave-hunters, 
and  blood-hounds,  lynchings,  and  penitentiaries,  for  humanity's  sake.  But 
his  deeds  proved  him  to  be  a  true  friend  of  the  Slave ;  whilst  his  skill,  bra- 
very, and  success  stamped  him  as  one  of  the  most  daring  and  heroic  Cap- 
tains ever  connected  with  the  Underground  Rail  Road  cause. 

At  the  time  he  was  doing  most  for  humanity  in  rescuing  bondsmen  from 


166  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Slavery,  Slave-laws  were  actually  being  the  most  rigidly  executed.  To  show 
mercy,  in  any  sense,  to  man  or  woman,  who  might  be  caught  assisting  a  poor 
Slave  to  flee  from  the  prison-house,  was  a  matter  not  to  be  thought  of  in 
Virginia.  This  was  perfectly  well  understood  by  Captain  F. ;  indeed  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  say,  that  his  hazardous  operations  might  any  day  result  in 
the  "sacrifice"  of  his  life.  But  on  this  point  he  seemed  to  give  himself  no 
more  concern  than  he  would  have  done  to  know  which  way  the  wind  would 
blow  the  next  day.  He  had  his  own  convictions  about  dying  and  th,e  future, 
and  he  declared,  that  he  had  "  no  fear  of  death,"  however  it  might  come. 
Still,  he  was  not  disposed  to  be  reckless  or  needlessly  to  imperil  his  life,  or 
the  lives  of  those  he  undertook  to  aid.  Nor  was  he  averse  to  receiving 
compensation  for  his  services.  In  Richmond,  Norfolk,  Petersburg,  and  other 
places  where  he  traded,  many  slaves  were  fully  awake  to  their  condition. 
The  great  slave  sales  were  the  agencies  that  served  to  awaken  a  large  number. 
Then  the  various  mechanical  trades  were  necessarily  given  to  the  Slaves,  for 
the  master  had  no  taste  for  "  greasy,  northern  mechanics."  Then,  again,  the 
stores  had  to  be  supplied  with  porters,  draymen,  etc.,  from  the  slave  popula- 
tion. In  the  hearts  of  many  of  the  more  intelligent  amongst  the  slaves, 
the  men,  as  mechanics,  etc.,  the  women,  as  dress-makers,  chamber-maids,  etc., 
notwithstanding  all  the  opposition  and  hard  laws,  the  spirit  of  Freedom 
was  steadily  burning.  Many  of  the  slaves  were  half  brothers,  and  sisters, 
cousins,  nephews,  and  nieces  to  their  owners,  and  of  course  "  blood 
would  tell." 

It  was  only  necessary  for  the  fact  to  be  made  known  to  a  single  reliable 
and  intelligent  slave,  that  a  man  with  a  boat  running  North  had  the  love  of 
Freedom  for  all  mankind  in  his  bosom  to  make  that  man  an  object  of  the 
greatest  interest.  If  an  angel  had  appeared  amongst  them  doubtless  his  pre- 
sence would  not  have  inspired  greater  anxiety  and  hope  than  did  the  presence 
of  Captain  F.  The  class  most  anxious  to  obtain  freedom  could  generally 
manage  to  acquire  some  means  which  they  would  willingly  offer  to  captains 
or  conductors  in  the  South  for  such  assistance  as  was  indispensable  to  their 
escape.  Many  of  the  slaves  learned  if  they  could  manage  to  cross  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line,  even  though  they  might  be  utterly  destitute  and  penniless, 
that  they  would  then  receive  aid  and  protection  from  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee. Here  it  may  be  well  to  state  that,  whilst  the  Committee  gladly 
received  and  aided  all  who  might  come  or  be  brought  to  them,  they  never 
employed  agents  or  captains  to  go  into  the  South  with  a 'view  of  enticing 
or  running  off  slaves.  So  when  captains  operated,  they  did  so  with  the 
full  understanding  that  they  alone  were  responsible  for  any  failures  attending 
their  movements. 

The  way  is  now  clear  to  present  Captain  F.  with  his  schooner  lying  at 
the  wharf  in  Norfolk,  loading  with  wheat,  and  at  the  same  time  with  twenty- 
one  fugitives  secreted  therein.  While  the  boat  was  thus  lying  at  her  moor- 


~  = 

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CAPTAIN  F.  AND  THE  MA  YOR  OF  NORFOLK.  167 

ing,  the  rumor  was  flying  all  over  town  that  a  number  of  slaves  had  escaped, 
which  created  a  general  excitement  a  degree  less,  perhaps,  than  if  the 
citizens  had  been  visited  by  an  earthquake.  The  mayor  of  the  city  with  a 
posse  of  officers  with  axes  arid  long  spears  repaired  to  Captain  F.'s  boat. 
The  fearless  commander  received  his  Honor  very  coolly,  and  as  gracefully 
as  the  circumstances  would  admit.  The  mayor  gave  him  to  understand  who 
he  was,  and  by  what  authority  he  appeared  on  the  boat,  and  what  he  meant, 
to  do.  "  Very  well,"  replied  Captain  F.,  "  here  I  am  and  this  is  my  boat, 
go  ahead  and  search."  His  Honor  with  his  deputies  looked  quickly  around, 
and  then  an  order  went  forth  from  the  mayor  to  "spear  the  wheat  thoroughly." 
The  deputies  obeyed  the  command  with  alacrity.  But  the  spears  brought 
neither  blood  nor  groans,  and  the  sagacious  mayor  obviously  concluded  that 
he  was  "barking  up  the  wrong  tree."  But  the  mayor  was  not  there  for 
nothing.  "  Take  the  axes  and  go  to  work,"  was  the  next  order ;  and  the 
axe  was  used  with  terrible  effect  by  one  of  the  deputies.  The  deck  and  other 
parts  of  the  boat  were  chopped  and  split ;  no  greater  judgment  being  ex- 
ercised when  using  the  axe  than  when  spearing  the  wheat ;  Captain  F.  all 
the  while  wearing  an  air  of  utter  indifference  or  rather  of  entire  composure. 
Indeed  every  step  they  took  proved  conclusively  that  they  were  wholly 
ignorant  with  regard  to  boat  searching.  At  this  point,  with  remarkable 
shrewdness,  Captain  F.  saw  wherein  he  could  still  further  confuse  them  by  a 
bold  strategical  move.  As  though  about  out  of  patience  with  the  mayor's 
blunders,  the  captain  instantly  reminded  his  Honor  that  he  had  "  stood  still 
long  enough"  while  his  boat  was  being  "damaged,  chopped  up,"  &c.  "Now 
if  you  want  to  search,"  continued  he,  "  give  me  the  axe,  and  then  point  o\it 
the  spot  you  want  opened  and  I  will  open  it  for  you  very  quick."  While 
uttering  these  words  he  presented,  as  he  was  capable  of  doing,  an  indignant  and 
defiant  countenance,  and  intimated  that  it  mattered  not  where  or  when  .a  man 
died  provided  he  was  in  the  right,  and  as  though  he  wished  to  give  particularly 
strong  emphasis  to  what  he  was  saying,  he  raised  the  axe,  and  brought  it 
down  edge  foremost  on  the  deck  with  startling  effect,  at  the  same  time 
causing  the  splinters  to  fly  from  the  boards.  The  mayor  and  his  posse 
seemed,  if  not  dreadfully  frightened,  completely  confounded,  and  by  the  time 
Captain  F.  had  again  brought  down  his  axe  with  increased  power,  demand- 
ing where  they  would  have  him  open,  they  looked  as  though  it  was  time  for 
them  to  retire,  and  in  a  few  minutes  after  they  actually  gave  up  the  search 
and  left  the  boat  without  finding  a  soul.  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den  was  not 
safer  than  were  the  twenty-one  passengers  secreted  on  Captain  F.'s  boat. 
The  law  had  been  carried  out  with  a  vengeance,  but  did  not  avail  with  this 
skilled  captain.  The  "  five  dollars"  were  paid  for  being  searched,  the  amount 
which  was  lawfully  required  of  every  captain  sailing  from  Virginia.  And 
the  captain  steered  direct  for  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love.  The  wind  of 
heaven  favoring  the  good  cause,  he  arrived  safely  in  due  time,  and  delivered 


168  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

his  precious  freight  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia  within  the  reach  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee.  The  names  of  the  passengers  were  as  follows : 

ALAN  TATUM,  DANIEL  CARR,  MICHAEL  VAUGHN,  THOMAS  NIXON, 
FREDERICK  NIXON,  PETER  PETTY,  NATHANIEL  GARDENER,  JOH>T 
BROWN,  THOMAS  FREEMAN,  JAMES  FOSTER,  GODFREY  SCOTT,  WILLIS 
WILSON,  NANCY  LITTLE,  JOHN  SMITH,  FRANCIS  HAINES,  DAVID 
JOHNSON,  PHILLIS  GAULT,  ALICE  JONES,  NED  WILSON,  and  SARAH  C. 
WILSON,  and  one  other,  who  subsequently  passed  on,  having  been 
detained  on  account  of  sickness.  These  passengers  were  most  "likely- 
looking  articles;"  a  number  of  them,  doubtless,  would  have  commanded  the 
very  highest  prices  in  the  Richmond  market.  Among  them  were  some  good 
mechanics — one  excellent  dress-maker,  some  "  prime  "  waiters  and  chamber- 
maids ; — men  and  women  with  brains,  some  of  them  evincing  remarkable 
intelligence  and  decided  bravery,  just  the  kind  of  passengers  that  gave 
the  greatest  satisfaction  to  the  Vigilance  Committee.  The  interview  with 
these  passengers  was  extremely  interesting.  Each  one  gave  his  or  her 
experience  of  Slavery,  the  escape,  etc.,  in  his  or  her  own  way,  deeply 
impressing  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  and  hearing  them,  with 
the  fact  of  the  growing  spirit  of  Liberty,  and  the  wonderful  perception  and 
intelligence  possessed  by  some  of  the  sons  of  toil  in  the  South.  While  all 
the  names  of  these  passengers  were  duly  entered  on  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  records,  the  number  was  too  large,  and  the  time  they  spent  with  the 
Committee  too  short,  in  which  to  write  out  even  in  the  briefest  manner  more 
than  a  few  of  the  narratives  of  this  party.  The  following  sketches,  how- 
ever, are  important,  and  will,  doubtless,  be  interesting  to  those  at  least  who 
were  interested  in  the  excitement  which  existed  in  Norfolk  at  the  time  of 
this  memorable  escape : 

ALAN  TATUM.  Alan  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  dark,  intelligent,  and 
of  a  good  physical  organization.  For  the  last  fourteen  years  he  had  been 
owned  by  Lovey  White,  a  widow  and  the  owner  of  nine  slaves,  from  whom 
she  derived  a  comfortable  support.  This  slave-holding  madam  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  was  considered  in  her  general  deportment 
a  "  moderate  slave-holder."  For  ten  years  prior  to  his  escape,  Alan  had 
been  hiring  his  time, — for  this  privilege  he  paid  his  mistress,  the  widow, 
$120  per  annum.  If  he  happened  to  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  time 
by  sickness  within  the  year,  he  was  obliged  to  make  that  up.  In 
addition  to  these  items  of  expenditure,  he  had  his  own  clothes,  etc.,  to  find. 
Although  Alan  had  at  first  stated,  that  his  mistress  was  "moderate,"  further 
on  in  his  story,  as  he  recounted  the  exactions  above  alluded  to,  his  tune 
turned,  and  he  declared,  that  he  was  prompted  to  leave  because  he  disliked 
his  mistress  ;  that  "  she  was  mean  and  without  principle."  Alan  left  three 
sisters,  one  brother,  and  a  daughter.  The  names  of  the  sisters  and  brother 
were  as  follows:  Mary  Ann,  Rachel  and  William — the  daughter,  Mary. 

DANIEL  CARR.     Daniel  was  about  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  dark  mu- 


CAPTAIN  R  AND  THE  MA  YOR  OF  NORFOLK.  1C9 

latto,  apparently  of  sound  body, — good  mind  and  manly.  The  man  to 
whom  he  had  been  compelled  to  render  hard  and  unpaid  labor  and  call 
master,  was  known  by  the  name  of  John  C.  McBole.  McBole  lived  at 
Plymouth,  North  Carolina,  and  was  in  the  steam-mill  business.  McBole 
'  had  bought  Daniel  in  Portsmouth,  where  he  had  been  raised,  for  $1150,  only 
two  years  previously  to  his  escape.  Twice  Daniel  had  been  sold  on  the  auc- 
tion-block. A  part  of  his  life  he  had  been  treated  hard.  Two  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  escape  were  made  by  Daniel,  after  being  sold  to  North  Carolina; 
for  this  offence,  he  was  on  one  occasion  stripped  naked,  and  flogged 
severely.  This  did  not  cure  him.  Prior  to  his  joining  Captain  F.'s  party, 
he  had  fled  to  the  swamps,  and  dwelt  there  for  three  months,  surrounded 
with  wild  animals  and  reptiles,  and  it  was  this  state  of  solitude  that  he  left 
directly  before  finding  Captain  F.  Daniel  had  a  wife  in  Portsmouth,  to 
whom  he  succeeded  in  paying  a  private  visit,  when,  to  his  unspeakable  joy, 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  noble  Captain  F.,  whose  big  heart  was  de- 
lighted to  give  him  a  passage  North.  Daniel,  after  being  sold,  had  been 
allowed,  within  the  two  years,  only  one  opportunity  of  visiting  his  wife ; 
being  thus  debarred  he  resolved  to  escape.  His  wife,  whose  name  was  Han- 
nah, had  three  children — slaves — their  names  were  Sam,  Dan,  and  "  baby." 
The  name  of  the  latter  was  unknown  to  him. 

MICHAEL  VAUGHN.  Michael  was  about  thirty-one  years  of  age,  with 
superior  physical  proportions,  and  no  lack  of  common  sense.  His  color  was 
without  paleness — dark  and  unfading,  and  his  manly  appearance  was  quite 
striking.  Michael  belonged  to  a  lady,  whom  he  described  as  a  "very 
disagreeable  woman."  "  For  all  my  life  I  have  belonged  to  her,  but  for  the 
last  eight  years  I  have  hired  my  time.  I  paid  my  mistress  $120  a  year;  a 
part  of  the  time  I  had  to  find  my  board  and  all  my  clothing."  This  was 
the  direct,  and  unequivocal  testimony  that  Michael  gave  of  his  slave  life, 
which  was  the  foundation  for  alleging  that  his  mistress  was  a  "  very  disa- 
greeable woman." 

Michael  left  a  wife  and  one  child  in  Slavery;  but  they  were  not  owned  by 
his  mistress.  Before  escaping,  he  felt  afraid  to  lead  his  companion  into  the 
secret  of  his  contemplated  movements,  as  he  felt,  that  there  was  no  possible 
way  for  him  to  do  anything  for  her  deliverance ;  on  the  other  hand,  any 
revelation  of  the  matter  might  prove  too  exciting  for  the  poor  soul ; — her 
name  was  Esther.  That  he  did  not  lose  his  affection  for  her  whom  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  so  unceremoniously,  is  shown  by  the  appended  letter : 

NEW  BEDFORD,  August  22d,  1855. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  send  you  this  to  inform  you  that  I  expect  my  wife  to  come  that  way.  If 
she  should,  you  will  direct  her  to  me.  When  I  came  through  your  city  last  Fall,  you 
took  my  name  in  your  office,  which  was  then  given  you,  Michael  Vaughn  ;  since  then  my 
name  is  William  Brown,  No.  130  Kempton  street.  Please  give  my  wife  and  child's  name  to 
Dr.  Lundy,  and  tell  him  to  attend  to  it  for  me.  Her  name  is  Esther,  and  the  phild's 
name  Louisa.  Truly  yours,  WILLIAM  BROWN. 


170  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

Michael  worked  in  a  foundry.  In  church  fellowship  he  was  connected 
with  the  Methodists — his  mistress  with  the  Baptists. 

THOMAS  NIXON  was  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  hue,  and 
quite  intelligent.  He  had  not  much  excuse  to  make  for  leaving,  except,  that 
he  was  "  tired  of  staying "  with  his  "  owner,"  as  he  "  feared  he  might 
be  sold  some  day,"  so  he  "  thought "  that  he  might  as  well  save  him  the 
trouble.  Thomas  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Bockover,  a  wholesale  grocer,  No.  12 
Brewer  street.  Thomas  left  behind  him  his  mother  and  three  brothers. 
His  father  was  sold  away  when  he  was  an  infant,  consequently  he  never  saw 
him.  Thomas  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  ;  his  master  was  of 
the  same  persuasion. 

FREDERICK  NIXON  was  about  thirty-three  years  of  age,  and  belonged 
truly  to  the  wide-awake  class  of  slaves,  as  his  marked  physical  and  mental 
appearance  indicated.  He  had  a  more  urgent  excuse  for  escaping  than 
Thomas;  he  declared  that  he  fled  because  his  owner  wanted  "to  work 
him  hard  without  allowing  him  any  chance,  and  had  treated  him  rough." 
Frederick  was  also  one  of  Mr.  Bockover's  chattels ;  he  left  his  wife,  Eliza- 
beth, with  four  children  in  bondage.  They  were  living  in  Eatontown,  North 
Carolina.  It  had  been  almost  one  year  since  he  had  seen  them.  Had  he 
remained  in  Norfolk  he  had  not  the  slightest  prospect  of  being  reunited  to 
his  wife  and  children,  as  he  had  been  already  separated  from  them  for  about 
three  years.  This  painful  state  of  affairs  only  increased  his  desire  to  leave 
those  who  were  brutal  enough  to  make  such  havoc  in  his  domestic 
relations. 

PETER  PETTY  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  wore  a  happy 
countenance;  he  was  a  person  of  agreeable  manners,  and  withal  pretty 
smart.  He  acknowledged,  that  he  had  been  owned  by  Joseph  Boukley, 
Hair  Inspector.  Peter  did  not  give  Mr.  Boukley  a  very  good  character, 
however;  he  said,  that  Mr.  B.  was  "rowdyish  in  his  habits,  was  deceitful  and 
sly,  and  would  sell  his  slaves  any  time.  Hard  bondage — something  like  the 
children  of  Israel,"  was  his  simple  excuse  for  fleeing.  He  hired  his  time  of 
his  master,  for  which  he  was  compelled  to  pay  $156  a  year.  When  he  lost 
time  by  sickness  or  rainy  weather,  he  was  required  to  make  up  the  deficiency, 
also  find  his  clothing.  He  left  a  wife — Lavinia — and  one  child,  Eliza,  both 
slaves.  Peter  communicated  to  his  wife  his  secret  intention  to  leave,  and 
she  acquiesced  in  his  going.  He  left  his  parents  also.  All  his  sisters  and 
brothers  had  been  sold.  Peter  would  have  been  sold  too,  but  his  owner 
was  under  the  impression,  that  he  was  "  too  good  a  Christian"  to  violate 
the  laws  by  running  away.  Peter's  master  was  quite  a  devoted  Methodist, 
and  was  attached  to  the  same  Church  with  Peter.  While  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  Peter  was  asked  about  the  kind  and  character  of  preaching  that  he 
had  been  accustomed  to  hear ;  whereupon  he  gave  the  following  graphic  spe- 
cimen :  "  Servants  obey  your  masters ;  good  servants  make  good  masters ; 


CAPTAIN  F.  AND  THE  MA  YOR  OF  NORFOLK.  171 

when  your  mistress  speaks  to  you  don't  pout  out  your  mouths ;  when  you 
want  to  go  to  church  ask  your  mistress  and  master,"  etc.,  etc.  Peter  declared, 
that  he  had  never  heard  but  one  preacher  speak  against  slavery,  and  that 
"one  was  obliged  to  leave  suddenly  for  the  North."  He  said,  that  a  Quaker 
lady  spoke  in  meeting  against  Slavery  one  day,  which  resulted  in  an  out- 
break, and  final  breaking  up  of  the  meeting. 

PHILLIS  GAULT.  Phillis  was  a  widow,  about  thirty  years  of  age ;  the 
blood  of  two  races  flowed  in  about  equal  proportions  through  her  veins. 
Such  was  her  personal  appearance,  refinement,  manners,  and  intelligence, 
that  had  the  facts  of  her  slave  life  been  unknown,  she  would  have  readily 
passed  for  one  who  had  possessed  superior  advantages.  But  the  facts  in 
her  history  proved,  that  she  had  been  made  to  feel  very  keenly  the  horri- 
fying effects  of  Slavery  ;  not  in  the  field,  for  she  had  never  worked  there ; 
nor  as  a  common  drudge,  for  she  had  always  been  required  to  fill  higher 
spheres ;  she  was  a  dress-maker — but  not  without  fear  of  the  auction  block. 
This  dreaded  destiny  was  the  motive  which  constrained  her  to  escape  with 
the  twenty  others ;  secreted  in  the  hold  of  a  vessel  expressly  arranged  for 
bringing  away  slaves.  Death  had  robbed  her  of  her  husband  at  the  time 
that  the  fever  raged  so  fearfully  in  Norfolk.  This  sad  event  deprived  her 
of  the  hope  she  had  of  being  purchased  by  her  husband,  as  he  had  intended. 
She  was  haunted  by  the  constant  thought  of  again  being  sold,  as  she  had 
once  been,  and  as  she  had  witnessed  the  sale  of  her  sister's  four  children 
after  the  death  of  their  mother. 

Phillis  was,  to  use  her  own  striking  expression  in  a  state  of  "great 
horror ;"  she  felt,  that  nothing  would  relieve  her  but  freedom.  After  having 
fully  pondered  the  prospect  of  her  freedom  and  the  only  mode  offered 
by  which  she  could  escape,  she  consented  to  endure  bravely  whatever  of 
suffering  and  trial  might  fall  to  her  lot  in  the  undertaking — and  as  was  the 
case  with  thousands  of  others,  she  succeeded.  She  remained  several  days  in 
the  family  of  a  member  of  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia,  favorably  impress- 
ing all  who  saw  her.  As  she  had  formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  Boston, 
from  having  heard  it  so  thoroughly  reviled  in  Norfolk,  she  desired  to  go 
there.  The  Committee  made  no  objections,  gave  her  a  free  ticket,  etc. 
From  that  time  to  the  present,  she  has  ever  sustained  a  good  Christian 
character,  and  as  an  industrious,  upright,  and  intelligent  woman,  she  has 
been  and  is  highly  respected  by  all  who  know  her.  The  following  letter  is 
characteristic  of  her : 

BOSTON,  March  22,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  SIB — I  received  your  photograph  by  Mr  Cooper  and  it  afforded  me  much 
pleasure  to  do  so  i  hope  that  these  few  lines  may  find  you  and  your  family  well  as  it 
leaves  me  and  little  Dicky  at  present  i  have  no  interesting  news  to  tell  you  more  than 
there  is  a  great  revival  of  religion  through  the  land  i  all  most  forgoten  to  thank  you  for 
your  kindness  and  our  little  Dick  he  is  very  wild  and  goes  to  school  and  it  is  my  desire 
and  prayer  for  him  to  grow  up  a  useful  man  i  wish  you  would  try  to  gain  some  informa- 


172  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

tion  from  Norfolk  and  write  me  word  how  the  times  are  there  for  i  am  afraid  to  write  i 
wish  yoo  would  see  the  Doctor  for  me  and  ask  him  if  he  could  carefully  find  out  any  way 
that  we  could  steal  little  Johny  for  i  think  to  raise  nine  or  ten  hundred  dollars  for  such  a 
child  is  outraigust  just  at  this  time  i  feel  as  if  i  would  rather  steal  him  than  to  buy  him 
give  my  kinde  regards  to  the  Dr  and  his  family  tell  Miss  Margret  and  Mrs  Landy  that  i 
would  like  to  see  them  out  here  this  summer  again  to  have  a  nice  time  in  Cambridge 
Miss  Walker  that  spent  the  evening  with  me  in  Cambridge  sens  much  love  to  yoo  and 
Mrs.  Landy  give  my  kindes  regards  to  Mrs  Still  and  children  and  receive  a  portion  for 
yoo  self  i  have  no  more  to  say  at  present  but  remain  yoor  respectfully. 

FLAEECE  P.  GAULT. 
When  you  write  direct  yoo  letters  Mrs.  Flarece  P.  Gault,  No  62  Pinkney  St. 


ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLACES. 

MATILDA  MAHONEY, — DR.   J.  W.   PENNINGTON'S  BROTHER  AND  SONS  CAPTURED   AND 

CARRIED   BACK. 

While  many  sympathized  with  the  slave  in  his  chains,  and  freely  wept 
over  his  destiny,  or  gave  money  to  help  buy  his  freedom,  but  few  could 
be  found  who  were  willing  to  take  the  risk  of  going  into  the  South,  and 
standing  face  to  face  with  Slavery,  in  order  to  conduct  a  panting  slave  to 
freedom.  The  undertaking  was  too  fearful  to  think  of  in  most  cases. 
But  there  were  instances  when  men  and  women  too,  moved  by  the  love  of 
freedom,  would  take  their  lives  in  their  hands,  beard  the  lion  in  his  den,  and 
nobly  rescue  the  oppressed.  Such  an  instance  is  found  in  the  case  of  Ma- 
tilda Mahoney,  in  Baltimore. 

The  story  of  Matilda  must  be  very  brief,  although  it  is  full  of  thrilling 
interest.  She  was  twenty-one  years  of  age  in  1854,  when  she  escaped  and 
came  to  Philadelphia,  a  handsome  young  woman,  of  a  light  complexion, 
quite  refined  in  her  manners,  and  in  short,  possessing  great  personal  attrac- 
tions. But  her  situation  as  a  slave  was  critical,  as  will  be  seen. 

Her  claimant  was  Wm.  Rigard,  of  Frederick,  Md.,  who  hired  her  to  a 
Mr.  Reese,  in  Baltimore ;  in  this  situation  her  duties  were  general  house- 
work and  nursing.  With  these  labors,  she  was  not,  however,  so  much 
dissatisfied  as  she  was  with  other  circumstances  of  a  more  alarming  nature : 
her  old  master  was  tottering  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and  his  son,  a  trader 
in  New  Orleans.  These  facts  kept  Matilda  in  extreme  anxiety*  For  two 
years  prior  to  her  escape,  the  young  trader  had  been  trying  to  influence  his 
father  to  let  him  have  her  for  the  Southern  market ;  but  the  old  man  had  not 
consented.  Of  course  the  trader  knew  quite  well,  that  an  "  article"  of  her 
appearance  would  command  readily  a  very  high  price  in  the  New  Orleans 
market.  But  Matilda's  attractions  had  won  the  heart  of  a  young  man  in 
the  North,  one  who  had  known  her  in  Baltimore  in  earlier  days,  and  this 


ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLACES.  173 

lover  was  willing  to  make  desperate  efforts  to  rescue  her  from  her  perilous 
situation.  "Whether  or  not  he  had  nerve  enough  to  venture  down  to  Balti- 
more to  accompany  his  intended  away  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road, 
his  presence  would  not  have  aided  in  the  case.  He  had,  however,  a  friend 
who  consented  to  go  to  Baltimore  on  this  desperate  mission.  The  friend 
was  James  Jefferson,  of  Providence,  R.  I.  AVith  the  strategy  of  a  skilled 
soldier,  Mr.  Jefferson  hurried  to  the  Monumental  City,  and  almost  under 
the  eyes  of  the  slave-holders  and  slave-catchers,  despite  of  pro-slavery 
breastworks,  seized  his  prize  and  speeded  her  away  on  the  Underground 
Railway,  before  her  owner  was  made  acquainted  with  the  fact  of  her  in- 
tended escape.  On  Matilda's  arrival  at  the  station  in  Philadelphia,  several 
other  passengers  from  different  points,  happened  to  come  to  hand  just  at  that 
time,  and  gave  great  solicitude  and  anxiety  to  the  Committee.  Among  these 
were  a  man  and  his  wife  and  their  four  children,  (noticed  elsewhere),  from 
Maryland.  Likewise  an  interesting  and  intelligent  young  girl  who  had 
been  almost  miraculously  rescued  from  the  prison-house  at  Norfolk,  and  in 
addition  to  these,  the  brother  of  J.  W<  Pennington,  D.  D.,  with  his  two  sons. 
While  it  was  a  great  gratification  to  have  travelers  coming  along  so  fast, 
and  especially  to  observe  in  every  countenance,  determination,  rare  manly 
and  womanly  bearing,  with  remarkable  intelligence,  it  must  be  admitted, 
that  the  acting  committee  felt  at  the  same  time,  a  very  lively  dread  of 
the  slave-hunters,  and  were  on  their  guard.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
send  the  fugitives  on  by  different  trains,  and  in  various  directions.  Matilda 
and  all  the  others  with  the  exception  of  the  father  and  two  sons  (relatives 
of  Dr.  Pennington)  successfully  escaped  and  reached  their  longed-for  haven 
in  a  free  land.  The  Penningtons,  however,  although  pains  had  been  taken 
to  apprize  the  Doctor  of  the  good  news  of  the  coming  of  his  kin,  whom  he 
had  not  seen  for  many,  many  years,  were  captured  after  being  in  New  York 
some  twenty-four  hours.  In  answer  to  an  advisory  letter  from  the  secretary 
of  the  Committee  the  following  from  the  Doctor  is  explicit,  relative  to 
his  wishes  and  feelings  with  regard  to  their  being  sent  on  to  New  York. 

29  6th  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK,  May  24th,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  MB.  STILL  : — Your  kind  letter  of  the  22d  inst  has  come  to  hand  and  I  have 
to  thank  you  for  your  offices  of  benevolence  to  my  bone  and  my  flesh,  I  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  doing  a  little  for  your  brother  Peter,  but  I  do  not  think  it  an  offset.  My 
burden  has  been  great  about  these  brethren.  I  hope  they  have  started  on  to  me.  Many 

thanks,  my  good  friend.     Yours  Truly. 

J.  W.  C.  PENNINQTON. 

This  letter  only  served  to  intensify  the  deep  interest  which  had  already 
been  awakened  for  the  safety  of  all  concerned.  At  the  same  time  also  it  made 
the  duty  of  the  Committee  clear  with  regard  to  forwarding  them  to  N.  Y. 
Immediately,  therefore,  the  Doctor's  brother  and  sons  were  furnished  with 
free  tickets  and  were  as  carefully  cautioned  as  possible  with  regard  to  slave- 


174  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

hunters,  if  encountered  on  the  road.  In  company  with  several  other 
Underground  Rail  Road  passengers,  under  the  care  of  an  intelligent  guide, 
all  were  sent  off  in  due  order,  looking  quite  as  well  as  the  most  respectable 
of  their  race  from  any  part  of  the  country.  The  Committee  in  New 
York,  with  the  Doctor,  were  on  the  look  out  of  course ;  thus  without  diffi- 
culty all  arrived  safely  in  the  Empire  City. 

It  would  seem  that  the  coming  of  his  brother  and  sons  so  overpowered 
the  Doctor  that  he  forgot  how  imminent  their  danger  was.  The  meeting 
and  interview  was  doubtless  very  joyous.  Few  perhaps  could  realize,  even 
in  imagination,  the  feelings  that  filled  their  hearts,  as  the  Doctor  and  his 
brother  reverted  to  their  boyhood,  when  they  were  both  slaves  together  in 
Maryland ;  the  separation — the  escape  of  the  former  many  years  previous — 
the  contrast,  one  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a  Doctor  of  Divinity,  a  scholar 
and  noted  clergyman,  and  as  such  well  known  in  the  United  States,  and 
Great  Britain,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  his  brother  and  kin  were  held  in 
chains,  compelled  to  do  unrequited  labor,  to  come  and  go  at  the  bidding  of 
another.  Were  not  these  reflections  enough  to  incapacitate  the  Doctor  for 
the  time  being,  for  cool  thought  as  to  how  he  should  best  guard  against 
the  enemy  ?  Indeed,  in  view  of  Slavery  and  its  horrid  features,  the  wonder 
is,  not  that  more  was  not  done,  but  that  any  thing  was  done,  that  the  victims 
were  not  driven  almost  out  of  their  senses.  But  time  rolled  on  until  nearly 
twenty-four  hours  had  passed,  and  while  reposing  their  fatigued  and  weary 
limbs  in  bed,  just  before  day-break,  hyena-like  the  slave-hunters  pounced 
upon  all  three  of  them,  and  soon  had  them  hand-cuffed  and  hurried  off  to  a 
United  States'  Commissioner's  office.  Armed  with  the  Fugitive  Law,  and 
a  strong  guard  of  officers  to  carry  it  out,  resistance  would  have  been  simply 
useless.  Ere  the  morning  sun  arose  the  sad  news  was  borne  by  the  telegraph 
wires  to  all  parts  of  the  country  of  this  awful  calamity  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road. 

Scarcely  less  painful  to  the  Committee  was  the  news  of  this  accident,  than 
the  news  of  a  disaster,  resulting  in  the  loss  of  several  lives,  on  the  Camden 
and  Amboy  Road,  would  have  been  to  its  managers.  This  was  the  first 
accident  that  had  ever  taken  place  on  the  road  after  passengers  had  reached 
the  Philadelphia  Committee,  although,  in  various  instances,  slave-hunters 
had  been  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  their  prey. 

All  that  was  reported  respecting  the  arrest  and  return  of  the  Doctor's 
kin,  so  disgraceful  to  Christianity  and  civilization,  is  taken  from  the 
Liberator,  as  follows : 


ARRIVALS  FROM  DIFFERENT  PLA  CES.  1 75 


THREE  FUGITIVE  SLAVES  ARRESTED  IN    NEW  YORK,  AND  GIVEN  UP  TO  THEIR 

OWNERS. 

NEW  YORK,  May  25th. 

About  three  o'clock  this  morning,  three  colored  men,  father  and  two  sons, 
known  as  Jake,  Bob,  and  Stephen  Pennington,  were  arrested  at  the  instance 
of  David  Smith  and  Jacob  Grove,  of  Washington  Co.,  Md.,  who  claimed 
them  as  their  slaves.  They  were  taken  before  Commissioner  Morton,  of  the 
United  States  Court,  and  it  was  understood  that  they  would  be  examined  at 
1 1  o'clock ;  instead  of  that,  however,  the  case  was  heard  at  once,  no  persons 
being  present,  when  the  claimnants  testified  that  they  were  the  owners  of 
said  slaves  and  that  they  escaped  from  their  service  at  Baltimore,  on  Sunday 
last. 

From  what  we  can  gather  of  the  proceedings,  the  fugitives  acknowledged 
themselves  to  be  slaves  of  Smith  and  Grove.  The  commissioner  considering 
the  testimony  sufficient,  ordered  their  surrender,  and  they  were  accordingly 
given  up  to  their  claimants,  who  hurried  them  off  at  once,  and  they  are  now 
on  their  way  to  Baltimore.  A  telegraph  despatch  has  been  sent  to  Philadel- 
phia, as  it  is  understood  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  rescue  the  parties,  when 
the  cars  arrive.  There  was  no  excitement  around  the  commissioner's  office, 
owing  to  a  misunderstanding  as  to  the  time  of  examination.  The  men  were 
traced  to  this  city  by  the  claimants,  who  made  application  to  the  United 
States  Court,  when  officers  Horton  and  De  Angeles  were  deputied  by  the 
marshal  to  effect  their  arrest,  and  those  officers,  with  deputy  Marshal 
Thompson  scoured  the  city,  and  finally  found  them  secreted  in  a  house  in 
Broome  St.  They  were  brought  before  Commissioner  Morton  this  morning. 
No  counsel  appeared  for  the  fugitives.  The  case  being  made  out,  the  usual 
affidavits  of  fear  of  rescue  were  made,  and  the  warrants  thereupon  issued,  and 
the  three  fugitives  were  delivered  over  to  the  U.  S.  Marshal,  and  hurried  off 
to  Maryland.  They  were  a  father  and  his  two  sons,  father  about  forty-five 
and  sons  eighteen  or  nineteen.  The  evidence  shows  them  to  have  recently 
escaped.  The  father  is  the  brother  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Pennington,  a  highly 
respected  colored  preacher  of  this  city. 

NEW  YORK,  May  28. 

Last  evening  the  church  at  the  corner  of  Prince  and  Marion  streets  was 
filled  with  an  intelligent  audience  of  white  and  colored  people,  to  hear  Dr. 
Pennington  relate  the  circumstance  connected  with  the  arrest  of  his  brother 
and  nephews.  He  showed,  that  he  attempted  to  afford  his  brother  the  assis- 
tance of  counsel,  but  was  unable  to  do  so,  the  officers  at  the  Marshal's  office 
having  deceived  him  in  relation  to  the  time  the  trial  was  to  take  place  be- 
fore the  Commissioners.  Hon.  E.  F.  Culver  next  addressed  the  audience, 
showing,  that  a  great  injustice  had  been  done  to  the  brother  of  Dr.  Pen- 


176  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

nington,  and  though  he,  up  to  that  time,  had  advocated  peace,  he  now  had 
the  spirit  to  tear  down  the  building  over  the  Marshal's  head.  Intense  in- 
terest was  manifested  during  the  proceedings,  and  much  sympathy  in  behalf 
of  Dr.  Pennington. 

THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVES   IN  BALTIMORE. 

The  U.  S.  Marshal,  A.  T.  Hillyer,  Esq.,  received  a  dispatch  this  morning 
from  officers  Horton  and  Dellugelis,  at  Baltimore,  stating,  that  they  had  ar- 
rived there  with  the  three  slaves,  arrested  here  yesterday  (the  Penningtons), 
the  owners  accompanying  them.  The  officers  will  return  to  New  York,  this 
evening. — N.  Y.  Exp°ess,  27th. 

NEW  YORK,  May  30. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Pennington  has  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Grove,  the  claim- 
ant of  his  brother,  who  was  recently  taken  back  from  this  city,  oifering  to 
sell  him  to  Dr.  Pennington,  should  he  wish  to  buy  him,  and  stating,  that  he 
would  await  a  reply,  before  "  selling  him  to  the  slave-drivers."  Mr.  Groce, 
who  accompanied  his  "sweet  heart,"  Matilda,  in  the  same  train  which  con- 
veyed the  Penningtons  to  New  York,  had  reason  to  apprehend  danger  to 
all  the  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers,  as  will  appear  from  his  sub- 
joined letter: 

ELMIEA,  May  28th. 

DEAR  LUKE  : — I  arrived  home  safe  with  my  precious  charge,  and  found  all  well.  I 
have  just  learned,  that  the  Penningtons  are  taken.  Had  he  done  as  I  wished  him  he 
would  never  have  been  taken.  Last  night  our  tall  friend  from  Baltimore  came,  and 
caused  great  excitement  here  by  his  information.  The  lady  is  perfectly  safe  now  in  Can- 
ada. I  will  write  you  and  Mr.  Still  as  soon  as  I  get  over  the  excitement.  This  letter  was 
first  intended  for  Mr.  Gains,  but  I  now  send  it  to  you.  Please  let  me  hear  their  move- 
ments. -Yours  truly,  ~  T  ~ 

J  C.  L.  GEOCE. 

But  sadly  as  this  blow  was  felt  by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  it  did  not 
cause  them  to  relax  their  efforts  in  the  least.  Indeed  it  only  served  to  stir 
them  up  to  renewed  diligence  and  watchfulness,  although  for  a  length  of 
time  afterwards  the  Committee  felt  disposed,  when  sending,  to  avoid  New 
York  as  much  as  possible,  and  in  lieu  thereof,  to  send  vid  Elmira,  where 
there  was  a  depot  under  the  agency  of  John  W.  Jones.  Mr.  Jones  was  a 
true  and  prompt  friend  of  the  fugitive,  and  wide  awake  with  regard  to 
Slavery  and  slave-holders,  and  slave  hunters,  for  he  had  known  from  sad 
experience  in  Virginia  every  trait  of  character  belonging  to  these  classes. 

In  the  midst  of  the  Doctor's  grief,  friends  of  the  slave  soon  raised  money 
to  purchase  his  brother,  about  $1,000;  but  the  unfortunate  sons  were  doomed 
to  the  auction  block  and  the  far  South,  where,  the  writer  has  never  exactly 
learned. 


FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  177 


"FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN,"  IN  MALE  ATTIRE. 

PROFESSORS   H.   AND  T.   OFFER  THEIR  SERVICES — CAPTAINS   B.   ALSO   ARE   ENLISTED 

— SLAVE-TRADER   GRASPING  TIGHTLY  HIS   PREY,   BUT   SHE   IS   RESCUED — 

LONG  CONFLICT,   BUT   GREAT  TRIUMPH — ARRIVAL  ON  THANKSGIVING 

DAY,   NOV.    25,  1855. 

It  was  the  business  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  as  it  was  clearly  under- 
stood by  the  friends  of  the  Slave,  to  assist  all  needy  fugitives,  who  might  in 
any  way  manage  to  reach  Philadelphia,  but,  for  various  reasons,  not  to 
send  agents  South  to  incite  slaves  to  run  away,  or  to  assist  them  in  so  doing. 
Sometimes,  however,  this  rule  could  not  altogether  be  conformed  to.  Cases, 
in  some  instances,  would  appeal  so  loudly  and  forcibly  to  humanity,  civiliza- 
tion, and  Christianity,  that  it  would  really  seem  as  if  the  very  stones 
would  cry  out,  unless  something  was  done.  As  an  illustration  of  this  point, 
the  story  of  the  young  girl,  which  is  now  to  be  related,  will  afford  the  most 
striking  proof.  At  the  same  time  it  may  be  seen  how  much  anxiety,  care, 
hazard,  delay  and  material  aid,  were  required  in  order  to  effect  the  delive- 
rance of  some  who  were  in  close  places,  and  difficult  of  access.  It  will  be 
necessary  to  present  a  considerable  amount  of  correspondence  in  this  case, 
to  bring  to  light  the  hidden  mysteries  of  this  narrative.  The  first  letter,  in 
explanation,  is  the  following : 

,  LETTER  FROM  J.   BIGELOW,   ESQ. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  27,  1854. 

MR.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir : — I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  prompt  answer  you  had  the 
kindness  to  give  to  my  note  of  22d  inst.  Having  found  a  correspondence  so  quick  and 
easy,  and  withal  so  very  flattering,  I  address  you  again  more  fully. 

The  liberal  appropriation  for  transportation  has  been  made  chiefly  on  account  of  a  female 
child  of  ten  or  eleven  years  old,  for  whose  purchase  I  have  been  authorized  to  offer  $700 
(refused),  and  for  whose  sister  I  have  paid  $1,600,  and  some  $1,000  for  their  mother,  &c. 

This  child  sleeps  in  the  same  apartment  with  its  master  and  mistress,  which  adds  to  the 
difficulty  of  removal.  She  is  some  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  the  city,  so  that  really  the 
chief  hazard  will  be  in  bringing  her  safely  to  town,  and  in  secreting  her  until  a  few  days  of 
storm  shall  have  abated.  All  this,  I  think,  is  now  provided  for  with  entire  safety. 

The  child  has  two  cousins  in  the  immediate  vicinity  ;  a  young  man  of  some  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  and  his  sister,  of  perhaps  seventeen — both  Slaves,  but  bright  and  clear-headed 
as  anybody.  The  young  man  I  have  seen  often — the  services  of  both  seem  indispensable 
to  the  main  object  suggested  ;  but  having  once  rendered  the  service,  they  cannot,  and 
ought  not  return  to  Slavery.  They  look  for  freedom  as  the  reward  of  what  they  shall 
now  do. 

Out  of  the  $300,  cheerfully  offered  for  the  whole  enterprise,  I  must  pay  some  reasonable 
sum  for  transportation  to  the  city  and  sustenance  while  here.  It  cannot  be  much  ;  for  the 
balance,  I  shall  give  a  draft,  which  will  be  promptly  paid  on  their  arrival  in  New  York. 

If  I  have  been  understood  to  offer  the  whole  $300,  it  shall  be  paid,  though  I  have  meant 
as  above  stated.     Among  the  various  ways  that  have  been  suggested,  has  been  that  of 
12 


178  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

taking  all  of  them  into  the  cars  here ;  that,  I  think,  will  be  found  impracticable.  I  find  so 
much  vigilance  at  the  depot,  that  I  would  not  deem  it  safe,  though  in  any  kind  of  carriage 
they  might  leave  in  safety  at  any  time. 

All  the  rest  I  leave  to  the  experience  and  sagacity  of  the  gentleman  who  maps  out  the 
enterprise. 

Now  I  will  thank  you  to  reply  to  this  and  let  me  know  that  it  reaches  you  in  safety, 
and  is  not  put  in  a  careless  place,  whereby  I  may  be  endangered ;  and  state  also,  whether 
all  my  propositions  are  understood  and  acceptable,  and  whether,  (pretty  quickly  after  I  shall 
inform  you  that  all  things  are  ready),  the  gentleman  will  make  his  appearance  ? 

I  live  alone.  My  office  and  bed-room,  &c.,  are  at  the  corner  of  E.  and  7th  streets,  op- 
posite the  east  end  of  the  General  Post  Office,  where  any  one  may  call  upon  me. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  imprudent,  that  this  letter,  or  any  other  written  particulars,  be 
in  his  pockets  for  fear  of  accident.  Yours  very  respectfully,  J.  BIGELOW. 

While  this  letter  clearly  brought  to  light  the  situation  of  things,  its 
author,  however,  had  scarcely  begun  to  conceive  of  the  numberless  difficul- 
ties which  stood  in  the  way  of  success  before  the  work  could  be  accom- 
plished. The  information  which  Mr.  Bigelow's  letter  contained  of  the 
painful  situation  of  this  young  girl  was  submitted  to  different  parties  who 
could  be  trusted,  with  a  view  of  finding  a  person  who  might  possess  suffi- 
cient courage  to  undertake  to  bring  her  away.  Amongst  those  consulted 
were  two  or  three  captains  who  had  on  former  occasions  done  good  service 
in  the  cause.  One  of  these  captains  was  known  in  Underground  Rail-Road 
circles  as  the  "  powder  boy."*  He  was  willing  to  undertake  the  work, 
and  immediately  concluded  to  make  a  visit  to  Washington,  to  see  how  the 
"  land  lay."  Accordingly  in  company  with  another  Underground  Rail 
Road  captain,  he  reported  himself  one  day  to  Mr.  Bigelow  with  as  much 
assurance  as  if  he  were  on  an  errand  for  an  office  under  the  government. 
The  impression  made  on  Mr.  Bigelow's  mind  may  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing letter ;  it  may  also  be  seen  that  he  was  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of 
precautionary  measures. 

SECOND   LETTER   FKOM   LAWYER   BIGELOW. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  September  9th,  1855. 

MR.  WM.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  strongly  hope  the  little  matter  of  business  so  long 
pending  and  about  which  I  have  written  you  so  many  times,  will  take  a  move  now.  I 
have  the  promise  that  the  merchandize  shall  be  delivered  in  this  city  to-night.  Like  so 
many  other  promises,  this  also  may  prove  a  failure,  though  I  have  reason  to  believe  that 
it  will  not.  I  shall,  however,  know  before  I  mail  this  note.  In  case  the  goods  arrive  here 
I  shall  hope  to  see  your  long-talked  of  "  Professional  gentleman  "  in  Washington,  as  soon 
as  possible.  He  will  find  me  by  the  enclosed  card,  which  shall  be  a  satisfactory  introduc- 
tion for  him.  You  have  never  given  me  his  name,  nor  am  I  anxious  to  know  it.  But 
on  a  pleasant  visit  made  last  fall  -to  friend  Wm.  Wright,  in  Adams  Co.,  I  suppose  I  acci- 
dentally learned  it  to  be  a  certain  Dr.  H — .  Well,  let  him  come. 

I  had  an  interesting  call  a  week  ago  from  two  gentlemen,  masters   of  vessels,  and 

*  He  had  been  engaged  at  different  times  in  carrying  powder  in  his  boat  from  a  powder  magazine, 
and  from  this  circumstance,  was  familiarly  called  the  "  Powder  Boy." 


FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  179 

brothers,  one  of  whom,  I  understand,  you  know  as  the  "  powder  boy."  I  had  a  little 
light  freight  for  them ;  but  not  finding  enough  other  freight  to  ballast  their  craft,  they 
went  down  the  river  looking  for  wheat,  and  promising  to  return  soon.  I  hope  to  see 
them  often. 

I  hope  this  may  find  you  returned  from  your  northern  trip,*  as  your  time  proposed  was 
out  two  or  three  days  ago. 

I  hope  if  the  whole  particulars  of  Jane  Johnson's  case  f  are  printed,  you  will  send  me 
the  copy  as  proposed. 

I  forwarded  some  of  her  things  to  Boston  a  few  days  ago,  and  had  I  known  its  import- 
ance in  court,  I  could  have  sent  you  one  or  two  witnesses  who  would  prove  that  her 
freedom  was  intended  by  her  before  she  left  Washington,  and  that  a  man  was  engaged 
here  to  go  on  to  Philadelphia  the  same  day  with  her  to  give  notice  there  of  her  case, 
though  I  think  he  failed  to  do  so.  It  was  beyond  all  question  her  purpose,  before  leaving 
Washington  and  provable  too,  that  if  Wheeler  should  make  her  a  free  woman  by  taking 
her  to  a  free  state  "  to  use  it  rather." 

Tuesday,  llth  September.  The  attempt  was  made  on  Sunday  to  forward  the  merchan- 
dize, but  failed  through  no  fault  of  any  of  the  parties  that  I  now  know  of.  It  will  be  re- 
peated soon,  and  you  shall  know  the  result. 

"  Whorra  for  Judge  Kane."  I  feel  so  indignant  at  the  man,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  write 
the  foregoing  sentence,  and  yet  who  is  helping  our  cause  like  Kane  and  Douglas,  not 
forgetting  Stringfellow.  I  hope  soon  to  know  that  this  reaches  you  in  safety. 

It  often  happens  that  light  freight  would  be  offered  to  Captain  B.,  but  the  owners  can- 
not by  possibility  advance  the  amount  of  freight.  I  wish  it  were  possible  in  some  such 
extreme  cases,  that  after  advancing  all  they  have,  some  public  fund  should  be  found  to  pay 
the  balance  or  at  least  lend  it. 

[I  wish  here  to  caution  you  against  the  supposition  that  I  would  do  any  act,  or  say  a 
word  towards  helping  servants  to  escape.  Although  I  hate  slavery  so  much,  I  keep  my 
hands  clear  of  any  such  wicked  or  illegal  act.]  Yours,  very  truly,  J.  B. 

Will  you  recollect,  hereafter,  that  in  any  of  my  future  letters,  in  which  I  may  use  [  ] 
whatever  words  may  be  within  the  brackets  are  intended  to  have  no  signification  what- 
ever to  you,  only  to  blind  the  eyes  of  the  uninitiated.  You  will  find  an  example  at 
the  close  of  my  letter. 

Up  to  this  time  the  chances  seemed  favorable  of  procuring  the  ready  services 
of  either  of  the  above  mentioned  captains  who  visited  Lawyer  Bigelow  for 
the  removal  of  the  merchandize  to  Philadelphia,  providing  the  shipping 
master  could  have  it  in  readiness  to  suit  their  convenience.  But  as  these 
captains  had  a  number  of  engagements  at  Richmond,  Petersburg,  &c.,  it  was 
not  deemed  altogether  safe  to  rely  upon  either  of  them,  consequently  in 
order  to  be  prepared  in  case  of  an  emergency,  the  matter  was  laid  before  two 
professional  gentlemen  who  were  each  occupying  chairs  in  one  of  the  medical 
colleges  of  Philadelphia,  They  were  known  to  be  true  friends  of  the  slave, 
and  had  possessed  withal  some  experience  in  Underground  Rail  Road 
matters.  Either  of  these  professors  was  willing  to  undertake  the  operation, 
provided  arrangements  could  be  completed  in  time  to  be  carried  out  during 
the  vacation.  In  this  hopeful,  although  painfully  indefinite  position  the 

*  Mr.  Bigelow's  correspondent  had  been  on  a  visit  to  the  fugitives  to  Canada, 
f  Jane  Johnson  of  the  Passmore  Williamson  Slave  Case. 


180  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

matter  remained  for  more  than  a  year ;  but  the  correspondence  and  anxiety 
increased,  and  with  them  disappointments  and  difficulties  multiplied.  The 
hope  of  Freedom,  however,  buoyed  up  the  heart  of  the  young  slave  girl 
during  the  long  months  of  anxious  waiting  and  daily  expectation  for  the 
hour  of  deliverance  to  come.  Equally  true  and  faithful  also  did  Mr.  Bige- 
low  prove  to  the  last ;  but  at  times  he  had  some  painfully  dark  seasons  to 
encounter,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  subjoined  letter : 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  6th,  1855. 

ME.  STILL,  DEAR  SIB  : — I  regret  exceedingly  to  learn  by  your  favor  of  4th  instant, 
that  all  things  are  not  ready.  Although  I  cannot  speak  of  any  immediate  and  positive 
danger.  [  Yet  it  is  well  known  that  the  city  is  full  of  incendiaries  ] 

Perhaps  you  are  aware  that  any  colored  citizen  is  liable  at  any  hour  of  day  or  night 
without  any  show-  of  authority  to  have  his  house  ransacked  by  constables,  and  if  others  do 
it  and  commit  the  most  outrageous  depredations  none  but  white  witnesses  can  convict 
them.  Such  outrages  are  always  common  here,  and  no  kind  of  property  exposed  to 
colored  protection  only,  can  be  considered  safe.  [I  don't  say  that  much  liberty  should  not 
be  given  to  constables  on  account  of  numerous  runaways,  but  it  don't  always  work  for 
good.]  Before  advertising  they  go  round  and  offer  rewards  to  sharp  colored  men  of  per- 
haps one  or  two  hundred  dollars,  to  betray  runaways,  and  having  discovered  their  hiding- 
place,  seize  them  and  then  cheat  their  informers  out  of  the  money. 

[Although  a  law-abiding  man,]  I  am  anxious  in  this  case  of  innocence  to  raise  no 
conflict  or  suspicion.  [Be  sure  that  the  manumission  is  full  and  legal.]  And  as  I  am 
powerless  without  your  aid,  I  pray  you  don't  lose  a  moment  in  giving  me  relief.  The 
idea  of  waiting  yet  for  weeks  seems  dreadful ;  do  reduce  it  to  days  if  possible,  and  give  me 
notice  of  the  earliest  possible  time. 

The  property  is  not  yet  advertised,  but  will  be,  [and  if  we  delay  too  long,  may  be  sold 
and  lost.] 

It  was  a  great  misunderstanding,  though  not  your  fault,  that  so  much  delay  would  be 
necessary.  [I  repeat  again  that  I  must  have  the  thing  done  legally,  therefore,  please  get 
a  good  lawyer  to  draw  up  the  deed  of  manumission.]  Yours  Truly,  J.  BIGELOW. 

Great  was  the  anxiety  felt  in  "Washington.  It  is  certainly  not  too  much  to 
say,  that  an  equal  amount  of  anxiety  existed  in  Philadelphia  .respecting  the 
safety  of  the  merchandise.  At  this  juncture  Mr.  Bigelow  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  no  longer  safe  to  write  over  his  own  name,  but  that 
he  would  do  well  to  henceforth  adopt  the  name  of  the  renowned  Quaker, 
Wm.  Penn,  (he  was  worthy  of  it)  as  in  the  case  of  the  following  letter. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  10th,  1855. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Doctor  T.  presented  my  card  last  night  about  half  past  eight  which  I  in- 
stantly recognized.  I,  however,  soon  became  suspicious,  and  afterwards  confounded,  to 
find  the  doctor  using  your  name  and  the  well  known  names  of  Mr.  McK.  and  Mr.  W. 
and  yet,  neither  he  nor  I,  could  conjecture  the  object  of  his  visit. 

The  doctor  is  agreeable  and  sensible,  and  doubtless  a  true-hearted  man.  He  seemed  to 
see  the  whole  matter  as  I  did,  and  was  embarrassed.  He  had  nothing  to  propose,  no  infor- 
mation to  give  of  the  "  P.  Boy,"  or  of  any  substitute,  and  seemed  to  want  no  particular 
information  from  me  concerning  my  anxieties  and  perils,  though  I  stated  them  to  him, 
but  found  him  as  powerless  as  myself  to  give  me  relief.  I  had  an  agreeable  interview 
with  the  doctor  till  after  ten,  when  he  left,  intending  to  take  the  cars  at  six,  as  I  suppose 
he  did  do,  this  morning. 


FLEEING   GIRL   OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  181 

This  morning  after  eight,  I  got  your  letter  of  the  9th,  but  it  gives  me  but  little  enlight- 
enment or  satisfaction.  You  simply  say  that  the  doctor  is  a  true  man,  which  I  cannot 
doubt,  that  you  thought  it  best  we  should  have  an  interview,  and  that  you  supposed  I 
would  meet  the  expenses.  You  informed  me  also  that  the  "  P.  Boy ''  left  for  Richmond, 
on  Friday,  the  2d,  to  be  gone  the  length  of  time  named  in  your  last,  I  must  infer  that  to  be 
ten  days  though  in  your  last  you  assured  me  that  the  "  P.  Boy  "  would  certainly  start  for 
this  place  (not  Richmond)  in  two  or  three  days,  though  the  difficulty  about  freight  might 
cause  delay,  and  the  whole  enterprise  might  not  be  accomplished  under  ten  days,  &c.,  &c. 
That  time  having  elapsed  and  I  having  agreed  to  an  extra  fifty  dollars  to  ensure  prompt- 
ness. I  have  scarcely  left  my  office  since,  except  for  my  hasty  meals,  awaiting  his  arrival. 
You  now  inform  me  he  has  gone  to  Richmond,  to  be  gone  ten  days,  which  will  expire  to- 
morrow, but  you  do  not  say  he  will  return  here  or  to  Phila.,  or  where,  at  the  expiration 
of  that  time,  and  Dr.  T.  could  tell  me  nothing  whatever  about  him.  Had  he  been  able  to  tell 
me  that  this  best  plan,  which  I  have  so  long  rested  upon,  would  fail,  or  was  abandoned,  I 
could  then  understand  it,  but  he  says  no  such  thing,  and  you  say,  as  you  have  twice  be- 
fore said,  "  ten  days  more." 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  after  this  recapitulation,  can  you  not  see  that  I  have  reason  for  great 
embarrassment  ?  I  have  given  assurances,  both  here  and  ia  New  York,  founded  on  your 
assurances  to  me,  and  caused  my  friends  in  the  latter  place  great  anxiety,  so  much  that  I 
have  had  no  way  to  explain  my  own  letters  but  by  sending  your  last  two- to  Mr.  Tappan. 

I  cannot  doubt,  I  do  not,  but  that  you  wish  to  help  me,  and  the  cause  too,  for  which 
both  of  us  have  made  many  and  large  sacrifices  with  no  hope  of  reward  in  this  world.  If 
in  this  case  I  have  been  very  urgent  since  September  Dr.  T.  can  give  you  some  •  of  my 
reasons,  they  have  not  been  selfish. 

The  whole  matter  is  in  a  nutshell.  Can  I,  in  your  opinion,  depend  on  the  "  P.  Boy," 
and  when  ? 

If  he  promises  to  come  here  next  trip,  will  he  come,  or  go  to  Richmond  ?  This  I  think 
is  the  best  way.  Can  I  depend  on  it? 

Dr.  T.  promised  to  write  me  some  explanation  and  give  some  advice,  and  at  first  I 
thought  to  await  his  letter,  but  on  second  thought  concluded  to  tell  you  how  I  feel,  as  I 
have  done. 

Will  you  answer  my  questions  with  some  explicitness,  and  without  delay? 

I  forgot  to  inquire  of  Dr.  T.  who  is  the  head  of  your  Vigilance  Committee,  whom  I  may 
address  concerning  other  and  further  operations  ?  Yours  very  truly,  WM.  PENN. 

P.  S.  I  ought  to  say,  that  I  have  no  doubt  but  there  were  good  reasons  for  the  P.  Boy's 
going  to  Richmond  instead  of  W. ;  but  what  can  they  be  ? 

Whilst  there  are  a  score  .of  other  interesting  letters,  bearing  on  this  case, 
the  above  must  suffice,  to  give  at  least,  an  idea  of  the  perplexities  and 
dangers  attending  its  early  history.  Having  accomplished  this  end,  a  more 
encouraging  and  pleasant  phase  of  the  transaction  may  now  be  introduced. 
Here  the  difficulties,  at  least  very  many  of  them,  vanish,  yet  in  one  respect, 
the  danger  became  most  imminent.  The  following  letter  shows  that  the  girl 
had  been  successfully  rescued  from  her  master,  and  that  a  reward  of  five 
hundred  dollars  had  been  offered  for  her. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  12,  1855. 
MR.  WM.  STILL: — As  YOU  PICK  UP  ALL  THE  NEWS  THAT  is  STIRRING,  I  CONTRIBUTE  A 

FEW  SCRAPS  TO  YOUR  STOCK,  GOING  TO  SHOW  THAT  THE  POOR  SLAVE-HOLDERS  HAVE  THEIR 
TROUBLES  AS  WELL  AS  OTHER  PEOPLE. 


182  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

FOUR  HEAVY  LOSSES  ON  ONE  SMALL  SCRAP  CUT  FROM  A  SINGLE  NUMBER  OF  THE  "SUN  I" 

How  VEXATIOUS!  How  PROVOKING!    ON  THE  OTHER  HAND,  THINK  OF  THE  POOR,  TIMID, 

BREATHLESS,  FLYING  CHILD  OF  FIFTEEN  !     FIVE    HUNDRED    DOLLAES   REWARD! 

OH,  FOR  SUCCOR!    To  WHOM  IN  ALL  THIS  WIDE  LAND  OF  FREEDOM  SHALL  SHE  FLEE  AND 

FIND  SAFETY?      ALAS! — ALAS  ! — THE  LAW  POINTS  TO  NO  ONE! 

Is  SHE  STILL  RUNNING  WITH  BLEEDING  FEET?*  Ofi  HIDES  SHE  IN  SOME  COLD  CAVE, 
TO  REST  AND  STARVE?  "$500  REWARD."  YOURS,  FOR  THE  WEAK  AND  THE  POOR. 
PERISH  THE  REWARD.  J.  B. 

Having  thus  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of,  and  secreting  this  fleeing 
child  of  fifteen,  as  best  they  could,  in  Washington,  all  concerned  were  com- 
pelled to  "possess  their  souls  in  patience,"  until  the  storm  had  passed. 
Meanwhile,  the  "child  of  fifteen"  was  christened  "Joe  Wright,"  and 
dressed  in  male  attire  to  prepare  for  traveling  as  a  lad.  As  no  oppor- 
tunity had  hitherto  presented  itself,  whereby  to  prepare  the  "package"  for 
shipment,  from  Washington,  neither  the  "powder  boy"  nor  Dr.  T.,f  was 
prepared  to  attend  to  the  removal,  at  this  critical  moment.  The  emergency 
of  the  case,  however,  cried  loudly  for  aid.  The  other  professional  gentleman 
(Dr.  H.),  was  now  appealed  to,  but  his  engagements  in  the  college  forbade  his 
absence  before  about  Thanksgiving  day,  which  was  then  six  weeks  off.  This 
fact  was  communicated  to  Washington,  and  it  being  the  only  resource  left, 
the  time  named  was  necessarily  acquiesced  in.  In  the  interim,  "  Joe  "  was 
to  perfect  herself  in  the  art  of  wearing  pantaloons,  and  all  other  male  rig. 
Soon  the  days  and  weeks  slid  by,  although  at  first  the  time  for  waiting 
seemed  long,  when,  according  to  promise,  Dr.  H.  was  in  Washington,  with 
his  horse  and  buggy  prepared  for  duty.  The  impressions  made  by  Dr.  H., 
on  William  Penn's  mind,  at  his  first  interview,  will  doubtless  be  interesting 
to  all  concerned,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  following  letter : 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  26,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — A  recent  letter  from  my  friend,  probably  has  led  you  to  expect  this 
from  me.  He  was  delighted  to  receive  yours  of  the  23d,  stating  that  the  boy  was  all 
right.  He  found  the  "Prof,  gentleman"  &  perfect  gentleman;  cool,  quiet,  thoughtful,  and 
perfectly  competent  to  execute  his  undertaking.  At  the  first  three  minutes  of  their  inter- 
view, he  felt  assured  that  all  would  be  right.  He,  and  all  concerned,  give  you  and  that 
gentleman  sincere  thanks  for  what  you  have  done.  May  the  blessings  of  Him,  who  cares 
for  the  poor,  be  on  your  heads. 

The  especial  object  of  this,  is  to  inform  you  that  there  is  a  half  dozen  or  so  of  packages 
here,  pressing  for  transportation;  twice  or  thrice  that  number  are  also  pressing,  but  less 
so  than  the  others.  Their  aggregate  means  will  average,  say,  $10  each  ;  besides  these, 
we  know  of  a  few,  say  three  or  four,  able  and  smart,  but  utterly  destitute,  and  kept  so 
purposely  by  their  oppressors.  For  all  these,  we  feel  deeply  interested;  $10  each  would 
not  be  enough  for  the  "powder  boy."  Is  there  any  fund  from  which  a  pittance  could  be 
spared  to  help  these  poor  creatures?  I  don't  doubt  but  that  they  would  honestly  repay 


*  At  the  time  this  letter  was  written,  she  was  then  under  Mr.  B.'s  protection  in  Washington,  and 
bad  to  be  so  kept  for  six  weeks.  His  question,  therefore,  "is  she  still  running  with  bleeding  feet," 
etc..  was  simply  a  precautionary  step  to  blind  any  who  might  perchance  investigate  the  matter. 

f  Dr.  T.  was  one  of  the  professional  gentlemen  alluded  to  above,  who  had  expressed  a  willingness 
to  act  as  an  agent  in  the  matter. 


MAKIA    WEEMS  ESCAPING  IN   MALE   ATTIRE. 


FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  183 

a  small  loan  as  soon  as  they  could  earn  it.  I  know  full  well,  that  if  you  begin  with  such 
cases,  there  is  no  boundary  at  which  you  can  stop.  For  years,  one  half  at  least,  of  my 
friend's  time  here  has  been  gratuitously  given  to  cases  of  distress  among  this  class.  He 
never  expects  or  desires  to  do  less ;  he  literally  has  the  poor  always  with  him.  He  knows 
that  it  is  so  with  you  also,  therefore,  he  only  states  the  case,  being  especially  anxious  for 
at  least  those  to  whom  I  have  referred. 

I  think  a  small  lot  of  hard  coal  might  always  be  sold  here  from  the  vessel  at  a  profit. 
Would  not  a  like  lot  of  Cumberland  coal  always  sell  in  Philadelphia? 

My  friend  would  be  very  glad  to  see  the  powder  boy  here  again,  and  if  he  brings  coal, 
there  are  those  here,  who  would  try  to  help  him  sell. 

Eeply  to  your  regular  correspondent  as  usual.  WM.  PENN. 

By  the  presence  of  the  Dr.,  confidence  having  been  reassured  that  all 
would  be  right,  as  well  as  by  the  "  inner  light,"  William  Penn  experienced 
a  great  sense  of  relief.  Everything  having  been  duly  arranged,  the  doctor's 
horse  and  carriage  stood  waiting  before  the  White  House  (William  Penn 
preferred  this  place  as  a  starting  point,  rather  than  before  his  own  office 
door).  It  being  understood  that  "  Joe  "  was  to  act  as  coachman  in  passing 
out  of  Washington,  at  this  moment  he  was  called  for,  and  in  the  most 
polite  and  natural  manner,  with  the  fleetness  of  a  young  deer,  he  jumped 
into  the  carriage,  took  the  reins  and  whip,  whilst  the  doctor  and  William 
Penn  were  cordially  shaking  hands  and  bidding  adieu.  This  done,  the 
order  was  given  to  Joe,  "  drive  on."  Joe  bravely  obeyed.  The  faithful 
horse  trotted  off  willingly,  and  the  doctor  sat  in  his  carriage  as  composed  as 
though  he  had  succeeded  in  procuring  an  honorable  and  lucrative  office 
from  the  White  House,  and  was  returning  home  to  tell  his  wife  the  good 
news.  The  doctor  had  some  knowledge  of  the  roads,  also  some  acquaintances 
in  Maryland,  through  which  State  he  had  to  travel ;  therefore,  after  leaving 
the  suburbs  of  Washington,  the  doctor  took  the  reins  in  his  own  hands,  as 
he  felt  that  he  was  more  experienced  as  a  driver  than  his  young  coachman. 
He  was  also  mindful  of  the  fact,  that,  before  reaching  Pennsylvania,  his 
faithful  beast  would  need  feeding  several  times,  and  that  they  consequently 
would  be  obliged  to  pass  one  or  two  nights  at  least  in  Maryland,  either  at 
a  tavern  or  farm-house. 

In  reflecting  upon  the  matter,  it  occurred  to  the  doctor,  that  in  earlier 
days,  he  had  been  quite  intimately  acquainted  with  a  farmer  and  his  family 
(who  were  slave-holders),  in  Maryland,  and  that  he  would  about  reach  their 
house  at  the  end  of  the  first  day's  journey.  He  concluded  that  he  could 
do  no  better  than  to  renew  his  acquaintance  with  his  old  friends  on  this 
occasion.  After  a  very  successful  day's  travel,  night  came  on,  and  the 
doctor  was  safely  at  the  farmer's  door  with  his  carriage  and  waiter  boy; 
the  doctor  was  readily  recognized  by  the  farmer  and  his  family,  who  seemed 
glad  to  see  him;  indeed,  they  made  quite  a  "fuss"  over  him.  As  a  matter 
of  strategy,  the  doctor  made  quite  a  "fuss"  over  them  in  return;  nevertheless, 
he  did  not  fail  to  assume  airs  of  importance,  which  were  calculated  to  lead 


184  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

them  to  think  that  he  had  grown  older  and  wiser  than  when  they  knew  him 
in  his  younger  days.  In  casually  referring  to  the  manner  of  his  traveling, 
he  alluded  to  the  fact,  that  he  was  not  very  well,  and  as  it  had  been  a 
considerable  length  of  time  since  he  had  been  through  that  part  of  the 
country,  he  thought  that  the  drive  would  do  him  good,  and  especially  the 
sight  of  old  familiar  places  and  people.  The  farmer  and  his  family  felt 
themselves  exceedingly  honored  by  the  visit  from  the  distinguished  doctor, 
and  manifested  a  marked  willingness  to  spare  no  pains  to  render  his  night's 
lodging  in  every  way  comfortable. 

The  Dr.  being  an  educated  and  intelligent  gentleman,  well  posted  on  other 
questions  besides  medicine,  could  freely  talk  about  farming  in  all  its 
branches,  and  "  niggers  "  too,  in  an  emergency,  so  the  evening  passed  off 
pleasantly  with  the  Dr.  in  the  parlor,  and  "  Joe  "  in  the  kitchen.  The  Dr., 
however,  had  given  "  Joe  "  precept  upon  precept,  "  here  a  little,  and  there  a 
little,"  as  to  how  he  should  act  in  the  presence  of  master  white  people,  or 
slave  colored  people,  and  thus  he  was  prepared  to  act  his  part  with  due  ex- 
actness. Before  the  evening  grew  late,  the  Dr.,  fearing  some  accident,  inti- 
mated, that  he  was  feeling  a  "  little  languid,"  and  therefore  thought  that  he 
had  better  "  retire."  Furthermore  he  added,  that  he  was  "  liable  to  vertigo," 
when  not  quite  well,  and  for  this  reason  he  must  have  his  boy  "  Joe  "  sleep 
in  the  room  with  him.  "Simply  give  him  a  bed  quilt  and  he  will  fare  well 
enough  in  one  corner  of  the  room,"  said  the  Dr.  The  proposal  was 
readily  acceded  to,  and  carried  into  effect  by  the  accommodating  host.  The 
Dr.  was  soon  in  bed,  sleeping  soundly,  and  "  Joe,"  in  his  new  coat  and 
pants,  wrapped  up  in  the  bed  quilt,  in  a  corner  of  the  room  quite  com- 
fortably. 

The  next  morning  the  Dr.  arose  at  as  early  an  hour  as  was  prudent  for  a 
gentleman  of  his  position,  and  feeling  refreshed,  partook  of  a  good  break- 
fast, and  was  ready,  with  his  boy,  "Joe,"  to  prosecute  their  journey.  Face, 
eyes,  hope,  and  steps,  were  set  as  flint,  Pennsylvania-ward.  What  time  the 
following  day  or  night  they  crossed  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  is  not  recorded 
on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  books,  but  at  four  o'clock  on  Thanksgiving 
Day,  the  Dr.  safely  landed  the  "  fleeing  girl  of  fifteen  "  at  the  residence  of 
the  writer  in  Philadelphia.  On  delivering  up  his  charge,  the  Dr.  simply 
remarked  to  the  writer's  wife,  "  I  wish  to  leave  this  young  lad  with  you  a 
'short  while,  and  I  will  call  and  see  further  about  him."  Without  further 
explanation,  he  stepped  into  his  carriage  and  hurried  away,  evidently 
anxious  to  report  himself  to  his  wife,  in  order  to  relieve  her  mind  of  a 
great  weight  of  anxiety  on  his  account.  The  writer,  who  happened  to  be 
absent  from  home  when  the  Dr.  called,  returned  soon  afterwards.  "  The 
Dr.  has  been  here"  (he  was  the  family  physician),  "and  left  this  ' young 
lad,'  and  said,  that  he  would  call  again  and  see  about  him,"  said  Mrs.  S. 
The  "  young  lad"  was  sitting  quite  composedly  in  the  dining-room,  with  his 


FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  185 

cap  on.  The  writer  turned  to  him  and  inquired,  "I  suppose  you  are 
the  person  that  the  Dr.  went  to  Washington  after,  are  you  not  ?"  "  No," 
said  "  Joe."  "  Where  are  you  from  then?"  was  the  next  question.  "From 
York,  sir."  "  From  York  ?  Why  then  did  the  Dr.  bring  you  here  ?"  was 
the  next  query,  "  the  Dr.  went  expressly  to  Washington  after  a  young  girl, 
who  was  to  be  brought  away  dressed  up  as  a  boy,  and  I  took  you  to  be  the 
person."  Without  replying  "  the  lad  "  arose  and  walked  out  of  the  house. 
The  querist,  somewhat  mystified,  followed  him,  and  then  when  the  two 
were  alone,  u  the  lad  "  said,  "  I  am  the  one  the  Dr.  went  after."  After  con- 
gratulating her,  the  writer  asked  why  she  had  said,  that  she  was  not  from 
Washington,  but  from  York.  She  explained,  that  the  Dr.  had  strictly 
charged  her  not  to  own  to  any  person,  except  the  writer,  that  she  was  from 
Washington,  but  from  York.  As  there  were  persons  present  (wife,  hired 
girl,  and  a  fugitive  woman),  when  the  questions  were  put  to  her,  she  felt 
that  it  would  be  a  violation  of  her  pledge  to  answer  in  the  affirmative. 
Before  this  examination,  neither  of  the  individuals  present  for  a  moment  en- 
tertained the  slightest  doubt  but  that  she  was  a  "  lad,"  so  well  had  she 
acted  her  part  in  every  particular.  She  was  dressed  in  a  new  suit,  which 
fitted  her  quite  nicely,  and  with  her  unusual  amount  of  common  sense,  she 
appeared  to  be  in  no  respect  lacking.  To  send  off  a  prize  so  rare  and  re- 
markable, as  she  was,  without  affording  some  of  the  stockholders  and 
managers  of  the  Road  the  pleasure  of  seeing  her,  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 
In  addition  to  the  Vigilance  Committee,  quite  a  number  of  persons  were  in- 
vited to  see  her,  and  were  greatly  astonished.  Indeed  it  was  difficult  to 
realize,  that  she  was  not  a  boy,  even  after  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
facts  in  the  case. 

The  following  is  an  exact  account  of  this  case,  as  taken  from  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  records : 

"THANKSGIVING  DAY,  Nov.,  1855. 

Arrived,  Ann  Maria  Weems,  alias  l  Joe  Wright/  alias  '  Ellen  Capron/ 
from  Washington,  through  the  aid  of  Dr.  H.  She  is  about  fifteen  years  of 
age,  bright  mulatto,  well  grown,  smart  and  good-looking.  For  the  last  three 
years,  or  about  that  length  of  time,  she  has  been  owned  by  Charles  M.  Price, 
a  negro  trader,  of  Rockville,  Maryland.  Mr.  P.  was  given  to  '  intempe- 
rance/ to  a  very  great  extent,  and  gross  '  profanity/  He  buys  and  sells 
many  slaves  in  the  course  of  the  year.  l  His  wife  is  cross  and  peevish.' 
She  used  to  take  great  pleasure  in  ' torturing '  one  '  little  slave  boy.'  He 
was  the  son  of  his  master  (and  was  owned  by  him) ;  this  was  the  chief  cause 
of  the  mistress'  spite." 

Ann  Maria  had  always  desired  her  freedom  from  childhood,  and  although 
not  thirteen,  when  first  advised  to  escape,  she  received  the  suggestion  with- 
out hesitation,  and  ever  after  that  time  waited  almost  daily,  for  more  than 


186  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

two -years,  the  chance  to  flee.  Her  friends  were,  of  course,  to  aid  her,  and 
make  arrangements  for  her  escape.  Her  owner,  fearing  that  she  might  es- 
cape, for  a  long  time  compelled  her  to  sleep  in  the  chamber  with  "  her  master 
and  mistress ;"  indeed  she  was  so  kept  until  about  three  weeks  before  she 
fled.  She  left  her  parents  living  in  Washington.  Three  of  her  brothers  had 
been  sold  South  from  their  parents.  Her  mother  had  been  purchased  for 
$1,000,  and  one  of  her  sisters  for  $1,600  for  freedom.  Before  Ann  Maria 
was  thirteen  years  of  age  $700  was  offered  for  her  by  a  friend,  who 
desired  to  procure  her  freedom,  but  the  offer  was  promptly  refused,  as  were 
succeeding  ones  repeatedly  made.  The  only  chance  of  procuring  her  free- 
dom, depended  upon  getting  her  away  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  She 
was  neatly  attired  in  male  habiliments,  and  in  that  manner  came  all  the  way 
from  Washington.  After  passing  two  or  three  days  with  her  new  friends  in 
Philadelphia,  she  was  sent  on  (in  male  attire)  to  Lewis  Tappan,  of  New 
York,  who  had  likewise  been  deeply  interested  in  her  case  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  who  held  himself  ready,  as  was  understood,  to  cash  a  draft  for 
three  hundred  dollars  to  compensate  the  man  who  might  risk  his  own  liberty 
in  bringing  her  on  from  Washington.  After  having  arrived  safely  in  New 
York,  she  found  a  home  and  kind  friends  in  the  family  of  the  Rev.  A.  N. 
Freeman,  and  received  quite  an  ovation  characteristic  of  an  Underground 
Rail  Road. 

After  having  received  many  tokens  of  esteem  and  kindness  from  the  friends 
of  the  slave  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  she  was  carefully  forwarded  on  to 
Canada,  to  be  educated  at  the  "  Buxton  Settlement." 

An  interesting  letter,  however,  from  the  mother  of  Ann  Maria,  conveying 
the  intelligence  of  her  late  great  struggle  and  anxiety  in  laboring  to  free  her 
last  child  from  Slavery  is  too  important  to  be  omitted,  and  hence  is  inserted 
in  connection  with  this  narrative. 

LETTER   FROM   THE   MOTHER. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  September  19th,  1857. 

WM.  STILL,  ESQ.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  SIR  : — I  have  just  sent  for  my  son  Augustus,  in 
Alabama.  I  have  sent  eleven  hundred  dollars  which  pays  for  his  body  and  some  thirty 
dollars  to  pay  his  fare  to  Washington.  I  borrowed  one  hundred  and  eighty  dollars  to 
make  out  the  eleven  hundred  dollars.  I  was  not  very  successful  in  Syracuse.  I  collected 
only  twelve  dollars,  and  in  Eochester  only  two  dollars.  I  did  not  know  that  the  season 
was  so  unpropitious.  The  wealthy  had  all  gone  to  the  springs.  They  must  have  re- 
turned by  this  time.  I  hope  you  will  exert  yourself  and  help  me  get  a  part  of  the  money 
I  owe,  at  least.  I  am  obliged  to  pay  it  by  the  12th  of  next  month.  I  was  unwell  when 
I  returned  through  Philadelphia,  or  I  should  have  called.  I  had  been  from  home  five 
weeks. 

My  son  Augustus  is  the  last  of  the  family  in  Slavery.  I  feel  rejoiced  that  he  is  soon  to 
be  free  and  with  me,  and  of  course  feel  the  greatest  solicitude  about  raising  the  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  dollars  I  have  borrowed  of  a  kind  friend,  or  who  has  borrowed  it  for  me 
at  bank.  I  hope  and  pray  you  will  help  me  as  far  as  possible.  Tell  Mr.  Douglass  to  re- 
member me,  and  if  he  can,  to  interest,  his  friends  for  me. 


FLEEING  GIRL  OF  FIFTEEN  IN  MALE  ATTIRE.  187 

You  will  recollect  that  five  hundred  dollars  of  our  money  was  taken  to  buy  the  sister  of 
Henry  H.  Garnett's  wife.  Had  I  been  able  to  command  this  I  should  not  be  necessitated 
to  ask  the  favors  and  indulgences  I  do. 

I  am  expecting  daily  the  return  of  Augustus,  and  may  Heaven  grant  him  a  safe  deliv- 
erance and  smile  propitiously  upon  you  and  all  kind  friends  who  have  aided  in  his  return 
to  me. 

Be  pleased  to  remember  me  to  friends,  and  accept  yourself  the  blessing  and  prayers 
of  your  dear  friend,  EARRO  WEEMS. 

P.  S.  Direct  your  letter  to  E.  L.  Stevens,  in  Duff  Green's  Row,  Capitol  Hill,  Washing- 
ton,  D.  0.  E  w^ 

That  William  Perm  who  worked  so  faithfully  for  two  years  for  the 
deliverance  of  Ann  Maria  may  not  appear  to  have  been  devoting  all  his 
time  and  sympathy  towards  this  single  object  it  seems  expedient  that  two  or 
three  additional  letters,  proposing  certain  grand  Underground  Rail  Road 
plans,  should  have  a  place  here.  For  this  purpose,  therefore,  the  following 
letters  are  subjoined. 

LETTERS   FKOM   WILLIAM  PENN. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Oct.  3,  1854. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  address  you  to-day  chiefly  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Lady  who  will  hand 
you  my  letter,  and  who  is  a  resident  of  your  city. 

After  stating  to  you,  that  the  case  about  which  I  have  previously  written,  remains  just 
as  it  was  when  I  wrote  last — full  of  difficulty — I  thought  I  would  call  your  attention  to 
another  enterprise ;  it  is  this :  to  find  a  man  with  a  large  heart  for  doing  good  to  the  op- 
pressed, who  will  come  to  Washington  to  live,  and  who  will  walk  out  to  Penn'a.,  or  a 
part  of  the  way  th&re,  once  or  twice  a  week.  He  will  find  parties  who  will  pay  him  for 
doing  so.  Parties  of  say,  two,  three,  five  or  so,  who  will  pay  him  at  least  $5  each,  for  the 
privilege  of  following  him,  but  will  never  speak  to  him ;  but  will  keep  just  in  sight  of  him 
and  obey  any  sign  he  may  give ;  say,  he  takes  off  his  hat  and  scratches  his  head  as  a 
sign  for  them  to  go  to  some  barn  or  wood  to  rest,  &c.  No  living  being  shall  be  found  to 
say  he  ever  spoke  to  them.  A  white  man  would  be  best,  and  then  even  parties  led  out  by 
him  could  not,  if  they  would,  testify  to  any  understanding  or  anything  else  against  a  white 
man.  I  think  he  might  make  a  good  living  at  it.  Can  it  not  be  done  ? 

If  one  or  two  safe  stopping-places  could  be  found  on  the  way — such  as  a  barn  or  shed, 
they  could  walk  quite  safely  all  night  and  then  sleep  all  day — about  two,  or  easily  three 
nights  would  convey  them  to  a  place  of  safety.  The  traveler  might  be  a  peddler  or  huck- 
ster, with  an  old  horse  and  cart,  and  bring  us  in  eggs  and  butter  if  he  pleases. 

Let  him  once  plan  out  his  route,  and  he  might  then  take  ten  or  a  dozen  at  a  time,  and 
they  are  often  able  and  willing  to  pay  $10  a  piece. 

I  have  a  hard  case  now  on  hand  ;  a  brother  and  sister  23  to  25  years  old,  whose  mother 
lives  in  your  city.  They  are  cruelly  treated;  they  want  to  go,  they  ought  to  go  ;  but  they 
are  utterly  destitute.  Can  nothing  be  done  for  such  cases  ?  If  you  can  think  of  anything 
let  me  know  it.  I  suppose  you  know  me  ? 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  3,  1856. 

DEAR  SIB,  : — I  sent  you  the  recent  law  of  Virginia,  under  which  all  vessels  are  to  be 
searched  for  fugitives  within  the  waters  of  that  State. 

It  was  long  ago  suggested  by  a  sagacious  friend,  that  the  "  powder  boy  "  might  find  a 


188  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

better  port  in  the  Chesapeake  bay,  or  in  the  Patuxent  river  to  communicate  with  this  vi- 
cinity, than  by  entering  the  Potomac  river,  even  were  there  no  such  law. 

Suppose  he  opens  a  trade  with  some  place  south-west  of  Annapolis,  25  or  30  miles  from 
here,  or  less.  He  might  carry  wood,  oysters,  &c.,  and  all  his  customers  frohi  this  vicinity 
might  travel  in  that  direction  without  any  of  the  suspicions  that  might  attend  their  jour- 
neyings  towards  this  city.  In  this  way,  doubtless,  a  good  business  might  be  carried  on 
without  interruption  or  competition,  and  provided  the  plan  was  conducted  without  affecting 
the  inhabitants  along  that  shore,  no  suspicion  would  arise  as  to  the  manner  or  magnitude 
of  his  business  operations.  How  does  this  strike  you  ?  What  does  the  "  powder  boy  " 
think  of  it  ? 

I  heretofore  intimated  &  pressing  necessity  on  the  part  of  several  females — they  are  va- 
riously situated — two  have  children,  say  a  couple  each  ;  some  have  none — of  the  latter, 
one  can  raise  $50,  another,  say  30  or  40  dollars — another  who  was  gazetted  last  August 
(a  copy  sent  you),  can  raise,  through  her  friends,  20  or  30  dollars,  &c.,  &c.  None  of  these 
can  walk  so  far  or  so  fast  as  scores  of  men  that  are  constantly  leaving.  I  cannot  shake  off 
my  anxiety  for  these  poor  creatures.  Can  you  think  of  anything  for  any  of  these  ?  Ad- 
dress your  other  correspondent  in  answer  to  this  at  your  leisure.  Yours, 

WM.  PENN. 

P.  S. — April  3d.  Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  received  yours  of  31st.  I  am  re- 
joiced to  hear  that  business  is  so  successful  and  prosperous — may  it  continue  till  the  article 
shall  cease  to  be  merchandize. 

I  spoke  in  my  last  letter  of  the  departure  of  a  "  few  friends."  I  have  since  heard  of 
their  good  health  in  Penn'a.  Probably  you  may  have  seen  them. 

In  reference  to  the  expedition  of  which  you  think  you  can  "hold  out  some  little  encour- 
agement," I  will  barely  remark,  that  I  shall  be  glad,  if  it  is  undertaken,  to  have  all  the 
notice  of  the  time  and  manner  that  is  possible,  so  as  to  make  ready. 

A  friend  of  mine  says,  anthracite  coal  will  always  pay  here  from  Philadelphia,  and 
thinks  a  small  vessel  might  run  often — that  she  never  would  be  searched  in  the  Potomac, 
unless  she  went  outside. 

You  advise  caution  towards  Mr.  P.  I  am  precisely  of  your  opinion  about  him,  that  he 
is  a  "  queer  stick,"  and  while  I  advised  him  carefully  in  reference  to  his  own  under- 
takings, I  took  no  counsel  of  him  concerning  mine.  Yours, 

W.  P. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  23d,  1856. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  to  thank  you  for  your  last  two  encouraging  letters  of  31st  of  March 
and  7th  April.  I  have  seen  nothing  in  the  papers  to  interest  you,  and  having  bad  health 
and  a  press  of  other  engagements,  I  have  neglected  to  write  you. 

Enclosed  is  a  list  of  persons  referred  to  in  my  last  letter,  all  most  anxious  to  travel— all 
meritorious.  In  some  of  these  I  feel  an  especial  interest  for  what  they  have  done  to  help 
others  in  distress. 

I  suggest  for  yours  and  the  "  powder  boy's"  consideration  the  following  plan :  that  he 
shall  take  in  coal'for  Washington  and  come  directly  here — sell  his  coal  and  go  to  George- 
town for  freight,  and  wait  for  it.  If  any  fancy  articles  are  sent  onboard,  I  understand  he 
has  a  place  to  put  them  in,  and  if  he  has  I  suggest  that  he  lies  still,  still  waiting  for 
freight  till  the  first  anxiety  is  over.  Vessels  that  have  just  left  are  the  ones  that  will  be 
inquired  after,  and  perhaps  chased.  If  he  lays  still  a  'day  or  two  all  suspicion  will  be  pre- 
vented. •  If  there  shall  be  occasion  to  refer  to  any  of  them  hereafter,  it  may  be  by  their 
numbers  in  the  list. 

The  family — 5  to  11 — will  be  missed  and  inquired  after  BOOH  and  urgently;  12  and  13  will 
also  be  soon  missed,  but  none  of  the  others. 


JOHN  HENRY  HILL. 


Page  189. 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  189 

If  all  this  can  be  done,  some  little  time  or  notice  must  be  had  to  get  them  all  ready. 
They  tell  me  they  can  pay  the  sums  marked  to  their  names.  The  aggregate  is  small,  but 
as  i  told  you,  they  are  poor.  Let  me  hear  from  you  when  convenient. 

Truly  Yours,  WM.  PENN. 

1.  A  woman,  may  be  40  years  old,  $40.00 

2.  "        "          40        "        with  3  children,  say  4,  6,  and  8,* 15.00 

3.  A  sister  of  the  above,  younger  10.00 

4.  A  very  genteel  mulatto  girl  about  22  25.00 


5.  A  woman,  say  45, 

6.  A  daughter,  18, 

7.  A  son,  16, 

8.  A  son,  14, 

9.  A  daughter,  12, 
10.  A  son,  say  22, 


These  are  all  one 
family,  either  of 
them  leaving 
-  alone,  they  think, 
would  cause  the 
balance  to  be  sold. 


50.00 


11.  A  man,  the  Uncle,  40, 

12.  A  very  genteel  mulatto  girl,  say  23 25.00 

13.  '«  "  "        "        24  ..  ..  25.00 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED. 

JOHN  HENRY,  HEZEKIAH,  AND  JAMES  HILL. — JOHN  MAKES  A  DESPERATE  RESISTANCE 

AT  THE  8LAVE  AUCTION  AND  ESCAPES  AFTER  BEING  SECRETED  NINE  MONTHS. 

HEZEKIAH  ESCAPED   FROM  A  TRADER  AND  WAS  SECRETED  THIRTEEN  MONTHS 

BEFORE  HIS   FINAL  DELIVERANCE. — JAMES   WA8    SECRETED    THREE    YEARS 

IN  A  PLACE  OF  GREAT    SUFFERING,  AND  ESCAPED.      IN  ALL  FIVE 

YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH. 

Many  letters  from  JOHN  HENRY  show  how  incessantly  his  mind  ran  out 
towards  the  oppressed,  and  the  remarkable  intelligence  and  ability  he  dis- 
played with  the  pen,  considering  that  he  had  no  chance  to  acquire  book 
knowledge.  After  having  fled  for  refuge  to  Canada  and  having  become  a 
partaker  of  impartial  freedom  under  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  to 
many  it  seemed  that  the  fugitive  should  be  perfectly  satisfied.  Many  ap- 
peared to  think  that  the  fugitive,  having  secured  freedom,  had  but  little 
occasion  for  anxiety  or  care,  even  for  his  nearest  kin.  "  Change  your 
name."  "  Never  tell  any  one  how  you  escaped."  "  Never  let  any  one  know 
where  you  came  from."  "  Never  think  of  writing  back,  not  even  to  your 
wife ;  you  can  do  your  kin  no  good,  but  may  do  them  harm  by  writing." 
"  Take  care  of  yourself."  "  You  are  free,  well,  be  satisfied  then."  "  It  will 
do  you  no  good  to  fret  about  your  wife  and  children ;  that  will  not  get 
them  out  of  Slavery."  Such  was  the  advice  often  given  to  the  fugitive. 
Men  who  had  been  slaves  themselves,  and  some  who  had  aided  in  the  escape 
of  individuals,  sometimes  urged  these  sentiments  on  men  and  women  whose 
hearts  were  almost  breaking  over  the  thought  that  their  dearest  and  best 
friends  were  in  chains  in  the  prison-house.  Perhaps  it  was  thoughtlessness 

*  The  children  might  be  left  behind. 


190  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

on  the  part  of  some,  and  a  wish  to  inspire  due  cautiousness  on  the  part  of 
others,  that  prompted  this  advice.  Doubtless  some  did  soon  forget  their 
friends.  They  saw  no  way  by  which  they  could  readily  communicate  with 
them.  Perhaps  Slavery  had  dealt  with  them  so  cruelly,  that  little  hope  or 
aspiration  was  left  in  them. 

It  was,  however,  one  of  the  most  gratifying  facts  connected  with  the  fugi- 
tives, the  strong  love  and  attachment  that  they  constantly  expressed  for  their 
relatives  left  in  the  South ;  the  undying  faith  they  had  in  God  as  evinced 
by  their  touching  appeals  on  behalf  of  their  fellow-slaves.  But  few  probably 
are  aware  how  deeply  these  feelings  were  cherished  in  the  breasts  of  this  people. 
Forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  years,  in  some  instances  elapsed,  but  this  ardent  sympa- 
thy and  love  continued  warm  and  unwavering  as  ever.  Children  left  to  the 
cruel  mercy  of  slave-holders,  could  never  be  forgotten.  Brothers  and  sisters 
could  not  refrain  from  weeping  over  the  remembrance  of  their  separation  on 
the  auction  block :  of  having  seen  innocent  children,  feeble  and  defenceless  wo- 
men in  the  grasp  of  a  merciless  tyrant,  pleading,  groaning,  and  crying  in  vain 
for  pity.  Not  to  remember  those  thus  bruised  and  mangled,  it  would  seem 
alike  unnatural,  and  impossible.  Therefore  it  is  a  source  of  great  satisfac- 
tion to  be  able,  in  relating  these  heroic  escapes,  to  present  the  evidences  of 
the  strong  affections  of  this  greatly  oppressed  race. 

JOHN  HENEY  never  forgot  those  with  whom  he  had  been  a  fellow-sufferer 
in  Slavery ;  he  was  always  fully  awake  to  their  wrongs,  and  longed  to  be 
doing  something  to  aid  and  encourage  such  as  were  striving  to  get  their 
Freedom.  He  wrote  many  letters  in  behalf  of  others,  as  well  as  for  himself, 
the  tone  of  which,  was  always  marked  by  the  most  zealous  devotion  to  the 
slave,  a  high  sense  of  the  value  of  Freedom,  and  unshaken  confidence  that 
God  was  on  the  side  of  the  oppressed,  and  a  strong  hope,  that  the  day  was 
not  far  distant,  when  the  slave  power  would  be  "  suddenly  broken  and  that 
without  remedy." 

Notwithstanding  the  literary  imperfections  of  these  letters,  they  are 
deemed  well  suited  to  these  pages  Of  course,  slaves  were  not  allowed  book 
learning.  Virginia  even  imprisoned  white  women  for  teaching  free  colored 
children  the  alphabet.  Who  has  forgotten  the  imprisonment  of  Mrs. 
Douglass  for  this  offense  ?  In  view  of  these  facts,  no  apology  is  needed  on 
account  of  Hill's  grammar  and  spelling. 

In  these  letters,  may  be  seen,  how  much  liberty  was  valued,  how  the  taste 
of  Freedom  moved  the  pen  of  the  slave ;  how  the  thought  of  fellow-bond- 
men, under  the  heel  of  the  slave-holder,  aroused  the  spirit  of  indignation 
and  wrath ;  how  importunately  appeals  were  made  for  help  from  man  and 
from  God ;  how  much  joy  was  felt  at  the  arrival  of  a  fugitive,  and  the 
intense  sadness  experienced  over  the  news  of  a  failure  or  capture  of  a  slave. 
Not  only  are  the  feelings  of  John  Henry  Hill  represented  in  these  epistles, 
but  the  feelings  of  very  many  others  amongst  the  intelligent  fugitives  all 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  191 

over  the  country  are  also  represented  to  the  letter.  It  is  more  with  a  view 
of  doing  justice  to  a  brave,  intelligent  class,  whom  the  public  are  ignorant 
of,  than  merely  to  give  special  prominence  to  John  and  his  relatives  as 
individuals,  that  these  letters  are  given. 

ESCAPE  OF  JOHN  HENRY  HILL  FROM  THE  SLAVE  AUCTION  IN    RICHMOND,  ON   THE 
FIRST  DAY  OF  JANUARY,  1853. 

JOHN  HENRY  at  that  time,  was  a  little  turned  of  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  full  six  feet  high,  and  remarkably  well  proportioned  in  every  respect. 
He  was  rather  of  a  brown  color,  with  marked  intellectual  features.  John 
was  by  trade,  a  carpenter,  and  was  considered  a  competent  workman.  The 
year  previous  to  his  escape,  he  hired  his  time,  for  which  he  paid  his  owner 
$150.  This  amount  John  had  fully  settled  up  the  last  day  of  the  year. 
As  he  was  a  young  man  of  steady  habits,  a  husband  and  father,  and  withal 
an  ardent  lover  of  Liberty ;  his  owner,  John  Mitchell,  evidently  observed 
these  traits  in  his  character,  and  concluded  that  he  was  a  dangerous  piece 
of  property  to  keep ;  that  his  worth  in  money  could  be  more  easily  managed 
than  the  man.  Consequently,  his  master  unceremoniously,  without  inti- 
mating in  any  way  to  John,  that  he  was  to  be  sold,  took  him  to  Richmond, 
on  the  first  day  of  January  (the  great  annual  sale  day),  and  directly  to  the 
slave-auction.  Just  as  John  was  being  taken  into  the  building,  he  was  in- 
vited to  submit  to  hand-cuffs.  As  the  thought  flashed  upon  his  mind  that 
he  was  about  to  be  sold  on  the  auction-block,  he  grew  terribly  desperate. 
"  Liberty  or  death  "  was  the  watchword  of  that  awful  moment.  In  the 
twinkling  of.an  eye,  he  turned  on  his  enemies,  with  his  fist,  knife,  and  feet, 
so  tiger-like,  that  he  actually  put  four  or  five  men  to  flight,  his  master 
among  the  number.  His  enemies  thus  suddenly  baffled,  John  wheeled, 
and,  as  if  assisted  by  an  angel,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  was  soon  out  of 
sight  of  his  pursuers,  and  securely  hid  away.  This  was  the  last  hour  of 
John  Henry's  slave  life,  but  not,  however,  of  his  struggles  and  sufferings 
for  freedom,  for  before  a  final  chance  to  escape  presented  itself,  nine  months 
elapsed.  The  mystery  as  to  where,  and  how  he  fared,  the  following  account, 
in  his  own  words,  mast  explain — 

Nine  months  I  was  trying  to  get  away.  I  was  secreted  for  a  long  time  in  a  kitchen  of 
a  merchant  near  the  corner  of  Franklyn  and  7th  streets,  at  Richmond,  where  I  was  well 
taken  care  of,  by  a  lady  friend  of  my  mother.  When  I  got  Tired  of  staying  in  that  place, 
I  wrote  myself  a  pass  to  pass  myself  to  Petersburg,  here  I  stopped  with  a  very  prominent 
Colored  person,  who  was  a  friend  to  Freedom  stayed  here  until  two  white  friends  told 
other  friends  if  I  was  in  the  city  to  tell  me  to  go  at  once,  and  stand  not  upon  the  order  of 
going,  because  they  had  hard  a  plot.  I  wrot  a  pass,  started  for  Richmond,  Reached 
Manchester,  got  off  the  Cars  walked  into  Richmond,  once  more  got  back  into  the  same  old 
Den,  Stayed  here  from  the  16th  of  Aug.  to  12th  Sept.  On  the  llth  ot  Sept.  8  o'clock 
P.  M.  a  message  came  to  me  that  there  had  been  a  State  Room  taken  on  the  steamer 
City  of  Richmond  for  my  benefit,  and  I  assured  the  party  that  it  would  be  occupied  if 


192  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

God  be  willing.  Before  10  o'clock  the  next  morning,  on  the  12th,  a  beautiful  Sept.  day,  I 
arose  early,  wrote  my  pass  for  Norfolk  left  my  old  Den  with  a  many  a  good  bye,  turned 
out  the  back  way  to  7th  St.,  thence  to  Main,  down  Main  behind  4  night  waich  to  old 
Rockett's  and  after  about  20  minutes  of  delay  I  succeed  in  Reaching  the  State  Room. 
My  Conductor  was  very  much  Excited,  but  1  felt  as  Composed  as  1  do  at  this  moment, 
for  I  had  started  from  my  Den  that  morning  for  Liberty  or  for  Death  providing  myself 
with  a  Brace  of  Pistels.  Yours  truly  J.  H.  HILL. 

A  private  berth  was  procured  for  him  on  the  steamship  City  of  Rich- 
mond, for  the  amount  of  $125,  and  thus  he  was  brought  on  safely  to  Phila- 
delphia. While  in  the  city,  he  enjoyed  the  hospitalities  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee,  and  the  greetings  of  a  number  of  friends,  during  the  several 
days  of  his  sojourn.  The  thought  of  his  wife,  and  two  children,  left  in 
Petersburg,  however,  naturally  caused  him  much  anxiety.  Fortunately, 
they  were  free,  therefore,  he  was  not  without  hope  of  getting  them ;  more- 
over, his  wife's  father  (Jack  McCraey),  was  a  free  man,  well  known,  and 
very  well  to  do  in  the  world,  and  would  not  be  likely  to  see  his  daughter 
and  grandchildren  suffer.  In  this  particular,  Hill's  lot  was  of  a  favorable 
character,  compared  with  that  of  most  slaves  leaving  their  wives  and 
children. 

FIRST  LETTER 

ON   ARRIVING   IN   CANADA. 

TORONTO,  October  4th,  1853. 

DEAR  SIR: — I  take  this  method  of  informing  you  that  I  am  well,  and  that  I  got  to  this 
city  all  safe  and  sound,  though  I  did  not  get  here  as  soon  as  I  expect.  I  left  your  city  on 
Saterday  and  I  was  on  the  way  untel  the  Friday  following.  I  got  to  New  York  the  same 
day  that  I  left  Philadelphia,  but  I  had  to  stay  there  untel  Monday  evening.  I  left  that 
place  at  six  o'clock.  I  got  to  Albany  next  morning  in  time  to  take  the  half  past  six 
o'clock  train  for  Rochester,  here  I  stay  untel  Wensday  night.  The  reason  I  stay  there  so 
long  Mr.  Gibbs  given  me  a  letter  to  Mr  Morris  at  Rochester.  I  left  that  place  Wensday, 
but  I  only  got  five  miles  from  that  city  that  night.  I  got  to  Lewiston  on  Thurday  after- 
noon, but  too  late  for  the  boat  to  this  city.  1  left  Lewiston  on  Friday  at  one  o'clock,  got 
to  this  city  at  five.  Sir  I  found  this  to  be  a  very  handsome  city.  I  like  it  better  than 
any  city  I  ever  saw.  It  are  not  as  large  as  the  city  that  you  live  in,  but  it  is  very  large 
place  much  more  so  than  I  expect  to  find  it.  I  seen  the  gentleman  that  you  given  me 
letter  to.  I  think  him  much  of  a  gentleman.  I  got  into  work  on  Monday.  The  man 
whom  I  am  working  for  is  name  Myers  ;  but  I  expect  to  go  to  work  for  another  man  by 
name  of  Tinsly,  who  is  a  master  workman  in  this  city.  He  says  that  he  will  give  me 
work  next  week  and  everybody  advises  me  to  work  for  Mr.  Tinsly  as  there  more  surity  in 
him. 

Mr.  Still,  I  have  been  looking  and  looking  for  my  friends  for  several  days,  but  have  not 
seen  nor  heard  of  them.  I  hope  and  trust  in  the  Lord  Almighty  that  all  things  are  well 
with  them.  My  dear  sir  I  could  feel  so  much  better  sattisfied  if  I  could  hear  from  my 
wife.  Since  I  reached  this  city  I  have  talagraphed  to  friend  Brown  to  send  my  thing  to 
me,  but  I  cannot  hear  a  word  from  no  one  at  all.  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Brown  two  or 
three  times  since  I  left  the  city.  I  trust  that  he  has  gotten  my  wife's  letters,  that  is  if  she 
has  written.  Please  direct  your  letters  to  me,  near  the  corner  Sarah  and  Edward  street, 
until  I  give  you  further  notice.  You  will  tell  friend  B.  how  to  direct  his  letters,  as  I  for- 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  193 

gotten  it  when  I  writt  to  him,  and  ask  him  if  he  has  heard  anything  from  Virginia.  Please 
to  let  me  hear  from  him  without  delay  for  my  very  soul  is  trubled  about  my  friends  whom 
I  expected  to  of  seen  here  before  this  hour.  Whatever  you  do  please  to  write.  1  shall 
look  for  you  paper  shortly.  Believe  me  sir  to  be  your  well  wisher. 

JOHN  H.  HILL. 
SECOND  LETTER. 

Expressions  of  gratitude — The  Custom  House  refuses  to  charge  him  duty — "He  is  greatly 
concerned  for  his  wife 

TOKONTO,  October  30th,  1853. 

MY  DEAR  FKIEND  : — I  now  write  to  inform  you  that  I  have  received  my  things  all  safe 
and  sound,  and  also  have  shuck  hand  with  the  friend  that  you  send  on  to  this  place  one 
of  them  is  stopping  with  me.  His  name  is  Chas.  Stuert,  he  seemes  to  be  a  tolerable  smart 
fellow.  I  Rec'd  my  letters.  I  have  taken  this  friend  to  see  Mr.  Smith.  However  will 
give  him  a  place  to  board  untell  he  can  get  to  work.  I  shall  do  every  thing  I  can  for  them 
all  that  I  see  the  gentleman  wish  you  to  see  his  wife  and  let  her  know  that  he  arrived  safe, 
and  present  his  love  to  her  and  to  all  the  friend.  Mr.  Still,  I  am  under  ten  thousand  ob- 
ligation to  you  for  your  kindness  when  shall  I  ever  repay  ?  S.  speek  very  highly  of  you. 
I  will  state  to  you  what  Custom  house  master  said  to  me.  He  ask  me  when  he  Presented 
my  efects  are  these  your  efects.  I  answered  yes.  He  then  ask  me  was  I  going  to  settle  in 
Canada.  I  told  him  I  was.  He  then  ask  me  of  my  case.  I  told  all  about  it.  He  said  I  am 
happy  to  see  you  and  all  that  will  come.  He  ask  me  how  much  1  had  to  pay  for  my  Paper. 
I  told  him  half  dollar.  He  then  told  me  that  I  should  have  my  money  again.  He  a  Rose 
from  his  seat  and  got  my  money.  So  my  friend  you  can  see  the  people  and  tell  them  all 
this  is  a  land  of  liberty  and  believe  they  will  find  friends  here.  My  best  love  to  all. 

My  friend  I  must  call  upon  you  once  more  to  do  more  kin-dness  for  me  that  is  to  write 
to  my  wife  as  soon  as  you  get  this,  and  tell  her  when  she  gets  ready  to  come  she  will  pack 
and  consign  her  things  to  you.  You  will  give  her  some  instruction,  but  not  to  your  ex- 
penses but  to  her  own. 

When  you  write  direct  your  letter  to  Phillip  Ubank,  Petersburg,  Va.  My  Box  ar- 
rived here  the  27th. 

My  dear  sir  I  am  in  a  hurry  to  take  this  friend  to  church,  so  I  must  close  by  saying  I 
am  your  humble  servant  in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  humanity.  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

THIRD  LETTER. 

Canada  is  highly  praised — The  Vigilance  Committee  is  implored  to  send  all  the  Fugitives 
there — "Farmers  and  Mechanics  wanted" — " No  living  in  Canada  for  Negroes,"  as 
argued  by  "  Masters,"  flatly  denied,  <&c.,  &c.,  &c. 

So  I  ask  you  to  send  the  fugitives  to  Canada.  I  don't  know  much  of  this  Province  but 
I  beleaves  that  there  is  Rome  enough  for  the  colored  and  whites  of  the  United  States.  We 
wants  farmers  mechanic  men  of  all  qualification  &c,  if  they  are  not  made  we  will  make 
them,  if  we  cannot  make  the  old,  we  will  make  our  children. 

Now  concerning  the  city  toronto  this  city  is  Beautiful  and  Prosperous  Levele  city.  Great 
many  wooden  codages  more  than  what  should  be  but  I  am  in  hopes  there  will  be  more  of 
the  Brick  and  Stonn.  But  I  am  not  done  about  your  Republicanism.  Our  masters  have 
told  us  that  there  was  no  living  in  Canada  for  a  Negro  but  if  it  may  Please  your  gentle- 
manship  to  publish  these  facts  that  we  are  here  able  to  earn  our  bread  and  money 
enough  to  make  us  comftable.  But  I  say  give  me  freedom,  and  the  United  States  may  have 
all  her  money  and  her  Luxtures,  yeas  give  Liberty  or  Death.  I'm  in  America,  but  not 
under  Such  a  Government  that  I  cannot  express  myself,  speak,  think  or  write  So  as  I  am 
able,  and  if  my  master  had  allowed  me  to  have  an  education  I  would  make  them  Ameri- 
can Slave-holders  feel  me,  Yeas  I  would  make  them  tremble  when  I  spoke,  and  7rhen  I 
13 


194  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

take  my  Pen  in  hand  their  knees  smote  together.  My  Dear  Sir  suppose  I  was  an  educated 
man.  I  could  write  you  something  worth  reading,  but  you  know  we  poor  fugitives  whom 
has  just  come  over  from  the  South  are  not  able  to  write  much  on  no  subject  whatever,  but 
I  hope  by  the  aid  of  my  God  I  will  try  to  use  my  midnight  lamp,  untel  I  can  have  some 
influence  upon  the  American  Slavery.  If  some  one  would  say  to  me,  that  they  would 
give  my  wife  bread  untel  I  could  be  Educated  I  would  stoop  my  trade  this  day  and  take 
up  my  books. 

But  a  crisis  is  approaching  when  assential  requisite  to  the  American  Slaveholders  when 
blood  Death  or  Liberty  will  be  required  at  their  hands.  I  think  our  people  have  depened 
too  long  and  too  much  on  false  legislator  let  us  now  look  for  ourselves.  It  is  true  that 
England  however  the  Englishman  is  our  best  friend  but  we  as  men  ought  not  to  depened 
upon  her  Remonstrace  with  the  Americans  because  she  loves  her  commercial  trade  as  any 
Nations  do.  But  I  must  say,  while  we  look  up  and  acknowledge  the  Power  greatness  and 
honor  of  old  England,  and  believe  that  while  we  sit  beneath  the  Silken  folds  of  her  flag  of 
Perfect  Liberty,  we  are  secure,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  aggressions  of  the  Blood  hounds 
and  free  from  the  despotism  that  would  wrap  around  our  limbs  by  the  damable  Slave- 
holder. Yet  we  would  not  like  spoiled  childeren  depend  upon  her,  but  upon  ourselves 
and  as  one  means  of  strengthening  ourselves,  we  should  agitate  the  emigration  to  Canada. 
I  here  send  you  a  paragraph  which  I  clipted  from  the  weekly  Glob.  I  hope  you  will  pub- 
lish so  that  Mr.  Williamson  may  know  that  men  are  not  chattel  here  but  reather  they  are 
men  and  if  he  wants  his  chattle  let  him  come  here  after  it  or  his  thing.  I  wants  you  to 
let  the  whole  United  States  know  we  are  satisfied  here  because  I  have  seen  more  Pleasure 
since  I  came  here  then  I  saw  in  the  U.  S.  the  24  years  that  I  served  my  master.  Come 
Poor  distress  men  women  and  come  to  Canada  where  colored  men  are  free.  Oh  how  sweet 
the  word  do  sound  to  me  yeas  when  I  contemplate  of  these  things,  my  very  flesh  creaps 
my  heart  thrub  when  I  think  of  my  beloved  friends  whom  I  left  in  that  cursid  hole.  Oh 
my  God  what  can  I  do  for  them  or  shall  I  do  for  them.  Lord  help  them.  Suffer  them  to 
be  no  longer  depressed  beneath  the  Bruat  Creation  but  may  they  be  looked  upon  as  men 
made  of  the  Bone  and  Blood  as  the  Anglo- Americana.  May  God  in  his  mercy  Give  Lib- 
erty to  all  this  world.  I  must  close  as  it  am  late  hour  at  night.  I  Remain  your  friend 
in  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  humanity, 

JOHN  H.  HILL,  a  fugitive. 

If  you  know  any  one  who  would  give  me  an  education  write  and  let  me  know  for  I  am 
in  want  of  it  very  much.  Your  with  Respect. 

J.  H.  H. 

If  the  sentiments  in  the  above  letter  do  not  indicate  an  uncommon  degree 
of  natural  intelligence,  a  clear  perception  of  the  wrongs  of  Slavery,  and 
a  just  appreciation  of  freedom,  where  shall  we  look  for  the  signs  of  intellect 
and  manhood  ? 

FOURTH  LETTER. 

Longs  for  his  wife — In  hearing  of  the  return  of  a  Fugitive  from  Philadelphia  is  made 
sorrowful — His  love  of  Freedom  increases,  &c.t  &c. 

TORONTO,  November  12th,  1853. 

MY  DEAR  STILL  : — Your  letter  of  the  3th  came  to  hand  thursday  and  also  three  copes 
all  of  which  I  was  glad  to  Received  they  have  taken  my  attention  all  together  Every 
Time  I  got  them.  I  also  Rec'd.  a  letter  from  my  friend  Brown.  Mr.  Brown  stated  to  me 
that  he  had  heard  from  my  wife  but  he  did  not  say  what  way  he  heard.  I  am  looking  for 
my  wife  every  day.  Yes  I  want  her  to  come  then  I  will  be  better  sat  tisfied.  My  friend  I 
am  a  free  man  and  feeles  alright  about  that  matter.  I  am  doing  tollable  well  in  my  line 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  195 

of  business,  and  think  1  will  do  better  after  little.  I  hope  you  all  will  never  stop  any  of 
our  Brotheran  that  makes  their  Escep  from  the  South  but  send  them  on  to  this  Place 
where  they  can  be  free  man  and  woman.  We  want  them  here  and  not  in  your  State 
where  they  can  be  taken  away  at  any  hour.  Nay  but  let  him  ccme  here  where  he  can 
Enjoy  the  Rights  of  a  human  being  and  not  to  be  trodden  under  the  feet  of  men  like  them- 
selves. All  the  People  that  comes  here  does  well.  Thanks  be  to  God  that  I  came  to  this 
place.  1  would  like  very  well  to  see  you  all  but  never  do  I  expect  to  see  you  in  the  United 
States.  I  want  you  all  to  come  to  this  land  of  Liberty  where  the  bondman  can  be  free. 
Come  one  come  all  come  to  this  place,  and  I  hope  my  dear  friend  you  will  send  on  here.  I 
shall  do  for  them  as  you  all  done  for  me  when  I  came  on  here  however  I  will  do  the  best 
I  can  for  them  if  they  can  they  shall  do  if  they  will  do,  but  some  comes  here  that  can't  do 
well  because  they  make  no  efford.  I  hope  my  friend  you  will  teach  them  such  lessons  as 
Mrs.  Moore  Give  me  before  I  left  your  city.  I  hope  she  may  live  a  hundred  years  longer 
and  enjoy  good  health.  May  God  bless  her  for  the  good  cause  which  she  are  working  in. 
Mr.  Still  you  ask  me  to  remember  you  to  Nelson.  I  will  do  so  when  I  see  him,  he  are  on 
the  lake  so  is  Stewart.  1  received  a  letter  to-day  for  Stewart  from  your  city  which  letter 
I  will  take  to  him  when  he  comes  to  the  city.  He  are  not  stoping  with  us  at  this  time.  I 
was  very  sorry  a  few  days  ago  when  I  heard  that  a  man  was  taken  from  your  city. 

Send  them  over  here,  then  let  him  corne  here  and  take  them  away  and  I  will  try  to  have 
a  finger  in  the  Pie  myself.  Yon  said  that  you  had  written  to  my  wife  ten  thousand  thanks 
for  what  you  have  done  and  what  you  are  willing  to  do.  My  friend  whenever  you  hear 
from  my  wife  please  write  to  me.  Whenever  she  come  to  your  city  please  give  instruc- 
tion how  to  travel.  I  wants  her  to  come  the  faster  way.  I  wish  she  was  here  now.  I 
wish  she  could  get  a  ticket  through  to  this  place.  I  have  mail  a  paper  for  you  to  day. 

We  have  had  snow  but  not  to  last  long.  Let  me  hear  from  you.  My  Respect  friend 
Brown.  I  will  write  more  when  I  have  the  opportunity.  Yours  with  Respect, 

JOHN  H.  HILL. 

P.  S.  My  dear  Sir.  Last  night  after  I  had  written  the  above,  and  had  gone  to  bed,  I 
heard  a  strange  voice  in  the  house,  Saying  to  Mr.  Myers  to  come  quickly  to  one  of  our 
colod  Brotheran  out  of  the  street.  We  went  and  found  a  man  a  Carpenter  laying  on  the 
side  walk  woltun  in  his  Blood.  Done  by  some  unknown  Person  as  yet  but  if  they  stay  on 
the  earth  the  law  will  deteck  them.  It  is  said  that  party  of  colord  people  done  it,  which 
party  was  seen  to  come  out  an  infame  house. 

Mr.  Myers  have  been  down  to  see  him  and  Brought  the  Sad  news  that  the  Poor  fellow 
was  dead.  Mr.  Scott  for  Henry  Scott  was  the  name,  he  was  a  fugitive  from  Virginia  he 
came  here  from  Pittsburg  Pa.  Oh,  when  I  went  where  he  laid  what  a  shock,  it  taken  my 
Sleep  altogether  night.  When  I  got  to  Sopt  his  Body  was  surrounded  by  the  Policeman. 
The  law  has  taken  the  woman  in  cusidy.  I  write  and  also  send  you  a  paper  of  the  case 
when  it  comes  out.  J.  H.  HILL. 

FIFTH  LETTER. 

He  rejoices  over  the  arrival  of  his  wife — but  at  the  same  time,  his  heart  is  bleeding  over 
a  dear  friend  whom  he  had  promised  to  help  before  he  left  Slavery. 

TORONTO,  December  29th,  1853. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — It  affords  me  a  good  deel  of  Pleasure  to  say  that  my  wife  and 
the  Children  have  arrived  safe  in  this  City.  But  my  wife  had  very  bad  luck.  She  lost 
her  money  and  the  money  that  was  belonging  to  the  children,  the  whole  amount  was  35 
dollars.  She  had  to  go  to  the  Niagara  falls  and  Telegraph  to  me  come  after  her.  She  got 
to  the  falls  on  Sat'dy  and  I  went  after  her  on  Monday.  We  saw  each  other  once  again 
after  so  long  an  Abstance,  you  may  know  what  sort  of  metting  it  was,  joyful  times  of 


196  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

corst.  My  wife  are  well  Satisfied  here,  and  she  was  well  Pleased  during  her  stay  in  your 
city.  My  Trip  to  the  falls  cost  Ten  Eighty  Seven  and  half.  The  things  that  friend  Brown 
Shiped  to  me  by  the  Express  costed  $24J.  So  you  can  see  fiting  out  a  house  Niagara 
falls  and  the  cost  for  bringing  my  things  to  this  place,  have  got  me  out  of  money,  but  for 
all  I  am  a  free  man. 

The  weather  are  very  cold  at  Present,  the  snow  continue  to  fall  though  not  as  deep  here 
as  it  is  in  Boston.  The  people  haves  their  own  Amousements,  the  weather  as  it  is  now, 
they  don't  care  for  the  snow  nor  ice,  but  they  are  going  from  Ten  A.  M.  until  Twelve 
P.  M.,  the  hous  that  we  have  open  don't  take  well  because  we  don't  Sell  Spirits,  which 
we  are  trying  to  avoid  if  we  can. 

Mr.  Still,  I  hold  in  my  hand  A  letter  from  a  friend  of  South,  who  calls  me  to  promise 
that  I  made  to  him  before  I  left.  My  dear  Sir,  this  letter  have  made  ray  heart  Bleed, 
since  I  Received  it,  he  also  desires  of  me  to  remember  him  to  his  beloved  Brethren  and 
then  to  Pray  for  him  and  his  dear  friends  who  are  in  Slavery.  I  shall  Present  his  letter 
to  the  churches  of  this  city.  I  forward  to  your  care  for  Mrs.  Moore,  a  few  weeks  ago. 
Mrs.  Hill  sends  her  love  to  your  wife  and  yourself. 

Please  to  write,  I  Sincerely  hope  that  our  friends  from  Petersburg  have  reached  your 
city  before  this  letter  is  dated.  I  must  close  by  saying,  that  I  Sir,  remain  humble  and 
obedient  Servant,  J.  H.  H. 

SIXTH  LETTER. 

He  is  now  earnestly  appealing  in  behalf  of  a  friend  in  Slavery,  with  a  view  to  procuring 
aid  and  assistance  from  certain  parlies,  by  which  this  particular  friend  in  bondage 
might  be  rescued. 

TORONTO,  March  8th,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  STILL  : — We  will  once  more  truble  you  opon  this  great  cause  of 
freedom,  as  we  know  that  you  are  a  man,  that- are  never  fatuged  in  Such  a  glorious  cause. 
Sir,  what  I  wish  to  Say  is  this.  Mr.  Forman  has  Received  a  letter  from  his  wife  dated  the 
29th  ult.  She  States  to  him  that  She  was  Ready  at  any  time,  and  that  Everything  was 
Right  with  her,  and  she  hoped  that  he  would  lose  no  time  in  sending  for  her  for  she  was 
Ready  and  awaiting  for  him.  Well  friend  Still,  we  learnt  that  Mr.  Minkens  could  not  bring 
her  the  account  of  her  child.  We  are  very  sorry  to  hear  Such  News,  however,  you  will 
please  to  read  this  letter  with  care,  as  we  have  learnt  that  Minkens  Cannot  do  what  we 
wishes  to  be  done;  we  perpose  another  way.  There  is  a  white  man  that  Sale  from 
Richmond  to  Boston,  that  man  are  very  Safe,  he  will  bring  F's  wife  with  her  child.  So 
you  will  do  us  a  favour  will  take  it  upon  yourself  to  transcribe  from  this  letter  what  we 
shall  write.  I.  E.  this  there  is  a  Colored  gen.  that  workes  on  the  basin  in  R — d  this 
man's  name  is  Esue  Foster,  he  can  tell  Mrs.  forman  all  about  this  Saleor.  So  you  can 
place  the  letter  in  the  hands  of  M.  to  take  to  for"man's  wife,  She  can  read  it  for  herself.  She 
will  find  Foster  at  ladlum's  warehouse  on  the  Basin,  and  when  you  write  call  my  name  to 
him  and  he  will  trust  it.  this  foster  are  a  member  of  the  old  Baptist  Church.  When 
you  have  done  all  you  can  do  let  us  know  what  you  have  done,  if  you  hears  anything  of 
my  uncle  let  me  know. 

SEVENTH  LETTER. 

He  laments  over  his  uncle's  fate,  who  was  suffering  in  a  dungeon-like  place  of  concealment 
daily  waiting  for  the  opportunity  to  escape. 

TORONTO,  March  18th,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  STILL: — Yours  of  the  15th  Reached  on  the  llth,  found  myself  and  family 
very  well,  and  not  to  delay  no  time  in  replying  to  you,  as  there  was  an  article  in  your 
letter  which  article  Roused  me  very  much  when  I  read  it;  that  was  you  praying  to  me  to 


FIVE  YEARS  AXD  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  197 

be  cautious  how  I  write  down  South.  Be  so  kind  as  to  tell  me  in  your  next  letter  whether 
you  have  at  any  time  apprehended  any  danger  in  my  letters  however,  in  those  bond 
southward;  if  there  have  been,  allow  me  to  beg  ten  thousand  pardon  before  God  and  man, 
for  I  am  not  design  to  throw  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  those  whom  I  left  in  South,  but 
to  aide  them  in  every  possible  way.  I  have  done  as  you  Requested,  that  to  warn  the 
friends  of  the  dager  of  writing  South.  I  have  told  all  you  said  in  yours  that  Mr.  Min- 
kins  would  be  in  your  city  very  soon,  and  you  would  see  what  you  could  do  for  me,  do 
you  mean  or  do  speak  in  reference  to  my  dear  uncle.  I  am  hopes  that  you  will  use  every 
ifford  to  get  him  from  the  position  in  which  he  now  stand.  I  know  how  he  feels  at  this 
time,  for  I  have  felt  the  same  when  I  was  a  runway.  I  was  bereft  of  all  participation 
with  my  family  for  nearly  nine  months,  and  now  that  poor  fellow  are  place  in  same  posi- 
tion. Oh  God  help  I  pray,  what  a  pitty  it  is  that  I  cannot  do  him  no  good,  but  I 
sincerely  hope  that  you  will  not  get  fatigued  at  doing  good  in  such  cases,  nay,  I  think 
other  wises  of  you,  however,  I  Say  no  more  on  this  subject  at  present,  but  leave  it  for 
you  to  judge. 

On  the  13th  inst.  you  made  Some  Remarks  concerning  friend  Forman's  wife,  I  am 
Satisfied  that  you  will  do  all  you  can  for  her  Release  from  Slavery,  but  as  you  said 
you  feels  for  them,  so  do  I,  and  Mr.  Foreman  comes  to  me  very  often  to  know  if  I 
have  heard  anything  from  you  concerning  his  wife,  they  all  comes  to  for  the  same. 

God  Save  the  Queen.  All  my  letters  Southward  have  passed  through  your  hands 
with  an  exception  of  one.  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

EIGHTH  LETTER. 

Death  has  snatched  away  one  of  his  children  and  he  has  cause  to  mourn.  In  his  grief 
he  recounts  his  struggles  for  freedom,  and  his  having  to  leave  his  wife  and  children.  He 
acknowledges  that  he  had  to  "  work  very  hard  for  comforts,"  but  he  declares  that  he 
•would  not  "  exchange  with  the  comforts  of  ten  thousand  slaves." 

TORONTO  Sept  14th  1854 

MY  DEAK  FRIEND  STILL  : — this  are  the  first  opportunity  that  I  have  had  to  write  you 
since  I  Reed  your  letter  of  the  20th  July,  there  have  been  sickness  and  Death  in  my 
family  since  your  letter  was  Reed,  our  dear  little  Child  have  been  taken  from  us  one 
whom  we  loved  so  very  Dear,  but  the  almighty  God  knows  what  are  best  for  us  all. 

Louis  Henry  Hill,  was  born  in  Petersburg  Va  May  7th  1852.  and  Died  Toronto 
August  19th  1854  at  five  o'clock  P.  M. 

Dear  Still  I  could  say  much  about  the  times  and  insidince  that  have  taken  place  since 
the  coming  of  that  dear  little  angle  jest  spoken  of.  it  was  12  months  and  3  days  from  the 
time  that  I  took  departure  of  my  wife  and  child  to  proceed  to  Richmond  to  awaite  a  con- 
veyance up  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

it  was  thursday  the  13th  that  I  lift  Richmond,  it  was  Saturday  the  15th  that  I  land  to 
my  great  joy  in  the  city  of  Phila.  then  I  put  out  for  Canada.  I  arrived  in  this  city  on  Fri- 
day the  30th  and  to  my  great  satisfaction.  I  found  myself  upon  Briton's  free  land,  not 
only  free  for  the  white  man  bot  for  all. 

this  day  12  months  I  was  not  out  of  the  reach  the  slaveholders,  but  this  14th  day  of 
Sept.  I  am  as  Free  as  your  President  Pearce.  only  I  have  not  been  free  so  long  H.ow- 
ever  the  30th  of  the  month  I  will  have  been  free  only  12  months. 

It  is  true  that  I  have  to  work  very  hard  for  comfort  but  I  would  not  exchange  with  ten 
thousand  slave  that  are  equel  with  their  masters.  I  am  Happy,  Happy. 

Give  love  to  Mrs.  Still.  My  wife  laments  her  child's  death  too  much,  wil  you  be  so 
kind  as  to  see  Mr.  Brown  and  ask  him  to  write  to  me,  and  if  he  have  heard  from  Peters- 
burg Va.  Yours  truely  J.  H.  HILL. 


198  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

NINTH  LETTER. 

He  is  anxiously  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  friends  from  the  South.  Hints  that  slave- 
holders would  be  very  unsafe  in  Canada,  should  they  be  foolish  enough  to  visit  that 
country  for  the  purpose  of  enticing  slaves  back. 

TORONTO,  Jan.  19th  1851. 

MY  DEAB  STILL  : — Your  letter  of  the  16th  came  to  hand  just  in  time  for  my  per- 
pose  I  perceivs  by  your  statement  that  the  money  have  not  been  to  Petersburg  at  all 
done  just  what  was  right  and  I  would  of  sent  the  money  to  you  at  first,  but  my  dear 
friend  I  have  called  upon  you  for  so  many  times  that  I  have  been  ashamed  of  myself  to 
call  any  more  So  you  may  perceive  by  the  above  written  my  obligations  to  you,  you  said 
that  you  had  written  on  to  Petersburg,  you  have  done  Right  which  I  believes  is  your 
general  way  of  doing  your  business,  the  money  are  all  right  I  only  had  to  pay  a  6d  on 
the  Ten  dollars,  this  money  was  given  to  by  a  friend  in  the  city  N.  york,  the  friend  was 
from  Richmond  Virginia  (a  white  man)  the  amount  was  fifteen  dollars,  I  forward  a  letter 
to  you  yesterday  which  letter  I  forgot  to  date,  my  friend  I  wants  to  hear  from  Virginia 
the  worst  of  all  things,  you  know  that  we  expect  some  freneds  on  and  we  cannot  hear 
any  thing  from  them  which  makes  us  uneasy  for  fear  that  they  have  attempt  to  come 
away  and  been  detected.  I  have  ears  open  at  all  times,  listen  at  all  hours  expecting  to 
hear  from  them  Please  to  see  friend  Brown  and  know  from  him  if  he  has  heard  anything 
from  our  friends,  if  he  have  not.  tell  him  write  and  inquiare  into  the  matter  why  it  is  that 
they  have  not  come  over,  then  let  me  hear  from  you  all. 

We  are  going  to  have  a  grand  concert  &c  I  mean  the  Abolisnous  Socity.  I  will  attend 
myself  and  also  my  wife  if  the  Lord  be  willing  you  will  perceive  in  previous  letter  that 
I  mension  something  concerning  Mr  Forman's  wife  if  there  be  any  chance  whatever  please 
to  proceed,  Mr  Foreman  sends  his  love  to  you  Requested  you  to  do  all  you  can  to  get  his 
wife  away  from  Slavery. 

Our  best  respects  to  your  wife.  You  promisted  me  that  you  would  write  somthing  con- 
cerning our  arrival  in  Canada  but  I  suppose  you  have  not  had  the  time  as  yet,  I  would 
be  very  glad  to  read  your  opinion  on  that  matter 

I  have  notice  several  articles  in  the  freeman  one  of  the  Canada  weaklys  concerning  the 
Christiana  prisoners  respecting  Castnor  Hanway  and  also  Mr.  Rauffman.  if  I  had  one 
hundred  dollars  to  day  I  would  give  them  five  each,  however  I  hope  that  I  may  be  able 
to  subscribe  something  for  their  Relefe.  in  Regards  to  the  letters  have  been  written  from 
Canada  to  the  South  the  letters  was  not  what  they  thought  them  to  be  and  if  the  slave- 
holders know  when  they  are  doing  well  they  had  better  keep  their  side  for  if  they  comes 
over  this  side  of  the  lake  I  am  under  the  impression  they  will  not  go  back  with  somethin 
that  their  mother  boned  them  with  whether  thiar  slaves  written  for  them  or  not.  I 
know  some  one  here  that  have  written  his  master  to  come  after  him,  but  not  because  he 
expect  to  go  with  him  home  but  because  he  wants  to  retaleate  upon  his  persecutor,  but  I 
would  be  sorry  for  man  that  have  written  for  his  master  expecting  to  return  with  him 
because  the  people  here  would  kill  them.  Sir  I  cannot  write  enough  to  express  myself 
so  I  must  close  by  saying  I  Remain  yours.  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

TENTH  LETTER. 

Great  joy  over  an  arrival —  Twelve  months  praying  for  the  deliverance  of  an  Uncle 
groaning  in  a  hiding-place,  while  the  Slave-hunters  are  daily  expected — Strong  ap- 
peals for  aid,  &c.,  &c. 

TORONTO,  January  7th,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — It  is  with  much  pleasure  that  I  take  this  opportunity  of  addressing 
you  with  these  few  lines  hoping  when  they  reeches  you  they  may  find  yourself  and  family 
enjoying  good  health  as  they  leaves  us  at  present. 


FIVE  YEARS  AND  ONE  MONTH  SECRETED.  199 

And  it  is  with  much  happiness  that  I  can  say  to  you  that  Mrs.  Merc3r  arrived  in  this 
city  on  yesterday.  Mr.  Mercer  was  at  my  house  late  in  the  evening,  and  I  told  him  that 
when  he  went  home  if  hear  anything  from  Virginia,  that  he  must  let  me  know  as  soon  as 
possible.  He  told  me  that  if  he  went  home  and  found  any  news  there  he  would  come 
right  back  and  inform  me  thereof.  But  little  did  he  expect  to  find  his  dearest  there.  You 
may  judge  what  a  meeting  there  was  with  them,  and  may  God  grant  that  there  may  be 
some  more  meetings  with  our  wives  and  friends.  I  had  been  looking  for  some  one  from  the 
old  sod  for  several  days,  but  I  was  in  good  hopes  that  it  would  be  my  poor  Uncle.  But 
poor  fellow  *he  are  yet  groaning  under  the  sufferings  of  a  horrid  sytam,  Expecting  every 
day  to  Receive  his  Doom.  Oh,  God,  what  shall  I  do,  or  what  can  I  do  for  him?  I  have 
prayed  for  him  more  than  12  months,  yet  he  is  in  that  horrid  condition.  I  can  never  hear 
anything  Directly  from  him  or  any  of  my  people. 

Once  more  I  appeal  to  your  Humanity.  Will  you  act  for  him,  as  if  you  was  in  slavery 
yourself,  and  I  sincerely  believe  that  he  will  come  out  of  that  condition?  Mrs.  M.  have 
told  me  that  she  given  some  directions  how  he  could  be  goten  at,  but  friend  Still,  if  this 
conductor  should  not  be  successfull  this  time,  will  you  mind  him  of  the  Poor  Slave  again. 
I  hope  you  will  as  Mrs.  Mercer  have  told  the  friend  what  to  do  I  cannot  do  more,  there- 
fore I  must  leve  it  to  the  Mercy  of  God  and  your  Exertion. 

The  weather  have  been  very  mile  Ever  since  the  23rd  of  Dec.  I  have  thought  consider- 
able about  our  condition  in  this  country  Seeing  that  the  weather  was  so  very  faverable  to 
us.  I  was  thinking  a  few  days  ago,  that  nature  had  giving  us  A  country  &  adopted  all 
things  Sutable. 

You  will  do  me  the  kindness  of  telling  me  in  your  next  whether  or  not  the  ten  slaves 
have  been  Brought  out  from  N.  C. 

I  have  not  hard  from  Brown  for  Nine  month  he  have  done  some  very  Bad  letting  me 
alone,  for  what  cause  I  cannot  tell  Give  my  Best  Respect  to  Mr.  B.  when  you  see  him. 
I  wish  very  much  to  hear  from  himself  and  family.  You  will  please  to  let  me  hear  from 
you.  My  wife  Joines  me  in  love  to  yourself  and  family. 

Yours  most  Respectfully, 

JOHN  H.  HILL. 

P.  S.  Every  fugitive  Regreated  to  hear  of  the  Death  of  Mrs.  Moore.  I  myself  think 
that  there  are  no  other  to  take  her  Place.  yours  J.  H.  H. 

ELEVENTH  LETTER. 

[EXTRACT.] 

Rejoices  at  hearing  of  the  success  of  the   Underground  Hail  Road — Inquires  particu- 
larly after  the  "fellow  "  who  "  cut  off"  the  Patrol's  head  in  Maryland." 

HAMILTON,  August  15th,  1856. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  the  Underground  Rail  Road  is  doing  such 
good  business,  but  tell  me  in  your  next  letter  if  you  have  seen  the  heroic  fellow  that  cut 
off  the  head  of  the  Patrol  in  Maryland.  We  wants  that  fellow  here,  as  John  Bull  has  a 
great  deal  of  fighting  to  do,  and  as  there  is  a  colored  Captain  in  this  city,  I  would  seek  to 
have  that  fellow  Promoted,  Provided  he  became  a  soldier. 

Great  respect,  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

P.  S. — Please  forward  the  enclosed  to  Mr.  McCray. 


200  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


TWELFTH  LETTER. 

[EXTEACT.] 

Believes  in  praying  for  the  Slave — but  thinks  "  fire  and  sword  "   would  be  more  effective 
with  Slave-holders. 

HAMILTON,  Jan.  5th,  1857. 

ME.  STILL  : — Our  Pappers  contains  long  details  of  insurrectionary  movements  among 
the  slaves  at  the  South  and  one  paper  adds  that  a  great  Nomber  of  Generals,  Captains 
with  other  officers  had  being  arrested.  At  this  day  four  years  ago  I  left  Petersburg  for 
Richmond  to  meet  the  man  whom  called  himself  my  master,  but  he  wanted  money  worser 
that  day  than  I  do  this  day,  he  took  me  to  sell  me,  he  could  not  have  done  a  better  thing  for 
me  for  I  intended  to  leave  any  how  by  the  first  convaiance.  I  hard  some  good  Prayers  put 
up  for  the  suffers  on  last  Sunday  evening  in  the  Baptist  Church.  Now  friend  still  I  beleve 
that  Prayers  affects  great  good,  but  I  beleve  that  the  fire  and  sword  would  affect  more 
good  in  this  case.  Perhaps  this  is  not  your  thoughts,  but  I  must  acknowledge  this  to  be 
my  Polacy.  The  world  are  being  turned  upside  down,  and  I  think  we  might  as  well 
take  an  active  part  in  it  as  not.  We  must  have  something  to  do  as  other  people,  and 
I  hope  this  moment  among  the  Slaves  are  the  beginning.  I  wants  to  see  something  go 

on  while  I  live. 

Yours  truly,  JOHN  H.  HILL. 

THIRTEENTH  LETTER. 

Sad  tidings  from  Richmond— Of  the  arrest  of  a  Captain  with  Slaves  on  board  as   Under- 
ground Hail  Road  passengers. 

HAMILTON,  June  5th,  1858. 

DEAE  FEIEND  STILL: — I  have  just  heard  that  our  friend  Capt.  B.  have  being  taken 
Prisoner  in  Virginia  with  slaves  on  board  of  his  vessel.  I  hard  this  about  an  hour  ago. 
the  Person  told  me  of  this  said  he  read  it  in  the  newspaper,  if  this  be  so  it  is  awfull.  You 
will  be  so  kind  as  to  send  me  some  information.  Send  me  one  of  the  Virginia  Papers. 
Poor  fellow  if  they  have  got  him,  I  am  sorry,  sorry  to  my  heart.  I  have  not  heard  from 
my  Uncle  for  a  long  time  if  have  heard  or  do  hear  anything  from  him  at  any  time  you  will 
oblige  me  by  writing.  I  wish  you  to  inquire  of  Mr.  Anderson's  friends  (if  you  know  any 
of  them),  if  they  have  heard  anything  from  him  since  he  was  in  your  city.  I  have  written 
to  him  twice  since  he  was  here  according  to  his  own  directions,  but  never  received  an  an- 
swer. I  wants  to  hear  from  my  mother  very  much,  but  cannot  hear  one  word.  You  will 
present  my  best  regards  to  the  friend.  Mrs.  Hill  is  quite  sick. 

Yours  truly,  J.  H.  HILL. 

P.  S  — I  have  not  received  the  Anti-Slavery  Standard  for  several  weeks.  Please  for- 
ward any  news  relative  to  the  Capt.  J.  H.  H. 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  HEZEKIAH  HILL. 

(UNCLE  or  JOHN  HENRY  HILL.) 

Impelled  by  the  love  of  freedom  Hezekiah  resolved  that  he  would  work 
no  longer  for  nothing ;  that  he  would  never  be  sold  on  the  auction  block  ; 
that  he  no  longer  would  obey  the  bidding  of  a  master,  and  that  he  would  die 
rather  than  be  a  slave.  This  decision,  however,  had  only  been  entertained 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  HEZEKIAH  HILL.  201 

by  him  a  short  time  prior  to  his  escape.  For  a  number  of  years  Hezekiah 
had  been  laboring  under  the  pleasing  thought  that  he  should  succeed  in 
obtaining  freedom  through  purchase,  having  had  an  understanding  with  his 
owner  with  this  object  in  view.  At  different  times  he  had  paid  on  account 
for  himself  nineteen  hundred  dollars,  six  hundred  dollars  more  than  he  was 
to  have  paid  according  to  the  first  agreement.  Although  so  shamefully  de- 
frauded in  the  first  instance,  he  concluded  to  bear  the  disappointment  as 
patiently  as  possible  and  get  out  of  the  lion's  mouth  as  best  he  could. 

He  continued  to  work  on  and  save  his  money  until  he  had  actually  come 
within  one  hundred  dollars  of  paying  two  thousand.  At  this  point  instead 
of  getting  his  free  papers,  as  he  firmly  believed  that  he  should,  to  his  sur- 
prise one  day  he  saw  a  notorious  trader  approaching  the  shop  where  he 
was  at  work.  The  errand  of  the  trader  was  soon  made  known.  Hezakiah 
simply  requested  time  to  go  back  to  the  other  end  of  the  shop  to  get  his 
coat,  gwhich  he  seized  and  ran.  He  was  pursued  but  not  captured.  This 
occurrence  took  place  in  Petersburg,  Va.,  about  the  first  of  December,  1854. 
On  the  night  of  the  same  day  of  his  escape  from  the  trader,  Hezekiah 
walked  to  Richmond  and  was  there  secreted  under  a  floor  by  a  friend.  He 
was  a  tall  man,  of  powerful  muscular  strength,  about  thirty  years  of  age  just 
in  the  prime  of  his  manhood  with  enough  pluck  for  two  men. 

A  heavy  reward  was  offered  for  him,  but  the  hunters  failed  to  find 
him  in  this  hiding-place  under  the  floor.  He  strongly  hoped  to  get  away 
soon ;  on  several  occasions  he  made  efforts,  but  only  to  be  disappointed.  At 
different  times  at  least  two  captains  had  consented  to  afford  him  a  private 
passage  to  Philadelphia,  but  like  the  impotent  man  at  the  pool,  some 
one  always  got  ahead  of  him.  Two  or  three  times  he  even  managed  to 
reach  the  boat  upon  the  river,  but  had  to  return  to  his  horrible  place  under 
the  floor.  Some  were  under  the  impression  that  he  was  an  exceedingly 
unlucky  man,  and  for  a  time  captains  feared  to  bring  him.  But  his  courage 
sustained  him  unwaveringly. 

Finally  at  the  expiration  of  thirteen  months,  a  private  passage  was  pro- 
cured for  him  on  the  steamship  Pennsylvania,  and  with  a  little  slave  boy, 
seven  years  of  age,  (the  son  of  the  man  who  had  secreted  him)  though 
placed  in  a  very  hard  berth,  he  came  safely  to  Philadelphia,  greatly  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  who  had  waited  for  him  so  long 
that  they  had  despaired  of  his  ever  coming. 

The  joy  that  filled  Hezekiah's  bosom  may  be  imagined  but  never  de- 
scribed. None  but  one  who  had  been  in  similar  straits  could  enter  into 
his  feelings. 

He  had  left  his  wife  Louisa,  and  two  little  boys,  Henry  and  Manuel. 
His  passage  cost  one  hundred  dollars. 

Hezekiah  being  a  noted  character,  a  number  of  the  true  friends  were  in- 
vited to  take  him  by  the  hand  and  to  rejoice  with  him  over  his  noble 


202  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

struggles  and  his  triumph ;  needing  rest  and  recruiting,  he  was  made 
welcome  to  stay,  at  the  expense  of  the  committee,  as  long  as  he  might  feel 
disposed  so  to  do.  He  remained  several  days,  and  then  went  on  to  Canada 
rejoicing.  After  arriving  there  he  returned  his  acknowledgment  for  favors 
received,  &c.;  in  the  following  letter  : 

TORONTO  Jan  24th  1856. 

MB.  STILL  : — this  is  to  inform  you  that  Myself  and  little  boy,  arrived  safely  in  this  city 
this  day  the  24th,  at  ten  o'clock  after  a  very  long  and  pleasant  trip.  I  had  a  great  deal 
of  attention  paid  to  me  while  on  the  way. 

I  owes  a  great  deel  of  thanks  to  yourself  and  friends,  I  will  just  say  hare  that  when  I 
arrived  at  New  York,  I  found  Mr.  Gibba  sick  and  could  not  be  attended  to  there.  How- 
ever, I  have  arrived  alright. 

You  will  please  to  give  my  respects  to  your  friend  that  writes  in  the  office  with  you, 
and  to  Mr  Smith,  also  Mr  Brown,  and  the  friends,  Mrs  Still  in  particular. 

Friend  Still  you  will  please  to  send  the  enclosed  to  John  Hill  Petersburg  I  want  him 
to  send  some  things  to  me  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  send  your  direction  to  them,  so  that 
the  things  to  your  care,  if  you  do  not  see  a  convenient  way  to  send  it  by  hands,  you 
will  please  direct  your  letter  to  Phillip  Ubank  Petersburg.  Yours  Respectfully  H  HILL. 


JAMES— (BROTHER  OF  JOHN  HENRY  HILL). 

For  three  years  James  suffered  in  a  place  of  concealment,  before  he  found 
the  way  opened  to  escape.  When  he  resolved  on  having  his  freedom  he  was 
much  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  a  brave  young  man,  for  three  years, 
with  unfailing  spirit,  making  resistance  in  the  city  of  Richmond  to  the  slave 
Power ! 

Such  heroes  in  the  days  of  Slavery,  did  much  to  make  the  infernal  system 
insecure,  and  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  freedom  in  liberty-loving  hearts  the 
world  over,  wherever  such  deeds  of  noble  daring  were  made  known.  But  of 
his  heroism,  but  little  can  be  reported  here,  from  the  fact,  that  such  accounts 
as  were  in  the  possession  of  the  Committee,  were  never  transferred  from  the 
loose  slips  of  paper  on  which  they  were  first  written,  to  the  regular  record 
book.  But  an  important  letter  from  the  friend  with  whom  he  was  secreted, 
written  a  short  while  before  he  escaped  (on  a  boat),  gives  some  idea  of  his 

condition : 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  February  16th,  1861. 

DEAR  BROTHER  STILL: — I  received  a  message  from  brother  Julius  anderson,  asking  me 
to  send  the  bundle  on  but  I  has  no  way  to  send  it,  I  have  been  waiting  and  truly  hopeing 
that  you  would  make  some  arrangement  with  some  person,  and  send  for  the  parcel.  I 
have  no  way  to  send  it,  and  I  cannot  communicate  the  subject  to  a  stranger  there  is  a 
.Way  by  the  N.  y.  line,  but  they  are  all  strangers  to  me,  and  of  course  I  could  not 
approach  them  With  this  subject  for  I  would  be  indangered  myself  greatly,  this  busi- 
ness is  left  to  you  and  to  you  alone  to  attend  to  in  providing  the  way  for  me  to  send  on 
the  parcel,  if  you  only  make  an  arrangement  with  some  person  and  let  me  know  the  said 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  AND  DEL  A  WARE.  203 

person  and  the  article  which  they  is  to  be  sent  on  then  I  can  send  the  parcel,  unless  you 
do  make  an  arrangement  with  some  person,  and  assure  them  that  they  will  receive  the 
funs  for  delivering  the  parcel  this  Business  cannot  be  accomplished,  it  is  in  your  power 
to  try  to  make  some  provision  for  the  article  to  be  sent  but  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  do 
so,  the  bundle  has  been  on  my  hands  now  going  on  3  years,  and  I  have  suffered  a  great 
deal  of  danger,  and  is  still  suffering  the  same.  I  have  understood  Sir  that  there  were  no 
difficul  about  the  mone  that  you  had  it  in  your  possession  Ready  for  the  bundle  whenever 
it  is  delivered.  But  Sir  as  I  have  said  I  can  do  nothing  now.  Sir  I  ask  you  please 
through  sympathy  and  feelings  on  my  part  &  his  try  to  provide  a  way  for  the  bundle  to 
be  sent  and  relieve  me  of  the  danger  in  which  I  am  in.  you  might  succeed  in  making 
an  arrangement  with  those  on  the  New  york  Steamers  for  they  dose  such  things  but 
please  let  me  know  the  man  that  the  arrangement  is  made  with — please  give  me  au 
answer  by  the  bearer.  yours  truly  friend  C.  A. 

At  last,  the  long,  dark  night  passed  away,  and  this  young  slave  safely- 
made  his  way  to  freedom,  and  proceeded  to  Boston,  where  he  now  resides. 
While  the  Committee  was  looked  to  for  aid  in  the  deliverance  of  this  poor 
fellow,  it  was  painful  to  feel  that  it  was  not  in  their  power  to  answer  his 
prayers — not  until  after  his  escape,  was  it  possible  so  to  do.  But  his 
escape  to  freedom  gave  them  a  satisfaction  which  no  words  can  well  express. 
At  present,  John  Henry  Hill  is  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  Petersburg.  Heze- 
kiah  resides  at  West  Point,  and  James  in  Boston,  rejoicing  that  all  men  are 
free  in  the  United  States,  at  last. 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND  AND  DELAWARE. 

ARCHER  BARLOW,   ALIAS  EMIT  ROBINS. 

This  passenger  arrived  from  Norfolk,  Va.  in  1853.  For  the  last  four 
years  previous  to  escaping,  he  had  been  under  the  yoke  of  Dr.  George 
Wilson.  Archer  declared  that  he  had  been  '•  very  badly  treated  "  by  the 
Doctor,  which  he  urged  as  his  reason  for  leaving.  True,  the  doctor  had  been 
good  enough  to  allow  him  to  hire  his  time,  for  which  he  required  Archer  to 
pay  the  moderate  sum  of  $120  per  annum.  As  Archer  had  been  "  sickly  " 
most  of  the  time,  during  the  last  year,  he  complained  that  there  was  "  no 
reduction "  in  his  hire  on  this  account.  Upon  reflection,  therefore,  Archer 
thought,  if  he  had  justice  done  him,  he  would  be  in  possession  of  this  "one 
hundred  and  twenty  "  himself,  and  all  his  other  rights,  instead  of  having  to 
toil  for  another  without  pay ;  so  he  looked  seriously  into  the  matter  of  mas- 
ter and  slave,  and  pretty  soon  resolved,  that  if  others  chose  to  make  no  effort 
to  get  away,  for  himself  he  would  never  be  contented,  until  he  was  free.  When 
a  slave  reached  this  decision,  he  was  in  a  very  hopeful  state.  He  was  near 
the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  was  sure  to  find  it,  sooner  or  later.  At 
this  thoughtful  period,  Archer  was  thirty-one  years  of  age,  a  man  of 
medium  size,  and  belonged  to  the  two  leading  branches  of  southern 


204  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

humanity,  i.  e.,  he  was  half  white  and  half  colored — a  dark  mulatto.  His 
arrival  in  Philadelphia,  per  one  of  the  Richmond  steamers,  was  greeted 
with  joy  by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  who  extended  to  him  the  usual  aid 
and  care,  and  forwarded  him  on  to  freedom.  For  a  number  of  years,,  he 
has  been  a  citizen  of  Boston. 


SAMUEL  BUSH,  ALIAS  WILLIAM  OBLEBEE. 

This  "piece  of  property"  fled  in  .the  fall  of  1853.  As  a  specimen  of  this 
article  of  commerce,  he  evinced  considerable  intelligence.  He  was  a  man  of 
dark  color,  although  not  totally  free  from  the  admixture  of  the  "superior" 
southern  blood  in  his  veins ;  in  stature,  he  was  only  ordinary.  For  leaving, 
he  gave  the  following  reasons  :  "  I  found  that  I  was  working  for  my  master, 
for  his  advantage,  and  when  I  was  sick,  I  had  to  pay  just  as  much  as  if  I 
were  well — $7  a  mouth.  But  my  master  was  cross,  and  said  that  he 
intended  to  sell  me — to  do  better  by  me  another  year.  Times  grew  worse 
and  worse,  constantly.  I  thought,  as  I  had  heard,  that  if  I  could  raise  thirty 
dollars  I  could  come  away."  He  at  once  saw  the  value  of  money.  To 
his  mind  it  meant  liberty  from  that  moment.  Thenceforth  he  decided  to 
treasure  up  every  dollar  he  could  get  hold  of  until  he  could  accumulate  at 
least  enough  to  get  out  of  "Old  Virginia."  He  was  a  married  man,  and 
thought  he  had  a  wife  and  one  child,  but  on  reflection,  he  found  out  that 
they  did  not  actually  belong  to  him,  but  to  a  carpenter,  by  the  name  of 
Bailey.  The  man  whom  Samuel  was  compelled  to  call  master  was  named 
Hoyle. 

The  Committee's  interview  with  Samuel  was  quite  satisfactory,  and  they 
cheerfully  accorded  to  him  brotherly  kindness  and  material  aid  at  the  same 
time. 


JOHN    SPENCER    AND    HIS    SON    WILLIAM,    AND    JAMES 

ALBERT. 

These  individuals  escaped  from  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  in  the 
Spring  of  1853,  but  were  led  to  conclude  that  they  could  enjoy  the  freedom 
they  had  aimed  to  find,  in  New  Jersey.  They  procured  employment  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Haddonfield,  some  six  or  eight  miles  from  Camden, 
New  Jersey,  and  were  succeeding,  as  they  thought,  very  well. 

Things  went  on  favorably  for  about  three  months,  when  to  their  alarm 
"  slave-hunters  were  discovered  in  the  neighborhood,"  and  sufficient  evi- 
dence was  obtained  to  make  it  quite  plain  that,  John,  William  and 
James  were  the  identical  persons,  for  whom  the  hunters  were  in  "hot 


HETTY  SCOTT,  ALIAS  MARGARET  DUNCANS  AND  DAUGHTER.   205 

pursuit."  When  brought  to  the  Committee,  they  were  pretty  thoroughly 
alarmed  and  felt  very  anxious  to  be  safely  off  to  Canada.  While  the  Com- 
mittee always  rendered  in  such  cases  immediate  protection  and  aid,  they  nev- 
ertheless, felt,  in  view  of  the  imminent  dangers  existing  under  the  fugitive 
slave  law,  that  persons  disposed  to  thus  stop  by  the  way,  should  be  very  plainly 
given  to  understand,  that  if  they  were  captured  they  would  have  themselves 
the  most  to  blame.  But- the  dread  of  Slavery  was  strong  in  the  minds  of 
these  fugitives,  and  they  very  fully  realized  their  folly  in  stopping  in  New 
Jersey.  The  Committee  procured  their  tickets,  helped  them  to  disguise 
themselves  as  much  as  possible,  and  admonished  them  not  to  stop  short  of 
Canada. 


HETTY  SCOTT  ALIAS  MARGARET  DUNCANS   AND 
DAUGHTER  PRISCILLA. 

This  mother  and  daughter  -had  been  the  "  chattels  personal "  of  Daniel 
Coolby  of  Harvard,  Md.  Their  lot  had  been  that  of  ordinary  slaves  in 
the  country,  on  farms,  &c.  The  motive  which  prompted  them  to  escape  was 
the  fact  that  their  master  had  "  threatened  to  sell "  them.  He  had  a  right  to 
do  so ;  but  Hetty  was  a  little  squeamish  on  this  point  and  took  great  um- 
brage at  her  "  kind  master."  In  this  "  disobedient "  state  of  mind,  she  de- 
termined, if  hard  struggling  would  enable  her,  to  defeat  the  threats  of  Mr. 
Daniel  Coolby,  that  he  should  not  much  longer  have  the  satisfaction  of  en- 
joying the  fruit  of  the  toil  of  herself  and  offspring.  She  at  once  began  to 
prepare  for  her  journey. 

She  had  three  children  of  her  own  to  bring,  besides  she  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  a  young  man  and  a,  young  woman,  both  slaves,  to  whom 
she  felt  that  it  would  be  safe  to  confide  her  plans  with  a  view  of  inviting 
them  to  accompany  her.  The  young  couple  were  ready  converts  to  the 
eloquent  speech  delivered  to  them  by  Hetty  on  Freedom,  and  were  quite 
willing  to  accept  her  as  their  leader  in  the  emergency.  Up  to  the  hour  of 
setting  out  on  their  lonely  and  fatiguing  journey,  arrangements  were  being 
carefully  completed,  so  that  there  should  be  no  delay  of  any  kind.  At 
the  appointed  hour  they  were  all  moving  northward  in  good  order. 

Arriving  at  Quakertown,  Pa.,  they  found  friends  of  the  slave,  who  wel- 
comed them  to  their  homes  and  sympathy,  gladdening  the  hearts  of  all 
concerned.  For  prudential  reasons  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  separate  the 
party,  to  send  some  one  way  and  some  another.  Thus  safely,  through  the 
kind  offices  and  aid  of  the  friends  at  Quakertown,  they  were  duly  forwarded 
on  to  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia.  Here  similar  acts  of  charity  were  ex- 
tended to  them,  and  they  were  directed  on  to  Canada. 


206  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ROBERT  FISHER. 

THIS    PASSENGER    AVAILS    HIMSELF    OF   HOLIDAY  WEEK,   BETWEEN  CHRISTMAS 
AND  NEW  YEAR'S,  TO  MAKE  HIS  NORTHERN  TRIP. 

ROBERT  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  dark  color,  quite  tall,  and  in  talk- 
ing with  him  a  little  while,  it  was  soon  discovered  that  Slavery  had  not 
crushed  all  the  brains  out  of  his  head  by  a  good  deal.  Nor  was  he  so  much 
attached  to  his  "kind-hearted  master,"  John  Edward  Jackson,  of  Anne 
Arundel,  Md.,  or  his  old  fiddle,  that  he  was  contented  and  happy  while  in 
bondage.  Far  from  it.  The  fact  was,  that  he  hated  Slavery  so  decidedly 
and  had  such  a  clear  common  sense-like  view  of  the  evils  and  misery  of  the 
system,  that  he  declared  he  had  as  a  matter  of  principle  refrained  from  mar- 
rying, in  order  that  he  might  have  no  reason  to  grieve  over  having  added 
to  the  woes  of  slaves.  Nor  did  he  wish  to  be  encumbered,  if  the  opportunity 
offered  to  escape.  According  to  law  he  was  entitled  to  his  freedom  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five. 

But  what  right  had  a  negro,  which  white  slave-holders  were  "  bound  to 
respect?"  Many  who  had  been  willed  free,  were  held  just  as  firmly  in 
Slavery,  as  if  no  will  had  ever  been  made.  Robert  had  too  much  sense 
to  suppose  that  he  could  gain  anything  by  seeking  legal  redress.  This 
method,  therefore,  was  considered  out  of  the  question.  But  in  the  mean- 
time he  was  growing  very  naturally  in  favor  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
From  his  experience  Robert  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  his  master  was 
"mean,"  "a  very  hard  man,'7  who  would  work  his  servants  early  and  late, 
without  allowing  them  food  and  clothing  sufficient  to  shield  them  from  the 
cold  and  hunger.  Robert  certainly  had  unmistakable  marks  about  him,  of 
having  been  used  roughly.  He  thought  very  well  of  Nathan  Harris,  a  fel- 
low-servant belonging  to  the  same  owner,  and  he  made  up  his  mind,  if 
Nathan  would  join  him,  neither  the  length  of  the  journey,  the  loneliness 
of  night  travel,  the  coldness  of  the  weather,  the  fear  of  the  slave-hunter, 
nor  the  scantiness  of  their  means  should  deter  him  from  making  his  way 
to  freedom.  Nathan  listened  to  the  proposal,  and  was  suddenly  converted 
to  freedom,  and  the  two  united  during  Christmas  week,  1854,  and  set  out  on 
the  Underground  Rail  Road.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  they  had  trying 
difficulties  to  encounter.  These  they  expected,  but  all  were  overcome,  and 
they  reached  the  Vigilance  Committee,  in  Philadelphia  safely,  and  were 
cordially  welcomed.  During  the  interview,  a  full  interchange  of  thought 
resulted,  the  fugitives  were  well  cared  for,  and  in  due  time  both  were  for- 
warded on,  free  of  cost. 


HANSEL   WAPLES,  ROSE  ANNA  TONNELL,  AND  MARY  ENNIS.  207 

HANSEL  WAPLES. 

This  traveler  arrived  from  Millsboro,  Indian  River,  Delaware,  where  he 
was  owned  by  Wm.  E.  Burton.  While  Hansel  did  not  really  own  himself, 
he  had  the  reputation  of  having  a  wife  and  six  children.  In  June,  some 
six  mouths  prior  to  her  husband's  arrival,  Hansel's  wife  had  been  allowed 
by  her  mistress  to  go  out  on  a  begging  expedition,  to  raise  money  to  buy 
herself;  but  contrary  to  the  expectation  of  her  mistress  she  never  returned. 
Doubtless  the  mistress  looked  upon  this  course  as  a  piece  of  the  most  high- 
handed stealing.  Hansel  did  not  speak  of  his  owner  as  being  a  hard  man, 
but  on  the  contrary  he  thought  that  he  was  about  as  "good"  as  the  best  that 
he  was  acquainted  with.  While  this  was  true,  however,  Hansel  had  quite 
good  ground  for  believing  that  his  master  was  about  to  sell  him.  Dread- 
ing this  fate  he  made  up  his  mind  to  go  in  pursuit  of  his  wife  to  a  Free 
state.  Exactly  where  to  look  or  how  to  find  her  he  could  not  tell. 

The  Committee  advised  him  to  "search  in  Canada."  And  in  order  to 
enable  him  to  get  on  quickly  and  safely,  the  Committee  aided  him  with 
money,  &c.,  in  1853. 


ROSE  ANNA  TONNELL  ALIAS  MARIA  HYDE. 

She  fled  from  Isaac  Tonnell  of  Georgetown,  Delaware,  in  Christmas 
week,  1853.  A  young  woman  with  a  little  boy  of  seven  years  of  age 
accompanied  Rose  Anna.  Further  than  the  simple  fact  of  their  having 
thus  safely  arrived,  except  the  expense  incurred  by  the  Committee,  no  other 
particulars  appear  on  the  records. 


MARY  ENNIS  ALIAS  LICIA  HEMMIN. 

Mary  arrived  with  her  two  children  in  the  early  Spring  of  1854. 

The  mother  was  a  woman  of  about  thirty-three  years  of  age,  quite  tall, 
with  a  countenance  and  general  appearance  well  fitted  to  awaken  sym- 
pathy at  first  sight.  Her  oldest  child  was  a  little  girl  seven  years  of 
age,  named  Lydia ;  the  other  was  named  Louisa  Caroline,  three  years  of  age, 
both  promising  in  appearance.  They  were  the  so  called  property  of  John 
Ennis,  of  Georgetown,  Delaware.  For  their  flight  they  chose  the  dead  of 
Winter.  After  leaving  they  made  their  way  to  West  Chester,  and  there 
found  friends  and  security  for  several  weeks,  up  to  the  time  they  reached 
Philadelphia.  Probably  the  friends  with  whom  they  stopped  thought 
the  weather  too  inclement  for  a  woman  with  children  dependent  on  her 


208  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

support  to  travel.  Long  before  this  mother  escaped,  thoughts  of  liberty 
filled  her  heart.  She  was  ever  watching  for  an  opportunity,  that  would  en- 
courage her  to  hope  for  safety,  when  once  the  attempt  should  be  made.  Un- 
til, however,  she  was  convinced  that  her  two  children  were  to  be  sold,  she 
could  not  quite  muster  courage  to  set  out  on  the  journey.  This  threat  to 
sell  proved  .in  multitudes  of  instances,  "  the  last  straw  on  the  camel's  back." 
When  nothing  else  would  start  them  this  would.  Mary  and  her  children 
were  the  only  slaves  owned  by  this  Ennis,  consequently  her  duties  were  that 
of  "  Jack  of  all  trades ; "  sometimes  in  the  field  and  sometimes  in  the  barn, 
as  well  as  in  the  kitchen,  by  which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  that  her  life  was 
rendered  servile  to  the  last  degree. 

To  bind  up  the  broken  heart  of  such  a  poor  slave  mother,  and  to  aid 
such  tender  plants  as  were  these  little  girls,  from  such  a  wretched  state  of 
barbarism  as  existed  in  poor  little  Delaware,  was  doubly  gratifying  to  the 
Committee. 


"SAM,"  "ISAAC,"  "PERRY,"  "CHARLES,"  AND  "GREEN." 

ONE  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  REWARD.— Ran  away  on  Satur- 
day night,  the  20th  September,  1856,  from  the  subscriber,  living  in  the  ninth 
district  of  Carroll  county,  Maryland,  two  Negro  Men,  SAM  and  ISAAC.  Sam 
calls  himself  Samuel  Sims;  he  is  very  black  ;  shows  his  teeth  very  much  when 
he  laughs;  no  perceptible  marks;  he  is  5  feet  8  inches  high,  and  about  thirty 
years  of  age,  but  has  the  appearance  of  being  much  older. 
Isaac  calls  himself  Isaac  Dotson  he  is  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  stout  made, 
but  rather  chunky;  broad  across  his  shoulders,  he  is  about  five  feet  five  or  six  inches  high, 
always  appears  to  be  in  a  good  humor;  laughs  a  good  deal,  and  runs  on  with  a  good  deal 
of  foolishness ;  he  is  of  very  light  color,  almost  yellow,  might  be  called  a  yellow  boy  ;  has 
no  perceptible  marks. 

They  have  such  a  variety  of  clothing  that  it  is  almost  useless  to  say  anything  about 
them.  No  doubt  they  will  change  their  names. 

I  will  give  the  above  reward  for  them,  of  one  thousand  dollars,  or  five  hundred  dollars 
for  either  of  them,  if  taken  and  lodged  in  any  jail  in  Maryland,  so  that  I  get  them  again. 
Also  two  of  Mr.  Dade's,  living  in  the  neighborhood,  went  the  same  time ;    no  doubt 
they  are  all  in  company  together.  THOMAS  B.  0 WINGS. 

s24-6tVVit*|| 

These  passengers  reached  the  Philadelphia  station,  about  fhe  24th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1856,  five  days  after  they  escaped  from  Carroll  county.  They  were 
in  fine  spirits,  and  had  borne  the  fatigue  and  privation  of  travel  bravely. 
A  free  and  interesting  interview  took  place,  between  these  passengers  and  the 
Committee,  eliciting  much  information,  especially  with  regard  to  the  work- 
ings of  the  system  on  the  farms,  from  which  they  had  the  good  luck  to  flee. 
Each  of  the  party  was  thoroughly  questioned,  about  how  time  had  passed  with 
them  at  home,  or  rather  in  the  prison  house,  what  kind  of  men  their  masters 
were,  how  they  fed  and  clothed,  if  they  whipped,  bought  or  sold,  whether  they 
were  members  of  church,  or  not,  and  many  more  questions  needless  to  enu- 
merate bearing  on  the  domestic  relation  which  had  existed  between  them- 


SAM,  ISAAC,  PERRY,  CHARLES,  AND  GREEN.  209 

selves  and  their  masters.  These  queries  they  answered  in  their  own  way, 
with  intelligence.  Upon  the  whole,  their  lot  in  Slavery  had  been  rather 
more  favorable  than  the  average  run  of  slaves. 

No  record  was  made  of  any  very  severe  treatment.  In  fact,  the 
notices  made  of  them  were  very  brief,  and,  but  for  the  elaborate  way  in 
which  they  were  described  in  the  "Baltimore  Sun,"  by  their  owners,  their 
narratives  would  hardly  be  considered  of  sufficient  interest  to  record. 
The  heavy  rewards,  beautiful  descriptions,  and  elegant  illustrations  in  the 
"Sun,"  were  very  attractive  reading.  The  Vigilance  Committee  took  the 
"  Sun,"  for  nothing  else  under  the  sun  but  for  this  special  literature,  and 
for  this  purpose  they  always  considered  the  "  Sun  "  a  cheap  and  reliable  pa- 
per. 

A  slave  man  or  woman,  running  for  life,  he  with  a  bundle  on  his  back  or 
she  with  a  babe  in  her  arms,  was  always  a  very  interesting  sight,  and  should 
always  be  held  in  remembrance.  Likewise  the  descriptions  given  by  slave- 
holders, as  a  general  rule,  showed  considerable  artistic  powers  and  a  most 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  physical  outlines  of  this  peculiar  property.  In- 
deed, the  art  must  have  been  studied  attentively  for  practical  purposes.  When 
the  advertisements  were  received  in  advance  of  arrivals,  which  was  always 
the  case,  the  descriptions  generally  were  found  so  lifelike,  that  the  Committee 
preferred  to  take  them  in  preference  to  putting  themselves  to  the  labor  of 
writing  out  new  ones,  for  future  reference.  This  we  think,  ought  not  to  be 
complained  of  by  any  who  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  wayward  servants, 
as  it  is  but  fair  to  give  credit  to  all  concerned.  True,  sometimes  some  of 
these  beautiful  advertisements  were  open  to  gentle  criticism.  The  one  at 
the  head  of  this  report,  is  clearly  of  this  character.  For  instance,  in  de- 
scribing Isaac,  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Owings,  represents  him  as  being  of  a  "  very 
light  color,"  "almost  yellow,"  " might  be  called  a  yellow  boy."  In  the 
next  breath  he  has  no  perceptible  marks.  Now,  if  he  is  "  very  light," 
that  is  a  well-known  southern  mark,  admitted  everywhere.  A  hint  to  the 
wise  is  sufficient.  However,  judging  from  what  was  seen  of  Isaac  in 
Philadelphia,  there  was  more  cunning  than  "foolishness"  about  him. 
Slaves  sometimes,  when  wanting  to  get  away,  would  make  their  owners 
believe  .that  they  were  very  happy  and  contented.  And,  in  using  this 
kind  of  foolishness,  would  keep  up  appearances  until  an  opportunity 
offered  for  an  escape.  So  Isaac  might  have  possessed  this  sagacity,  which 
appeared  like  nonsense  to  his  master.  That  slave-holders,  above  all  others, 
were  in  the  habit  of  taking  special  pains  to  encourage  foolishness,  loud 
laughing,  banjo  playing,  low  dancing,  etc.,  in  the  place  of  education,  virtue, 
self-respect  and  manly  carriage,  slave-holders  themselves  are  witnesses. 

As   Mr.  Robert  Dade  was  also  a  loser,  equally  with    Mr.  Thomas  B. 
Owings,  and  as  his  advertisement  was  of  the  same  liberality  and  high  tone, 
it  seems  but  fitting  that  it  should  come  in  just  here,  to  give  weight  and  com- 
14 


210  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

plcteness  to  the  story.  Both  Owings  and  Bade  showed  a  considerable 
degree  of  southern  chivalry  in  the  liberality  of  their  rewards.  Doubtless, 
the  large  sums  thus  offered  awakened  a  lively  feeling  in  the  breasts  of  old 
slave-hunters.  But  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  artful  fugitives  safely 
reached  Philadelphia  before  the  hunters  got  even  the  first  scent  on  their 
track.  Up  to  the  present  hour,  with  the  owners  all  may  be  profound 
mystery ;  if  so,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  they  may  feel  some  interest  in  the  solu- 
tion of  these  wonders.  The  articles  so  accurately  described  must  now  be 
permitted  to  testify  in  their  own  words,  as  taken  from  the  records. 

GREEN  MODOOK  acknowledges  that  he  was  owned  by  William  Dorsey, 
Perry  by  Robert  Dade,  Sam  and  Isaac  by  Thomas  Owings,  all  farmers,  and 
all  "tough"  and  "pretty  mean  men."  Sam  and  Isaac  had  other  names 
with  them,  but  not  such  a  variety  of  clothing  as  their  master  might  have 
supposed.  Sam  said  he  left  because  his  master  threatened  to  sell  him  to 
Georgia,  and  he  believed  that  he  meant  so  to  do,  as  he  had  sold  all  his 
brothers  and  sisters  to  Georgia  some  time  before  he  escaped. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Sam  declared  his  master  had  threatened  to  shoot 
him  a  short  while  before  he  left.  This  was  the  last  straw. on  the  camel's 
back.  Sam's  heart  was  in  Canada  ever  after  that.  In  traveling  he  re- 
solved that  nothing  should  stop  him.  Charles  offered  the  same  excuse  as 
did  Sam.  He  had  been  threatened  with  the  auction-block.  He  left  his 
mother  free,  but  four  sisters  he  left  in  chains.  As  these  men  spoke  of  their 
tough  owners  and  bad  treatment  in  Slavery,  they  expressed  their  indignation 
at  the  idea  that  Owings,  Dade  and  Dorsey  had  dared  to  rob  them  of 
their  God-given  rights.  They  were  only  ignorant  farm  hands.  As  they 
drank  in  the  free  air,  the  thought  of  their  wrongs  aroused  all  their  manhood. 
They  were  all  young  men,  hale  and  stout,  with  strong  resolutions  to  make 
Canada  their  future  home.  The  Committee  encouraged  them  in  this,  and 
aided  them  for  humanity's  sake. — Mr.  Robert  Dade's  advertisement  speaks 
for  itself  as  follows: 

RAN  AWAY — On  Saturday  night,  20th  inet.,  from  the  subscriber,  living  near 
Mount  Airy  P.  0.,  Carroll  county,  two  Negro  men,  PERRY  and  CHARLES. 
Perry  is  quite  dark,  full  face;  is  about  5  feet  8  or  9  inches  high  ;  has  a  scar  on  one 
of  his  hands,  and  one  on  his  legs,  caused  by  a  rut  from  a  scythe;  25  years  old. 
Charles  is  of  a  copper  color,  ahout  5  feet  9  or  10  inches  high ;  round  shouldered,  with  small 
whiskers;  has  one  crooked  finger  that  he  cannot  straighten,  and  a  scar  on  his  right  leg, 
caused  by  the  cut  of  a  scythe ;  22  years  old.  I  will  give  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  each, 
if  taken  in  the  State  and  returned  to  me,  or  secured  in  some  jail  so  that  I  can  get  them 
again,  or  a  $1,000  for  the  two,  or  $500  each,  if  taken  out  of  the  State,  and  secured  in 
some  jail  in  this  State  BO  that  I  can  get  them  again.  ROBERT  DADE. 

s23-3f. 


FROM  RICHMOND  AND  NORFOLK.  211 


FROM  RICHMOND  AND  NORFOLK,  VA. 

WILLIAM   B.  WHITE,  SUSAN  BROOKS  AND  WILLIAM  HENRY  ATKINS. — STOWED    AWAY 
IN  THE  STEAMSHIP  CITY  OF  RICHMOND. 

But  for  their  hope  of  liberty,  their  uncomfortable  position  could  hardly 
have  been  endured  by  these  fugitives.  William  had  been  compelled  to  dig 
and  delve,  to  earn  bread  and  butter,  clothing  and  luxuries,  houses  and  land, 
education  and  ease  for  H.  B.  Dickinson,  of  Richmond.  William  smarted 
frequently ;  but  what  could  he  do  ?  Complaint  from  a  slave  was  a  crime 
of  the  deepest  dye.  So  William  dug  away  mutely,  but  continued  to  think, 
nevertheless.  He  was  a  man  of  about  thirty-six  years  of  age,  of  dark  chest- 
nut color,  medium  size,  and  of  pleasant  manners  to  say  the  least.  His 
owner  was  a  tobacco  manufacturer,  who  held  some  thirty  slaves  in  his  own 
right,  besides  hiring  a  great  many  others.  William  was  regularly  em- 
ployed by  day  in  his  master's  tobacco  factory.  He  was  likewise  employed, 
as  one  of  the  carriers  of  the  Richmond  Dispatch;  the  time  allotted  to  fill  the 
duties  of  this  office,  was  however,  before  sunrise  in  the  morning.  It  is 
but  just  to  state,  in  favor  of  his  master,  that  William  was  himself  the  receiver 
of  a  part  of  the  pay  for  this  night  work.  It  was  by  this  means  William 
procured  clothing  and  certain  other  necessaries. 

From  William's  report  of  his  master,  he  was  by  no  means  among  the 
worst  of  slave-holders  in  Richmond  ;  he  did  not  himself  flog,  but  the  over- 
seer was  allowed  to  conduct  this  business,  when  it  was  considered  necessary. 
For  a  long  time  William  had  cherished  a  strong  desire  to  be  free,  and  had 
gone  so  far  on  several  occasions  as  to  make  unsuccessful  attempts  to  accom- 
plish this  end.  At  last  he  was  only  apprised  of  his  opportunity  to  carry 
his  wishes  into  practice  a  few  moments  before  the  hour  for  the  starting  of 
the  Underground  Rail  Road  train. 

Being  on  the  watch,  he  hailed  the  privilege,  and  left  without  looking  back. 

True  he  left  his  wife  and  two  children,  who  were  free,  and  a  son  also 
who  was  owned  by  Warner  Toliver,  of  Gloucester  county,  Va.  We  leave 
the  reader  to  decide  for  himself,  whether  William  did  right  or  wrong,  and 
who  was  responsible  for  the  sorrow  of  both  husband  and  wife  caused  by  the 
husband's  course.  The  Committee  received  him  as  a  true  and  honest  friend 
of  freedom,  and  as  such  aided  him. 


SUSAN  BROOKS. 

Susan  was  also  a  passenger  on  the  same  ship  that  brought  Wm.  B.  White. 
She  was  from  Norfolk.  Her  toil,  body  and  strength  were  claimed  by 
Thomas  Eckels,  Esq.,  a  man  of  wealth  and  likewise  a  man  of  intemperance. 


212  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

With  those  who  regarded  Slavery  as  a  "  divine  institution,"  intemperance 
was  scarcely  a  inote,  in  the  eyes  of  such.  For  sixteen  years,  Susan  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  her  time,  for  which  she  was  required  to  pay  five 
dollars  per  mouth.  As  she  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  good  cook  and 
chambermaid,  she  was  employed  steadily,  sometimes  on  boats.  This  sum 
may  therefore  be  considered  reasonable. 

Owing  to  the  death  of  her  husband,  about  a  year  previous  to  her  escape, 
she  had  suffered  greatly,  so  much  so,  that  on  two  or  three  occasions,  she  had 
fallen  into  alarming  fits, — a  fact  by  no  means  agreeable  to  her  owner,  as  he 
feared  that  the  traders  on  learning  her  failing  health  would  .underrate  her  on 
this  account.  But  Susan  was  rather  thankful  for  these  signs  of  weakness, 
as  she  was  thereby  enabled  to  mature  her  plans  and  thus  to  elude  detection. 

Her  son  having  gone  on  ahead  to  Canada  about  six  months  in  advance  of 
her,  she  felt  that  she  had  strong  ties  in  the  goodly  land.  Every  day  she  re- 
mained in  bondage,  the  cords  bound  her  more  tightly,  and  "  weeks  seemed 
like  months,  and  months  like  years,"  so  abhorrent  had  the  peculiar  institu- 
tion become  to  her  in  every  particular.  In  this  state  of  mind,  she  saw  no 
other  way,  than  by  submitting  to  be  secreted,  until  an  opportunity  should 
offer,  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

So  for  four  months,  like  a  true  and  earnest  woman,  she  endured  a 
great  "  fight  of  affliction,"  in  this  horrible  place.  But  the  thought  of 
freedom  enabled  her  to  keep  her  courage  up,  until  the  glad  news  was 
conveyed  to  her  that  all  things  were  ready,  providing  that  she  could  get 
safely  to  the  boat,  on  which  she  was  to  be  secreted.  How  she  succeeded  in 
so  doing  the  record  book  fails  to  explain. 

One  of  the  methods,  which  used  to  succeed  very  well,  in  skillful  and 
brave  hands,  was  this:  In  order  to  avoid  suspicion,  the  woman  intending 
to  be  secreted,  approached  the  boat  with  a  clean  ironed  shirt  on  her  arm, 
bare  headed  and  in  her  usual  working  dress,  looking  good-natured  of 
course,  and  as  if  she  were  simply  conveying  the  shirt  to  one  of  the  men  on 
the  boat.  The  attention  of  the  officer  on  the  watch  would  not  for  a  mo- 
ment be  attracted  by  a  custom  so  common  as  this.  Thus  safely  on  the 
boat,  the  man  whose  business  it  was  to  put  this  piece  of  property  in  the  most 
safe  Underground  Rail  Road  place,  if  he  saw  that  every  thing  looked 
favorable,  would  quickly  arrange  matters  without  being  missed  from  his 
duties.  In  numerous  instances,  officers  were  outwitted  in  this  way. 

As  to  what  Susan  had  seen  in  the  way  of  hardships,  whether  in  relation 
to  herself  or  others,  her  story  was  most  interesting ;  but  it  may  here  be 
passed  in  order  to  make  room  for  others.  She  left  one  sister,  named 
Mary  Ann  Tharagood,  who  was  wanting  to  come  away  very  much.  Susan 
was  a/  woman  of  dark  color,  round  built,  medium  height,  and  about  forty 
years  of  age  when,  she  escaped  in  1854. 


WILLIAM  HENE  Y  A  TKINS.  213 


WILLIAM  HENRY  ATKINS. 

William  Henry  was  also  a  fellow-passenger  on  the  same  boat  with 
William  B.  White  and  Susan  Cooke.  These  might  be  set  down,  as  first- 
class  Underground  Kail  Eoad  travelers. 

Henry  was  a  very  likely-looking  article.  He  was  quite  smart,  about 
six  feet  high,  a  dark  mulatto,  and  was  owned  by  a  Baptist  minister. 

For  some  cause  not  stated  on  the  books,  not  long  before  leaving, 
Henry  had  received  a  notice  from  his  owner,  (the  Baptist  Minister)  that  he 
might  hunt  himself  a  new  master  as  soon  as  possible.  This  was  a  business 
that  Henry  had  no  relish  for.  The  owner  he  already  had,  he  concluded  bad 
enough  in  all  conscience,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  him  that  hunting  another 
would  mend  the  matter  much.  So  in  thinking  over  the  situation,  he  was 
"  taken  sick."  He  felt  the  need  of  a  little  time  to  reflect  upon  matters  of 
very  weighty  moment  involving  his  freedom.  So  when  he  was  called  upon 
one  day  to  go  to  his  regular  toil,  the  answer  was,  "  I  am  sick,  I  am  not  able 
to  budge  hardly."  The  excuse  took  and  Henry  attended  faithfully  to  his 
"  sick  business,"  for  the  time  being,  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  Baptist 
Minister  waited  patiently  all  the  while  for  William  to  get  well  enough  for 
hunting  a  new  master.  What  had  to  be  done,  needed  to  be  done  quickly, 
before  his  master's  patience  was  exhausted.  William  soon  had  matters  ar- 
ranged for  traveling  North.  He  had  a  wife,  Eliza,  for  whom  he  felt  the 
greatest  aifection;  but  as  he  viewed  matters  at  that  time,  he  concluded  that  he 
could  really  do  more  for  her  in  Canada  than  he  could  in  Norfolk.  He  saw 
no  chance,  either  under  the  Baptist  minister,  or  under  a  new  master.  His 
wife  was  owned  by  Susan  Langely.  When  the  hour  arrived  to  start,  as 
brave  men  usually  do,  Henry,  having  counted  all  the  cost,  was  in  his  place 
on  the  boat  with  his  face  towards  Canada. 

How  he  looked  at  matters  on  John  Bull's  side  of  the  house,  letters  from 
Henry  will  abundantly  reveal  as  follows : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  August  4,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — It  is  with  plesure  that  I  now  take  my  pen  to  inform  you  that  I  am 
well  at  present  and  I  hope  that  these  few  lines  may  find  you  injoying  good  health,  and 
will  you  plese  to  be  so  kind  as  to  send  a  leter  down  home  for  me  if  you  plese  to  my  wife, 
the  reason  that  I  beg  the  favor  of  you  I  have  written  to  you  several  times  and  never 
recieve  no  answer,  she  don't  no  whar  I  am  at  I  would  like  her  to  no,  if  it  is  posible 
elizeran  Actkins,  and  when  you*  write  will  you  plese  to  send  me  all  the  news,  give  my  re- 
spect to  all  the  fambley  and  allso  to  Mr  lundey  and  his  fambley  and  tell  him  plese  to  send 
me  those  books  if  you  plese  the  first  chance  you  can  git.  Mrs.  Wood  sends  her  love  to 
Mr.  Still  answer  this  as  soon  as  on  hand,  the  boys  all  send  their  love  to  all,  the  reason 
why  i  sends  for  a  answer  write  away  i  expect  to  live  this  and  go  up  west  nex  mounth  not 
to  stay  to  git  some  knd,  i  have  no  more  at  present,  i  remain  your  friend. 

W.  H.  ACTKINS. 


214  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ST.  CATHAEINES,  C.  W.,  October  5th,  1854. 

ME.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Dear  Friend: — I  take  the  liberty  to  address  to  you  a  few  lines 
in  behalf  of  my  wife,  who  is  still  at  Norfolk,  Va.  I  have  heard  by  my  friend  Richmond 
Bohm,  who  arrived  lately,  that  she  was  in  the  hands  of  my  friend  Henry  Lovey  (the  same 
who  had  me  in  hand  at  the  time  I  started).  I  understood  that  she  was  about  to  make 
her  start  this  month,  and  that  she  was  only  waiting  for  me  to  send  her  some  means.  I 
would  like  for  you  to  communicate  the  substance  of  this  letter  to  my  wife,  through  my 
friend  Henry  Lovey,  and  for  her  to  come  on  as  soon  as  she  can.  I  would  like  to  have  my 
wife  write  to  me  a  few  lines  by  the  first  opportunity.  She  could  write  to  you  in  Phila- 
delphia, 31  North  Fifth  street.  I  wish  to  send  my  love  to  you  &  your  family  &  would 
like  for  you  to  answer  this  letter  with  the  least  possible  delay  in  the  care  of  Hiram 
Wilson.  Very  respectfully  yours,  W.  H.  ATKINS. 

P.  S.  I  would  like  for  my  friend  Henry  Lovey  to  send  my  wife  right  on  to  Philadel- 
phia; not  to  stop  for  want  of  means,  for  I  will  forward  means  on  to  my  friend  Wm  Still. 
My  love  to  my  father  &  mother,  my  friend  Lovey  &  to  all  my  inquiring  friends.  If  you 
cannot  find  it  convenient  to  write,  please  forward  this  by  the  Boat.  H.  W.  A. 


FOUR  ARRIVALS. 

CHARLOTTE  AND  HARRIET  ESCAPE  IN  DEEP  MOURNING  —  MASTER  IN  THE  SAME 
CAR  HUNTING  FOR  THEM,  SEES  THEM,  BUT  DOES  NOT  KNOW  THEM— WHITE  LADY 
AND  CHILD  WITH  A  COLORED  COACHMAN,  TRAVELING— AT  CHAMBERSBURG  AT 
A  HOTEL,  THE  PROPRIETOR  DETECTS  THEM  AS  U.  G.  R.  R.  PASSENGERS— THREE 
"LIKELY"  YOUNG  MEN  FROM  BALTIMORE — "FOUR  LARGE  AND  TWO  SMALL 
HAMS"  —  POLICE  OFFICER  IMPARTING  INFORMATION  AT  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY 
OFFICE — U.  G.  R.  R.  PASSENGERS  TRAVELING  WITH  THEIR  MASTERS*  HORSES  AND 
CARRIAGES — "BREAK  DOWN  "—CONFLICT  WITH  WHITE  MEN  — SIX  PASSENGERS 
BIDING  TWO  HORSES,  &C. 

About  the  31st  of  May,  1856,  an  exceedingly  anxious  state  of  feeling 
existed  with  the  active  Committee  in  Philadelphia.  In  the  course  of 
twenty-four  hours  four  arrivals  had  come  to  hand  from  different  localities. 
The  circumstances  connected  with  the  escape  of  each  party,  being  so  unusu- 
al, there  was  scarcely  ground  for  any  other  conclusion  than  that  disaster  was 
imminent,  if  not  impossible  to  be  averted. 

It  was  a  day  long  to  be  remembered.  Aside  from  the  danger,  however, 
a  more  encouraging  hour  had  never  presented  itself  in  the  history  of  the 
Road.  The  courage,  which  had  so  often  been  shown  in  the  face  of  great 
danger,  satisfied  the  Committee  that  there  were  heroes  and  heroines  among 
these  passengers,  fully  entitled  to  the  applause  of  the  liberty-loving  citizens 
of  Brotherly  Love.  The  very  idea  of  having  to  walk  for  days  and  nights 
in  succession,  over  strange  roads,  through  by-ways,  and  valleys,  over  moun- 
tains, and  marshes,  was  fitted  to  appal  the  bravest  hearts,  especially  where 
women  and  children  were  concerned. 

Being   familiar  with   such  cases,  the   Committee  was  delighted   beyond 


FOUR  ARRIVALS. 


215 


measure  to  observe  how  wisely  and  successfully  each  of  these  parties  had 
managed  to  overcome  these  difficulties. 

-& K & -  "/    I-         K  \i  Party  No.  1 

consisted  of 
Charlotte  Giles 
and  Harriet 
Eglin,  owned 
by  Capt.  Wm. 
Applegarth 
and  John  Dela- 
hay.  Neither 
of  these  girls 
had  any  great 
complaint  to 
make  on  the 
score  of  ill- 
treatment  en- 
dured. 

So  they  contrived  each  to  get  a  suit  of  mourning,  with  heavy  black  veil?, 
and  thus  dressed,  apparently  absorbed  with  grief,  with  a  friend  to  pass  them 
to  the  Baltimore  depot  (hard  place  to  pass,  except  aided  by  an  individual 
well  known  to  the.  R.  R.  company),  they  took  a  direct  course  for  Philadelphia. 
While  seated  in  the  car,  before  leaving  Baltimore  (where  slaves  and  mas- 
ters both  belonged),  who  should  enter  but  the  master  of  one  of  the  girls ! 
In  a  very  excited  manner,  he  hurriedly  approached  Charlotte  and  Harriet, 
who  were  apparently  weeping.  Peeping  under  their  veils,  "  What  is  your 
name,"  exclaimed  the  excited  gentleman.  "  Mary,  sir,"  sobbed  Charlotte. 
"What  is  your  name?"  (to  the  other  mourner)  "Lizzie,  sir,"  was  the  faint 
reply.  On  rushed  the  excited  gentleman  as  if  moved  by  steam — through  the 
cars,  looking  for  his  property ;  not  finding  it,  he  passed  out  of  the  cars,  and 
to  the  delight  of  Charlotte  and  Harriet  soon  disappeared.  Fair  business 
men  would  be  likely  to  look  at  this  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  two  girls  in 
the  light  of  a  "  sharp  practice."  In  military  parlance  it  might  be  regarded 
as  excellent  strategy.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers  arrived  safely  at  the  Philadelphia  station  and  were  gladly  received. 
A  brief  stay  in  the  city  was  thought  prudent  lest  the  hunters  might  be  on 
the  pursuit.  They  were,  therefore,  retained  in  safe  quarters. 

In  the  meantime,  Arrival  No.  2  reached  the  Committee.  It  consisted  of 
a  colored  man,  a  white  woman  and  a  child,  ten  years  old.  This  case  created 
no  little  surprise.  Not  that  quite  a  number  of  passengers,  fair  enough  to 
pass  for  white,  with  just  a  slight  tinge  of  colored  blood  in  their  veins,  even 
sons  and  daughters  of  some  of  the  F.  F.  V.,  had  not  on  various  occasions 
come  over  the  U.  G.  R.  R.  But  this  party  was  peculiar.  An  explanation  was 


216  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sought,  which  resulted  in  ascertaining  that  the  party  was  from  Leesburg, 
Virginia ;  that  David,  the  colored  man,  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age, 
intelligent,  and  was  owned,  or  claimed  by  Joshua  Pusey.  David  had  no 
taste  for  Slavery,  indeed,  felt  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  adapt 
himself  to  a  life  of  servitude  for  the  special  benefit  of  others ;  he  had,  al- 
ready, as  he  thought,  been  dealt  with  very  wrongfully  by  Pusey,  who  had 
deprived  him  of  many  years  of  the  best  part  of  his  life,  and  would  continue 
thus  to  wrong  him,  if  he  did  not  make  a  resolute  effort  to  get  away.  So 
after  thinking  of  various  plans,  he  determined  not  to  run  off  as  a  slave  with 
his  "  budget  on  his  back,"  but  to  "  travel  as.  a  coachman,"  under  the  "  pro- 
tection of  a  white  lady."  In  planning  this  pleasant  scheme,  David  was  not 
blind  to  the  fact  that  neither  himself  nor  the  "  white  lady,"  with  whom  he 
proposed  to  travel,  possessed  either  horse  or  carriage. 


But  his  master  happened  to  have  a  vehicle  that  would  answer  for  the  oc- 
casion. David  reasoned  that  as  Joshua,  his  so  called  master,  had  deprived 
him  of  his  just  dues  for  so  many  years,  he  had  a  right  to  borrow,  or  take 
without  borrowing,  one  of  Joshua's  horses  for  the  expedition.  The  plan  was 
submitted  to  the  lady,  and  was  approved,  and  a  mutual  understanding  here 
entered  into,  that  she  should  hire  a  carriage,  and  take  also  her  little  girl 
with  them.  The  lady  was  to  assume  the  proprietorship  of  the  horse,  car- 
riage and  coachman.  In  so  doing  all  dangers  would  be,  in  their  judgment, 
averted.  The  scheme  being  all  ready  for  execution,  the  time  for  departure 
was  fixed,  the  carriage  hired,  David  having  secured  his  master  Joshua's  horse, 
and  off  they  started  in  the  direction  of  Pennsylvania.  White  people  being 
so  accustomed  to  riding,  and  colored  people  to  driving,  the  party  looked  all 


FOUR  ARRIVALS.  217 

right.  No  one  suspected  them,  that  they  were  aware  of,  while  passing 
through  Virginia. 

On  reaching  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  in  the  evening,  they  drove  to  a  hotel, 
the  lady  alighted,  holding  by  the  hand  her  well  dressed  and  nice-looking 
little  daughter,  bearing  herself  with  as  independent  an  air  as  if  she  had  owned 
twenty  such  boys  as  accompanied  her  as  coachman.  She  did  not  hesitate  to 
enter  and  request  accommodations  for  the  night,  for  herself,  daughter,  coach- 
man, and  horse.  Being  politely  told  that  they  could  be  accommodated,  all 
that  was  necessary  was,  that  the  lady  should  show  off  to  the  best  advantage 
possible.  The  same  duty  also  rested  with  weight  upon  the  mind  of  David. 

The  night  passed  safely  and  the  morning  was  ushered  in  with  bright  hopes 
which  were  overcast  but  only  for  a  moment,  however.  Breakfast  having  been 
ordered  and  partaken  of,  to  the  lady's  surprise,  just  as  she  was  in  the  act  of 
paying  the  bill,  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel  intimated  that  he  thought  that 
matters  "  looked  a  little  suspicious,"  in  other  words,  he  said  plainly,  that  he 
"  believed  that  it  was  an  Underground  Rail  Road  movement ; "  but  being 
an  obliging  hotel-keeper,  he  assured  her  at  the  same  time,  that  he  u  would 
not  betray  them."  Just  here  it  was  with  them  as  it  would  have  been  on  any 
other  rail  road  when  things  threaten  to  come  to  a  stand ;  they  could  do  no- 
thing more  than  make  their  way  out  of  the  peril  as  best  they  could.  One 
thing  they  decided  to  do  immediately,  namely,  to  "  leave  the  horse  and  car- 
riage," and  try  other  modes  of  travel. .  They  concluded  to  take  the  regular 
passenger  cars.  In  this  way  they  reached  Philadelphia.  In  Harrisburg, 
they  had  sought  and  received  instructions  how  to  find  the  Committee  in 
Philadelphia. 

What  relations  had  previously  existed  between  David  and  this  lady  iu 
Virginia,  the  Committee  knew  not.  It  looked  more  like  the  time  spoken 
of  in  Isaiah,  where  it  is  said,  "  And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them,"  than 
any  thing  that  had  ever  been  previously  witnessed  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  The  Underground  Rail  Road  never  practised  the  proscription 
governing  other  roads,  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition. 
All  were  welcome  to  its  immunities,  white  or  colored,  when  the  object  to  be 
gained  favored  freedom,  or  weakened  Slavery.  As  the  sole  aim  apparent 
in  this  case  was  freedom  for  the  slave  the  Committee  received  these  travellers 
as  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers. 

Arrival  No.  3.  Charles  H.  Ringold,  Robert  Smith,  and  John  Henry 
Richards,  all  from  Baltimore.  Their  ages  ranged  from  twenty  to  twenty-four 
years.  They  were  in  appearance  of  the  class  most  inviting  to  men  who  were 
in  the  business  of  buying  and  selling  slaves.  Charles  and  John  were  owned 
by  James  Hodges,  and  Robert  by  Wm.  H.  Normis,  living  in  Baltimore. 
This  is  all  that  the  records  contain  of  them.  The  exciting  and  hurrying 
times  when  they  were  in  charge  of  the  Committee  probably  forbade  the 
writing  out  of  a  more  detailed  account  of  them,  as  was  often  the  case. 


218  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

With  the  above  three  arrivals  on  hand,  it  may  be  seen  ho\v  great  was 
the  danger  to  which  all  concerned  were  exposed  on  account  of  the  bold  and 
open  manner  in  which  these  parties  had  escaped  from  the  land  of  the  peculiar 
institution.  Notwithstanding,  a  feeling  of  very  great  gratification  existed  in 
view  of  the  success  attending  the  new  and  adventurous  modes  of  travelino-. 

o  o 

Indulging  in  reflections  of  this  sort,  the  writer  on  going  from  his  dinner  that 
day  to  the  anti-slavery  office,  to  his  surprise  found  an  officer  awaiting  his 
coming.  Said  officer  was  of  the  mayor's  police  force.  Before  many  moments 
had  been  allowed  to  pass,  in  which  to  conjecture  his  errand,  the  officer, 
evidently  burdened  with  the  importance  of  his  mission,  began  to  state  his 
business  substantially  as  follows : 

"I  have  just  received  a  telegraphic  despatch  from  a  slave-holder  living 
in  Maryland,  informing  me  that  six  slaves  had  escaped  from  him,  and  that 
he  had  reason  to  believe  that  they  were  on  their  way  to  Philadelphia,  and 
would  come  in  the  regular  train  direct  from  Harrisburg ;  furthermore  I  am 
requested  to  be  at  the  depot  on  the  arrival  of  the  train  to  arrest  the  whole 
party,  for  whom  a  reward  of  $1300  is  offered.  Now  I  am  not  the  man  for 
this  business.  I  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  contemptible  work  of 
arresting  fugitives.  I'd  rather  help  them  off.  What  I  am  telling  you  is 
confidential.  My  object  in  coming  to  the  office  is  simply  to  notify  the 
Vigilance  Committee  so  that  they  may  be  on  the  look-out  for  them  at  the 
depot  this  evening  and  get  them  out  of  danger  as  soon  as  possible.  This  is 
the  way  I  feel  about  them  ;  but  I  shall  telegraph  back  that  I  will  be  on  the 
look-out." 

While  the  officer  was  giving  this  information  he  was  listened  to  most 
attentively,  and  every  word  he  uttered  was  carefully  weighed.  An  air  of 
truthfulness,  however,  was  apparent ;  nevertheless  he  was  a  stranger  and 
there  was  cause  for  great  cautiousness.  During  the  interview  an  unopened 
telegraphic  despatch  which  had  come  to  hand  during  the  writer's  absence, 
lay  on  the  desk.  Impressed  with  the  belief  that  it  might  shed  light  on 
the  officer's  story,  the  first  opportunity  that  offered,  it  was  seized,  opened, 
and  it  read  as  follows :  (Copied  from  the  original.) 

HARBISBTTKG,  May  31st,  1856. 

WM.  STILL,  N.  5th  St. : — I  have  sent  via  at  two  o'clock  four  large  and  two  small  hams. 

Jos.  C.  BUSTILL. 

Here  there  was  no  room  for  further  doubt,  but  much  need  for  vigilance. 
Although  the  despatch  was  not  read  to  the  officer,  not  that  his  story  was 
doubted,  but  purely  for  prudential  reasons,  he  was  nevertheless  given  to 
understand,  that  it  was  about  the  same  party,  and  that  they  would  be  duly 
looked  after.  It  would  hardly  have  been  understood  by  the  officer,  had  he 
been  permitted  to  read  it,  so  guardedly  was  it  worded,  it  was  indeed  dead 
language  to  all  save  the  initiated.  In  one  particular  especially,  relative  to 


FOUR  ARRIVALS.  219 

the  depot  where  they  were  expected  to  arrive,  the  officer  was  in  the  dark,  as 
his  despatch  pointed  to  the  regular  train,  and  of  course  to  the  depot  at 
Eleventh  and  Market  streets.     The  Underground  Rail  Road  despatch  on 
.the  contrary  pointed  to  Broad  and  Callowhill  streets  "Via,"  i.  e.  Reading. 

As  notified,  that  evening  the  "  four  large  and  two  small  hams "  arrived, 
and  turned  out  to  be  of  the  very  finest  quality,  just  such  as  any  trader  would  ; 
have  paid  the  highest  market  price  for.  Being  mindful  of  the  great  danger 
of  the  hour,  there  was  felt  to  be  more  occasion  just  then  for  anxiety  and 
watchfulness,  than  for  cheering  and  hurrahing  over  the  brave  passengers.  To 
provide  for  them  in  the  usual  manner,  in  view  of  the  threatening  aspect  of 
aifairs,  could  not  be  thought  of.  In  this  critical  hour  it  devolved  upon  a 
member  of  the  Committee,  for  the  safety  of  all  parties,  to  find  new  and  separate 
places  of  accommodation,  especially  for  the  six  known  to  be  pursued.  To  be 
stored  in  other  than  private  families  would  not  answer.  Three  or  four  such 
were  visited  at  once;  after  learning  of  the  danger  much  sympathy  was 
expressed,  but  one  after  another  made  excuses  and  refused.  This  was  pain- 
ful, for  the  parties  had  plenty  of  house  room,  were  identified  with  the 
oppressed  race,  and  on  public  meeting  occasions  made  loud  professions  of 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  fugitive,  &c.  The  memory  of  the  hour  and 
circumstances  is  still  fresh. 

Accommodations  were  finally  procured  for  a  number  of  the  fugitives 
with  a  widow  woman,  (Ann  Laws)  whose  opportunities  for  succor  were 
far  less  than  at  the  places  where  refusals  had  been  met  with.  But  Mrs.  L. 
was  kind-hearted,  and  nobly  manifested  a  willingness  to  do  all  that  she 
could  for  their  safety.  Of  course  the  Committee  felt  bound  to  bear  what- 
ever expense  might  necessarily  be  incurred.  Here  some  of  the  passen- 
gers were  kept  for  several  days,  strictly  private,  long  enough  to  give  the 
slave-hunters  full  opportunity  to  tire  themselves,  and  give  up  the  chase 
in  despair.  Some  belonging  to  the  former  arrivals  had  also  to  be  simi- 
larly kept  for  the  same  reasons.  Through  careful  management  all  were 
succored  and  cared  for.  Whilst  much  interesting  information  was  ob- 
tained from  these  several  arrivals:  the  incidents  connected  with  their 
lives  in  Slavery,  and  when  escaping  were  but  briefly  written  out.  Of  this 
fourth  arrival,  however,  the  following  intelligence  will  doubtless  be  highly 
gratifying  to  the  friends  of  freedom,  wherever  the  labors  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  may  be  appreciated.  The  people  round  about  Hagerstown,  Mary- 
land, may  like  to  know  how  these  "  articles "  got  off  so  successfully,  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  escape  having  doubtless  created  some  excitement  in  that 
region  of  the  country. 

Arrival  No.  4.     Charles  Bird,  George  Dorsey,  Angeline  Brown,  Albert 
Brown,  Charles  Brown  and  Jane  Scott. 

CHARLES  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  quite  dark,  of  quick  motion,  and 
ready  speech,  and  in  every  way  appearing  as  though  he  could  take  care  of 


220 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


himself.  He  had  occupied  the  condition  of  a  farm  laborer.  This  call- 
ing he  concluded  to  forsake,  not  because  he  disliked  farming,  but  simply 
to  get  rid  of  David  Clargart,  who  professed  to  own  him,  and  compelled 
him  to  work  without  pay,  "for  nothing."  While  Charles  spoke  favor- 
ably of  Clargart  as  a  man,  to  the  extent,  at  all  events,  of  testifying  that 
he  was  not  what  was  called  a  hard  man,  nevertheless  Charles  was  so 
decidedly  opposed  to  Slavery  that  he  felt  compelled  to  look  out  for  himself. 
Serving  another  man  on  the  no  pay  principle,  at  the  same  time  liable  to  be 
flogged,  and  sold  at  the  pleasure  of  another,  Charles  felt  was  worse  than 
heathenish  viewed  in  any  light  whatsoever.  He  was  prepared  therefore,  to 
leave  without  delay.  He  had  four  sisters  in  the  hands  of  Clargart,  but  what 
could  he  do  for  them  but  leave  them  to  Providence. 

The  next  on  the  list  was  GEORGE  DORSEY,  a  comrade  of  Charles.  He  was 
a  young  man,  of  medium  size,  mixed  blood,  intelligent,  and  a  brave  fellow 
as  will  appear  presently. 


This  party  in  order  to  get  over  the  road  as  expeditiously  as  possible,  avail- 
ed themselves  of  their  master's  horses  and  wagon  and  moved  off  civilly  and 
respectably.  About  nine  miles  from  home  on  the  road,  a  couple  of  white 
men,  finding  their  carriage  broken  down  approached  them,  unceremoniously 
seized  the  horses  by  the  reins  and  were  evidently  about  to  assume  authority, 
supposing  that  the  boys  would  surrender  at  once.  But  instead  of  so  doing, 
the  boys  struck  away  at  them  with  all  their  might,  with  their  large  clubs, 
not  even  waiting  to  hear  what  these  superior  individuals  wanted.  The 


FOUR  ARRIVALS.  221 

effect  of  the  clubs  brought  them  prostrate  in  the  road,  in  an  attitude  resem- 
bling two  men  dreaming,  (it  was  in  the  night.)  The  victorious  passengers, 
seeing  that  the  smashed  up  carriage  could  be  of  no  further  use  to  them,  quick- 
ly conceived  the  idea  of  unhitching  and  attempting  further  pursuit  on  horse- 
back. Each  horse  was  required  to  carry  three  passengers.  So  up  they  mount- 
ed and  off  they  galloped  with  the  horses'  heads  turned  directly  towards  Pennsyl- 
vania. No  further  difficulty  presented  itself  until  after  they  had  traveled  some 
forty  miles.  Here  the  poor  horses  broke  down,  and  had  to  be  abandoned. 
The  fugitives  were  hopeful,  but  of  the  difficulties  ahead  they  wot  not;  surely  no 
flowery  beds  of  ease  awaited  them.  For  one  whole  week  they  were  obliged 
to  fare  as  they  could,  out  in  the  woods,  over1  the  mountains,  &c.  How  they 
overcame  the  trials  in  this  situation  we  cannot  undertake  to  describe.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  at  the  end  of  the  time  above  mentioned  they  managed  to  reach 
Harrisburg  and  found  assistance  as  already  intimated. 

GEORGE  and  Angeline,  (who  was  his  sister)  with  her  two  boys  had  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  white  blood  in  their  veins,  and  belonged  to  a  wealthy 
man  by  the  name  of  George  Schaeffer,  who  was  in  the  milling  business. 
They  were  of  one  mind  in  representing  him  as  a  hard  man.  "  He 
would  often  threaten  to  sell,  and  was  very  hard  to  please."  George  and, 
Angeline  left  their  mother  and  ten  brothers  and  sisters. 

JAXE  was  a  well-grown  girl,  smart,  and  not  bad-looking,  with  a  fine 
brown  skin,  and  was  also  owned  by  Schaeffer. 

Letters  from  the  enterprising  Charlotte  and  Harriet  (arrival  No.  1), 
brought  the  gratifying  intelligence,  that  they  had  found  good  homes  in 
Western  New  York,  and  valued  their  freedom  highly.  Three  out  of  quite  a 
number  of  letters  received  from  them  from  time  to  time  are  subjoined. 

SENNETT,  June,  1856. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — Dear  Sir : — I  am  happy  to  tell  you  that  Charlotte  Gildes  and 
myself  have  got  along  thus  far  safely.  We  have  had  no  trouble  and  found  friends  all  the 
way  along,  for  which  we  feel  very  thankful  to  you  and  to  all  our  friends  on  the  road  since 
we  left.  We  reached  Mr.  Loguen's  in  Syracuse,  on  last  Tuesday  evening  &  on  Wednes- 
day two  gentlemen  from  this  community  called  and  we  went  with  them  to  work  in  their 
families.  What  I  wish  you  would  do  is  to  be  so  kind  as  to  send  our  clothes  to  this  place 
if  they  should  fall  into  your  hands.  We  hope  our  uncle  in  Baltimore  will  get  the  letter 
Charlotte  wrote  to  him  last  Sabbath,  while  we  were  at  your  house,  concerning  the  clothes. 
Perhaps  the  best  would  be  to  send  them  to  Syracuse  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Loguen  and  he 
will  send  them  to  us.  This  will  more  certainly  ensure  our  getting  them.  If  you  hear 
anything  that  would  be  interesting  to  Charlotte  or  me  from  Baltimore,  please  direct  a 
letter  to  us  to  this  place,  to  the  care  of  Revd.  Chas.  Anderson,  Sennett,  Cayuga  Co., 
N.  Y.  Please  give  my  love  and  Charlotte's  to  Mrs.  Still  and  thank  her  for  her  kindness 
to  us  while  at  your  house.  Your  affectionate  friend, 

HARRIET  EGLIN. 


.  222  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

SECOND  LETTER. 

BENNETT,  July  31st,  18o6. 

ME.  WM.  STILL: — My  Dear  Friend: — I  have  just  received  your  note  of  29th  insl.  and 
allow  me  dear  sir,  to  assure  you  that  the  only  letter  I  have  written,  is  the  one  vou 
received,  an  answer  to  which  you  sent  me.  I  never  wrote  to  Baltimore,  nor  did  any 
person  write  for  me  there,  and  it  is  with  indescribable  grief,  that  I  hear  what  your  letter 
communicates  to  me,  of  those  who  you  say  have  gotten  into  difficulty  on  my  account. 
My  Cousin  Charlotte  who  came  with  me,  got  into  a  good  place  in  this  vicinity,  but  she 
could  not  content  herself  to  stay  here  but  just  one  week — she  then  went  to  Canada — and 
she  is  the  one  who  by  writing  (if  any  one),  has  brought  this  trouble  upon  those  to  whom 
you  refer  in  Baltimore. 

She  has  written  me  two  letters  from  Canada,  and  by  neither  of  them  can  I  ascertain 
where  she  lives — her  letters  are  mailed  at  Suspension  Bridge,  but  she  does  not  live  there 
as  her  letters  show.  In  the  first  she  does  not  even  sign  her  name.  She  has  evidently 
employed  some  person  to  write,  who  is  nearly  as  ignorant  as  herself.  If  I  knew  where  to 
find  her  I  would  find  out  what  she  has  written. 

f  I  don't  know  but  she  has  told  where  I  live,  and  may  yet  get  me  and  my  friends  here, 
in  trouble  too,  as  she  has  some  in  other  places.  I  don't  wish  to  have  you  trouble  your- 
self about  my  clothes,  I  am  in  a  place  where  I  can  get  all  the  clothes  I  want  or  need. 
Will  you  please  write  me  when  convenient  and  tell  me  what  you  hear  about  those  who  I 
fear  are  suffering  as  the  result  of  their  kindness  to  me?  May  God,  in  some  way,  grant 
them  deliverance.  Oh  the  misery,  the  sorrow,  which  this  cursed  system  of  Slavery  is  con- 
stantly bringing  upon  millions  in  this  land  of  boasted  freedom  1 

Can  you  tell  me  where  Sarah  King  is,  who  was  at  your  house  when  I  was  there?  She 
was  going  to  Canada  to  meet  her  husband.  Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Still  &  accept  the  same 
yourself.  Your  much  indebted  &  obliged  friend,  HARRIET  EGLIN. 

The  "difficulty"  about  which  Harriet  expressed  so  much  regret  in  the 
above  letter,  had  reference  to  a  letter  supposed  to  have  been  written 
by  her  friend  Charlotte  to  Baltimore  about  her  clothing  It  had  been 
intercepted,  and  in  this  way,  a  clue  was  obtained  by  one  of  the  owners  as  to 
how  they  escaped,  who  aided/  them,  etc.  On  the  strength  of  the  informa- 
tion thus  obtained,  a  well-known  colored  man,  named  Adams,  was  straight- 
way arrested  and  put  in  prison  at  the  instance  of  one  of  the  owners,  and  also 
a  suit  was  at  the  same  time  instituted  against  the  Rail  Road  Company  for 
damages — by  which  steps  quite  a  huge  excitement  was  created  in  Baltimore. 
As  to  the  colored  man  Adams,  the  prospect  looked  simply  hopeless.  Many 
hearts  were  sad  in  view  of  the  doom  which  they  feared  would  fall  upon  him 
for  obeying  a  humane  impulse  (he  had  put  the  girls  on  the  cars).  But  with 
the  Rail  Road  Company  it  was  a  different  matter ;  they  had  money, 
power,  friends,  etc.,  and  could  defy  the  courts.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  months,  when  the  suit  against  Adams  and  the  Rail  Road  Company 
came  up,  the  Rail  Road  Company  proved  in  court,  in  defense,  that  the  pros- 
ecutor entered  the  cars  in  search  of  his  runaway,  and  went  and  spoke  to  the 
two  young  women  in  "mourning"  the  day  they  escaped,  looking  expressly 
for  the  identical  parties,  for  which  he  was  seeking  damages  before  the  court, 
and  that  he  declared  to  the  conductor,  on  leaving  the  cars,  that  the  said  "two 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  223 

girls  in  mourning,  were  not  the  ones  he  was  looking  after,"  or  in  other 
words,  that  "  neither  "  belonged  to  him.  This  positive  testimony  satisfied  the 
jury,  and  the  Rail  Road  Company  and  poor  James  Adams  escaped  by  the 
verdict  not  guilty.  The  owner  of  the  lost  property  had  the  costs  to  pay  of 
course,  but  whether  he  was  made  a  wiser  or  better  man  by  the  operation  was 
never  ascertained. 

THIRD  LETTER. 

SENNETT,  October  28th,  1856. 

DEAR  ME.  STILL: — I  am  happy  to  tell  you  that  I  am  well  and  happy.  I  still  live 
with  Rev.  Mr.  Anderson  in  this  place,  I  am  learning  to  read  and  write.  I  do  not  like  to 
trouble  you  too  much,  but  I  would  like  to  know  if  you  have  heard  anything  more  about 
my  friends  in  Baltimore  who  got  into  trouble  on  our  account.  Do  be  pleased  to  write  me 
if  you  can  give  me  any  information  about  them.  I  feel  bad  that  they  should  suffer  for 
me.  I  wish  all  my  brethren  and  sisters  in  bondage,  were  as  well  off  as  I  am.  The  girl 
that  came  with  me  is  in  Canada,  near  the  Suspension  Bridge.  I  was  glad  to  see  Green 
Murdock,  a  colored  young  man,  who  stopped  at  your  house  about  six  weeks  ago,  he  knew 
my  folks  at  the  South.  He  has  got  into  a  good  place  to  work  in  this  neighborhood. 
Give  my  love  to  Mrs  Still,  and  believe  me  your  obliged  friend,  HARRIET  EGLIN. 

P.  S.  I  would  like  to  know  what  became  of  Johnson,*  the  man  whose  foot  was 
smashed  by  jumping  off  the  cars,  he  was  at  your  house  when  I  was  there.  H.  E. 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  NORTH  CARO- 
LINA, WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

JAMES  BURRELL,  DANIEL  WIGGINS,  WM.  ROBINSON,  EDWARD  PEADEN,  AND  WIFE, 
ALEX.  BOGGS,  SAMUEL  STATER,  HARRISON  BELL  AND  DAUGHTER,  HARRIET  ANN, 
DANIEL  DAVIS,  alias  DAVID  SMITH,  JAMES  STEWART,  alias  WILLIAM  JACKSON, 
HARRIET  HALEY,  alias  ANN  RICHARDSON,  BENJ.  DUNCANS,  alias  GEORGE  SCOTT, 
MOSES  WINES,  SARAH  SMITH,  alias  MILDRETH  PAGE,  LUCY  GARRETT,  alias  JULIA 
WOOD,  ELLEN  FORMAN,  alias  ELIZABETH  YOUNG,  WM.  WOODEN,  alias  WM.  NEL- 
SON, JAMES  EDWARD  HANDY,  alias  DENNIS  CANNON,  JAMES  HENRY  DELANY 

alias  SMART   STANLEY,  JAMES    HENRY  BLACKSON,  GEORGE   FREELAND,   MILES 

WHITE,  LOUISA  CLAYTON,  LEWIS  SNOWDEN,  alias  LEWIS  WILLIAMS,  WM.  JOHNSON, 
JOHN  HALL  alias  JOHN  SIMPSON. 

In  order  to  keep  this  volume  within  due  limits,  in  the  cases  to  be  noticed 
in  this  chapter,  it  will  be  impossible  to  state  more  than  a  few  of  the  interest- 
ing particulars  that  make  up  these  narratives.  While  some  of  these  passen- 
gers might  not  have  been  made  in  the  prison  house  to  drink  of  the  bitter 
cup  as  often  as  others,  and  in  their  flight  might  not  have  been  called  upon 
to  pass  through  as  severe  perils  as  fell  to  the  lot  of  others,  nevertheless 

*  Johnson  was  an  unfortunate  young  fugitive,  who,  while  escaping,  beheld  his  master  or  pursuer  in 
the  cars,  and  jumped  therefrom,  crushing  his  feet  shockingly  by  the  bold  act. 


224  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

justice  seems  to  require,  that,  as  far  as  possible,  all  the  passengers  passing 
over  the  Philadelphia  Underground  Rail  Road  shall  be  noticed. 

JAMES  BURRELL.  James  was  certainly  justifiable  in  making  his  escape, 
if  for  no  other  reason  than  on  the  score  of  being  nearly  related  to  the  chi- 
valry of  the  South.  He  was  a  mulatto  (the  son  of  a  white  man  evidently), 
about  thirty-two  years  of  age,  medium  size,  and  of  an  agreeable  appear- 
ance. He  was  owned  by  a  maiden  lady,  who  lived  at  Williamsburg,  but  not 
requiring  his  services  in  her  own  family,  she  hired  him  out  by  the  year 
to  a  Mr.  John  Walker,  a  manufacturer  of  tobacco,  for  which  she  received 
$120  annually.  This  arrangement  was  not  satisfactory  to  James.  He  could 
not  see  why  he  should  be  compelled  to  wear  the  yoke  like  an  ox.  The  more 
he  thought  over  his  condition,  the  more  unhappy  was  his  lot,  until  at  last 
he  concluded,  that  he  could  not  stand  Slavery  any  longer.  He  had  wit- 
nessed a  great  deal  of  the  hardships  of  the  system  of  Slavery,  and  he  had 
quite  enough  intelligence  to  portray  the  horrors  thereof  in  very  vivid 
colors.  It  was  the  auction-block  horror  that  first  prompted  him  to  seek  free- 
dom. While  thinking  how  he  would  manage  to  get  away  safely,  his  wife 
and  children  were  ever  present  in  his  mind.  He  felt  as  a  husband  should 
towards  his  "  wife  Betsy,"  and  likewise  loved  his  "  children,  Walter  and 
Mary  ;"  but  these  belonged  to  another  man,  who  lived  some  distance  in  the 
country,  where  he  had  permission  to  see  them  only  once  a  week.  This  had  its 
pleasure,  it  also  had  its  painful  influence.  The  weekly  partings  were  a  never- 
failing  source  of  unhappiness.  So  when  James'  mind  was  fully  made  up  to 
escape  from  Slavery,  he  decided  that  it  would  not  be  best  to  break  the  secret 
to  his  poor  wife  and  children,  but  to  get  off  to  Canada,  and  afterwards  to  try 
and  see  what  he  could  do  for  their  deliverance.  The  hour  fixed  to  leave  Vir- 
ginia arrived,  and  he  started  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Philadelphia,  and  the 
Committee.  On  arriving  he  needed  medicine,  clothing,  food,  and  a  carriage 
for  his  accommodation,  all  which  were  furnished  freely  by  the  Committee, 
and  he  was  duly  forwarded  to  Canada.  From  Canada,  with  his  name 
changed,  he  wrote  as  follows: 

TORONTO,  March  28th,  1854. 

SIR,  MR.  STILL — It  does  me  pleasure  to  forward  you  this  letter  hopeing  when  this  comes 
to  hand  it  may  find  your  family  well,  as  they  leaves  me  at  present.  1  will  also  say  that 
the  friends  are  well.  Allow  me  to  say  to  you  that  I  arrived  in  this  place  on  Friday  last 
safe  and  sound,  and  feeles  well  under  my  safe  arrival.  Its  true  that  I  have  not  been  em- 
ployed as  yet  but  I  lives  hopes  to  be  at  work  very  shortly.  I  likes  this  city  very  well, 
and  I  am  in  hopes  that  there  a  living  here  for  me  as  much  so  as  there  for  any  one  else. 
You  will  be  please  to  write.  I  am  bording  at  Mr.  Phillip's  Centre  Street. 

I  have  nothing  more  at  present.     Yours  most  respectfull.  W.  BOURAL. 

DANIEL  WIGGINS,  alias  DANIEL  ROBINSON.  Daniel  fled  from  Norfolk, 
Va.,  where  he  had  been  owned  by  the  late  Richard  Scott.  Only  a  few  days 
before  Daniel  escaped,  his  so-called  owner  was  summoned  to  his  last  account. 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  225 

While  ill,  just  before  the  close  of  his  career,  he  often  promised  D.  his  free- 
dom and  also  promised,  if  restored,  that  he  would  make  amends  for  the 
past,  by  changing  his  ways  of  living.  His  son,  who  was  very  reckless,  he 
would  frequently  allude  to  and  declared,  "  that  he,"  the  son,  "  should  not 
have  his  '  property.'  "  These  dying  sentiments  filled  Daniel  with  great  hopes 
that  the  day  of  his  enslavement  was  nearly  at  an  end.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, death  visited  the  old  master,  ere  he  had  made  provision  for  his  slaves. 
At  all  events,  no  will  was  found.  That  he  might  not  fall  a  prey  to  the 
reckless  son,  he  felt,  that  he  -must  nerve  himself  for  a  desperate  struggle 
to  obtain  his  freedom  in  some  other  way,  by  traveling  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  While  he  had  always  been  debarred  from  book  learning,  he 
was,  nevertheless,  a  man  of  some  intelligence,  and  by  trade  was  a  practical 
Corker. 

He  was  called  upon  in  this  trying  hour  to  leave  his  wife  with  three  chil- 
dren, but  they  were,  fortunately,  free.  Coming  to  the  Committee  in  want, 
they  cheerfully  aided  him,  and  forwarded  him  on  to  Canada.  Thence, 
immediately  on  his  arrival,  he  returned  the  following  grateful  letter : 

NEW  BEDFORD,  Mass.,  March  22d,  1851. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  I  arrived  in  this  place  this  morning  well 
and  cheerful.  I  am,  sir,  to  you  and  others  under  more  obligations  for  your  kindly  protec- 
tion of  me  than  I  can  in  any  way  express  at  present.  May  the  Lord  preserve  you  unto 
eternal  life.  Remember  my  respects  to  Mr.  Lundy  and  family.  Should  the  boat  lay  up 
please  let  me  know.  Yours  respectfully,  DAVID  ROBINSON. 

Please  forward  to  Dr.  H.  Lundy,  after  you  have  gotten  through.     With  respects,  &c. 

D.  R. 

WM.  ROBINSON,  alias  THOS.  HAEEED.  William  gave  satisfactory  evi- 
dence, at  first  sight,  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  unrequited  labor  system 
in  toto,  and  even  hated  still  more  the  flogging  practices  of  the  chivalry. 
Although  he  had  reached  his  twenty-eighth  year,  and  was  a  truly  fair 
specimen  of  his  race,  considering  his  opportunities,  a  few  days  before 
William  left,  the  overseer  on  the  plantation  attempted  to  flog  him,  but 
did  not  succeed.  William's  manhood  was  aroused,  and  he  flogged  the 
overseer  soundly,  if  what  he  averred  was  true.  The  name  of  William's 
owner  was  John  G.  Beale,  Esq.,  of  Fauquier  county,  Va.  Beale  was 
considered  to  be  a  man  of  wealth,  and  had  invested  in  Slave  stock  to 
the  number  of  seventy  head.  According  to  William's  account  of  Beale, 
he  was  a  "  hard  man  and  thought  no  more  of  his  black  people  than  he 
did  of  dogs."  When  William  entered  upon  the  undertaking  of  freeing 
himself  from  Beale's  barbarism,  he  had  but  one  dollar  and  twenty-five 
cents  in  his  possession  ;  but  he  had  physical  strength  and  a  determined 
mind,  and  being  heartily  sick  of  Slavery,  he  was  willing  to  make  the  trial, 
even  at  the  cost  of  life.  Thus  hopeful,  he  prosecuted  his  journey  with  suc- 
15 


226  THE  UNDERGROUD  RAIL  ROAD. 

cess  through  strange  regions  of  country,  with  but  little  aid  or  encouragement 
before  reaching  Philadelphia.  This  feat,  however,  was  not  performed  with- 
out getting  lost  by  the  way.  On  arriving,  his  shoes  were  gone,  and  his  feet 
were  severely  travel-worn.  The  Committee  rendered  needed  aid,  etc.,  and 
sent  William  on  to  Canada  to  work  for  himself,  and  to  be  recognized  as  a 
subject  of  Great  Britain. 

EDWARD  PEADEN  AND  WIFE  HARRIET,  AND  SISTER  CELIA.  This 
man  and  his  wife  and  wife's  sister  were  a  nice-looking  trio,  but  they 
brought  quite  a  sad  story  with  them:  the  sale  of  their  children,  six  in 
number.  The  auction  block  had  made  such  sad  havoc  among  them,  that  no 
room  was  left  to  hope,  that  their  situation  would  ever  be  improved  by  re- 
maining. Indeed  they  had  been  under  a  very  gloomy  cloud  for  some  time 
previous  to  leaving,  fearing  that  the  auction  block  was  shortly  to  be 
their  doom.  To  escape  this  fate,  they  were  constrained  to  "  secrete  them- 
selves for  one  month,"  until  an  opportunity  offered  them  to  secure  a  pas- 
sage on  a  boat  coming  to  Philadelphia.  Edward  (the  husband),  was  about 
forty-four  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  color,  well  made,  full  face,  pleasant  coun- 
tenance, and  talked  fluently.  Dr.  Price  claimed  him  as  his  personal 
property,  and  exacted  all  his  hire  and  labor.  For  twelve  years  he  had 
been  hired  out  for  $100  per  annum.  Harriet,  the  wife  of  Edward,  be- 
longed to  David  Baines,  of  Norfolk.  Her  general  appearance  indicated, 
that  nature  had  favored  her  physically  and  mentally,  although  being 
subjected  to  the  drudgery  of  Slave  life,  with  no  advantages  for  development, 
she  was  simply  a  living  testimony  to  the  crushing  influence  of  Slavery — 
with  a  heart  never  free  from  the  saddened  recollection  of  the  auction  block, 
on  which  all  of  her  children  had  been  sacrificed,  "  one  by  one."  Celia,  the 
sister,  also  belonged  to  D.  Baines,  and  was  kept  hired  out — was  last  in  the 
service  of  the  Mayor  of  Norfolk.  Of  her  story  nothing  of  any  moment 
was  recorded.  On  their  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  as  usual  they  were  handed 
over  to  the  Committee,  and  their  wants  were  met. 

WILLIAM  DAVIS.  All  that  the  records  contain  of  William  is  as  follows  : 
He  left  Emmitsburg,  Md.,  the  previous  Friday  night,  where  he  had  been 
held  by  Dr.  James  Shoul.  William  is  thirty-two  years  of  age,  dark  color, 
rather  below  medium  stature.  With  regard  to  his  slave  life,  he  declared 
that  he  had  been  "roughly  used."  Besides,  for  some  time  before  escaping,  he 
felt  that  his  owner  was  in  the  "  notion  of  trading"  him  off.  The  fear  that 
this  apprehended  notion  would  be  carried  into  execution,  was  what  prompted 
him  to  leave  his  master. 

ALEXANDER  BOGGS,  alias  JOHNSON  HENSON.  This  subject  was  under 
the  ownership  of  a  certain  John  Ernie,  who  lived  about  three  miles  from 
Baltimore.  Mr.  Ernie  had  only  been  in  possession  of  the  wayward  Alex- 
ander three  weeks,  having  purchased  him  of  a  trader  named  Dennit,  for 
$550.  This  was  not  the  first  time,  however,  that  he  had  experienced  the 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  227 

trouble  of  changing  masters,  in  consequence  of  having  been  sold.  Previ- 
ously to  his  being  disposed  of  by  the  trader  Dennit,  he  had  been  owned  by 
Senator  Merrick,  who  had  the  misfortune  to  fail  in  business,  in  consequence 
whereof,  his  slaves  had  all  to  be  sold  and  Alexander  with  the  rest,  away 
from  his  wife,  Caroline,  and  two  children,  James  and  Eliezer. 

This  was  a  case  that  appealed  for  sympathy  and  aid,  which  were  cheer- 
fully rendered  by  the  Committee.  Alexander  was  about  fifty  years  of  age, 
of  dark  color.  On  the  Records  no  account  of  cruel  treatment  is  found, 
other  than  being  sold,  &c. 

JOHN  BROWN,  alias  JACOB  WILLIAMS,  arrived  from  Fredericktown, 
Md.,  where  he  had  been  working  under  the  yoke  of  Joseph  Postly. 
John  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-nine  years  of  age.  Up  to  the  hour 
of  his  escape,  his  lot  had  been  that  of  an  ordinary  slave.  Indeed,  he  had 
much  less  to  complain  of  with  reference  to  usage  than  most  slaves ;  the 
only  thing  in  this  respect  the  records  contain,  is  simply  a  charge,  that  his 
master  threatened  to  sell  him.  But  this  did  not  seem  to  have  been  the 
motive  which  prompted  John  to  take  leave  of  his  master.  Although  untu- 
tored, he  had  mind  enough  to  comprehend  that  Postly  had  no  right  to 
oppress  him,  and  wrong  him  out  of  his  hire.  John  concluded  that  he  would 
not  stand  such  treatment  any  longer,  and  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  for 
Canada.  After  due  examination  the  Committee,  finding  his  story  reasonable, 
gave  him  the  usual  assistance,  advice  and  instruction,  and  sent  him  on 
Canada-ward. 

SAMUEL  SLATER,  alias  PATTERSON  SMITH,  came  from  a  place  called 
'ower  Bridge,  Md.  He  gave  a  satisfactory  account  of  himself,  and  was 
commended  for  having  wisely  left  his  master,  William  Martin,  to  earn  his 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  own  brow.  Martin  had  held  up  the  vision  of 
the  auction-block  before  Sam  ;  this  was  enough.  Sam  saw  that  it  was  time 
for  him  to  be  getting  out  of  danger's  way  without  delay,  so  he  presumed, 
if  others  could  manage  to  escape,  he  could  too.  And  he  succeeded.  He 
was  a  stout  man,  about  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  of  dark  complexion.  No 
particular  mention  of  ill  treatment  is  found  on  the  Records. 

After  arriving  in  Canada,  his  heart  turned  with  deep  interest  and  affec- 
tion to  those  left  in  the  prison-house,  as  the  following  letter  indicates. 

ST.  CATHRINES  Oct  29th. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — yours  of  the  15th  came  to  hand  and  I  was  glad  to  hea  from  you 
and  your  dear  family  were  well  and  the  reason  that  I  did  not  write  sooner  I  expected  get 
a  letter  from  my  brother  in  pennsyjvania  but  I  have  not  received  any  as  yet  when  I  wrote 
last  I  directed  my  letter  to  philip  scott  minister  of  the  asbury  church  baltimore  and  that 
was  the  reason  that  I  thought  it  strange  I  did  not  get  an  answer  but  I  did  not  put  my 
brother  name  to  it  I  made  arrangements  before  I  left  home  with  a  family  of  smiths  that  I 
was  to  write  to  and  the  letter  that  I  enclose  in  this  I  want  you  to  direct  it  to  D  Philip 
scott  in  his  care  for  mrs  cassey  Jackson  Duke  Jacksons  wife  and  she  will  give  to  Priana 
smith  or  Sarah  Jane  Smith  those  are  the  persons  I  wish  to  write  to  I  wish  you  to  write 


228  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

on  sis  quick  as  you  can  and  let  them  know  that  there  is  a  lady  coming  on  by  the  name  of 
mrs  Holonsworth  and  she  will  call  and  see  you  and  you  will  find  her  a  very  interesting 
and  inteligent  person  one  worthy  of  respect  and  esteem  and  a  high  reputation  I  must  now 
bring  my  letter  to  a  close  no  more  at  present  but  remain  your  humble  servant 

PATTERSON  SMITH 

In  my  letters  I  did  not  write  to  my  friends  how  they  shall  write  to  me  but  in  the  letter 
that  you  write  you  will  please  to  tell  them  how  they  shall  write  to  me. 

HARRISON  BELL  AND  DAUGHTER  HARRIET  ANN.  Father  and  daughter 
were  fortunate  enough  to  escape  together  from  Norfolk,  Va. 

HARRISON  was  just  in  the  prime  of  life,  forty  years  of  age,  stout  made, 
good  features,  but  in  height  was  rather  below  medium,  was  a  man  of  more 
than  ordinary  shrewdness,  by  trade  he  was  a  chandler.  He  alleged  that  he 
had  been  used  hard. 

HARRIET  ANN  was  a  well-grown  girl  of  pleasant  appearance,  four- 
teen years  of  age.  Father  and  daughter  had  each  different  owners,  one 
belonged  to  James  Snyder,  the  other  to  John  G.  Hodgson. 

Harrison  had  been  informed  that  his  children  were  to  be  sold ;  to  prevent 
this  shocking  fate,  he  was  prompted  to  escape.  Several  months  previous  to 
finding  a  chance  to  make  a  safe  flight,  he  secreted  himself  with  his  children 
in  Norfolk,  and  so  remained  up  to  the  day  he  left,  a  passage  having  been 
secured  for  them  on  one  of  the  boats  coming  to  Philadelphia.  While  the 
records  contain  no  definite  account  of  other  children,  it  is  evident  that 
there  were  others,  but  what  became  of  them  is  not  known. 

If  at  the  time  of  their  arrival,  it  had  been  imagined  that  the  glorious  day 
of  universal  freedom  was  only  about  eight  years  off,  doubtless  much  fuller 
records  would  have  been  made  of  these  struggling  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers.  If  Harrison's  relatives  and  friends,  who  suddenly  missed  him 
and  his  daughter  Harriet  Ann,  in  the  Spring  of  1854,  are  still  ignorant  of 
his  whereabouts,  this  very  brief  account  of  their  arrival  in  Philadelphia, 
may  be  of  some  satisfaction  to  all  concerned,  not  excepting  his  old  master, 
whom  he  had  served  so  faithfully. 

The  Committee  finding  them  in  need,  had  the  pleasure  of  furnishing  them 
with  food,  material  aid  and  a  carriage,  with  cheering  words  and  letters  of 
introduction  to  friends  on  the  road  to  Canada. 

DANIEL  DAVIS,   ALIAS  DAVTD  SMITH,   ADAM  NICHOLSON,  ALIAS  JOHN  WYNKOOP, 
REUBEN   BOWLES,   ALIAS   CT7NNIGAN,   ARRIVED   FROM   HEDGEVILLE,  VA. 

DANIEL  was  only  about  twenty,  just  at  a  capital  age  to  make  a  bold 
strike  for  freedom.  The  appearance  and  air  of  this  young  aspirant  for 
liberty  indicated  that  he  was  not  of  the  material  to  be  held  in  chains. 
He  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  well-built,  dark  color,  and  intelligent.  Hon. 
Charles  J.  Fortner,  M.  C.  was  the  reputed  owner  of  this  young  fugitive,  but 
the  honorable  gentleman  having  no  use  for  his  services,  or  because  he  may 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  229 

have  profited  more  by  hiring  him  out,  Daniel  was  placed  in  the  employ  of 
a  farmer,  by  the  name  of  Adam  Quigley.  It  was  at  this  time  he  resolved 
that  he  would  not  be  a  slave  any  longer.  He  declared  that  Quigley  was  a 
"very  mean  man,"  one  for  whom  he  had  no  respect  whatever.  Indeed  he 
felt  that  the  system  of  Slavery  was  an  abomination  in  any  form  it  might  be 
viewed.  While  he  was  yet  so  young,  he  had  pretty  clear  views  with  regard 
to  Slavery,  and  remembered  with  feelings  of  deep  indignation,  how  his 
father  had  been  sold  when  he  himself  was  a  boy,  just  as  a  horse  might  have 
been  sold ;  and  how  his  mother  was  dragging  her  chains  in  Slavery,  up  to  the 
hour  he  fled.  Thus  in  company  with  his  two  companions  he  was  prepared 
for  any  sacrifice. 

ADAM'S  tale  is  soon  told ;  all  that  is  on  the  old  record  in  addition  to  his 
full  name,  is  in  the  following  words :  "Adam  is  dark,  rugged  and  sensible, 
and  was  owned  by  Alexander  Hill,  a  drunkard,  gambler,  &c." 

REUBEN  had  been  hired  out  to  John  Sabbard  near  Hedgeville.  Startled 
at  hearing  that  he  was  to  be  sold,  he  was  led  to  consider  the  propriety 
of  seeking  flight  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  These  three  young 
men  were  all  fine  specimens  of  farm  hands,  and  possessed  more  than  average 
common  sense,  considering  the  oppression  they  had  to  labor  under.  They 
walked  the  entire  distance  from  Hedgeville,  Va.,  to  Greenville,  Pa.  There 
they  took  the  cars  and  walked  no  more.  They  appeared  travel-worn,  gar- 
ments dirty,  and  forlorn;  but  the  Committee  had  them  cleanly  washed, 
hair  cut  and  shaved,  change  of  clothing  furnished,  &c.,  which  at  once  made 
them  look  like  very  different  men.  Means  were  appropriated  to  send  them 
on  free  of  cost. 

JAMES  STEWART,  alias  WM.  JACKSON.  James  had  been  made  acquainted 
with  the  Peculiar  Institution  in  Fauquier  county,  Va.  Being  of  sound 
judgment  and  firm  resolution,  he  became  an  enemy  to  Slavery  at  a  very 
early  age ;  so  much  so,  that  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-one  he  was  willing 
to  put  into  practice  his  views  of  the  system  by  leaving  it  and  going  where  all 
men  are  free.  Very  different  indeed  were  these  notions,  from  those  held  by 
his  owner,  Wm.  Rose,  who  believed  in  Slavery  for  the  black  man.  So  as 
James  could  neither  enjoy  his  freedom  nor  express  his  opinion  in  Virginia, 
he  determined,  that  he  had  better  get  a  passage  on  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  and  leave  the  land  of  Slavery  and  the  obnoxious  sentiments  of 
his  master.  He,  of  course,  saw  formidable  difficulties  to  be  encountered 
all  the  way  along  in  escaping,  but  these,  he  considered,  would  be 
more  easy  for  him  to  overcome  than  it  would  be  for  him  to  learn  the 
lesson — "  Servants,  obey  your  masters."  The  very  idea  made  James  sick. 
This,  therefore,  was  the  secret  of  his  escape. 

HARRIET  HALEY,  alias  ANN  RICHARDSON,  AND  ELIZABETH  HALEY, 
alias  SARAH  RICHARDSON.  These  travelers  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
Geo.  C.  Davis,  of  Harford  county,  Md.  In  order  to  carry  out  their  plans, 


230  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

they  took  advantage  of  Whitsuntide,  a  holiday,  and  with  marked  ingenuity  and 
perseverance,  they  managed  to  escape  and  reach  Quakertown  Underground 
Rail  Road  Station  without  obstruction,  where  protection  and  assistance  were 
rendered  by  the  friends  of  the  cause.  After  abiding  there  for  a  short  time, 
they  were  forwarded  to  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia.  Their  ages  ranged 
from  nineteen  to  twenty-one,  and  they  were  apparently  "servants"  of  a  very 
superior  order.  The  pleasure  it  afforded  to  aid  such  young  women  in 
escaping  from  a  condition  so  loathsome  as  that  of  Slavery  in  Maryland,  was 
unalloyed. 

BENJAMIN  DUNCANS,  alias  GEORGE  SCOTT.  This  individual  was  in 
bonds  under  Thomas  Jeffries,  who  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine: 
"  Servants,  obey  your  masters,"  and,  furthermore,  while  laboring  "  pretty 
hard"  to  make  Benjamin  a  convert  to  this  idea,  he  had  made  Benjamin's 
lot  anything  else  than  smooth.  This  treatment  on  the  part  of  the  master 
made  a  wise  and  resolute  man  of  the  Slave.  For  as  he  looked  earnestly 
into  the  fact,  that  he  was  only  regarded  by  his  owner  in  the  light  of  an 
ox,  or  an  ass,  his  manhood  rebelled  straightway,  and  the  true  light  of 
freedom  told  him,  that  he  must  be  willing  to  labor,  and  endure  suffering  for 
the  great  prize,  liberty.  So,  in  company  with  five  others,  at  an  appointed 
time,  he  set  out  for  freedom,  and  succeeded.  The  others,  alluded  to,  passed 
on  to  Canada  direct.  Benjamin  was  induced  to  stop  a  few  months  in  Penn- 
sylvania, during  which  time  he  occupied  himself  in  farming.  He  looked  as 
if  he  was  well  able  to  do  a  full  day's  work  at  this  occupation.  He  was 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  unmixed  blood,  and  wore  a  pleasant 
countenance. 

MOSES  WINES.  Portsmouth,  Va.,  lost  one  of  her  most  substantial  la- 
borers in  the  person  of  Moses,  and  Madam  Abigail  Wheeler,  a  very  "  likely 
article  "  of  merchandise.  "  No  complaint "  as  to  "  ill  treatment  "  was  made 
by  Moses  against  "  Miss  Abigail."  The  truth  was,  he  admitted,  that  he  had 
been  used  in  a  "  mild  way."  With  some  degree  of  pride,  he  stated 
that  he  "  had  never  been  flogged."  But,  for  the  "  last  fifteen  years,  he 
had  been  favored  with  the  exalted  privilege  of  'hiring'  his  time  at  the  'rea- 
sonable' sum  of  $12  per  month."  As  he  stood  pledged  to  have  this  amount 
always  ready,  "  whether  sick  or  well,"  at  the  end  of  the  month,  his  mistress 
"never  neglected  to  be  in  readiness  to  receive  it "  to  the  last  cent.  In  this  way 
Moses  was  taught  to  be  exceedingly  punctual.  Who  would  not  commend  such 
a  mistress  for  the  punctuality,  if  nothing  more  ?  But  as  smoothly  as  matters 
seemed  to  be  going  along,  the  mischievous  idea  crept  into  Moses'  head,  that 
he  ought  to  have  some  of  the  money  claimed  by  his  "  kind  "  mistress,  and  at 
the  same  time,  the  thought  would  often  forcibly  press  upon  his  mind  that  he 
might  any  day  be  sold.  In  addition  to  this  unpleasant  prospect,  Virginia 
had  just  about  that  time  passed  a  law  "prohibiting  Slaves  from  hiring 
their  time  " — also,  a  number  of  "  new  Police  rules  with  reference  to  Slaves 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  231 

and  free  colored  people,"  all  of  which,  the  "humane  Slave-holders"  of  thai 
"  liberal  State,"  regarded  as  highly  essential  both  for  the  "  protection  and 
safety  of  Master  and  Slave."  But  the  stupid-headed  Moses  was  not  pleased 
with  these  arrangements.  In  common  with  many  of  the  Slaves,  he  smarted 
severely  under  his  heavy  oppression,  and  felt  that  it  was  similar  to  an  old 
rule,  which  had  been  once  tried  under  Pharaoh — namely,  when  the  children 
of  Israel  were  required  to  "  make  bricks  without  straw."  But  Moses  was 
not  a  fit  subject  to  submit  to  be  ruled  so  inhumanly. 

Despite  the  beautiful  sermons  he  had  often  listened  to  in  favor  of 
Slavery,  and  the  many  wise  laws,  above  alluded  to,  he  could  not  reconcile 
himself  to  his  condition.  The  laws  and  preaching  were  alike  as 
"sounding  brass,  and  tinkling  cymbals"  to  him.  He  made  up  his 
mind,  therefore,  that  he  must  try  a  free  country ;  that  his  manhood 
required  him  to  make  the  effort  at  once,  even  at  the  risk  of  life.  Father 
and  husband,  as  he  was,  and  loving  his  wife,  Grace,  and  son,  Alphonso, 
tenderly  as  he  did,  he  nevertheless  felt  himself  to  be  in  chains,  and  that  he 
could  do  but  little  for  them  by  remaining.  He  conceived  that,  if  he 
could  succeed  in  gaining  his  freedom,  he  might  possibly  aid  them  away 
also.  With  this  hope  in  him,  he  contrived  to  secure  a  private  passage 
on  the  steamship  City  of  Richmond,  and  in  this  way  reached  Philadelphia, 
but  not  without  suffering  fearfully  the  entire  journey  through,  owing  to  the 
narrowness  of  the  space  into  which  he  was  obliged  to  be  stowed  in  order  to 
get  away. 

Moses  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  quite  dark,  and  gave  promise  of  being 
capable  of  taking  care  of  himself  in  freedom.  He  had  seen  much  of  the 
cruelties  of  Slavery  inflicted  upon  others  in  various  forms,  which  he  related 
in  a  way  to  make  one  shudder ;  but  these  incidents  were  not  recorded  in  the 
book  at  the  time. 

SARAH  SMITH,  alias  MILDRETH  PAGE,  and  her  daughter,  nine  years  of 
age.  Sarah  and  her  child  were  held  to  service  by  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Pollock,  a 
resident  of  Wilmington,  Del.  Until  about  nine  months  before  she  escaped 
from  the  Reverend  gentleman,  she  was  owned  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lee  of 
Fauquier  Co.,  Va.,  who  had  moved  with  Sarah  to  Wilmington.  Plow 
Mr.  Pollock  came  by  Sarah  is  not  stated  on  the  records ;  perhaps  by  mar- 
riage; be  that  as  it  may,  it  was  owing  to  ill  treatment  from  her  mistress  that 
Sarah  "took  out"  with  her  child.  Sarah  was  a  woman  of  becoming 
manners,  of  a  dark  brown  complexion,  and  looked  as  though  she  might  do  a 
fair  share  of  housework,  if  treated  well.  As  it  required  no  great  effort  to 
escape  from  Wilmington,  where  the  watchful  Garrett  lived,  she  reached  the 
Committee  in  Philadelphia  without  much  difficulty,  received  assistance  and 
was  sent  on  her  way  rejoicing. 

LUCY  GARRETT,  alias  JULIA  WOOD.  John  Williams,  who  was  said  to 
be  a  "  very  cruel  man,"  residing  on  the  Western  Shore  of  Va.,  claimed 


232  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Lucy  as  his  chattel  personal.  Julia,  having  a  lively  sense  of  his  meanness 
stood  much  in  fear  of  being  sold ;  having  seen  her  father,  three  sisters,  and 
two  brothers,  disposed  of  at  auction,  she  was  daily  on  the  look-out  for  her 
turn  to  come  next.  The  good  spirit  of  freedom  made  the  way  plain  to  her 
by  which  an  escape  could  be  effected.  Being  about  nineteen  years  of  age, 
she  felt  that  she  had  served  in  Slavery  long  enough.  She  resolved  to  start 
immediately,  and  did  so,  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Pennsylvania.  Her 
appearance  recommended  her  so  well,  that  she  was  prevailed  upon  to  remain 
and  accept  a  situation  in  the  family  of  Joseph  A.  Dugdale,  so  well  known 
in  reformatory  circles,  as  an  ardent  friend  of  humanity.  While  in  his  family 
she  gave  great  satisfaction,  and  was  much  esteemed  for  uprightness  and  in- 
dustry. But  this  place  was  not  Canada,  so,  when  it  was  deemed  best,  she 
was  sent  on. 

ELLEN  FORMAN,  alias  ELIZABETH  YOUNG.  Ellen  had  formerly  been 
owned  by  Dr.  Thomas,  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  but  about  one  year 
before  escaping,  she  was  bought  by  a  lady  living  in  Baltimore  known  by  the 
name  of  Mrs.  Johnson.  Ellen  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  of 
slender  stature,  and  of  a  dark  brown  complexion.  The  record  makes  no 
mention  of  cruel  treatment  or  very  hard  usage,  as  a  slave.  From  travel- 
ing, probably,  she  had  contracted  a  very  heavy  cold,,  which  threatened  her 
with  consumption.  The  Committee  cheerfully  rendered  her  assistance. 

WILLIAM  WOODEN,  alias  WILLIAM  NELSON.  While  Delaware  was  not 
far  from  freedom,  and  while  Slavery  was  considered  to  exist  there  compa- 
ratively in  a  mild  form,  nevertheless,  what  with  the  impenetrable  ignorance 
in  which  it  was  the  wont  of  pro-slavery  whites  to  keep  the  slaves, 
and  the  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  slave-holders  generally  to  conform  to 
the  spirit  of  progress  going  on  in  the  adjacent  State  of  Pennsylvania,  it  was 
wonderful  how  the  slaves  saw  through  the  thick  darkness  thus  prevailing, 
and  how  wide-awake  they  were  to  escape. 

It  was  from  this  State,  that  William  Wooden  fled.  True,  William  was 
said  to  belong  to  Judge  Wooden,  of  Georgetown,  Del.,  but,  according 
to  the  story  of  his  "chattel,"  the  Judge  was  not  of  the  class  who  judged 
righteously.  He  had  not  only  treated  William  badly,  but  he  had  threat- 
ened to  sell  him.  This  was  the  bitter  pill  which  constrained  William  to 
"  take  out."  The  threat  seemed  hard  at  first,  but  its  effect  was  excellent  for 
this  young  man ;  it  was  the  cause  of  his  obtaining  his  freedom  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three.  William  was  a  tall,  well-built  man,  of  dark  complexion  and 
promising.  No  further  particulars  concerning  him  are  on  the  records. 

JAMES  EDWARD  HANDY,  alias  DANIEL  CANON.  At  Seaford,  Delaware, 
James  was  held  in  bonds  under  a  Slave-holder  called  Samuel  Lewis,  who  fol- 
lowed farming.  Lewis  was  not  satisfied  with  working  James  hard  and 
keeping  all  his  earnings,  but  would  insolently  talk  occasionally  of  hand- 
ing him  "over  to  the  trader."  This  "  stirred  James'  blood  "  and  aroused 


FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND,  DELAWARE,  ETC.  233 

his  courage  to  the  "sticking  point."  Nothing  could  induce  him  to 
remain.  He  had  the  name  of  having  a  wife  and  four  children,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  Laws  of  Delaware,  he  only  had  a  nominal  right  in  them. 
They  were  "  legally  the  property  of  Capt.  Martin."  Therefore 
they  were  all  left  in  the  hands  of  Capt.  Martin.  The  wife's  name  was 
Harriet  Delaney,  alias  Smart  Stanley.  James  Henry  Delaney  came  as  a 
fellow-traveler  with  James  Edward.  He  had  experienced  oppression  under 
Capt.  Martin,  and  as  a  witness,  was  prepared  to  testify,  that  Martin  "  ill- 
treated  his  Slaves,  especially  with  regard  to  the  diet,  which  was  very  poor." 
Nevertheless  James  was  a  stout,  heavy-built  young  man  of  twenty-six  years 
of  age,  and  looked  as  if  he  might  have  a  great  deal  of  valuable  work  in 
him.  He  was  a  single  man. 

JAMES  HENRY  BLACKSON.  James  Henry  had  only  reached  twenty-five, 
when  he  came  to  the  "  conclusion,  that  he  had  served  long  enough  under 
bondage  for  the  benefit  of  Charles  Wright."  This  was  about  all  of  the  ex- 
cuse he  seemed  to  have  for  escaping.  He  was  a  fine  specimen  of  a  man,  so 
far  as  physical  strength  and  muscular  power  were  concerned.  Very  little 
was  recorded  of  him. 

GEORGE  FREELAND.  It  was  only  by  the  most  indomitable  resolution 
and  perseverance,  that  Freeland  threw  off  the  yoke.  Capt.  John  Pollard  of 
Petersburg,  Va.,  held  George  to  service.  As  a  Slave-holder,  Pollard  be- 
longed to  that  class,  who  did  not  believe  in  granting  favors  to  Slaves.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  practically  in  favor  of  wringing  every  drop  of  blood 
from  their  bodies. 

George  was  a  spare-built  man,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
quite  dark,  but  had  considerable  intelligence.  He  could  read  and  write 
very  well,  but  how  he  acquired  these  arts  is  not  known.  In  testifying 
against  his  master,  George  used  very  strong  language.  He  declared 
that  Pollard  "thought  no  more  of  his  servants  than  if  they  had  been 
dogs.  He  was  very  mean.  He  gave  nothing  to  his  servants.  He  has  given 
me  only  one  pair  of  shoes  the  last  ten  years."  After  careful  inquiry, 
George  learned  that  he  could  get  a  private  passage  on  the  City  of  Rich- 
mond, if  he  could  raise  the  passage  money.  This  he  could  do  cheerfully. 
He  raised  "  sixty  dollars  "  for  the  individual  who  was  to  "  secrete  him  on 
the  boat."  In  leaving  the  land  of  Slave  auctions,  whips  and  chains,  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  mother  and  father  and  two  brothers  in  Petersburg. 
Pollard  had  been  offered  $1,500  for  George.  Doubtless  he  found,  when  he 
discovered  George  had  gone,  that  he  had  "overstood  the  market."  This  was 
what  produced  action  prompt  and  decisive  on  the  part  of  George.  So  the 
old  adage,  in  this  case,  was  verified — "  It's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody 
any  good." 

On  arriving  in  Canada,  George  did  not  forget  to  express  gratitude  to  those 
who  aided  him  on  his  road  there,  as  the  following  note  will  show  : 


234  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

SINCATHANS,  Canada  west. 

Brother  Still : — I  im  brace  this  opportunity  of  pening  you  a  few  lines  to  in  form  you 
that  I  am  well  at  present  &  in  hopes  to  find  you  &  family  well  also  I  hope  that  god  Will 
Bless  you  &  and  your  family  &  if  I  never  should  meet  you  in  this  world  I  hope  to  meet 
you  in  glory  Remember  my  love  to  Brother  Brown  &  tell  him  that  I  am  well  &  hearty 
tell  him  to  writ  Thomas  word  that  I  am  well  at  present  you  must  excuse  me  I  will  Rite 
when  I  return  from  the  west.  GEORGE  W.  FBEELAND. 

Send  your  Letters  in  the  name  of  John  Anderson. 

MILES  WHITE.  This  passenger  owed  service  to  Albert  Kern,  of  Eliza- 
beth City,  N.  C.  At  least  Kern,  through  the  oppreasive  laws  of  that  State, 
claimed  Miles  as  his  personal  property.  Miles,  however,  thought  differently, 
but  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  argue  the  case  with  Kern  ;  for  on  the  "  side  of 
the  oppressor  there  was  strength."  So  he  resolved,  that  he  would  adopt 
the  Underground  Rail  Road  plan.  As  he  was  only  about  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  he  found  it  much  easier  to  close  his  affairs  with  North 
Carolina,  than  it  would  have  been  had  he  been  encumbered  with  a 
family.  In  fact,  the  only  serious  difficulty  he  had  to  surmount  was  to 
find  a  captain  with  whom  he  could  secure  a  safe  passage  North.  To 
his  gratification  it  was  not  long  before  his  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
crowned  with  success.  A  vessel  was  being  loaded  with  shingles,  the  captain 
of  which  was  kind  enough  to  allow  Miles  to  occupy  a  very  secure  hiding- 
place  thereon.  In  course  of  time,  having  suffered  to  the  extent  usual 
when  so  closely  conveyed,  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia;  and  being  aided,  was 
duly  forwarded  by  the  Committee. 

JOHN  HALL,  alias  JOHN  SIMPSON.  John  fled  from  South  Carolina.  In 
this  hot-bed  of  Slavery  he  labored  and  suffered  up  to  the  age  of  thirty- 
two.  For  a  length  of  time  before  he  escaped,  his  burdens  were  intolerable ; 
but  he  could  see  no  way  to  rid  himself  of  them,  except  by  flight.  Nor  was 
he  by  any  means  certain  that  an  effort  in  this  direction  would  prove  suc- 
cessful. In  planning  the  route  which  he  should  take  to  travel  North  he 
decided,  that  if  success  was  for  him,  his  best  chance  would  be  to  wend  his 
way  through  North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  Not  that  he  hoped  to  find 
friends  or  helpers  in  these  States.  He  had  heard  enough  of  the  cruelties 
of  Slavery  in  these  regions  to  convince  him,  that  if  he  should  be  caught, 
there  would  be  no  sympathy  or  mercy  shown.  Nevertheless  the  irons  were 
piercing  him  so  severely,  that  he  felt  constrained  to  try  his  luck,  let  the  con- 
sequences be  what  they  might,  and  so  he  set  out  for  freedom  or  death.  Moun- 
tains of  difficulties,  and  months  of  suffering  and  privations  by  land  and 
water,  in  the  woods,  and  swamps  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  were 
before  him,  as  his  experience  in  traveling  proved.  But  the  hope  of 
final  victory  and  his  daily  sufferings  before  he  started,  kept  him  from 
faltering,  even  when  starvation  and  death  seemed  to  be  staring  him  in  the 
face.  For  several  months  he  was  living  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth. 


CHARLES  GILBERT.  235 

Ultimately,  however,  the  morning  of  nis  ardent  hopes  dawned.  How  he 
succeeded  in  finding  a  captain  who  was  kind  enough  to  afford  him  a  secret 
hiding-place  on  his  boat,  was  not  noted  on  the  records.  Indeed  the  inci- 
dents of  his  story  were  but  briefly  written  out.  Similar  cases  of  thrilling 
interest  seemed  almost  incredible,  and  the  Committee  were  constrained 
to  doubt  the  story  altogether  until  other  testimony  could  be  obtained 
to  verify  the  statement.  In  this  instance,  before  the  Committee  were  fully 
satisfied,  they  felt  it  necessary  to  make  inquiry  of  trustworthy  Charlesto- 
nians  to  ascertain  if  John  were  really  from  Charleston,  and  if  he  were  actually 
owned  by  the  man  that  he  represented  as  having  owned  him,  Dr.  Philip 
Mazyck,  by  name ;  and  furthermore,  to  learn  if  the  master  was  really  of 
the  brutal  character  given  him.  The  testimony  of  thoroughly  reliable 
persons,  who  were  acquainted  with  master  and  slave,  so  far  as  this  man's 
bondage  in  Charleston  was  concerned,  fully  corroborated  his  statement,  and 
the  Committee  could  not  but  credit  his  story;  indeed  they  were  con- 
vinced, that  he  had  been  one  of  the  greatest  of  sufferers  and  the  chief  of 
heroes.  Nevertheless  his  story  was  not  written  out,  and  can  only  be  hinted 
at.  Perhaps  more  time  was  consumed  in  its  investigation  and  in  listening  to 
a  recital  of  his  sufferings  than  could  well  be  spared ;  perhaps  it  was  thought^ 
as  was  often  the  case,  unless  full  justice  could  be  given  him,  the  story  would 
be  spoiled ;  or  perhaps  the  appalling  nature  of  his  sufferings  rendered  the 
pen  powerless,  and  made  the  heart  too  sick  for  the  task.  Whether 
it  was  so  or  not  in  this  case,  it  was  not  unfrequently  so  in  other  in- 
stances, as  is  well  remembered.  It  will  be  necessary,  in  the  subse- 
quent pages  of  this  work,  to  omit  the  narratives  of  a  great  many  who, 
unfortunately,  were  but  briefly  noted  on  the  books  at  the  time  of  their  ar- 
rival. In  the  eyes  of  some,  this  may  prove  disappointing,  especially  in  in- 
stances where  these  pages  are  turned  to  with  the  hope  of  gaining  a  clue  to 
certain  lost  ones.  As  all,  however,  cannot  be  mentioned,  and  as  the  general 
reader  will  look  for  incidents  and  facts  which  will  most  fittingly  bring  out 
the  chief  characteristics  in  the  career  and  escape  of  bondmen,  the  reasonable- 
ness of  this  course  must  be  obvious  to  all. 


CHARLES  GILBERT. 

FLEEING  FROM  DAVIS  A  NEGRO  TRADER,  SECRETED  UNDER    A  HOTEL,  UP  A   TREE, 
UNDER  A  FLOOR,  IN  A  THICKET,  ON  A  STEAMER. 

In  1854  Charles  was  owned  in  the  city  of  Richmond  by  Benjamin  Davis, 
a  notorious  negro  trader.  Charles  was  quite  a  "  likely-looking  article,"  not 
too  black  or  too  white,  but  rather  of  a  nice  "ginger-bread  color." 
Davis  was  of  opinion  that  this  "article"  must  bring  him  a  tip-top 


236  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

price.  For  two  or  three  months  the  trader  advertised  Charles  for  sale  in 
the  papers,  but  for  some  reason  or  other  Charles  did  not  command  the  high 
price  demanded. 

While  Davis  was  thus  daily  trying  to  sell  Charles,  Charles  was  con- 
templating how  he  might  escape.  Being  uncommonly  shrewd  he  learned 
something  about  a  captain  of  a  schooner  from  Boston,  and  determined  to 
approach  him  with  regard  to  securing  a  passage.  The  captain  mani- 
fested a  disposition  to  accommodate  him  for  the  sum  of  ten  dollars, 
provided  Charles  could  manage  to  get  to  Old  Point  Comfort,  there  to 
embark.  The  Point  was  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  distant  from 
Richmond. 

A  man  of  ordinary  nerve  would  have  declined  this  condition  unhesitat- 
ingly. On  the  other  hand  it  was  not  Charles'  intention  to  let  any  offer 
slide  ;  indeed  he  felt  that  he  must  make  an  effort,  if  he  failed.  He  could 
not  see  how  his  lot  could  be  made  more  miserable  by  attempting  to  flee. 
In  full  view  of  all  the  consequences  he  ventured  to  take  the  hazardous 
step,  and  to  his  great  satisfaction  he  reached  Old  Point  Comfort  safely.  In 
that  locality  he  was  well  known,  unfortunately  too  well  known,  for  he  had 
been  raised  partly  there,  and,  at  the  same  time,  many  of  his  relatives  and 
acquaintances  were  still  living  there.  These  facts  were  evidently  well  known 
to  the  trader,  who  unquestionably  had  snares  set  in  order  to  entrap  Charles 
should  he  seek  shelter  among  his  relatives,  a  reasonable  supposition. 
Charles  had  scarcely  reached  his  old  home  before  he  was  apprised  of 
the  fact  that  the  hunters  and  watch  dogs  of  Slavery  were  eagerly  watching 
for  him.  Even  his  nearest  relatives,  through  fear  of  consequences  had  to 
hide  their  faces  as  it  were  from  him.  None  dare  offer  him  a  night's  lodging, 
scarcely  a  cup  of  water,  lest  such  an  act  might  be  discovered  by  the  hunters, 
whose  fiendish  hearts  would  have  found  pleasure  in  meting  out  the  most 
dire  punishments  to  those  guilty  of  thus  violating  the  laws  of  Slavery. 
The  prospect,  if  not  utterly  hopeless,  was  decidedly  discouraging.  The 
way  to  Boston  was  entirely  closed.  A  "  reward  of  $200  "  was  advertised 
for  his  capture.  For  the  first  week  after  arriving  at  Old  Point  he  entrusted 
himself  to  a  young  friend  by  the  name  of  E.  S.  The  fear  of  the  pur- 
suers drove  him  from  his  hiding-place  at  the  expiration  of  the  week. 
Thence  he  sought  shelter  neither  with  kinfolks,  Christians,  nor  infidels,  but 
in  this  hour  of  his  calamity  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  try  living 
under  a  large  hotel  for  a  while.  Having  watched  his  opportunity, 
he  managed  to  reach  Higee  hotel,  a  very  large  house  without  a  cellar,  erected 
on  pillars  three  or  four  feet  above  the  ground.  One  place  alone,  near  the 
cistern,  presented  some  chance  for  a  hiding-place,  sufficient  to  satisfy  him 
quite  well  under  the  circumstances.  This  dark  and  gloomy  spot  he  at 
once  willingly  occupied  rather  than  return  to  Slavery/  In  this  refuge 
he  remained  four  weeks.  Of  course  he  could  not  live  without  food  ;  but  to 


CHARLES  GILBERT. 


237 


communicate  with  man  or  woman  would  inevitably  subject  him  to  danger. 
Charles'  experience  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  old  home  left  no  ground  for 
him  to  hope  that  he  would  be  likely  to  find  friendly  aid  anywhere  under  the 
shadow  of  Slavery.  In  consequence  of  these  fears  he  received  his  food  from 
the  "slop  tub,"  securing  this  diet  in  the  darkness  of  night  after  all  was  still 
and  quiet  around  the  hotel.  To  use  his  own  language,  the  meals  thus 
obtained  were  often  "  sweet "  to  his  taste. 

One  evening,  however,  he  was  not  a  little  alarmed  by  the  approach 
of  an  Irish  boy  who  came  under  the  hotel  to  hunt  chickens.  While 
prowling  aroun,d  in  the  darkness  he  appeared  to  be  making  his  way 
unconsciously  to  the  very  spot  where  Charles  was  reposing.  How  to  meet 
the  danger  was  to  Charles'  mind  at  first  very  puzzling,  there  was  no  time 
now  to  plan.  As  quick  as  thought  he  feigned  the  bark  of  a  savage  dog 
accompanied  with  a  furious  growl  and  snarl  which  he  was  confident  would 
frighten  the  boy  half  out  of  his  senses,  and  cause  him  to  depart  quickly  from 
his  private  apartment!  The  trick  succeeded  admirably,  and  the  emer- 
gency was  satisfactorily  met,  so  far  as  the  boy  was  concerned,  but  the  boy's 
father  hearing  the  attack  of  the  dog,  swore  that  he  would  kill  him.  Charles 
was  a  silent  listener  to  the  threat,  and  he  saw  that  he  could  no  longer 
remain  in  safety  in  his  present  quarter.  So  that  night  he  took  his  de- 
parture for  Bay  Shore ;  here 
he  decided  to  pass  a  day  in 
the  woods,  but  the  privacy 
of  this  place  was  not  altoge- 
ther satisfactory  to  Charles' 
mind;  but  where  to  find  a 
more  secure  retreat  he  could 
not, — dared  not  venture  to 
ascertain  that  day.  It  oc- 
curred to  him,  however,  that 
he  would  be  much  safer  up  a 
tree  than  hid  in  the  bushes 
and  undergrowth.  He  there- 
fore climbed  up  a  large  acorn 
tree  and  there  passed  an  en- 
tire day  in  deep  meditation. 
No  gleam  of  hope  appeared, 
yet  he  would  not  suifer  him- 
self to  think  of  returning  to 
bondage.  In  this  dilemma 
he  remembered  a  poor  wash- 
er-woman named  Isabella,  a 
slave  who  had  charge  of  a  wash  house.  With  her  he  resolved  to  seek  succor. 


238  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Leaving  the  woods  he  proceeded  to  the  wash-house  and  was  kindly  received 
by  Isabella,  but  what  to  do  with  him  or  how  to  afford  him  any  protection 
she  could  see  no  way  whatever.  The  schooling  which  Charles  had  been 
receiving  a  number  of  weeks  in  connection  with  the  most  fearful  looking-for 
of  the  threatened  wrath  of  the  trader  made  it  much  easier  for  him  than  for  her 
to  see  how  he  could  be  provided  for.  A  room  and  comforts  he  was  not 
accustomed  to.  Of  course  he  could  not  expect  such  comforts  now.  Like 
many  another  escaping  from  the  relentless  tyrant,  Charles  could  con- 
trive methods  which  to  his  venturesome  mind  would  afford  hope,  however 
desperate  they  might  appear  to  others.  He  though.t  that  he  might 
be  safe  under  the  floor.  To  Isabella  the  idea  was  new,  but  her  sym- 
pathies were  strongly  with  Charles,  and  she  readily  consented  to  accommodate 
him  under  the  floor  of  the  wash-house.  Isabella  and  a  friend  of  Charles,  by 
the  name  of  John  Thomas,  were  the  only  persons  who  were  cognizant  of 
this  arrangement.  The  kindness  of  these  friends,  manifested  by  their 
willingness  to  do  anything  in  their  power  to  add  to  the  comfort  of  Charles, 
was  proof  to  him  that  his  efforts  and  sufferings  had  not  been  altogether  in 
vain.  He  remained  under  the  floor  two  weeks,  accessible  to  kind  voices  and 
friendly  ministrations.  At  the  end  of  this  time  his  repose  was  again  sorely 
disturbed  by  reports  from  without  that  suspicion  had  been  awakened  towards 
the  wash-house.  How  this  happened  neither  Charles  nor  his  friends  could 
conjecture.  But  the  arrival  of  six  officers  whom  he  could  hear  talking  very 
plainly  in  the  house,  whose  errand  was  actually  to  search  for  him,  convinced 
him  that  he  had  never  for  a  single  moment  been  in  greater  danger.  The 
officers  not  only  searched  the  house,  but  they  offered  his  friend  John  Thomas 
$25  if  he  would  only  put  them  on  Charles'  track.  John  professed  to  know 
nothing;  Isabella  was  equally  ignorant.  Discouraged  with  their  efforts  on 
this  occasion,  the  officers  gave  up  the  hunt  and  left  the  house.  Charles, 
however,  had  had  enough  of  the  floor  accommodations.  He  left  that  night 
and  returned  to  his  old  quarters  under  the  hotel.  Here  he  stayed  one 
week,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  the  need  of  fresh  air  was  so  im- 
perative, that  he  resolved  to  go  out  at  night  to  Allen's  cottage  and  spend  a 
day  in  the  woods.  He  had  knowledge  of  a  place  where  the  undergrowth 
and  bushes  were  almost  impenetrable.  To  rest  and  refresh  himself  in  this 
thicket  he  felt  would  be  a  great  comfort  to  him.  Without  serious 
difficulty  he  reached  the  thicket,  and  while  pondering  over  the  all- 
absorbing  matter  as  to  how  he  should  ever  manage  to  make  his  escape,  an 
old  man  approached.  Now  while  Charles  had  no  reason  to  think  that  he 
was  sought  by  the  old  intruder,  his  very  near  approach  admonished  him 
that  it  would  neither  be  safe  nor  agreeable  to  allow  him  to  come  nearer. 
Charles  remembering  that  his  trick  of  playing  the  dog,  when  previously  in 
danger  under  the  hotel,  had  served  a  good  end,  thought  that  it  would  work 
well  in  the  thicket.  So  he  again  tried  his  power  at  growling  and  barking 


CHARLES  GILBERT.  239 

hideously  for  a  moment  or  two,  which  at  once  caused  the  man  to  turn  his 
course.  Charles  could  hear  him  distinctly  retreating,  and  at  the  same  time 
cursing  the  dog.  The  owner  of  the  place  had  the  reputation  of  keeping 
"  bad  dogs,"  so  the  old  man  poured  out  a  dreadful  threat  against  "  Stephens' 
doo-s,"  and  was  soon  out  of  the  reach  of  the  one  in  the  thicket. 

O    ' 

Notwithstanding  his  success  in  frightening  off  the  old  man,  CHARLES 
felt  that  the  thicket  was  by  no  means  a  safe  place  for  him.  He  con- 
cluded to  make  another  change.  This  time  he  sought  a  marsh;  two 
hours'  stay  there  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  him,  that  that  too  was  no  place  to 
tarry  in,  even  for.  a  single  night.  He,  therefore,  left  immediately.  A  third 
time,  he  returned  to  the  hotel,  where  he  remained  only  two  days.  His 
appeals  had  at  last  reached  the  heart  of  his  mother — she  could  no  longer 
bear  to  see  him  struggling,  and  suffering,  and  not  render  him  aid,  whatever 
the  consequences  might  be.  If  she  at  first  feared  to  lend  him  a  helping 
hand,  she  now  resolutely  worked  with  a  view  of  saving  money  to  succor 
him.  Here  the  prospect  began  to  brighten. 

A  passage  was  secured  for  him  on  a  steamer  bound  for  Philadelphia. 
One  more  day,  and  night  must  elapse,  ere  he  could  be  received  on  board. 
The  joyful  anticipations  which  now  filled  his  breast  left  no  room  for 
fear;  indeed,  he  could  scarcely  contain  himself;  he  was  drunk  with  joy.  In 
this  state  of  mind  he  concluded  that  nothing  would  afford  him  more 
pleasure  before  leaving,  than  to  spend  his  last  hours  at  the  wash  house, 
"  under  the  floor."  To  this  place  he  went  with  no  fear  of  hunters  before 
his  eyes.  Charles  had  scarcely  been  three  hours  in  this  place,  however, 
before  three  officers  came  in  search  of  him.  Two  of  them  talked  with 
Isabella,  asked  her  about  her  "boarders,"  etc.;  in  the  meanwhile,  one  of 
them  uninvited,  made  his  way  up  stairs.  It  so  happened,  that  Charles  was 
in  this  very  portion  of  the  house.  His  case  now  seemed  more  hopeless  than 
ever.  The  officer  up  stairs  was  separated  from  him  simply  by  a  thin 
curtain.  Women's  garments  hung  all  around.  Instead  of  fainting  or  sur- 
rendering, in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  Charles'  inventive  intellect,  led  him 
to  enrobe  himself  in  female  attire.  Here,  to  use  his  own  language,  a 
"  thousand  thoughts  "  rushed  into  his  rnind  in  a  minute.  The  next  instant 
he  was  going  down  stairs  in  the  presence  of  the  officers,  his  old  calico  dress, 
bonnet  and  rig,  attracting  no  further  attention  than  simply  to  elicit  the  fol- 
lowing simple  questions:  "Whose  gal  are  you?"  "Mr.  Cockling's,  sir." 
"  What  is  your  name  ?"  "  Delie,  sir."  "  Go  on  then  !"  said  one  of  the 
officers,  and  on  Charles  went  to  avail  himself  of  the  passage  on  the  steamer 
which  his  mother  had  procured  for  him  for  the  sum  of  thirty  dollars. 

In  due  time,  he  succeeded  in  getting  on  the  steamer,  but  he  soon  learned, 
that  her  course  was  not  direct  to  Philadelphia,  but  that  some  stay  would  be 
made  in  Norfolk,  Va.  Although  disappointed,  yet  this  being  a  step  in  the 
right  direction,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  be  patient.  He  was  delayed 


240  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

in  Norfolk  four  weeks.  From  the  time  Charles  first  escaped,  his  owner 
(Davis  the  negro  trader),  had  kept  a  standing  reward  of  $550  adver- 
tised for  his  recovery.  This  showed  that  Davis  was  willing  to  risk 
heavy  expenses  for  Charles  as  well  as  gave  evidence  that  he  believed 
him  still  secreted  either  about  Richmond,  Petersburg,  or  Old  Point  Com- 
fort. In  this  belief  he  was  not  far  from  being  correct,  for  Charles  spent 
most  of  his  time  in  either  of  these  three  places,  from  the  day  of  his  escape 
until  the  day  that  he  finally  embarked.  At  last,  the  long  looked-for  hour 
arrived  to  start  for  Philadelphia. 

He  was  to  leave  his  mother,  with  no  hope  of  ever  seeing  her  again,  but 
she  had  purchased  herself  and  was  called  free.  Her  name  was  Margaret 
Johnson.  Three  brothers  likewise  were  ever  in  his  thoughts,  (in  chains), 
"  Henry,"  "  Bill,"  and  "  Sam,"  (half  brothers).  But  after  all  the  hope  of 
freedom  outweighed  every  other  consideration,  and  he  was  prepared  to  give 
up  all  for  liberty.  To  die  rather  than  remain  a  slave  was  his  resolve. 

Charles  arrived  per  steamer,  from  Norfolk,  on  the  llth  day  of  No- 
vember, 1854.  The  Richmond  papers  bear  witness  to  the  fact,  that  Benja- 
min Davis  advertised  Charles  Gilbert,  for  months  prior  to  this  date,  as  has 
been  stated  in  this  narrative.  As  to  the  correctness  of  the  story,  all  that  the 
writer  has  to  say  is,  that  he  took  it  down  from  the  lips  of  Charles,  hur- 
riedly, directly  after  his  arrival,  with  no  thought  of  magnifying  a  single  in- 
cident. On  the  contrary,  much  that  was  of  interest  in  the  story  had  to  be 
omitted.  Instead  of  being  overdrawn,  not  half  of  the  particulars  were  re- 
corded. Had  the  idea  then  been  entertained,  that  the  narrative  of  this 
young  slave-warrior  was  to  be  brought  to  light  in  the  manner  and  time  that 
it  now  is,  a  far  more  thrilling  account  of  his  adventures  might  have  been 
written.  Other  colored  men  who  knew  both  Davis  and  Charles,  as  well  as 
one  man  ordinarily  knows  another,  rejoiced  at  seeing  Charles  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  they  listened  with  perfect  faith  to  his  story.  So  marvellous  were 
the  incidents  of  his  escape,  that  his  sufferings  in  Slavery,  previous  to  his 
heroic  straggles  to  throw  off  the  yoke,  were  among  the  facts  omitted  from 
the  records.  While  this  may  be  regretted  it  is,  nevertheless,  gratifying  on 
the  whole  to  have  so  good  an  account  of  him  as  was  preserved.  It  is  need- 
less to  say,  that  the  Committee  took  especial  pleasure  in  aiding  him,  and  lis- 
tening to  so  remarkable  a  story  narrated  so  intelligently  by  one  who  had 
been  a  slave. 


LIBERTY  OR  DEATH. 

JIM    BOW-LEGS,    alias    BILL    PAUL. 

In  1855  a  traveler  arrived  with  the  above  name,  who,  on  examination, 
was  found  to  possess  very  extraordinary  characteristics.     As  a  hero  and  ad- 


LIBERTY  OR  DEATH.  241 

venturer  some  passages  of  his  history  were  most  remarkable.  His  schooling 
had  been  such  as  could  only  be  gathered  on  plantations  under  brutal  over- 
seers ; — or  while  fleeing, — or  in  swamps, — in  prisons, — or  on  the  auction- 
block,  etc.;  in  which  condtion  he  was  often  found.  Nevertheless  in  these  cir- 
cumstances his  mind  got  well  stored  with  vigorous  thoughts — neither  books 
nor  friendly  advisers  being  at  his  command.  Yet  his  native  intelligence  as 
.  it  regarded  human  nature,  was  extraordinary.  His  resolution  and  perseve- 
rance never  faltered.  In  all  respects  he  was  a  remarkable  man.  He  was  a 
young  man,  weighing  about  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds,  of  uncommon 
muscular  strength.  He  was  born  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  Oglethorpe  county, 
and  was  owned  by  Dr.  Thomas  Stephens,  of  Lexington.  On  reaching  the 
Vigilance  Committee  in  Philadelphia,  his  story  was  told  many  times  over  to 
one  and  another.  Hour  after  hour  was  occupied  by  friends  in  listening  to 
the  simple  narrative  of  his  struggles  for  freedom.  A  very  full  account  of 
"  Jim,"  was  forwarded  in  a  letter  to  M.  A.  Shadd,  the  then  Editress  of  the 
"  Provincial  Freeman."  Said  account  has  been  carefully  preserved,  and  is 
here  annexed  as  it  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  above  named  paper: 

"  I  must  now  pass  to  a  third  adventurer.  The  one  to  whom  I  allude,  is 
a  young  man  of  twenty-six  years  of  age,  by  the  name  of  *  Jim,'  who  fled 
from  near  Charleston,  S.  C.  Taking  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  into  con- 
sideration respecting  the  courageous  career  of  this  successful  adventurer  for 
freedom,  his  case  is  by  far  more  interesting  than  any  I  have  yet  referred  to. 
Indeed,  for  the  good  of  the  cause,  and  the  honor  of  one  who  gained  his  lib- 
erty by  periling  his  life  so  frequently: — shot  several  times, — making  six 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  escape  from  the  far  South, — numberless  times 
chased  by  bloodhounds, — captured,  imprisoned  and  sold  repeatedly, — living 
for  months  in  the  woods,  swamps  and  caves,  subsisting  mainly  on  parched 
corn  and  berries,  &c.,  &c.,  his  narrative  ought,  by  all  means,  to  be  pub- 
lished, though  I  doubt  very  much  whether  many  could  be  found  who  could 
persuade  themselves  to  believe  one-tenth  part  of  this  marvellous  story. 

Though  this  poor  Fugitive  was  utterly  ignorant  of  letters,  his  natural 
good  sense  and  keen  perception  qualified  him  to  arrest  the  attention  and  in- 
terest the  heart  in  a  most  remarkable  degree. 

His  master  finding  him  not  available,  on  account  of  his  absconding  pro- 
pensities, would  gladly  have  offered  him  for  sale.  He  was  once  taken  to 
Florida,  for  that  purpose  ;  but,  generally,  traders  being  wide  awake,  on  in- 
specting him,  would  almost  invariably  pronounce  him  a  '  d — n  rascal/  be- 
cause he  would  never  fail  to  eye  them  sternly,  as  they  inspected  him.  The 
obedient  and  submissive  slave  is  always  recognized  by  hanging  his  head 
and  looking  on  the  ground,  when  looked  at  by  a  slave-holder.  This  lesson 
Jim  had  never  learned,  hence  he  was  not  to  be  trusted. 

His  head  and  chest,  and  indeed  his  entire  structure,  as  solid  as  a  rock,  in- 
dicated that  he  was  physically  no  ordinary  man ;  and  not  being  under  the 
16 


242  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

influence  of  the  spirit  of  "  non-resistance/'  he  had  occasionally  been  found 
to  be  a  rather  formidable  customer. 

His  father  was  a  full-bloodsd  Indian,  brother  to  the  noted  Indian  Chief, 
Billy  Bowlegs;  his  mother  was  quite  black  and  of  unmixed  blood. 

For  five  or  six  years,  the  greater  part  of  Jim's  time  was  occupied  in  try- 
ing to  escape,  and  in  being  in  prison  for  sale,  to  punish  him  for  running 
away. 

His  mechanical  genius  was  excellent,  so  were  his  geographical  abilities. 
He  could  make  shoes  or  do  carpenter's  work  very  handily,  though  he  had 
never  had  the  chance  to  learn.  As  to  traveling  by  night  or  day,  he  was  al- 
ways road-ready  and  having  an  uncommon  memory,  could  give  exceedingly 
good  accounts  of  what  he  saw,  etc. 

When  he  entered  a  swamp,  and  had  occasion  to  take  a  nap  he  took  care 
first  to  decide  upon  the  posture  he  must  take,  so  that  if  come  upon  unex- 
pectedly by  the  hounds  and  slave-hunters,  he  might  know  in  an  instant 
which  way  to  steer  to  defeat  them.  He  always  carried  a  liquid,  which  he  had 
prepared,  to  prevent  hounds  from  scenting  him,  which  he  said  had  never 
failed.  As  soon  as  the  hounds  came  to  the  place  where  he  had  rubbed  his 
legs  and  feet  with  said  liquid,  they  could  follow  him  no  further,  but  howled 
and  turned  immediately. 

Quite  a  large  number  of  the  friends  of  the  slave  saw  this  noble-hearted 
fugitive,  and  would  sit  long  and  listen  with  the  most  undivided  attention  to 
his  narrative — none  doubting  for  a  moment,  I  think,  the  entire  truthfulness 
of  his  story.  Strange  as  his  story  was,  there  was  so  much  natural  simplicity 
in  his  manner  and  countenance,  one  could  not  refrain  from  believing  him." 


SALT-WATER  FUGITIVE. 

This  was  an  exceptional  case,  as  this  passenger  did  not  reach  the  Vigilance 
Committee  of  Philadelphia,  yet  to  exclude  him  on  this  account,  would  be 
doing  an  injustice  to  history. 

The  facts  in  his  case  were  incontestably  established  in  the  Philadelphia 
Register  in  April,  1854,  from  which  the  folio  wing  thrilling  account  is  taken: 

The  steamship,  Keystone  State,  which  arrived  at  this  port  on  Saturday 
morning,  had  just  entered  Delaware  Bay,  when  a  man  was  discovered  se- 
creted outside  of  the  vessel  and  under  the  guards.  When  brought  from  his 
hiding-place,  he  was  found  to  be  a  Fugitive  Slave,  who  had  secreted  himself 
there  before  the  vessel  left  Savannah  on  Wednesday,  and  had  remained  in 
that  place  from  the  time  of  starting ! 

His  position  was  such,  that  the  water  swept  over  and  around  him  almost 
constantly.  He  had  some  bread  in  his  pocket,  which  he  had  intended  for 


SAL  T-  WA  TER  FUGITIVE.  243 

subsistence  until  he  could  reach  a  land  of  liberty.  It  was  saturated  with 
sea-water  and  dissolved  to  a  pulp. 

When  our  readers  remember  the  high  winds  of  Friday,  and  the  sudden 
change  to  cold  during  that  night,  and  the  fact  that  the  fugitive  had 
remained  in  that  situation  for  three  days  and  nights,  we  think  it  will  be 
concedejd  that  he  fully  earned  his  liberty,  and  that  the  "institution,"  which 
was  so  intolerable  that  he  was  willing  to  run  the  risk  of  almost  certain 
death  to  escape  from  it  had  no  very  great  attractions  for  him.  But  the 
poor  man  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  captain  ordered  the  vessel 
to  put  into  Newcastle,  where,  the  fugitive,  hardly  able  to  stand,  was  taken 
on  shore  and  incarcerated,  and  where  he  now  awaits  the  order  of  his 
owner  in  Savannah.  The  following  additional  particulars  are  from  the  same 
paper  of  the  21st. 

The  Keystone  State  case. — Our  article  yesterday  morning  brought  us 
several  letters  of  inquiry  and  offers  of  contributions  to  aid  in  the  purchase 
from  his  master  of  the  unfortunate  inmate  of  Newcastle  jail.  In  answer 
to  the  former,  we  would  say,  that  the  steamer  Keystone  State,  left 
Savannah,  at  9  A.  M.,  last  Wednesday.  It  was  about  the  same  hour  next 
morning  that  the  men  engaged  in  heaving  lead,  heard  a  voice  from  under 
the  guards  imploring  help.  A  rope  was  procured,  and  the  man  relieved 
from  his  dangerous  and  suffering  situation.  He  was  well  cared  for  immedi- 
ately ;  a  suit  of  dry  clothes  was  furnished  him,  and  he  was  given  his  share 
of  the  contents  of  the  boat  pantry.  On  arriving  at  Newcastle,  the  captain 
had  him  placed  in  jail,  for  the  purpose,  as  we  are  informed,  of  taking  him 
back  to  Savannah. 

To  those  who  have  offered  contributions  so  liberally,  we  answer,  that  the 
prospect  is,  that  only  a  small  amount  will  be  needed — enough  to  fee  a 
lawyer  to  sue  out  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  salt  water  fugitive  claims 
to  be  a  free  man,  and  a  native  of  Philadelphia.  He  gives  his  name  as 
Edward  Davis,  and  says  that  he  formerly  lived  at  No.  5  Steel's  court,  that 
he  was  a  pupil  in  Bird's  school,  on  Sixth  St.  above  Lombard,  and  that  he 
has  a  sister  living  at  Mr.  Diamond's,  a  distiller,  on  South  St.  We  are  not 
informed  why  he  was  in  Georgia,  from  which  he  took  such  an  extraordinary 
means  to  effect  his  escape.  If  the  above  assertion  be  true,  we  apprehend 
little  trouble  in  restoring  the  man  to  his  former  home.  The  claim  of  the 
captain  to  take  him  back  to  Savannah,  will  not  be  listened  to  for  a  moment 
by  any  court.  The  only  claim  the  owners  of  the  "Keystone  State"  or 
the  captain  can  have  on  salt  water  Davis,  is  for  half  passenger  fare ;  he 
came  half  the  way  as  a  fish.  A  gentleman  who  came  from  Wilmington 
yesterday,  assures  us  that  the  case  is  in  good  hands  at  Newcastle. 


244  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

FULL  PARTICULARS  OF  THE   ABDUCTION,  ENSLAVING  AND  ESCAPE  OF  DAVIS. 
ATTEMPT  TO  REDUCE  HIM  TO  SLAVERY  AGAIN. 

The  case  of  the  colored  man  Davis,  who  made  such  a  bold  stroke  to 
regain  his  liberty,  by  periling  his  life  on  board  the  steamer  Keystone  State 
has  excited  very  general  attention.  He  has  given  a  detailed  account  of  his 
abduction  and  sale  as  a  slave  in  the  State  of  Maryland  and  Georgia,  and 
some  of  his  adventures  up  to  the  time  of  reaching  Delaware.  His  own 
story  is  substantially  as  follows  : 

He  left  Philadelphia  on  the  15th  of  September,  1851,  and  went  to 
Harrisburg,  intending  to  go  to  Hollidaysburg ;  took  a  canal  boat  for 
Havre  de  Grace,  where  he  arrived  next  day.  There  he  hired  on  board  the 
schooner  Thomas  and  Edward  (oyster  boat),  of  Baltimore.  Went  from 
Havre  de  Grace  to  St.  Michael's,  for  oysters,  thence  to  Baltimore,  and  thence 
to  Havre  de  Grace  again. 

He  then  hired  to  a  Mr.  Sullivan,  who  kept  a  grocery  store,  to  do  jobs. 
While  there,  a  constable,  named  Smith,  took  him  before  a  magistrate  named 
Graham,  who  fined  him  fifteen  or  twenty  dollars  for  violating  the  law  in 
relation  to  free  negroes  coming  into  the  State.  This  fine  he  was  not  able  to 
pay,  and  Smith  took  him  to  Bell  Air  prison.  Sheriff  Gaw  wrote  to  Mr. 
Maitland  in  Philadelphia,  to  whom  he  referred,  and  received  an  answer 
that  Mr.  Maitland  was  dead  and  none  of  the  family  knew  him.  He 
remained  in  that  prison  nearly  two  months.  He  then  had  a  trial  in  court 
before  a  Judge  Grier  (most  unfortunate  name),  who  sentenced  him  to  be 
sold  to  pay  his  fine  and  expenses,  amounting  to  fifty  dollars. 

After  a  few  days  and  without  being  offered  at  public  sale,  he  was  taken  out 
of  jail  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  carried  to  Campbell's  slave  pen,  in 
Baltimore,  where  he  remained  several  months.  While  there,  he  was 
employed  to  cook  for  some  fifty  or  sixty  slaves,  being  told  that  he  was  work- 
ing out  his  fine  and  jail  fees.  After  being  there  about  six  months,  he 
was  taken  out  of  prison,  handcuffed  by  one  Winters,  who  took  him  and  two 
or  three  others  to  Washington  and  thence  to  Charleston,  S.  C.  Here  Win- 
ters left  them,  and  they  were  taken  by  steamboat  to  Savannah.  While 
on  board  the  boat,  he  learned  that  himself  and  the  other  two  had  been  sold 
to  Mr.  William  Dean,  of  Macon,  where  he  stayed  two  days,  and  was  taken 
from  that  place  to  the  East  Valley  Railroad. 

Subsequently  he  was  sent  to  work  on  the  Possum  Tail  Railroad.  Here 
he  was  worked  so  hard,  that  in  one  month  he  lost  his  health.  The  other 
two  men  taken  on  with  him,  failed  before  he  did.  He  was  then  sent  to 
Macon,  and  thence  to  the  cotton  plantation  again. 

During  the  time  he  -worked  on  the  railroad  he  had  allowed  him  for  food, 
one  peck  of  corn  meal,  four  pounds  of  bacon,  and  one  quart  of  molasses  per 
week.  He  cooked  it  himself  at  night,  for  the  next  day's  use.  He  worked 


SALT-WATER  FUGITIVE.  245 

at  packing  cotton  for  four  or  five  months,  and  in  the  middle  of  November, 

1852,  was  sent  back  to  the  railroad,  where  he  was  again  set  to  wheeling. 

He  worked  at  "  task  work  "  two  months,  being  obliged  to  wheel  sixteen 
square  yards  per  day.  At  the  end  of  two  months  he  broke  down  again,  and 
was  sick.  They  tried  one  month  to  cure  him,  but  did  not  succeed.  In  July, 

1853,  he  was  taken  to  an  infirmary  in  Macon.     Dr.  Nottinghan  and  Dr. 
Harris,  of  that  institution,  both  stated  that  his  was  the  worst  case  of  the 
kind  they  ever  had.     He  remained'  at  the  infirmary  two  months  and  par- 
tially recovered.     He  told  the  story  of  his  wrongs  to  these  physicians,  who 
tried  to  buy  him.     One  of  his  legs  was  drawn  up  so  that  he  could  not  walk 
well,  and  they  offered  four  hundred  dollars  for  him,  which  his  master  re- 
fused.    The  doctors  wanted  him   to  attend   their  patients,  (mostly  slaves). 
While  in  Georgia  he  was  frequently  asked  where  he  came  from,  being  found 
more  intelligent  than  the  common  run  of  slaves. 

On  the  12th  of  March  he  ran  away  from  Macon  and  went  to  Savannah. 
There  he  hid  in  a  stable  until  Tuesday  afternoon  at  six  o'clock,  when  he 
secreted  himself  on  board  the  Keystone  State.  At  9  o'clock  the  next  morning 
the  Keystone  State  left  with  Davis  secreted,  as  we  have  before  stated.  With 
his  imprisonment  in  Newcastle,  after  being  pronounced  free,  our  readers  are 
already  familiar.  We  subjoin  the  documents  on  which  he  was  discharged 
from  his  imprisonment  in  Newcastle,  and  his  subsequent  re-committal  on 
the  oath  of  Capt.  Hardie. 

COPY   OF   FIRST   ORDER   OF   COMMITMENT. 

New  Castle  county,  ss.,  State  of  Delaware. — To  Wm.  R.  Lynam,  Sheriff 

of  said  county. Davis  (Negro)  is  delivered  to  your  custody  for 

further  examination  and  hearing  for  traveling  without  a  pass,  and  supposed 
to  be  held  a  Slave  to  some  person  in  the  State  of  Georgia. 

[Seal].  Witness  the  hand  and  seal  of  John  Bradford,  one  of  the  Justices 
of  the  Peace  for  the  county  of  Newcastle,  the  17th  day  of  March,  1854. 

JOHN  BRADFORD,  J.  P. 

COPY  OF  DISCHARGE. 

To  Wm.  R.  Lynam,  Sheriff  of  Newcastle  county  :   You  will  discharge 
-Davis  from  your  custody,  satisfactory  proof  having  been  made 


before  me  that  he  is  a  free  man.  JOHN  BRADFORD,  J.  P. 

Witnesses — Joanna  Diamond,  John  H.  Brady,  Martha  C.  Maguire. 

COPY   OF   ORDER   OF   RE-COMMITMENT. 

New  Castle  county,  ss.,  the  State  of  Delaware  to  Wm.  R.  Lynam,  and  to 

the  Sheriff  or  keeper  of  the  Common  Jail  of  said  county,   Whereas 

Davis  hath  this  day  been  brought  before  me,  the  subscriber,  one  of  the  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace,  in  and  for  the  said  county,  charged  upon  the  oath  of  Ro- 


246  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

bert  Hardie  with  being  a  runaway  slave,  and  also  as  a  suspicious  person, 
traveling  without  a  pass,  these  are  therefore  to  command  you,  the  said  \Vm. 
R.  Lynam,  forthwith  to  convey  and  deliver  into  the  custody  of  the  said 
Sheriff,  or  keeper  of  the  said  jail,  the  body  of  the  said  Davis,  and  you  the 
said  Sheriff  or  receiver  of  the  body  of  the  said  Davis  into  your  custody  in 
the  said  jail,  and  him  there  safely  keep  until  he  be  thence  delivered  by  due 
course  of  the  law. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  at  New  Castle  this  21st  day  of  March,  A. 
D.,  1854.  JOHN  BRADFORD,  J.  P. 

On  the  fourth  of  April,  the  Marshal  of  Macon  called  at  the  jail  in  New- 
castle, and  demanded  him  as  a  fugitive  slave,  but  the  Sheriff  refused  to  give 
him  up  until  a  fair  hearing  could  be  had  according  to  the  laws  of  the  State 
of  Delaware.  The  Marshal  has  returned  to  Georgia,  and  will  probably 
bring  the  claimant  on  the  next  trip  of  the  Keystone  State.  The  authorities 
of  Delaware  manifest  no  disposition  to  deliver  up  a  man  whose  freedom  has 
been  so  clearly  proved  ;  but  every  effort  will  be  made  to  reduce  him  again 
to  slavery  by  the  man  who  claims  him,  in  which,  it  seems,  he  has  the  hearty 
co-operation  of  Capt.  Hardie.  A  trial  will  be  had  before  U.  S.  Commis- 
sioner Guthrie,  and  we  have  every  reason  to  suppose  it  will  be  a  fair  one. 
The  friends  of  right  and  justice  should  remember  that  such  a  trial  will  be 
attended  with  considerable  expense,  and  that  the  imprisoned  man  has  been 
too  long  deprived  of  his  liberty  to  have  money  to  pay  for  his  own  defence. 


SAMUEL  GREEN  ALIAS  WESLEY  KINNARD,  AUGUST  28th,  1854. 

TEN  YEARS  IN  THE    PENITENTIARY  FOR    HAVING  A  COPY  OF   UNCLE  TOM'S    CABIN. 

The  passenger  answering  to  the  above  name,  left  Indian  Creek,  Chester 
Co.,  Md.,  where  he  had  been  held  to  service  or  labor,  by  Dr.  James  Muse. 
One  week  had  elapsed  from  the  time  he  set  out  until  his  arrival  in  Philadel- 
phia. Although  he  had  never  enjoyed  school  privileges  of  any  kind,  yet  he 
was  not  devoid  of  intelligence.  He  had  profited  by  his  daily  experience  as 
a  slave,  and  withal,  had  managed  to  learn  to  read  and  write  a  little,  despite 
law  and  usage  to  the  contrary.  Sara  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age 
and  by  trade,  a  blacksmith.  Before  running  away,  his  general  character 
for  sobriety,  industry,  and  religion,  had  evidently  been  considered  good, 
but  in  coveting  his  freedom  and  running  away  to  obtain  it,  he  had  sunk 
far  below  the  utmost  limit  of  forgiveness  or  mercy  in  the  estimation  of 
the  slave-holders  of  Indian  Creek. 

During  his  intercourse  with  the  Vigilance  Committee,  while  rejoicing 
over  his  triumphant  flight,  he  gave,  with  no  appearance  of  excitement, 


SAMUEL  GREEN.  247 

but  calmly,  and  in  a  common-sense  like  manner,  a  brief  description  of  his 
master,  which  was  entered  on  the  record  book  substantially  as  follows : 
"Dr.  James  Muse  is  thought  by  the  servants  to  be  the  worst  man  in  Mary- 
land, inflicting  whipping  and  all  manner  of  cruelties  upon  the  servants." 

While  Sam  gave  reasons  for  this  sweeping  charge,  which  left  no  room 
for  doubt,  on  the  part  of  the  Committee,  of  his  sincerity  and  good  judgment, 
it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  make  a  note  of  more  of  the  doctor's  charac- 
ter than  seemed  actually  needed,  in  order  to  show  why  "  Sam  "  had  taken 
passage  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  For  several  years,  "Sam"  was 
hired  out  by  the  doctor  at  blacksmithing ;  in  this  situation,  daily  wearing 
the  yoke  of  unrequited  labor,  through  the  kindness  of  Harriet  Tubman 
(sometimes  called  "  Moses  "),  the  light  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and 
Canada  suddenly  illuminated  his  mind.  It  was  new  to  him,  but  he  was 
quite  too  intelligent  and  liberty-loving,  not  to  heed  the  valuable  informa- 
tion which  this  sister  of  humanity  imparted.  Thenceforth  he  was  in  love 
with  Canada,  and  likewise  a  decided  admirer  of  the  U.  R.  Road.  Harriet 
was  herself,  a  shrewd  and  fearless  agent,  and  well  understood  the  entire 
route  from  that  part  of  the  country  to  Canada.  The  spring  previous,  she 
had  paid  a  visit  to  the  very  neighborhood  in  which  "  Sam "  lived,  ex- 
pressly to  lead  her  own  brothers  out  of  "Egypt."  She  succeeded.  To 
"  Sam  "  this  was  cheering  and  glorious  news,  and  he  made  up  his  mind, 
that  before  a  great  while,  Indian  Creek  should  have  one  less  slave  and 
that  Canada  should  have  one  more  citizen.  Faithfully  did  he  watch  an 
opportunity  to  carry  out  his  resolution.  In  due  time  a  good  Providence 
opened  the  way,  and  to  "  Sam's "  satisfaction  he  reached  Philadelphia, 
having  encountered  no  peculiar  difficulties.  The  Committee,  perceiving  that 
he  was  smart,  active,  and  promising,  encouraged  his  undertaking,  and  having 
given  him  friendly  advice,  aided  him  in  the  usual  manner.  Letters  of 
introduction  were  given  him,  and  he  was  duly  forwarded  on  his  way.  He 
had  left  his  father,  mother,  and  one  sister  behind.  Samuel  and  Catharine 
were  the  names  of  his  parents.  Thus  far,  his  escape  would  seem  not  to 
affect  his  parents,  nor  was  it  apparent  that  there  was  any  other  cause  why 
the  owner  should  revenge  himself  upon  them. 

The  father  was  an  old  local  preacher  in  the  Methodist  Church — much 
esteemed  as  an  inoffensive,  industrious  man;  earning  his  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  his  brow,  and  contriving  to  move  along  in  the  narrow  road  allotted 
colored  people  bond  or  free,  without  exciting  a  spirit  of  ill  will  in  the  pro- 
slavery  power  of  his  community.  But  the  rancor  awakened  in  the  breast 
of  slave-holders  in  consequence  of  the  high-handed  step  the  son  had  taken, 
brought  the  father  under  suspicion  and  hate.  Under  the  circumstances,  the 
eye  of  Slavery  could  do  nothing  more  than  watch  for  an  occasion  to  pounce 
upon  him.  It  was  not  long  before  the  desired  opportunity  presented  itself. 
Moved  by  parental  affection,  the  old  man  concluded  to  pay  a  visit  to  his 


248  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

boy,  to  see  how  he  was  faring  in  a  distant  land,  and  among  strangers.  This 
resolution  he  quietly  carried  into  effect.  He  found  his  son  in  Canada,  doing 
well;  industrious;  a  man  of  sobriety,  and  following  his  father's  footsteps 
religiously.  That  the  old  man's  heart  was  delighted  with  what  his  eyes  saw 
and  his  ears  heard  in  Canada,  none  can  doubt.  But  in  the  simplicity  of 
his  imagination,  he  never  dreamed  that  this  visit  was  to  be  made  the  means 
of  his  destruction.  During  the  best  portion  of  his  days  he  had  faithfully 
worn  the  badge  of  Slavery,  had  afterwards  purchased  his  freedom,  and  thus 
become  a  free  man.  He  innocently  conceived  the  idea  that  he  was  doing 
no  harm  in  availing  himself  not  only  of  his  God-given  rights,  but  of  the 
rights  that  he  had  also  purchased  by  the  hard  toil  of  his  own  hands.  But 
the  enemy  was  lurking  in  ambush  for  him — thirsting  for  his  blood.  To  his 
utter  consternation,  not  long  after  his  return  from  his  visit  to  his  son  "  a 
party  of  gentlemen  from  the  New  Market  district,  went  at  night  to  Green's 
house  and  made  search,  whereupon  was  found  a  copy  of  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,  etc."  This  was  enough — the  hour  had  come,  wherein  to  wreak  ven- 
geance upon  poor  Green.  The  course  pursued  and  the  result,  may  be  seen 
in  the  following  statement  taken  from  the  Cambridge  (Md.),  "  Democrat," 
of  April  29th,  1857,  and  communicated  by  the  writer  to  the  "  Provincial 
Freeman." 

SAM     GREEN. 

The  case  of  the  State  against  Sam  Green  (free  negro)  indicted  for  having 
in  his  possession,  papers,  pamphlets  and  pictorial  representations,  having  a 
tendency  to  create  discontent,  etc.,  among  the  people  of  color  in  the  State, 
was  tried  before  the  court  on  Friday  last. 

This  case  was  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  has  created  in  the  public 
mind  a  great  deal  of  interest — it  being  the  first  case  of  the  kind  ever 
having  occurred  in  our  country. 

It  appeared,  in  evidence,  that  this  Green  has  a  son  in  Canada,  to  whom 
Green  made  a  visit  last  summer.  Since  his  return  to  this  county,  suspicion 
has  fastened  upon  him,  as  giving  aid  and  assisting  slaves  who  have  since 
absconded  and  reached  Canada,  and  several  weeks  ago,  a  party  of  gentlemen 
from  New  Market  district,  went  at  night,  to  Green's  house  and  made  search, 
•whereupon  was  found  a  volume  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  a  map  of  Canada, 
several  schedules  of  routes  to  the  North,  and  a  letter  from  his  son  in 
Canada,  detailing  the  pleasant  trip  he  had,  the  number  of  friends  he  met 
with  on  the  way,  with  plenty  to  eat,  drink,  etc.,  and  concludes  with  a 
request  to  his  father,  that  he  shall  tell  certain  other  slaves,  naming  them,  to 
come  on,  which  slaves,  it  is  well  known,  did  leave  shortly  afterwards,  and 
have  reached  Canada.  The  case  was  argued  with  great  ability,  the  counsel 
on  both  sides  displaying  a  great  deal  of  ingenuity,  learning  and  eloquence. 
The  first  indictment  was  for  the  having  in  possession  the  letter,  map  and 
route  schedules. 


SAMUEL  GREEN.  249 

Notwithstanding  the  mass  of  evidence  given,  to  show  the  prisoner's  guilt, 
in  unlawfully  having  in  his  possession  these  documents,  and  the  nine-tenths 
of  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  believed  that  he  had  a  hand  in  the 
running  away  of  slaves,  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  court,  that  -the  law  under 
which  he  was  indicted,  was  not  applicable  to  the  case,  and  that  he  must, 
accordingly,  render  a  verdict  of  not  guilty. 

He  was  immediately  arraigned  upon  another  indictment,  for  having  in 
possession  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and  tried  ;  in  this  case  the  court  has  not 
yet  rendered  a  verdict,  but  holds  it  under  curia  till  after  the  Somerset 
county  court.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  the  court  will  find  the  evidence  in  this 
case  sufficient  to  bring  it  within  the  scope  of  the  law  under  which  the 
prisoner  is  indicted  (that  of  1842,  chap.  272),  and  that  the  prisoner  may 
meet  his  due  reward — be  that  what  it  may. 

That  there  is  something  required  to  be  done  by  our  Legislators,  for  the 
protection  of  slave  property,  is  evident  from  the  variety  of  constructions 
put  upon  the  statute  in  this  case,  and  we  trust,  that  at  the  next  meeting  of 
the  Legislature  there  will  be  such  amendments,  as  to  make  the  law  on  this 
subject,  perfectly  clear  and  comprehensible  to  the  understanding  of  every 
one. 

In  the  language  of  the  assistant  counsel  for  the  State,  "  Slavery  must  be 
protected  or  it  must  be  abolished." 

From  the  same  sheet,  of  May  20th,  the  terrible  doom  of  Samuel  Green, 
is  announced  in  the  following  words: 

In  the  case  of  the  State  against  Sam  Green,  (free  negro)  who  was  tried  at 
the  April  term  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  this  county,  for  having  in  his  posses- 
sion abolition  pamphlets,  among  which  was  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  has  been 
found  guilty  by  the  court,  and  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  the  term  of 
ten  years — until  the  14th  of  May,  1867. 

The  son,  a  refugee  in  Canada,  hearing  the  distressing  news  of  his  father's 
sad  fate  in  the  hands  of  the  relentless  "  gentlemen,"  often  wrote  to  know  if 
there  was  any  prospect  of  his  deliverance.  The  subjoined  letter  is  a  fair 
sample  of  his  correspondence  :  :  t  - 

SALFOBD,  22, 1857. 

Dear  Sir  I  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  Request  a  faver  of  you  if  you  can  by  any  means 
without  duin  In  Festus  to  your  self  or  your  Bisness  to  grant  it  as  I  Bleve  you  to  be  a  man 
that  would  Sympathize  in  such  a  ones  Condition  as  my  self  I  Reseved  a  letter  that  Stats 
to  me  that  my  Fater  has  ben  Betraed  in  the  act  of  helping  sum  frend  to  Canada  and  the 
law  has  Convicted  and  Sentanced  him  to  the  Stats  prison  for  10  yeares  his  White  Frands 
ofered  2  thousen  Dollcrs  to  Redem  him  but  they  would  not  short  three  thousen.  I  am  in 
Canada  and  it  is  a  Dificult  thing  to  get  a  letter  to  any  of  my  Frands  in  Maryland  so  as  to 
get  prop  per  infermation  abot  it— if  you  can  by  any  means  get  any  in  telligence  from  Bal- 
timore City  a  bot  this  Event  Plese  do  so  and  Rit  word  and  all  so  all  the  inform  mation  that 
you  think  prop  per  as  Regards  the  Evant  and  the  best  mathod  to  Redeme  him  and  so 
Plese  Rite  soon  as  you  can  You  will  oblige  your  sir  Frand  and  Drect  your  letter  to  Sal- 
ford  P.  office  C.  W.  SAMUEL  GKEEN, 


250  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

In  this  dark  hour  the  friends  of  the  Slave  could  do  but  little  more  than 
sympathize  with  this  heart-stricken  son  and  grey-headed  father.  The  aged 
follower  of  the  Rejected  and  Crucified  had  like  Him  to  bear  the  "  re- 
proach of  many,"  and  make  his  bed  with  the  wicked  in  the  Penitentiary. 
Doubtless  there  were  a  few  friends  in  his  neighborhood  who  sympathized 
with  him,  but  they  were  powerless  to  aid  the  old  man.  But  thanks  to  a  kind 
Providence,  the  great  deliverance  brought  about  during  the  Rebellion  by 
which  so  many  captives  were  freed,  also  unlocked  Samuel  Green's  prison- 
door's  and  he  was  allowed  to  go  free. 

After  his  liberation  from  the  Penitentiary,  we  had  from  his  own  lips  nar- 
rations of  his  years  of  suffering— of  the  bitter  cup,  that  he  was  compelled  to 
drink,  and  of  his  being  sustained  by  the  Almighty  Arm — but  no  notes  were 
taken  at  the  time,  consequently  we  have  nothing  more  to  add  concerning 
him,  save  quite  a  faithful  likeness. 


AN  IRISH  GIRL'S  DEVOTION  TO  FREEDOM. 

IN  LOVE  WITH  A  SLAVE — GETS  HIM  OFF  TO  CANADA — FOLLOWS  HIM — MARRIAGE,  &C. 

Having  dwelt  on  the  sad  narratives  of  Samuel  Green  and  his  son  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  it  is  quite  a  relief  to  be  able  to  introduce  a  traveler 
whose  story  contains  incidents  less  painful  to  contemplate.  From  the  record 
book  the  following  brief  account  is  taken : 

"April  27,  1855.  John  Hall  arrived  safely  from  Richmond,  Va.,  per 
schooner,  (Captain  B).  One  hundred  dollars  were  paid  for  his  passage. 
In  Richmond  he  was  owned  by  James  Dunlap,  a  merchant.  John  had 


AN  IRISH  GIRL'S  DEVOTION  TO  FREEDOM.  251 

been  sold  several  times,  in  consequence  of  which,  he  had  possessed  very 
good  opportunities  of  experiencing  the  effect  of  change  of  owners.  Then, 
too,  the  personal  examination  made  before  sale,  and  the  gratification  afforded 
his  master  when  he  (John),  brought  a  good  price — left  no  very  pleasing  im- 
pressions on  his  mind. 

By  one  of  his  owners,  named  Burke,  John  alleged  that  he  had  been 
"  cruelly  used."  When  quite  young,  both  he  and  his  sister,  together  with 
their  mother,  were  sold  by  Burke.  From  that  time  he  had  seen  neither 
mother  nor  sister — they  were  sold  separately.  For  three  or  four  years  'the 
dcsiro  to  seek  liberty  had  been  fondly  cherished,  and  nothing  but  the  want 
of  a  favorable  opportunity  had  deterred  him  from  carrying  out  his  designs. 
He  considered  himself  much  "  imposed  upon "  by  his  master,  particularly 
as  he  was  allowed  "  no  choice  about  living "  as  he  "  desired."  This  was 
indeed  ill-treatment  as  John  viewed  the  matter.  John  may  have  wanted 
too  much.  He  was  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  light  complexion — tall — 
rather  handsome-looking,  intelligent,  and  of  good  manners.  But  notwith- 
standing these  prepossessing  features,  John's .  owner  valued  him  at  only 
$1,000.  If  he  had  been  a  few  shades  darker  and  only  about  half  as  in- 
telligent as  he  was,  he  would  have  been  worth  at  least  $500  more.  The 
idea  of  having  had  a  white  father,  in  many  instances,  depreciated  the  pe- 
cuniary value  of  male  slaves,  if  not  of  the  other  sex.  John  emphatically 
was  one  of  this  injured  class;  he  evidently  had  blood  in  his  veins  which 
decidedly  warred  against  submitting  to  the  yoke.  In  addition  to  the  in- 
fluence which  such  rebellious  blood  exerted  over  him,  together  with  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  intelligence,  he  was  also  under  the  influence  and  advice 
of  a  daughter  of  old  Ireland.  She  was  heart  and  soul  with  John  in  all  his 
plans  which  looked  Canada-ward.  This  it  was  that  "sent  him  away." 

It  is  very  certain,  that  this  Irish  girl  was  not  annoyed  by  the  kinks  in 
John's  hair.  Nor  was  she  overly  fastidious  about  the  small  percentage  of 
colored  blood  visible  in  John's  complexion.  It  was,  however,  a  strange  oc- 
currence and  very  hard  to  understand.  Not  a  stone  was  left  unturned  until 
John  was  safely  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Doubtless  she  helped  to 
earn  the  money  which  was  paid  for  his  passage.  And  when  he  was  safe  off, 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  John  was  not  a  whit  more  delighted  than  was 
his  intended  Irish  lassie,  Mary  Weaver.  John  had  no  sooner  reached  Canada 
than  Mary's  heart  was  there  too.  Circumstances,  however,  required  that  she 
should  remain  in  Richmond  a  number  of  months  for  the  purpose  of  winding 
up  some  of  her  affairs.  As  soon  as  the  way  opened  for  her,  she  followed 
him.  It  was  quite  manifest,  that  she  had  not  let  a  single  opportunity  slide, 
but  seized  the  first  chance  and  arrived  partly  by  means  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  and  partly  by  the  regular  train.  Many  difficulties  were  sur- 
mounted before  and  after  leaving  Richmond,  by  which  they  earned  their 
merited  success.  From  Canada,  where  they  anticipated  entering  upon  the  ma- 


252  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

trimonial  career  with  mutual  satisfaction,  it  seemed  to  afford  them  great 
pleasure  to  write  back  frequently,  expressing  their  heartfelt  gratitude  for 
assistance,  and  their  happiness  in  the  prospect  of  being  united  under  the 
favorable  auspices  of  freedom.  At  least  two  or  three  of  these  letters,  bear- 
ing on  particular  phases  of  their  escape,  etc.,  are  too  valuable  not  to  be 
published  in  this  connection: 

FIRST  LETTER. 

HAMILTON,  March  25th,  1856. 

'  MB.  STILL  : — Sir  and  Friend — I  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  you.  with  these  few  lines 
hoping  that  you  will  attend  to  what  I  shall  request  of  you. 

I  have  written  to  Virginia  and  have  not  received  an  answer  yet.  I  want  to  know  if 
you  can  get  any  one  of  your  city  to  go  to  Richmond  for  me.  •  If  you  can,  I  will  pay  the 
expense  of  the  whole.  The  person  that  I  want  the  messenger  to  see  is  a  white  girl.  I  ex- 
pect you  know  who  I  allude  to,  it  is  the  girl  that  sent  me  away.  If  you  can  get  any  one  to 
go,  you  will  please  write  right  away  and  tell  me  the  cost,  &c.  I  will  forward  the  money 
and  a  letter.  Please  use  your  endeavors.  Yours  Respectfully,  JOHN  HALL. 

Direct  yours  to  Mr.  HilL 

SECOND  LETTER. 

HAMILTON,  Sept.  15th,  1856. 

To  MB.  STILL,  DEAB  SIB  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  addressing  these  few  lines  to  you 
hoping  to  find  you  in  good  health  I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  Miss  Weaver  arrived 
here  on  Tuesday  last,  and  I  can  assure  you  it  was  indeed  a  happy  day.  As  for  your  part 
that  you  done  I  will  not  attempt  to  tell  you  how  thankful  I  am,  but  I  hope  that  you  can 
imagine  what  my  feelings  are  to  you.  I  cannot  find  words  sufficient  to  express  my  grati- 
tude to  you,  I  think  the  wedding  will  take  place  on  Tuesday  next,  I  have  seen  some  of 
the  bread  from  your  house,  and  she  says  it  is  the  best  bread  she  has  had  since  she  has 
been  in  America.  Sometimes  she  has  impudence  enough  to  tell  me  she  would  rather  be 
where  you  are  in  Philadelphia  than  to  be  here  with  me.  I  hope  this  will  be  no  admira- 
tion to  you  for  no  honest  hearted  person  ever  saw  you  that  would  not  desire  to  be 
where  you  are,  No  flattery,  but  candidly  speaking,  you  are  worthy  all  the  praise  of  any 
person  who  has  ever  been  with  you,  I  am  now  like  a  deserted  Christian,  but  yet  I  have 
asked  so  much,  and  all  has  been  done  yet  I  must  ask  again,  My  love  to  Mrs.  Still.  Dear 
Mr.  Still  I  now  ask  you  please  to  exercise  all  your  influence  to  get  this  young  man  Willis 
Johnson  from  Richmond  for  me  It  is  the  young  man  that  Miss  Weaver  told  you  about, 
he  is  in  Richmond  I  think  he  is  at  the  corner  of  Fushien  Street,  &  Grace  in  a  house  of  one 
Mr.  Rutherford,  there  is  several  Rutherford  in  the  neighborhood,  there  is  a  church  call'd 
the  third  Baptist  Church,  on  the  R.  H.  side  going  up  Grace  street,  directly  opposite  the 
Baptist  church  at  the  corner,  is  Mrs.  Meads  Old  School  at  one  corner,  and  Mr.  Ruther- 
fords  is  at  the  other  corner.  He  can  be  found  out  by  seeing  Fountain  Tombs  who  belongs 
to  Mr.  Rutherford  and  if  you  should  not  see  him,  there  is  James  Turner  who  lives  at  the 
Governors,  Please  to  see  Captain  Bayliss  and  tell  him  to  take  these  directions  and  go  to 
John  Hillj  in  Petersburgh,  and  he  may  find  him.  Tell  Captain  Bayliss  that  if  he  ever  did 
me  a  friendly  thing  in  his  life  which  he  did  do  one  friendly  act,  if  he  will  take  this  on 
himself,  and  if  money  should  be  lacking  I  will  forward  any  money  that  he  may  require,  I 
hope  you  will  sympathize  with  the  poor  young  fellow,  and  tell  the  captain  to  do  all  in  his 
power  to  get  him  and  the  costs  shall  be  paid.  He  lies  now  between  death  or  victory, 
for  I  know  the  man  he  belongs  to  would  just  as  soon  kill  him  as  not,  if  he  catches  him, 
I  here  enclose  to  you  a  letter  for  Mr.  Wm.  C.  Mayo,  and  please  to  send  it  as  directed. 
In  this  letter  I  have  asked  him  to  send  a  box  to  you  for  me,  which  you  will  please  pay 


AN  IRISH  GIBUS  DEVOTION  TO  FREEDOM.  253 

the  fare  of  the  express  upon  it,  when  you  get  it  please  to  let  me  know,  and  I  will  send  you 
the  money  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  carriage  clear  through.  Please  to  let  Mr.  Mayo 
know  how  to  direct  a  box  to  you,  and  the  best  way  to  send  it  from  Richmond  to  Phila- 
delphia. You  will  greatly  oblige  me  by  so  doing.  In  this  letter  I  have  enclosed  a  trifle 
for  postage  which  you  will  please  to  keep  on  account  of  my  letters  I  hope  you  wont  think 
bard  of  me  but  I  simply  send  it  because  I  know  you  have  done  enough,  and  are  now 
doing  more,  without  imposing  in  the  matter  I  have  done  it  a  great  many  more  of  our  peo- 
ple who  you  have  done  so  much  fore.  No  more  from  your  humble  and  oldest  servant. 

JOHN  HALL,  Norton's  Hotel,  Hamilton. 


THIRD  LETTER. 

MONDAY,  Sept.  29,  56. 

SIE  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  informing  you  that  we  are  in  excellent  health,  and 
hope  you  are  the  same,  I  wrote  a  letter  to  you  about  2  weeks  ago  and  have  not  yet  had 
an  answer  to  it  I  wish  to  inform  you  that  the  wedding  took  place  on  Tuesday  last,  and 
Mrs.  Hall  now  sends  her  best  love  to  you,  I  enclose  a  letter  which  I  wish  you  to  forward 
to  Mr.  Mayo,  you  will  see  in  his  letter  what  I  have  said  to  him  and  I  wish  you  would 
furnish  him  with  such  directions  as  it  requires  for  him  to  send  them  things  to  you.  I 
have  told  him  not  to  pay  for  them  but  to  send  them  to  you  so  when  you  get  them  write 
me  word  what  the  cost  of  them  are,  and  I  will  send  you  the  money  for  them.  Mary 
desires  you  to  give  her  love  to  Mrs.  Still.  If  any  letters  come  for  me  please  to  send  to 
me  at  Nortons  Hotel,  Please  to  let  me  know  if  you  had  a  letter  from  me  about  12  days 
ago.  You  will  please  Direct  the  enclosed  to  Mr.  W.  C.  Mayo,  Richmond,  Va.  Let  me 
know  if  you  have  heard  anything  of  Willis  Johnson  Mr.  &  Mrs.  Hill  send  their  kind  love 
to  you,  they  are  all  well,  no  more  at  present  from  your  affect., 

JOHN  HALL  Nortons  Hotel. 

FOURTH  LETTER. 

HAMILTON,  December  23d,  1856. 

DEAR  SIR: — I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  we  are  both  enjoying  good  health  and  hope 
you  are  the  same.  I  have  been  expecting  a  letter  from  you  for  some  time  but  I  suppose 
your  business  has  prevented  you  from  writing.  I  suppose  you  have  not  heard  from  any 
of  my  friends  at  Richmond.  I  have  been  longing  to  hear  some  news  from  that  part,  you 
may  think  "  Out  of  sight  and  out  of  mind,"  but  I  can  assure  you,  no  matter  how  far  I 
may  be,  or  in  what  distant  land,  I  shall  never  forget  you,  if  I  can  never  reach  you  by 
letters  you  may  be  sure  I  shall  always  think  of  you.  I  have  found  a  great  many  friends 
in  my  life,  but  I  must  say  you  are  the  best  one  I  ever  met  with,  except  one,  you  must 
know  who  that  is,  'tis  one  who  if  I  did  not  consider  a  friend,  I  could  not  consider  any 
other  person  a  friend,  and  that  is  Mrs.  Hall.  Please  to  let  me  know  if  the  navigation 
between  New  York  &  Richmond  is  closed.  Please  to  let  me  know  whether  it  would  be 
convenient  to  you  to  go  to  New  York  if  it  is  please  let  me  know  what  is  the  expense. 
Tell  Mrs  Still  that  my  wife  would  be  very  happy  to  receive  a  letter  from  her  at  some 
moment  when  she  is  at  leisure,  for  I  know  from  what  little  I  have  seen  of  domestic  affairs 
it  keeps  her  pretty  well  employed,  And  I  know  she  has  not  much  time  to  write  but  if 
it  were  but  two  lines,  she  would  be  happy  to  receive  it  from  her,  my  reason  for  wanting 
you  to  go  to  New  York,  there  is  a  young  man  named  Richard  Myers  and  I  should  like 
for  you  to  see  him.  He  goes  on  board  the  Orono  to  Richmond  and  is  a  particular  friend  of 
mine  and  by  seeing  him  I  could  get  my  clothes  from  Richmond,  I  expect  to  be  out  of  em- 
ploy in  a  few  days,  as  the  hotel  is  about  to  close  on  the  1st  January  and  I  hope  you  will 
write  to  me  soon  I  want  you  to  send  me  word  how  you  and  all  the  family  are  and  all  the 


254  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

news  you  can,  you  must  excuse  my  short  letter,  as  it  is  now  near  one  o'clock  and  I  must 
attend  to  business,  but  I  have  not  written  half  what  1  intended  to,  as  time  is  short,  hoping 
to  hear  from  you  soon  I  remain  yours  sincerely,  JOHN  HALL. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hill  desire  their  best  respects  to  you  and  Mrs.  Still. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  is  a  most  extraordinary  occurrence.  In 
some  respects  it  is  without  a  parallel.  It  was,  however,  no  uncommon 
thing  for  white  men  (slave-holders)  in  the  South  to  have  colored  wives  and 
children  whom  they  did  not  hesitate  to  live  with  and  acknowledge  by  their 
actions,  with  their  means,  and  in  their  wills  as  the  rightful  heirs  of  their 
substance.  Probably  there  is  not  a  state  in  the  Union  where  such  relations 
have  not  existed.  Seeing  such  usages,  Mary  might  have  reasoned  that  she 
had  as  good  a  right  to  marry  the  one  she  loved  most  as  anybody  else,  par- 
ticularly as  she  was  in  a  "  free  country." 


"SAM"  NIXON  ALIAS  DR.  THOMAS  BAYNE. 

THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  DENTIST  ON  THE  U.  G.  R.  R. — HE  IS  TAKEN  FOR  AN  IMPOSTOR — 
ELECTED  A  MEMBER  OF  CITY  COUNCIL  IN  NEW  BEDFORD — STUDYING  MEDICINE, 
ETC. 

But  few  could  be  found  among  the  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers 
who  had  a  stronger  repugnance  to  the  unrequited  labor  system,  or  the  recog- 
nized terms  of  "  master  and  slave,"  than  Dr.  Thomas  Bayne.  Nor  were 
many  to  be  found  who  were  more  fearless  and  independent  in  uttering  their 
sentiments.  His  place  of  bondage  was  in  the  city  of  Norfolk,  Ya.,  where 
he  was  held  to  service  by  Dr.  C.  F.  Martin,  a  dentist  of  some  celebrity. 
While  with  Dr.  Martin,  "  Sam  "  learned  dentistry  in  all  its  branches,  and 
was  often  required  by  his  master,  the  doctor,  to  fulfil  professional  engage- 
ments, both  at  home  and  at  a  distance,  when  it  did  not  suit  his  pleasure  or 
convenience  to  appear  in  person.  In  the  mechanical  department,  especially, 
"Sam"  was  called  upon  to  execute  the  most  difficult  tasks.  This  was  not 
the  testimony  of  "Sam"  alone;  various  individuals  who  were  with  him  in 
Norfolk,  but  had  moved  to  Philadelphia,  and  were  living  there  at  the  time 
of  his  arrival,  being  invited  to  see  this  distinguished  professional  piece  of 
property,  gave  evidence  which  fully  corroborated  his.  The  master's  profess- 
ional practice,  according  to  "Sam's"  calculation,  was  worth  $3,000  per 
annum.  Full  $1,000  of  this  amount  in  the  opinion  of  "Sam"  was  the  re- 
sult of  his  own  fettered  hands.  Not  only  was  "  Sam "  serviceable  to  the 
doctor  in  the  mechanical  and  practical  branches  of  his  profession,  but  as 
a  sort  of  ready  reckoner  and  an  apt  penman,  he  was  obviously  considered  by 
the  doctor,  a  valuable  "  article."  He  would  frequently  have  "  Sam  "  at  his 
books  instead  of  a  book-keeper.  Of  course,  "  Sam "  had  never  received, 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  DENTIST.  955 

from  Dr.  M .,  an  hour's  schooling  in  his  life,  but  having  perceptive  faculties 
naturally  very  large,  combined  with  much  self-esteem,  he  could  hardly  help 
learning  readily.  Had  his  master's  design  to  keep  him  in  ignorance  been 
ever  so  great,  he  would  have  found  it  a  labor  beyond  his  power.  But  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Dr.  Martin  was  opposed  to  Sam's  learning  to 
read  and  write.  We  are  pleased  to  note  that  no  charges  of  ill-treatment 
are  found  recorded  against  Dr.  M.  in  the  narrative  of  "  Sam." 

True,  it  appears  that  he  had  been  sold  several  times  in  his  younger  days, 
and  had  consequently  been  made  to  feel  keenly,  the  smarts  of  Slavery,  but 
nothing  of  this  kind  was  charged  against  Dr.  M.,  so  that  lie  may  be  set 
down  as  a  pretty  fair  man.  for  aught  that  is  known  to  the  contrary,  with  the 
exception  of  depriving  "Sam"  of  the  just  reward  of  his  labor,  which,  ac- 
cording to  St.  James,  is  pronounced  a  "  fraud."  The  doctor  did  not  keep 
"  Sam  "  so  closely  confined  to  dentistry  and  book-keeping  that  he  had  no 
time  to  attend  occasionally  to  outside  duties.  It  appears  that  he  was  quite 
active  and  successful  as  an  Underground  Rail  Road  agent,  and  rendered 
important  aid  in  various  directions.  Indeed,  Sam  had  good  reason  to  sus- 
pect that  the  slave-holders  were  watching  him,  and  that  if  he  remained,  he 
would  most  likely  find  himself  in  "  hot  water  up  to  his  eyes."  Wisdom 
dictated  that  he  should  "pull  up  stakes"  and  depart  while  the  way  was 
open.  He  knew  the  captains  who  were  then  in  the  habit  of  taking  similar 
passengers,  but  he  had  some  fears  that  they  might  not  be  able  to  pursue  the 
business  much  longer.  In  contemplating  the  change  which  he  was  about 
to  make,  "  Sam "  felt  it  necessary  to  keep  his  movements  strictly  private. 
Not  even  was  he  at  liberty  to  break  his  mind  to  his  wife  and  child,  fearing 
that  it  would  do  them  no  good,  and  might  prove  his  utter  failure.  His 
wife's  name  was  Edna  and  his  daughter  was  called  Elizabeth ;  both  were 
slaves  and  owned  by  E.  P.  Tabb,  Esq.,  a  hardware  merchant  of  Norfolk. 

No  mention  is  made  on  the  books,  of  ill-treatment,  in  connection  with 
his  wife's  servitude;  it  may  therefore  be  inferred,  that  her  situation  was  not 
remarkably  hard.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  "  Sam  "  was  not  truly  at- 
tached to  his  wife.  He  gave  abundant  proof  of  true  matrimonial  devotion, 
notwithstanding  the  secrecy  of  his  arrangements  for  flight.  Being  naturally 
hopeful,  he  concluded  that  he  could  better  succeed  in  securing  his  wife  after 
obtaining  freedom  himself,  than  in  undertaking  the  task  beforehand. 

The  captain  had  two  or  three  other  Underground  Rail  Road  male  passen- 
gers to  bring  with  him,  besides  "  Sam,"  for  whom,  arrangements  had  been 
previously  made — no  more  could  be  brought  that  trip.  At  the  appointed 
time,  the  passengers  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  captain  of  the  schooner 
which  was  to  bring  them  out  of  Slavery  into  freedom.  Fully  awrare  of  the 
dangerous  consequences  should  he  be  detected,  the  captain,  faithful  to  his 
promise,  secreted  them  in  the  usual  manner,  and  set  sail  northward.  Instead 
of  landing  his  passengers  in  Philadelphia,  as  was  his  intention,  for  some 


256  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL-ROAD. 

reason  or  other  (the  schooner  may  have  been  disabled),  he  landed  them  on 
the  New  Jersey  coast,  not  a  great  distance  from  Cape  Island.  He  directed 
them  how  to  reach  Philadelphia.  Sam  knew  of  friends  in  the  city,  and 
straightway  used  his  ready  pen  to  make  known  the  distress  of  himself  and 
partners  in  tribulation.  In  making  their  way  in  the  direction  of  their  des- 
tined haven,  they  reached  Salem,  New  Jersey,  where  they  were  discovered 
to  be  strangers  and  fugitives,  and  were  directed  to  Abigail  Goodwin,  a  Qua- 
ker lady,  an  abolitionist,  long  noted  for  her  devotion  to  the  cause  of  free- 
dom, and  one  of  the  most  liberal  and  faithful  friends  of  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee of  Philadelphia. 

This  friend's  opportunities  of  witnessing  fresh  arrivals  had  been  rare,  and 
perhaps  she  had  never  before  come  in  contact  with  a  "  chattel "  so  smart  as 
"  Sam."  Consequently  she  was  much  embarrassed  when  she  heard  his  story, 
especially  when  he  talked  of  his  experience  as  a  "  Dentist."  She  was  in- 
clined to  suspect  that  he  was  a  "shrewd  impostor"  that  needed  "  watching" 
instead  of  aiding.  But  her  humanity  forbade  a  hasty  decision  on  this  point. 
She  was  soon  persuaded  to  render  him  some  assistance,  notwithstanding  her 
apprehensions.  While  tarrying  a  day  or  two  in  Salem,  "  Sam's  "  letter  was 
received  in  Philadelphia.  Friend  Goodwin  was  written  to  in  the  meantime, 
by  a  member  of  the  Committee,  directly  with  a  view  of  making  inquires 
concerning  the  stray  fugitives,  and  at  the  same  time  to  inform  her  as  to 
how  they  happened  to  be  coming  in  the  direction  found  by  her.  While  the 
mind  of  the  friend  was  much  relieved  by  the  letter  she  received,  she  was 
still  in  some  doubt,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  appended  extract  from  a  letter 
on  the  subject: 

LETTER  FROM  A.  GOODWIN. 

SALEM,  3  mo.,  25,  '55. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — Thine  of  the  22d  came  to  hand  yesterday  noon. 

*********** 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  of  them  are  the  ones  thee  wrote  about,  who  wanted  Dr.  Lundy 
to  come  for  them,  and  promised  they  would  pay  his  expenses.  They  had  no  money,  the 
minister  said,  but  were  pretty  well  off  for  clothes.  I  gave  him  all  I  had  and  more,  but  it 
seemed  very  little  for  four  travelers — only  a  dollar  for  each — but  they  will  meet  with 
friends  and  helpers  on  the  way.  He  said  they  expected  to  go  away  to-morrow.  I  am 
afraid,  it's  so  cold,  and  one  of  them  had  a  sore  foot,  they  will  not  get  away — it's  dangerous 
staying  here.  There  has  been  a  slave-hunter  here  lately,  I  was  told  yesterday,  in  search 
of  a  woman ;  he  tracked  her  to  our  Alms-house — she  had  lately  been  confined  and  was 
not  able  to  go — he  will  come  back  for  her  and  his  infant — and  will  not  wait  long  I  expect. 
I  want  much  to  get  her  away  first — and  if  one  had  a  0.  C.  Torney  here  no  doubt  it  would 
be  done ;  but  she  will  be  well  guarded.  How  much  I  wish  the  poor  thing  could  be  se- 
creted in  some  safe  place  till  she  is  able  to  travel  Northward ;  but  where  that  could 
be  it's  not  easy  to  see.  I  presume  the  Carolina  freed  people  have  arrived  ere  now.  I  hope 
they  will  meet  many  friends,  and  be  well  provided  for.  Mary  Davis  will  be  then  paid — 
her  cousins  have  sent  her  twenty-four  dollars,  as  it  was  not  wanted  for  the  purchase  money 
— it  was  to  be  kept  for  them  when  they  arrive.  I  am  glad  thee  did  keep  the  ten  for  the 
fugitives. 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  DENTIST.  257 

Samuel  Nixon  is  now  here,  just  come — a  smart  young  man — they  will  be  after  him  soon. 
I  advise  him  to  hurry  on  to  Canada ;  he  will  leave  here  to-morrow,  but  don't  say  that  he 
will  go  straight  to  the  city.  I  would  send  this  by  him  if  he  did.  I  am  afraid  he  will 
loiter  about  and  be  taken — do  make  them  go  on  fast — he  has  left.  I  could  not  hear  much 
he  said — some  who  did  don't  like  him  at  all — think  him  an  impostor — a  great  brag— said 
he  was  a  dentist  ten  years.  He  was  asked  where  he  came  from,  but  would  not  tell  till  he 
looked  at  the  letter  that  lay  on  the  table  and  that  he  had  just  brought  back.  I  don't  feel 
much  confidence  in  him — don't  believe  he  is  the  one  thee  alluded  to.  He  was  asked  his 
name — he  looked  at  the  letter  to  find  it  out.  Says  nobody  can  make  a  better  set  of  teeth 
than  he  can.  He  said  they  will  go  on  to-morrow  in  the  stage — he  took  down  the  .number 
and  street  of  the  Anti-slavery  office — you  will  be  on  your  guard  against  imposition— he 
kept  the  letter  thee  sent  from  Norfolk.  I  had  then  no  doubt  of  him,  and  had  no  objec- 
tion to  it.  I  now  rather  regret  it.  I  would  send  it  to  thee  if  I  had  it,  but  perhaps  it  is 
of  no  importance. 

He  wanted  the  names  taken  down  of  nine  more  who  expected  to  get  off  soon  and  might 
come  here.  He  told  us  to  send  them  to  him,  but  did  not  seem  to  know  where  he  was 
going  to.  He  was  well  dressed  in  fine  broad-cloth  coat  and  overcoat,  and  has  a  very  active 
tongue  in  his  head. 

But  I  have  said  enough — don't  want  to  prejudice  thee  against  him,  but  only  be  on  thy 
guard,  and  do  not  let  him  deceive  thee,  as  I  fear  he  has  some  of  us  here. 

With  kind  regards,  A.  GOODWIN. 

In  due  time  Samuel  and  his  companions  reached  Philadelphia,  where  a 
cordial  welcome  awaited  them.  The  confusion  and  difficulties  into  which 
they  had  fallen,  by  having  to  travel  an  indirect  route,  were  fully  explained, 
and  to  the  hearty  merriment  of  the  Committee  and  strangers,  the  dilemma  of 
their  good  Quaker  friend  Goodwin  at  Salem  was  alluded  to.  After  a  sojourn 
of  a  day  or  two  in  Philadelphia,  Samuel  and  his  companions  left  for  New 
Bedford.  Canada  was  named  to  them  as  the  safest  place  for  all  Refugees ; 
but  it  was  in  vain  to  attempt  to  convince  "  Sam  "  that  Canada  or  any  other 
place  on  this  Continent,  was  quite  equal  to  New  Bedford.  His  heart  was 
there,  and  there  he  was  resolved  to  go — and  there  he  did  go  too,  bearing 
with  him  his  resolute  mind,  determined,  if  possible,  to  work  his  way  up  to 
an  honorable  position  at  his  old  trade,  Dentistry,  and  that  too  for  his  own 
benefit. 

Aided  by  the  Committee,  the  journey  was  made  safely  to  the  desired  haven, 
where  many  old  friends  from  Norfolk  were  found.  Here  our  hero  was 
known  by  the  name  of  Dr.  Thomas  Bayne — he  was  no  longer  "  Sam."  In 
a  short  time  the  Dr.  commenced  his  profession  in  an  humble  way,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  he  deeply  interested  himself  in  his  own  improvement,  as  well 
as  the  improvement  of  others,  especially  those  who  had  escaped  from  Sla- 
very as  he  himself  had.  Then,  too,  as  colored  men  were  voters  and,  there- 
fore, eligible  to  office  in  New  Bedford,  the  Doctor's  naturally  ambitions 
and  intelligent  turn  of  mind  led  him  to  take  an  interest  in  politics,  and  be- 
fore he  was  a  citizen  of  New  Bedford  four  years,  he  was  duly  elected  a 
member  of  the  City  Council.  He  was  also  an  outspoken  advocate  of  the 
17 


258  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

cause  of  temperance,  and  was  likewise  a  ready  speaker  at  Anti-slavery 
meetings  held  by  his  race.  Some  idea  of  his  abilities,  and  the  interest  he 
took  in  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  education,  etc.,  may  be  gathered  from 
the  appended  letters: 

NEW  BEDFOBD,  June  23d,  1855. 

W.  STILL  : — Sir — I  write  you  this  to  inform  you  that  I  has  received  my  things  and  that 
you  need  not  say  any  thing  to  Bagnul  about  them — I  see  by  the  Paper  that  the  under 
ground  Rail  Road  is  in  operation.  Since  2  weeks  a  go  when  Saless  Party  was  betrayed 
by  that  Capt  whom  we  in  mass,  are  so  anxious  to  Learn  his  name — There  was  others 
started  last  Saturday  night — They  are  all  my  old  friends  and  we  are  waiting  their  arrival, 
we  hope  you  will  look  out  for  them  they  may  come  by  way  of  Salem,  N.  J.  if  they  be  not 
overtaken.  They  are  from  Norfolk — Times  are  very  hard  in  Canada  2  of  our  old  friends 
has  left  Canada  and  come  to  Bedford  for  a  living.  Every  thing  are  so  high  and  wages  so 
low  They  cannot  make  a  living  (owing  to  the  War)  others  are  Expected  shortly — let  me 
hear  from  Sales  and  his  Party.  Get  the  Name  of  the  Capt.  that  betrayed  him  let  me 
know  if  Mrs.  Goodwin  of  Salem  are  at  the  same  place  yet — John  Austin  are  with  us.  C. 
Lightfoot  is  well  and  remembers  you  and  family.  My  business  increases  more  since  I  has 
got  an  office.  Send  me  a  Norfolk  Paper  or  any  other  to  read  when  convenient. 

Let.  me  hear  from  those  People  as  soon  as  possible.  They  consist  of  woman  and  child 
2  or  3  men  belonging  to  Marsh  Bottimore,  L.  Slosser  and  Herman  &  Co — and  Turner — all 
of  Norfolk,  Va.  Truly  yours,  THOS.  BAYNE. 

Direct  to  Box  No.  516,  New  Bedford,  Mass.  Don't  direct  my  letters  to  my  office.  Di- 
reot  them  to  my  Box  516.  My  office  is  66J  William  St.  The  same  street  the  Post  office 
is  near  the  city  market. 


The  Doctor,  feeling  his  educational  deficiency  in  the  enlightened  city  of 
New  Bedford,  did  just  what  every  uncultivated  man  should,  devoted  himself 
assiduously  to  study,  and  even  applied  himself  to  abstruse  and  hard  sub- 
jects, medicine,  etc.,  as  the  folio  wing  letters  will  show: 


NEW  BEDFOBD,  Jan.,  1860.     1 
No.  22,  Cheapside,  opposite  City  Hall,  j 

MY  DEAB  FBIEND  : — Yours  of  the  3d  inst.  reached  me  safely  in  the  midst  of  my  mis- 
fortune. I  suppose  you  have  learned  that  my  office  and  other  buildings  burned  down 
during  the  recent  fire.  My  loss  is  $550,  insured  $350. 

I  would  have  written  you  before,  but  I  have  been  to  R.  I.  for  some  time  and  soon  after 
I  returned  before  I  examined  the  books,  the  fire  took  place,  and  this  accounts  for  my  de- 
lay. In  regard  to  the  books  I  am  under  many  obligations  to  you  and  all  others  for  so 
great  a  piece  of  kindness,  and  shall  ever  feel  indebted  to  you  for  the  same.  I  shall  esteem 
them  very  highly  for  two  reasons,  first,  The  way  in  which  they  come,  that  is  through  and 
by  your  Vigilance  as  a  colored  man  helping  a  colored  man  to  get  such  knowledge  as  will 
give  the  lie  to  our  enemies.  Secondly — their  contents  being  just  the  thing  I  needed  at 
this  time.  My  indebtedness  to  you  and  all  concerned  for  me  in  this  direction  is  inexpres- 
sible. There  are  some  books  the  Doctor  says  I  must  have,  such  as  the  Medical  Dictionary, 
Physician's  Dictionary,  and  a  work  on  Anatomy.  These  I  will  have  to  get,  but  any  work 
that  may  be  of  use  to  a  student  of  anatomy  or  medicine  will  be  thankfully  received.  You 
shall  hear  from'  me  again  soon.  Truly  Yours,  THOS.  BAYNE. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  259 

NEW  BEDFORD,  March  18th,  1861. 

MR.  WM.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — Dr.  Powell  called  to  see  me  and  informed  me  that  you  had 
a  medical  lexicon  (Dictionary)  for  me.  If  you  have  such  a  book  for  me,  it  will  be  very 
thankfully  received,  and  any  other  book  that  pertains  to  the  medical  or  dental  profession. 
I  am  quite  limited  in  means  as  yet  and  in  want  of  books  to  prosecute  my  studies.  The 
books  I  need  most  at  present  is  such  as  treat  on  midwifery,  anatomy,  &c.  But  any  book 
or  books  in  either  of  the  above  mentioned  cases  will  be  of  use  to  me.  You  can  send  them 
by  Express,  or  by  any  friend  that  may  chance  to  come  this  way,  but  by  Express  will  be 
the  safest  way  to  send  them.  Times  are  quite  dull.  This  leaves  me  well  and  hope  it  may 
find  you  and  family  the  same.  My  regards  to  your  wife  and  all  others. 

Yours,  &c.,  THOMAS  BAYNE, 

22  Cheapside,  opposite  City  Hall. 

Thus  the  doctor  continued  to  labor  and  improve  his  mind  until  the  war 
removed  the  hideous  institution  of  Slavery  from  the  nation ;  but  as 
soon  as  the  way  opened  for  his  return  to  his  old  home,  New  Bedford  no 
longer  had  sufficient  attractions  to  retain  him.  With  all  her  faults  he  con- 
ceived that  "Old  Virginia"  offered  decided  inducements  for  his  return. 
Accordingly  he  went  directly  to  Norfolk,  whence  he  escaped.  Of  course 
every  thing  was  in  the  utmost  confusion  and  disorder  when  he  returned, 
save  where  the  military  held  sway.  So  as  soon  as  the  time  drew  near  for 
reorganizing,  elections,  &c.,  the  doctor  was  found  to  be  an  aspirant  for  a  seat 
in  Congress,  and  in  "running"  for  it,  was  found  to  be  a  very  difficult  candi- 
date to  beat.  Indeed  in  the  first  reports  of  the  election  his  name  was 
amongst  the  elected ;  but  subsequent  counts  proved  him  to  be  among  the 
defeated  by  only  a  very  slight  majority. 

At  the  time  of  the  doctor's  escape,  in  1855,  he  was  thirty-one  years  of  age, 
a  man  of  medium  size,  and  about  as  purely  colored,  as  could  readily  be 
found,  with  a  full  share  of  self-esteem  and  pluck. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS 

FROM  LOUDON  CO  ,  VA.,  NORFOLK,   BALTIMORE,    MD.,    PETERSBURG,  VA.,   &C.,   ABOUT 

THE  MONTH   OF  JUNE,   1855. 

Arrival  1st.   David  Bennett  and  family. 

Arrival  2d.    Henry  Washington,  alias  Anthony  Hanly,  and  Henry  Stewart, 

Arrival  3d.    William  Nelson  and  wife,  William  Thomas,  Louisa  Bell,  and 

Elias  Jasper. 

Arrival  4th.  Maria  Joiner. 

Arrival  5th.  Richard  Green  and  his  brother  George. 
Arrival  6th.  Henry  Cromwell. 
Arrival  7th.  Henry  Bohm. 


260  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Arrival  8th.  Ralph  Whiting,  James  H.  Forman,  Anthony  Atkinson,  Arthur 
Jones,  Isaiah  Nixon,  Joseph  Harris,  John  Morris,  Henry 
Hodges. 

Arrival  9th.  Robert  Jones  and  wife. 

The  first  arrival  to  be  here  noticed  consisted  of  David  Bennett,  and  his 
wife  Martha,  with  their  two  children,  a  little  boy  named  George,  and  a 
nameless  babe  one  month  old.  This  family  journeyed  from  Loudon  county, 
Va.  David,  the  husband,  had  been  in  bonds  under  Captain  James  Taylor. 
Martha,  the  wife,  and  her  two  children  were  owned  by  George  Carter. 
Martha's  master  was  represented  as  a  very  barbarous  and  cruel  man  to  the 
slaves.  He  made  a  common  practice  of  flogging  females  when  stripped 
naked.  This  was  the  emphatic  testimony  of  Martha.  Martha  declared  that 
she  had  been  so  stripped,  and  flogged  by  him  after  her  marriage.  The  story 
of  this  interesting  young  mother,  who  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age, 
was  painful  to  the  ear,  particularly  as  the  earnestness  and  intelligence  of  this 
poor,  bruised,  and  mangled  soul  bore  such  strong  evidence  to  the  truthful- 
ness of  her  statements.  During  the  painful  interview  the  mind  would  in- 
voluntarily picture  this  demon,  only  as  the  representative  of  thousands  in 
the  South  using  the  same  relentless  sway  over  men  and  women ;  and  this 
fleeing  victim  and  her  little  ones,  before  escaping,  only  as  sharers  of  a  com- 
mon lot  with  many  other  mothers  and  children,  whose  backs  were  daily 
subjected  to  the  lash.  If  on  such  an  occasion  it  was  hard  to  find  fitting 
words  of  sympathy,  or  adequate  expressions  of  indignation,  the  pleasure  of 
being  permitted  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  such  was  in  part  a  compensation 
and  a  relief.  David,  the  husband  of  this  woman,  was  about  thirty-two 
years  of  age.  No  further  notice  was  made  of  him. 

ARRIVAL  No.  2  consisted  of  Henry  Washington,  alias  Anthony  Hanly, 
and  Henry  Stewart.  Henry  left  Norfolk  and  a  "very  mild  master,"  known 
by  the  name  of  "  Seth  March,"  out  of  sheer  disgust  for  the  patriarchal  in- 
stitution. Directly  after  speaking  of  his  master  in  such  flattering  terms  he 
qualified  the  "  mild,"  &c.  by  adding  that  he  was  excessively  close  in  money 
matters.  In  proof  of  this  assertion,  Henry  declared,  that  out  of  his  hire 
he  was  only  allowed  $1.50  per  week  to  pay  his  board,  clothe  himself,  and 
defray  all  other  expenses  ;  leaving  no  room  whatever  for  him  to  provide  for 
his  wife.  It  was,  therefore,  a  never-failing  source  of  unhappiness  to  be  thus 
debarred,  and  it  was  wholly  on  this  account  that  he  "  took  out,"  as  he  did, 
and  at  the  time  that  he  did.  His  wife's  name  was  "  Sally."  She  too  was 
a  slave,  but  "  had  not  been  treated  roughly." 

For  fifty  long  years  Henry  had  been  in  the  grasp  of  this  merciless 
system — constrained  to  toil  for  the  happiness  of  others,  to  make  them  com- 
fortable, rich,  indolent,  and  tyrannical.  To  say  that  he  was  like  a  bird  out 
of  a  cage,  conveys  in  no  sense  whatever  the  slightest  idea  of  his  delight  in 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  261 

escaping  from  the  prison  house.  And  yet,  his  pleasure  was  sadly  marred  by 
the  reflection  that  his  bosom  companion  was  still  in  bondage  in  the  gloomy 
prison-house.  Henry  was  a  man  of  dark  color,  well  made,  and  of  a  re- 
flective turn  of  mind.  On  arriving  in  Canada,  he  manifested  his  gratitude 
through  Rev.  H.  "Wilson,  as  follows — 

ST.  CATHAEINES,  Aug.  20th,  1855. 

DEAE  BE.  STILL  : — I  am  requested  by  Henry  Washington  to  inform  you  that  he  got 
through  safe,  and  is  here  in  good  business.  He  returns  to  you  his  sincere  thanks  for  your 
attention  to  him  on  his  way.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  seven  fugitives  last  week. 
Send  them  on,  and  may  God  speed  them  in  the  flight.  I  would  like  to  have  a  miracle- 
working  power,  that  I  could  give  wings  to  them  all  so  that  they  could  come  faster  than 
by  Railroads  either  underground  or  above.  Yours  truly,  HIEAM  WILSON. 

While  he  was  thus  hopefully  succeeding  in  Canada,  separated  from  his 
companion  by  many  hundreds  of  miles,  death  came  and  liberated  her  from 
the  yoke,  as  the  subjoined  letter  indicates — 

ST.  CATHAEINES,  C.  W.  Nov.  12,  1855. 

ME.  WILLIAM  STILL: — Dear  Sir: — I  have  received  a  letter  from  Joseph  G.  Selden  a 
friend  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  informing  me  of  the  death  of  my  wife,  who  deceased  since  I  saw 
you  here;  he  also  informs  me  that  my  clothing  will  be  forwarded  to  you  by  Jupiter  White, 
who  now  has  it  in  his  charge.  You  will  therefore  do  me  a  great  favor,  if  you  will  be  so 
good  as  to  forward  them  to  me  at  this  place  St.  Catharines,  C.  W. 

The  accompanying  letter  is  the  one  received  from  Mr.  Selden  which  I  send  you,  that 
you  may  see  that  it  is  all  right.  You  will  please  give  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Still  and 
family.  Most  respectfully  yours,  HENEY  WASHINGTON. 

HENRY  STEWART,  who  accompanied  the  above  mentioned  traveler  to 
Canada,  had  fled  a  short  while  before  from  Plymouth,  North  Carolina. 
James  Monroe  Woodhouse,  a  farmer,  claimed  Stewart  as  his  property,  and 
"  hired  him  out "  for  $180  per  annum.  As  a  master,  Woodhouse  was  con- 
sidered to  be  of  the  "moderate"  type,  according  to  Stewart's  judgment. 
But  respecting  money  matters  (when  his  slaves  wanted  a  trifle),  "he  was 
very  hard.  He  did  not  flog,  but  would  not  give  a  slave  a  cent  of  money 
upon  any  consideration." 

It  was  by  procuring  a  pass  to  Norfolk,  that  Henry  managed  to  escape. 
Although  a  father  and  a  husband,  having  a  wife  (Martha)  and  two  children 
(Mary  Ann  and  Susan  Jane),  he  felt  that  his  lot  as  a  slave  utterly  debarred 
him  from  discharging  his  duty  to  them ;  that  he  could  exercise  no  rights 
or  privileges  whatever,  save  as  he  might  obtain  permission  from  his  master. 
In  the  matter  of  separation,  even  although  the  ties  of  husband  and  wife, 
parents  and  children  were  most  closely  knit,  his  reason  dictated  that  he 
would  be  justified  in  freeing  himself  if  possible;  indeed,  he  could  not  en- 
dure the  pressure  of  Slavery  any  longer.  Although  only  twenty-three  years 
of  age,  the  burdens  that  he  had  been  called  upon  to  bear,  made  his  natu- 


262  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

rally  intelligent  mind  chafe  to  an  unusual  degree,  especially  when  reflecting 
upon  a  continued  life  of  Slavery.  When  the  time  decided  upon  for  his  flight 
arrived,  he  said  nothing  to  his  wife  on  the  subject,  but  secured  his  pass  and 
took  his  departure  for  Norfolk.  On  arriving  there,  he  sought  out  an  Un- 
derground Rail  Road  captain,  and  arranged  with  him  to  bring  him  to  Phi- 
ladelphia. Whether  the  sorrow-stricken  wife  ever  afterwards  heard  of  her 
husband,  or  the  father  of  his  two  little  children,  the  writer  is  unable  to 
say.  It  is  possible  that  this  narrative  may  reveal  to  the  mother  and  her 
offspring  (if  they  are  still  living),  the  first  ray  of  light  concerning  the 
missing  one.  Indeed  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose,  that  thousands  of 
anxious  wives,  husbands  and  children,  who  have  been  scattered  in  every 
direction  by  Slavery,  will  never  be  able  to  learn  as  much  of  their  lost  ones 
as  is  contained  in  this  brief  account  of  Henry  Stewart. 

ARRIVAL  No.  3,  brought  William  Nelson,  his  wife,  Susan,  and  son, 
William  Thomas,  together  with  Louisa  Bell,  and  Elias  Jasper.  These  tra- 
velers availed  themselves  of  the  schooner  of  Captain  B.  who  allowed  them 
to  embark  at  Norfolk,  despite  the  search  laws  of  Virginia.  It  hardly  need 
be  said,  however,  that  it  was  no  trifling  matter  in  those  days,  to  evade  the 
law.  Captains  and  captives,  in  order  to  succeed,  found  that  it  required 
more  than  ordinary  intelligence  and  courage,  shrewdness  and  determina- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time,  a  very  ardent  appreciation  of  liberty,  without 
which,  there  could  be  no  success.  The  simple  announcement  then,  that  a 
party  of  this  number  had  arrived  from  Norfolk,  or  Richmond,  or  Peters- 
burg, gave  the  Committee  unusual  satisfaction.  It  made  them  quite  sure 
that  there  was  pluck  and  brain  somewhere. 

These  individuals,  in  a  particularly  marked  degree,  possessed  the  quali- 
ties that  greatly  encouraged  the  efforts  of  the  Committee.  William  Nelson, 
was  a  man  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  medium  size,  with  more  than  an 
ordinary  degree  of  what  might  be  termed  "  mother  wit."  Apparently, 
William  possessed  well  settled  convictions,  touching  the  questions  of  morals 
and  religion,  despite  the  overflowing  tide  of  corruption  and  spurious  reli- 
gious teachings  consequent  on  the  existing  pro-slavery  usages  all  around 
him.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  under  the  charge  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Jones.  For  twenty  years,  William  had  served  in  the  capacity 
of  a  "  packer "  under  Messrs.  Turner  and  White,  who  held  a  deed  for 
William  as  their  legal  property.  While  he  declared  that  he  had  been  very 
"  tightly  worked "  he  nevertheless  admitted  that  he  had  been  dealt  with  in 
a  mild  manner  in  some  respects. 

For  his  board  and  clothing,  William  had  been  allowed  $1.50  per  week. 
Truly  a  small  sum  for  a  hard-working  man  with  a  family — yet  this  was  far 
more  than  many  slaves  received  from  their  masters.  In  view  of  receiving 
this  small  pittance,  he  had  toiled  hard — doing  over-work  in  order  to  make 
"  buckle  and  strap  meet."  Once  he  had  been  sold  on  the  auction-block.  A 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  263 

sister  of  his  had  also  shared  the  same  fate.  "While  seriously  contemplating 
his  life  as  a  slave,  he  was  soon  led  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
bend  his  entire  energies  towards  freeing  himself  and  his  family  if  possible. 
The  idea  of  not  being  able  to  properly  provide  for  his  family  rendered  him 
quite  unhappy;  he  therefore  resolved  to  seek  a  passage  North,  via  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  To  any  captain  who  would  aid  him  in  the 
matter,  he  resolved  to  offer  a  large  reward,  and  determined  that  the  amount 
should  only  be  limited  by  his  inability  to  increase  it.  Finally,  after  much 
anxious  preparation,  agreement  was  entered  into  with  Captain  B.,  on  behalf 
of  himself,  wife,  child,  and  Louisa  Bell,  which  was  mutually  satisfactory  to 
all  concerned,  and  afforded  great  hope  to  William.  In  due  time  the  agree- 
ment was  carried  into  effect,  and  all  arrived  safely  and  were  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia.  The  fare  of  the  four  cost 
$240,  and  William  was  only  too  grateful  to  think,  that  a  Captain  could 
be  found  who  would  risk  his  own  liberty  in  thus  aiding  a  slave  to  freedom. 
The  Committee  gladly  gave  them  aid  and  succor,- and  agreed  with  Wil- 
liam that  the  Captain  deserved  all  that  he  received  for  their  deliverance. 
The  arrival  of  William,  wife,  and  child  in  Canada  was  duly  announced 
by  the  agent  at  St.  Catharines,  Rev.  H.  Wilson,  as  follows : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  June  28th,  1855. 

MR.  WM.  STILL: — My  Dear  Friend: — I  am  happy  to  announce  the  safe  arrival  of 
Thomas  Russell  with  his  wife  and  child.  They  have  just  arrived.  I  am  much  pleased  with 
their  appearance.  I  shall  do  what  I  can  for  their  comfort  and  encouragement.  They  stopt 
at  Elmira  from  Monday  night  till  this  morning,  hoping  that  Lucy  Bell  would  come  up  and 
join  them  at  that  place.  They  are  very  anxious  to  hear  from  her,  as  they  have  failed  of 
meeting  with  her  on  the  way  or  finding  her  here  in  advance  of  them.  They  wish  to  hear 
from  you  as  soon  as  you  can  write,  and  would  like  to  know  if  you  have  forwarded  Lucy 
on,  and  if  so,  what  route  you  sent  her.  They  send  their  kind  respects  to  you  and  your 
family  and  many  thanks  for  your  kindness  to  them. 

They  wish  you  to  inquire  after  Lucy  if  any  harm  has  befallen  her  after  her  leaving 
Philadelphia.  Please  write  promptly  in  my  care. 

Yours  truly  in  the  love  of  freedom,  HIRAM  WILSON. 

The  man  who  came  to  us  as  Wm.  Nelson,  is  now  known  only  as  "  Thomas 
Russell."  It  may  here  be  remarked,  that,  owing  to  the  general  custom  of 
changing  names,  as  here  instanced,  it  is  found  difficult  to  tell  to  whom  the 
letters  severally  refer.  Where  the  old  and  new  names  were  both  carefully 
entered  on  the  book  there  is  no  difficulty,  of  course,  but  it  was  not  always 
thus. 

Susan  Bell,  the  wife  of  William,  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  of  a  dark 
color,  rather  above  medium  size,  well-made,  good-looking,  and  intelligent — 
quite  equal  to  her  husband,  and  appeared  to  have  his  affections  undividedly. 
She  was  owned  by  Thomas  Baltimore,  with  whom  she  had  lived  for  the 
last  seven  years.  She  stated  that  during  a  part  of  her  life  she  had  been 


264  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

treated  in  a  "mild  manner."  She  had  no  complaint  to  make  until  after 
the  marriage  of  her  master.  Under  the  new  wife  and  mistress,  Susan 
found  a  very  marked  change  for  the  worse.  She  fared  badly  enough  then. 
The  mistress,  on  every  trifling  occasion  for  complaint,  was  disposed  to  hold 
the  auction-block  up  to  Susan,  and  would  likewise  influence  her  husband  to 
do  the  same.  From  the  fact,  that  four  of  Susan's  sisters  had  been  sold  away 
to  "  parts  unknown,"  she  was  not  prepared  to  relish  these  almost  daily 
threats  from  her  irritable  mistress,  so  she  became  as  anxious  for  a  trip  on 
the  Underground  Rail  Road  as  was  her  husband. 

About  one  hundred  miles  away  in  the  country,  her  father,  mother,  three 
brothers,  and  one  sister  were  living ;  but  she  felt  that  she  could  not  remain 
a  slave  on  their  account.  Susan's  owner  had  already  fixed  a  price  on  her 
and  her  child,  twenty-two  months  old,  which  was  one  thousand  dollars. 
From  this  fate  she  was  saved  only  by  her  firm  resolution  to  seek  her 
freedom. 

LOUISA  BELL  was  also  of  Wm.  Nelson's  party,  and  a  fair  specimen  of  a 
nice-looking,  wide  awake  woman ;  of  a  chestnut  color,  twenty-eight  years  of 
age.  She  was  the  wife  of  a  free  man,  but  the  slave  of  L.  Stasson,  a  con- 
fectioner. The  almost  constant  ringing  in  her  ears  of  the  auction -block, 
made  her  most  miserable,  especially  as  she  had  once  suffered  terribly  by 
being  sold,  and  had  likewise  seen  her  mother,  and  five  sisters  placed  in  the 
same  unhappy  situation,  the  thought  of  which  never  ceased  to  be  most  pain- 
ful. In  reflecting  upon  the  course  which  she  was  about  to  pursue  in  order 
to  free  herself  from  the  prison-house,  she  felt  more  keenly  than  ever  for 
her  little  children,  and  readily  imagined  how  sadly  she  would  mourn  while 
thinking  of  them  hundreds  of  miles  distant,  growing  up  only  to  be  slaves. 
And  particularly  would  her  thoughts  dwell  upon  her  boy,  six  years  of  age; 
full  old  enough  to  feel  deeply  the  loss  of  his  mother,  but  without  hope  of 
ever  seeing  her  again. 

Heart-breaking  as  were  these  reflections,  she  resolved  to  leave  Robert  and 
Mary  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  escape,  if  possible  from  her  terrible  thral- 
dom. Her  plan  was  submitted  to  her  husband ;  he  acquiesced  fully  and 
promised  to  follow  her  as  soon  as  an  opportunity  might  present  itself. 
Although  the  ordeal  that  she  was  called  upon  to  pass  through  was  of  the 
most  trying  nature  she  bravely  endured  the  journey  through  to  Canada. 
On  her  arrival  there  the  Rev.  H.  Wilson  wrote  on  behalf  of  herself,  and 
the  cause  as  follows: 

ST.  CATHERINES,  C.  W.  July  6th,  1855. 

DEAR  BR.  STILL  : — I  have  just  received  your  letters  touching  U.  G.  R.  R.  operations. 
All  is  right.  Jasper  and  Mrs.  Bell  got  here  on  Saturday  last,  and  I  think  I  dropt  you  a  line 
announcing  the  fact.  I  write  again  thus  soon  because  two  more  by  name  of  Smith,  John 
and  Wra.,  have  arrived  the  present  week  and  were  anxious  to  have  me  inform  you  that 
they  are  safely  landed  and  free  in  this  refuge  land.  They  wish  me  to  communicate  their  kind 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  265 

regards  to  you  and  others  who  have  aided  them.  They  have  found  employment  and  are 
likely  to  do  well.  The  5  of  last  week  have  gone  over  to  Toronto.  I  gave  them  letters  to  a 
friend  there  after  furnishing  them  as  well  as  I  could  with  such  clothing  as  they  required. 
I  am  afraid  that  I  am  burdening  you  too  much  with  postage,  but  can't  help  doing  so  un- 
less I  fail  to  write  at  all,  as  my  means  are  not  half  equal  to  the  expenses  to  which  1  am 
subject.  Faithfully  and  truly  yours,  HIRAM  WILSON. 

ELIAS  JASPER,  who  was  also  a  fellow-passenger  with  "Wm.  Kelson  and 
Co.,  was  noticed  thus  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road :  Age  thirty-two 
years,  color  dark,  features  good,  and  gifted  both  with  his  tongue  and  hands. 
He  had  worked  more  or  less  at  the  following  trades :  Rope-making,  carpen- 
tering, engineering,  and  photographing.  It  was  in  this  latter  calling  that 
he  was  engaged  when  the  Underground  Rail  Road  movement  first  arrested 
his  attention,  and  so  continued  until  his  departure. 

For  several  years  he  had  been  accustomed  to  hire  his'time,  for  which  he 
had  been  required  to  pay  $10  per  month.  In  acquiring  the  above  trades  he 
had  been  at  no  expense  to  his  master,  as  he  had  learned  them  solely  by 
his  own  perseverance,  endowed  as  he  was  with  a  considerable  share  of 
genius.  Occasionally  he  paid  for  lessons,  the  money  being  earned  by  his 
over-work.  His  master,  Bayham,  was  a  "retired  gentleman." 

Elias  had  been  sold  once,  and  had  suffered  in  various  other  ways,  particu- 
larly from  being  flogged.  He  left  his  wife,  Mary,  but  no  child.  Of  his  in- 
tention to  leave  Elias  saw  not  how  to  impart  to  his  wife,  lest  she  should  in 
some  way  let  the  "  cat  out  of  the  bag."  She  was  owned  by  a  Miss  Portlock, 
and  had  been  treated  "  tolerably  well,"  having  had  the  privilege  of  hiring 
her  time.  She  had  $55  to  pay  for  this  favor,  which  amount  she  raised  by 
washing,  etc.  Elias  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  as  were  all  of 
his  comrades,  and  well  did  they  remember  the  oft-repeated  lesson,  "  Servants 
obey  your  masters,"  etc.  They  soon  understood  this  kind  of  preaching  after 
breathing  free  air.  The  market  value  of  Elias  was  placed  at  $1200. 

ARRIVAL  No.  4.  Maria  Joiner.  Captain  F.  arrived,  from  Norfolk,  with 
the  above  named1  passenger,  the  way  not  being  open  to  risk  any  other  on  that 
occasion.  This  seemed  rather  slow  business  with  this  voyager,  for  he  was 
usually  accustomed  to  bringing  more  than  one.  However,  as  this  arrival 
was  only  one  day  later  than  the  preceding  one  noticed,  and  came  from  the 
same  place,  the  Committee  concluded,  that  they  had  much  reason  for  re- 
joicing nevertheless.  As  in  the  case  of  a  great  number  among  the  oppressed 
of  the  South,  when  simply  looking  at  Maria,  no  visible  marks  of  ill  usage 
in  any  way  were  discernible.  Indeed,  as  she  then  appeared  at  the  age  of 
thirty-three,  a  fine,  fresh,  and  healthy-looking  mulatto  woman,  nine  out  of 
every  ten  would  have  been  impressed  with  the  idea,  that  she  had  never  been 
subjected  to  hard  treatment ;  in  other  words,  that  she  had  derived  her  full 
share  of  advantages  from  the  "  Patriarchal  Institution."  The  appearance  of 
just  such  persons  in  Southern  cities  had  often  led  Northerners,  when  trav- 


266  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

eling  in  those  parts,  to  regard  the  lot  of  slaves  as  quite  comfortable.  But 
the  story  of  Maria,  told  in  an  earnest  and  intelligent  manner,  was  at  once 
calculated  to  dissipate  the  idea  of  a  "comfortable"  existence  in  a  state  of 
bondage.  She  frankly  admitted,  however,  that  prior  to  the  death  of  her  old 
master,  she  was  favorably  treated,  compared  with  many  others;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, after  his  death,  she  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  old  man's 
daughters,  from  whom,  she  declared,  that  she  had  received  continued  abuse, 
especially  when  said  daughter  was  under  the  influence  of  liquor.  At  such 
times  she  was  very  violent.  Being  spirited,  Maria  could  not  consent  to  suffer 
on  as  a  slave  in  this  manner.  Consequently  she  began  to  cogitate  how  she 
might  escape  from  her  mistress  (Catharine  Gordon),  and  reach  a  free  State. 
None  other  than  the  usual  trying  and  hazardous  ways  could  be  devised — 
which  was  either  to  be  stowed  away  in  the  hold  of  a  schooner,  or  concealed 
amongst  the  rubbish  of  a  steamer,  where,  for  the  time  being,  the  extreme 
suffering  was  sure  to  tax  every  nerve  even  of  the  most  valiant-hearted  men. 
The  daily  darkening  prospects  constrained  her  to  decide,  that  she  was  willing 
to  suffer,  not  only  in  adopting  this  mode  of  travel,  but  on  the  other  hand, 
that  she  had  better  be  dead  than  remain  under  so  cruel  a  woman  as  her  mis- 
tress. Maria's  husband  and  sister  (no  other  relatives  are  noticed),  were  na- 
turally formidable  barriers  in  the  way  of  her  escape.  Notwithstanding  her 
attachment  to  them,  she  fully  made  up  her  mind  to  be  free.  Immediately 
she  took  the  first  prerequisite  step,  which  was  to  repair  to  a  place  of  conceal- 
ment with  a  friend  in  the  city,  and  there,  like  the  man  at  the  pool,  wait  until 
her  turn  came  to  be  conveyed  thence  to  a  free  State.  In  this  place  she  was 
obliged  to  wait  eight  long  months,  enduring  daily  suffering  in  various  ways, 
especially  during  the  winter  season.  But,  with  martyr-like  faith,  she  en- 
dured to  the  end,  and  was  eventually  saved  from  the  hell  of  Slavery.  Maria 
was  appraised  at  $800. 

ARRIVAL  No.  5.  Richard  Green,  alias  Wm.  Smith,  and  his  brother  George. 
These  young  brothers  fled  from  George  Chambers  of  Baltimore.  The  elder 
brother  was  twenty-five,  the  younger  twenty-three.  Both  were  tall  and 
well  made  and  of  a  chestnut  color,  and  possessed  a  good  degree  of  natural 
ability.  When  desiring  to  visit  their  parents,  their  request  was  positively 
refused  by  their  owner.  Taking  offence  at  this  step,  both  mutually  resolved 
to  run  away  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Thus  in  accordance  with  well  pre- 
meditated plans,  they  set  out  and  unobstructedly  arrived  in  Philadelphia. 
At  first  it  was  simply  very  pleasant  to  take  them  by  the  hand  and  welcome 
them ;  then  to  listen  for  a  few  moments  to  their  intelligent  narration  of  how 
they  escaped,  the  motives  that  prompted  them,  etc.  But  further  inquiries 
soon  brought  out  incidents  of  the  most  thrilling  and  touching  nature — not 
with  regard  to  hardships  which  they  had  personally  experienced,  but  in  re- 
lation to  outrages  which  had  been  perpetrated  upon  their  mother.  Such 
simple  facts  as  were  then  written  are  substantially  as  follows :  Nearly 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  267 

thirty  years  prior  to  the  escape  of  Richard  and  his  brother  their  mother 
was  in  very  bad  health,  so  much  so  that  physicians  regarded  her  incurable. 
Her  owner  was  evidently  fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that  instead  of  being 
profitable  to  him,  she  might  be  an  expense,  which  he  could  not  possibly  ob- 
viate, while  he  retained  her  as  a  slave.  Now  there  was  a  way  to  get  out  of 
this  dilemma.  He  could  emancipate  her  and  throw  the  responsibility  of  her 
support  upon  herself.  Accordingly  he  drew  up  papers,  called  for  his  wife's 
mother  to  witness  them,  then  formally  put  them  into  the  hands  of  the  invalid 
slave  woman  (Dinah),  assuring  her  at  the  same  time,  that  she  was  free — 
being  fully  released  as  set  forth  in  her  papers.  "Take  notice  I  have  no 
more  claim  on  you  nor  you  on  me  from  this  time."  Marvellous  liberality ! 
After  working  the  life  out  of  a  woman,  in  order  that  he  should  not  have 
her  to  bury,  he  becomes  hastily  in  favor  of  freedom.  He  is,  however,  justi- 
fied by  the  laws  of  Maryland.  Complaint,  therefore,  would  simply  amount 
to  nothing.  In  the  nature  of  the  case  Dinah  was  now  free,  but  she  was  not 
wholly  alone  in  the  world.  She  had  a  husband,  named  Jacob  Green,  who 
was  owned  by  Nathan  Childs  for  a,  term  of  years  only,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  time  he  was  to  be  free.  All  lived  then  in  Talbot  county,  Md.  At 
the  appointed  time  Jacob's  bondage  ended,  and  he  concluded  that  he  might 
succeed  better  by  moving  to  Baltimore.  Indeed  the  health  of  his  wife  was 
so  miserable  that  nothing  in  his  old  home  seemed  to  offer  any  inducement  in 
the  way  of  a  livelihood.  So  off  they  moved  to  Baltimore.  After  a  time, 
under  careful  and  kind  treatment,  the  faithful  Jacob  was  greatly  encouraged 
by  perceiving  that  the  health  of  his  companion  was  gradually  improving — 
signs  indicated,  that  she  might  yet  become  a  well  woman.  The  hopes  of 
husband  and  wife,  in  this  particular,  were,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  fully  real- 
ized. Dinah  was  as  well  as  ever,  and  became  the  mother  of  another  child — 
a  little  boy.  Everything  seemed  to  be  going  on  happily,  and  they  had  no 
apparent  reason  to  suspect  any  troubles  other  than  such  as  might  naturally 
have  to  be  encountered  in  a  state  of  poverty  and  toil. 

The  unfettered  boy  was  healthy,  and  made  rapid  advance  in  a  few  years. 
That  any  one  should  ever  claim  him  was  never  for  a  moment  feared. 

The  old  master,  however,  becoming  tired  of  country  life,  had  also  moved 
to  Baltimore.  How,  they  knew  not,  but  he  had  heard  of  the  existence  of 
this  boy. 

That  he  might  satisfy  himself  on  this  point,  he  one  day  very  slyly  ap- 
proached the  house  with  George.  No  sooner  was  the  old  man  within  the  en- 
closures than  he  asked  Dinah,  "  Whose  child  is  that  ?"  pointing  to  the  boy. 
"  Ask  Jacob,"  was  the  reply  of  the  mother.  The  question  was  then  put  to 
Jacob,  the  father  of  the  boy.  "  I  did  not  think  that  you  would  ask  such  a 
question,  or  that  you  would  request  anything  like  that,"  Jacob  remarked, 
naturally  somewhat  nervous,  but  he  added,  "  I  have  the  privilege  of  having 
any  one  I  please  in  my  house."  "  Where  is  he  from  ?"  again  demanded 


268  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

the  master.  The  father  repeated,  "  I  have  a  right  to  have,"  etc.,  "  I  am  my 
own  man,"  etc.  "  I  have  found  out  whose  he  is/'  the  hunter  said.  "  I  am 
going  presently  to  take  him  home  with  me."  At  this  juncture  he  seized  the 
little  fellow,  at  the  same  time  calling  out,  "  Dinah,  put  his  clothes  on."  By 
this  time  the  father  too  had  seized  hold  of  the  child.  Mustering  courage, 
the  father  said,  "Take  notice  that  you  are  not  in  the  country,  pulling  and 
hauling  people  about."  "I  will  have  him  or  I  will  leave  my  heart's 
blood  in  the  house,"  was  the  savage  declaration  of  the  master.  In  his  rage 
he  threatened  to  shoot  the  father.  In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  George 
called  in  two  officers  to  settle  the  trouble.  "  What  are  you  doing  here  ?" 
said  the  officers  to  the  slave-holder.  "  I  am  after  my  property — this  boy," 
he  exclaimed.  "  Have  you  ever  seen  it  before  ?"  they  inquired.  "  No," 
said  the  slave-holder.  "Then  how  do  you  know  that  he  belongs  to  you?" 
inquired  the  officers.  "  I  believe  he  is  mine,"  replied  the  slave-holder. 

All  the  parties  concerned  were  then  taken  by  the  officers  before  an  Alder- 
man. The  father  owned  the  child  but  the  mother  denied  it.  The  Alder- 
man then  decided  that  the  child  should  J>e  given  to  the  father. 

The  slave-holder  having  thus  failed,  was  unwilling,  nevertheless,  to  re- 
linquish his  grasp.  Whereupon  he  at  once  claimed  the  mother.  Of  course 
he  was  under  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  the  Courts  in  order  to  establish 
his  claim.  Fortunately  the  mother  had  securely  preserved  the  paper  given 
her  by  her  master  so  many  years  before,  releasing  her.  Notwithstanding 
this  the  suit  was  pending  nearly  a  year  before  the  case  was  decided.  Every- 
thing was  so  clear  the  mother  finally  gained  the  suit.  This  decision  was 
rendered  only  about  two  months  prior  to  the  escape  of  Richard  and  George. 

ARRIVAL  No.  6.  Henry  Cromwell.  This  passenger  fled  from  Baltimore 
county,  Md.  The  man  that  he  escaped  from  was  a  farmer  by  the  name  of 
William  Roberts,  who  also  owned  seven  other  young  slaves.  Of  his  treat- 
ment of  his  slaves  nothing  was  recorded. 

Henry  was  about  six  feet  high,  quite  black,  visage  thin,  age  twenty-five. 
He  left  neither  wife,  parents,  brothers  nor  sisters  to  grieve  after  him.  In 
making  his  way  North  he  walked  of  nights  from  his  home  to  Harrisburg, 
Pa.,  and  there  availed  himself  of  a  passage  on  a  freight  car  coming  to  Phil- 
adelphia. 

ARRIVAL  No.  7.  Henry  Bohm.  Henry  came  from  near  Norfolk,  Ya. 
He  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  a  fair  specimen  of  a  stout  man, 
possessed  of  more  than  ordinary  physical  strength.  As  to  whom  he  fled 
from,  how  he  had  been  treated,  or  how  he  reached  Philadelphia,  the  record 
book  is  silent.  Why  this  is  the  case  cannot  now  be  accounted  for,  unless 
the  hurry  of  getting  him  off  forbade  sufficient  delay  to  note  down  more  of 
the  particulars. 

ARRIVAL  No.  8.  Ralph  Whiting,  James  H.  Forman,  Anthony  Atkinson, 
Arthur  Jones,  Isaiah  Nixon,  Joseph  Harris,  John  Morris,  and  Henry 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  269 

Hodges.  A  numerous  party  like  this  had  the  appearance  of  business. 
They  were  all  young  and  hopeful,  and  belonged  to  the  more  intelligent  and 
promising  of  their  race.  They  were  capable  of  giving  the  best  of  reasons 
for  the  endeavors  they  were  making  to  escape  to  a  free  country. 

They  imparted  to  the  Committee  much  information  respecting  their  seve- 
ral situations,  together  with  the  characters  of  their  masters  in  relation  to 
domestic  matters,  and  the  customs  and  usages  under  which  they  had  been 
severally  held  to  service — all  of  which  was  listened  to  with  deep  interest. 
But  it  was  not  an  easy  matter,  after  having  been  thus  entertained,  to  write 
out  the  narratives  of  eight  such  persons.  Hundreds  of  pages  would  hardly 
have  contained  a  brief  account  of  the  most  interesting  portion  of  their  his- 
tories. It  was  deemed  sufficient  to  enter  their  names  and  their  forsaken 
homes,  etc.,  as  follows : 

"  Ralph  was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  dark,  well 
made,  intelligent,  and  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church.  He  was  claimed 
by  Geo.  W.  Kemp,  Esq.,  cashier  of  the  Exchange  Bank  of  Norfolk,  Va. 
Ralph  gave  Mr.  Kemp  the  credit  of  being  a  '  moderate  man '  to  his  slaves. 
Ralph  was  compelled  to  leave  his  wife,  Lydia,  and  two  children,  Anna 
Eliza,  and  Cornelius." 

"James  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  dark  mulatto,  nearly  six  feet 
high,  and  of  prepossessing  appearance.  He  fled  from  James  Saunders,  Esq. 
Nothing,  save  the  desire  to  be  free,  prompted  James  to  leave  his  old  sit- 
uation and  master.  His  parents  and  two  sisters  he  was  obliged  to  leave  in 
Norfolk." 

Two  brief  letters  from  James,  one  concerning  his  "sweet-heart/'  whom  he 
left  in  Norfolk,  the  other  giving  an  account  of  her  arrival  in  Canada  and 
marriage  thereafter  will,  doubtless,  be  read  with  interest.  They  are  here 
given  as  follows : 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  June  5th,  1856. 

ME.  STILL  : — Sir — I  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  write  you  theas  few  lines  to  let  you  know 
that  I  am  well  at  present  and  hope  theas  few  lines  may  find  you  the  same.  Sir  my  object 
in  writing  to  you  is  that  I  expect  a  young  Lady  by  the  name  of  Miss  Mariah  Moore, 
from  Norfolk,  Virginia.  She  will  leave  Norfolk  on  the  13th  of  this  month  in  the  Steam- 
ship Virginia  for  Philadelphia  you  will  oblige  me  very  much  by  seeing  her  safely  on  the 
train  of  cars  that  leaves  Philadelphia  for  the  Suspension  Bridge  Niagara  Falls  pleas  to 
tell  the  Lady  to  telegraph  to  me  what  time  she  will  leave  Philadelphia  so  i  may  know  what 
time  to  meet  her  at  the  Suspension  Bridge  my  Brother  Isaac  Forman  send  his  love  also 
his  family  to  you  and  your  family  they  are  all  well  at  present  pleas  to  give  my  respects  to 
Mr.  Harry  Londay,  also  Miss  Margaret  Cunigan,  no  more  at  present. 

I  remain  your  friend,  JAMES  H.  FORMAN. 

When  you  telegraph  to  me  direct  to  the  International  Hotel,  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  24th,  1856. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  writing  these  few  lines  to  you  hoping  that  they 
may  find  you  enjoying  good  health  as  these  few  lines  leave  me  at  present.  I  thank  you 


270  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

for  your  kindness.  Miss  Moore  arrived  here  on  the  30th  of  June  and  I  was  down  to  the 
cars  to  receive  her.  I  thought  I  would  have  written  to  you  before,  but  I  thought  I  would 
wait  till  I  got  married.  I  got  married  on  the  22d  of  July  in  the  English  Church  Canada 
about  11  o'clock  my  wife  sends  all  her  love  to  you  and  your  wife  and  all  enquiring  friends 
please  to  kiss  your  two  children  for  her  and  she  says  she  is  done  crying  and  I  am  glad  to 
hear  she  enjoyed  herself  so  well  in  Philadelphia  give  my  respects  to  Miss  Margaret  Cun- 
ingham  and  I  am  glad  to  hear  her  sister  arrived  my  father  sends  his  respects  to  you  no 
more  at  present  but  remain  your  friend,  JAMES  H.  FORMAN. 

Direct  your  letter  to  the  International  Hotel,  Niagara  Falls. 

ANTHONY  was  thirty-six  years  of  age,  and  by  blood,  was  quite  as  nearly 
related  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  as  the  Anglo-African.  He  was  nevertheless, 
physically  a  fine  specimen  of  a  man.  He  was  about  six  feet  high,  and  bore 
evidence  of  having  picked  up  a  considerable  amount  of  intelligence  consid- 
ering his  opportunities.  He  had  been  sold  three  times.  Anthony  was 
decidedly  opposed  to  having  to  pass  through  this  ordeal  a  fourth  time,  there- 
fore, the  more  he  meditated  over  his  condition,  the  more  determined  he 
became  to  seek  out  an  Underground  Rail  Road  agent,  and  make  his  way  to 
Canada. 

Concluding  that  Josiah  Wells,  who  claimed  him,  had  received  a  thou- 
sand times  too  much  of  his  labor  already,  Anthony  was  in  a  fit  state  of 
mind  to  make  a  resolute  effort  to  gain  his  freedom.  He  had  a  wife,  but 
no  children.  His  father,  one  sister,  and  two  brothers  were  all  dear  to 
him,  but  all  being  slaves  "one  could  not  help  the  other,"  Anthony 
reasoned,  and  wisely  too.  So,  at  the  command  of  the  captain,  he  was 
ready  to  bear  his  part  of  the  suffering  consequent  upon  being  concealed  in 
the  hold  of  a  vessel,  where  but  little  air  could  penetrate. 

ARTHUR  was  forty-one  years  of  age,  six  feet  high — chestnut  color,  well 
made,  and  possessed  good  native  faculties  needing  cultivation.  He  escaped 
from  a  farmer,  by  the  name  of  John  Jones,  who  was  classed,  as  to  natural 
temperament,  amongst  "moderate  slave-holders." 

"  I  wanted  my  liberty,"  said  Arthur  promptly  and  emphatically,  and  he 
declared  that  was  the  cause  of  his  escape.  He  left  his  mother,  two  sisters, 
and  three  brothers  in  Slavery. 

ISAIAH  was  about  twenty-two,  small  of  stature,  but  smart,  and  of  a 
substantially  black  complexion.  He  had  been  subjected  to  very  hard  treat- 
ment under  Samuel  Simmons  who  claimed  him,  and  on  this  account  he  was 
first  prompted  to  leave.  His  mother  and  three  brothers  he  left  in  bondage. 

JOSEPH  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  was,  in  every  way,  "  likely- 
looking."  According  to  the  laws  of  Slavery,  he  was  the  property  of  David 
Morris,  who  was  entitled  to  be  ranked  amongst  the  more  compassionate 
slave-holders  of  the  South.  Yet,  Joseph  was  not  satisfied,  deprived  of  his 
freedom.  He  had  not  known  hardships  as  many  had,  but  it  was  not  in  him 
notwithstanding,  to  be  contented  as  a  slave.  In  leaving,  he  had  to  "  tear 
himself  away  "  from  his  parents,  three  brothers,  and  two  sisters. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  271 

HENRY  escaped  from  S.  Simmons  of  Plymouth,  North  Carol  ma,  and  was 
a  fellow-servant  with  Isaiah.  Simmons  was  particularly  distinguished  for 
his  tyrannical  rule  and  treatment  of  his  slaves — so  Henry  and  Isaiah  had 
the  good  sense  to  withdraw  from  under  his  yoke,  very  young  in  life;  Henry 
being  twenty-three. 

JOHN  was  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  five  feet  eight  inches  high,  dark 
color,  and  well-grown  for  hi%  years.  Before  embarking,  he  had  endured 
seven  mouths  of  hard  suffering  from  being  secreted,  waiting  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  escape.  It  was  to  keep  his  master  from  selling  him,  that  he  was 
thus  induced  to  secrete  himself.  After  he  had  remained  away  some  months, 
he  resolved  to  suffer  on  until  his  friends  could  manage  to  procure  him  a 
passage  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  With  this  determined  spirit  he 
did  not  wait  in  vain. 

ARRIVAL  No.  9.  Robert  Jones  and  wife : — In  the  majority  of  cases,  in 
order  to  effect  the  escape  of  either,  sad  separations  between  husbands  and 
wives  were  unavoidable.  Fortunately,  it  was  not  so  in  this  case.  In  jour- 
neying from  the  house  of  bondage,  Robert  and  his  wife  were  united  both  in 
sympathies  and  in  struggles.  Robert  had  experienced  "hard  times"  just  in 
what  way,  however,  was  not  recorded ;  his  wife  had  been  differently  treated, 
not  being  under  the  same  taskmaster  as  her  husband.  At  the  time  of  their 
arrival  all  that  was  recorded  of  their  bondage  is  as  follows — 

August  2d,  1855,  Robert  Jones  and  wife,  arrived  from  Petersburg,  Va. 
Robert  is  about  thirty-five,  chestnut  color,  medium  size,  of  good  manners, 
intelligent,  had  been  owned  by  Thomas  N.  Lee,  "a  very  hard  man." 
Robert  left  because  he  "  wanted  his  liberty — always  had  from  a  boy." 
Eliza,  his  wife,  is  about  forty  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  nice-looking, 
and  well-dressed.  She  belonged  to  Eliza  II.  Richie,  who  was  called  a 
"  moderate  woman  "  towards  her  slaves.  Notwithstanding  the  limited  space 
occupied  in  noting  them  on  the  record  book,  the  Committee  regarded  them 
as  being  among  the  most  worthy  and  brave  travelers  passing  over  the 
Underground  Rail  Road,  and  felt  well  satisfied  that  such  specimens  of 
humanity  would  do  credit  in  Canada,  not  only  to  themselves,  but  to  their 
race. 

Robert  had  succeeded  in  learning  to  read  and  write  tolerably  well,  and 
had  thought  much  over  the  condition  and  wrongs  of  the  race,  and  seemed 
to  be  eager  to  be  where  he  could  do  something  to  lift  his  fellow-sufferers  up 
to  a  higher  plane  of  liberty  and  manhood.  After  an  interview  with  Robert 
and  his  wife,  in  every  way  so  agreeable,  they  were  forwarded  on  in  the 
usual  manner,  to  Canada.  While  enjoying  the  sweets  of  freedom  in  Canada, 
he  was  not  the  man  to  keep  his  light  under  a  bushel.  He  seemed  to 
have  a  high  appreciation  of  the  potency  of  the  pen,  and  a  decidedly 
clear  idea  that  colored  men  needed  to  lay  hold  of  many  enterprises  with 
resolution,  in  order  to  prove  themselves  qualified  to  rise  equally  with  other 


272  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

branches  of  the  human  family.  Some  of  his  letters,  embracing  his  views, 
plans  and  suggestions,  were  so  encouraging  and  sensible,  that  the  Committee 
was  in  the  habit  of  showing  them  to  friendly  persons,  and  indeed,  ex- 
tracts of  some  of  his  letters  were  deemed  of  sufficient  importance  to  publish. 
One  alone,  taken  from  many  letters  received  from  him,  must  here  suffice 
to  illustrate  his  intelligence  and  efforts  as  a  fugitive  and  citizen  in  Canada. 

HAMILTON,  C.  W.,  August  9th,  1856. 

MB.  WM.  STILL  . — Dear  Friend: — I  take  this  opportunity  of  writing  you  these  few 
lines  to  inform  you  of  my  health,  which  is  good  at  present,  &c.  *  *  *  * 

I  was  talking  to  you  about  going  to  Liberia,  when  I  saw  you  last,  and  did  intend  to 
start  this  fall,  but  I  since  looked  at  the  condition  of  the  colored  people  in  Canada.  I 
thought  I  would  try  to  do  something  for  their  elevation  as  a  nation,  to  place  them  in  the 
proper  position  to  stand  where  they  ought  to  stand.  In  order  to  do  this,  I  have  under- 
taken to  get  up  a  military  company  amongst  them.  They  laughed  at  me  to  undertake 
such  a  thing ;  but  I  did  not  relax  my  energies.  I  went  and  had  an  interview  with  Major 
J.  T.  Gilepon,  told  him  what  my  object  was,  he  encouraged  me  to  go  on,  saying  that  he 
would  do  all  he  could  for  the  accomplishment  of  my  object.  He  referred  to  Sir  Allan 
McNab,  &c.  *  *  *  *  I  took  with  me  Mr.  J.  H.  Hill  to  see  him — he  told  me  that  it 
should  be  done,  and  required  us  to  write  a  petition  to  the  Governor  General,  which  has 
been  done.  *  *  *  *  The  company  is  already  organized.  Mr.  Howard  was  elected 
Captain  ;  J.  H.  Hill,  1st  Lieutenant;  Hezekiah  Hill,  Ensign ;  Robert  Jones,  1st  Sergeant. 
The  company's  name  is,  Queen  Victoria's  Rifle  Guards.  You  may,  by  this,  see  what  I 
have  been  doing  since  I  have  been  in  Canada.  When  we  receive  our  appointments  by 
the  Government.  I  will  send  by  express,  my  daguerreotype  in  uniform. 

My  respects,  &c.  &c., "  ROBERT  JONES. 


HEAVY  REWARD. 

Two  THOUSAND  Six  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD.— Ran  away 

from  the  subscriber,  on  Saturday  night  November  15th,  1856,  Josiah  and 
William  Bailey,  and  Peter  Pennington.  Joe  is  about  5  feet  10  inches  in  height, 
of  a  chestnut  color,  bald  head,  with  a  remarkable  scar  on  one  ot  his  cheeks, 
not  positive  on  which  it  is,  but  think  it  is  on  the  left,  under  the  eye,  has  intel- 
ligent countenance,  active,  and  well-made.  He  is  about  28  years  old.  Bill  is 
of  a  darker  color,  about  5  feet  8  inches  in  height,  stammers  a  little  when  con- 
fused, well-made,  and  older  than  Joe,  well  dressed,  but  may  have  pulled  kearsey  on  over 
their  other  clothes.  Peter  is  smaller  than  either  the  others,  about  25  years  of  age,  dark 
chestnut  color,  5  feet  7  or  8  inches  high. 

A  reward  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  will  be  given  to  any  person  who  will  apprehend  the 
said  Joe  Bailey,  and  lodge  him  safely  in  the  jail  at  Easton,  Talbot  Co.,  Md.,  and  $300  for 
Bill  and  $800  for  Peter.  W.  R.  HUGHLETT, 

JOHN  C.  HENRY, 
T.  WEIGHT. 

When  this  arrival  made  its  appearance,  it  was  at  first  sight  quite  evident 
that  one  of  the  company  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  parts,  both 
physically  and  mentally.  Likewise,  taking  them  individually,  their  appear- 
ance and  bearing  tended  largely  to  strengthen  the  idea  that  the  spirit  of 
freedom  was  rapidly  gaining  ground  in  the  minds  of  the  slaves,  despite  the 


HEA  VY  REWARD.  273 

efforts  of  the  slave-holders  to  keep  them  in  darkness.  In  company  with 
the  three  men,  for  whom  the  above  large  reward  was  offered,  came  a  woman: 
by  the  name  of  Eliza  Nokey. 

As  soon  as  the  opportunity  presented  itself,  the  Active  Committee  feeling 
an  unusual  desire  to  hear  their  story,  began  the  investigation  by  inquiring 
as  to  the  cause  of  their  escape,  etc.,  which  brought  simple  and  homely  but 
earnest  answers  from  each.  These  answers  afforded  the  best  possible  means 
of  seeing  Slavery  in  its  natural,  practical  workings — of  obtaining  such 
testimony  and  representations  of  the  vile  system,  as  the  most  eloquent  orator 
or  able  pen  might  labor  in  vain  to  make  clear  and  convincing,  although  this 
arrival  had  obviously  been  owned  by  men  of  high  standing.  The  fugitives 
themselves  innocently  stated  that  one  of  the  masters,  who  was  in  the  habit 
of  flogging  adult  females,  was  a  "  moderate  man."  Josiah  Bailey  was  the 
leader  of  this  party,  and  he  appeared  well-qualified  for  this  position.  He 
was  about  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  in  no  particular  physically,  did  he 
seem  to  be  deficient.  He  was  likewise  civil  and  polite  in  his  manners,  and 
a  man  of  good  common  sense.  He  was  held  and  oppressed  by  William  H. 
Hughlett,  a  farmer  and  dealer  in  ship  timber,  who  had  besides  invested  in 
slaves  to  the  number  of  forty  head.  In  his  habits  he  was  generally  taken  for 
a  "  moderate "  and  "  fair "  man,  "  though  he  was  in  the  habit  of  flogging 
the  slaves — females  as  well  as  males,"  after  they  had  arrived  at  the  age  of 
maturity.  This  was  not  considered  strange  or  cruel  in  Maryland.  Josiah 
was  the  "  foreman  "  on  the  place,  and  was  entrusted  with  the  management  of 
hauling  the  ship-timber,  and  through  harvesting  and  busy  seasons  was  re- 
quired to  lead  in  the  fields.  He  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  valuable 
hands  in  that  part  of  the  country,  being  valued  at  $2,000.  Three  weeks  be- 
fore he  escaped,  Joe  was  "  stripped  naked,"  and  "  flogged  "  very  cruelly  by 
his  master,  simply  because  he  had  a  dispute  with  one  of  the  fellow-servants^ 
who  had  stolen,  as  Joe  alleged,  seven  dollars  of  his  hard  earnings.  This 
flogging,  produced  in  Joe's  mind,  an  unswerving  determination  to  leave 
Slavery  or  die :  to  try  his  luck  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  at  all  hazards. 
The  very  name  of  Slavery,  made  the  fire  fairly  burn  in  his  bones.  Although 
a  married  man,  having  a  wife  and  three  children  (owned  by  Hughlett),  he  was 
not  prepared  to  let  his  affection  for  them  keep  him  in  chains — so  Anna 
Maria,  his  wife,  and  his  children  Ellen,  Anna  Maria,  and  Isabella,  were 
shortly  widowed  and  orphaned  by  the  slave  lash. 

WILLIAM  BAILEY  was  owned  by  John  C.  Henry,  a  large  slave-holder, 
and  a  very  "  hard "  one,  if  what  William  alleged  of  him  was  true.  His 
story  certainly  had  every  appearance  of  truthfulness.  A  recent  brutal  flogging 
had  "  stiffened  his  back-bone/'  and  furnished  him  with  his  excuse  for  not 
being  willing  to  continue  in  Maryland,  working  his  strength  away  to  enrich 
his  master,  or  the  man  who  claimed  to  be  such.  The  memorable  flogging, 
however,  which  caused  him  to  seek  flight  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road, 
18 


274  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

was  not  administered  by  his  master  or  on  his  master's  plantation.  He  was 
hired  out,  and  it  was  in  this  situation  that  he  was  so  barbarously  treated. 
Yet  he  considered  his  master  more  in  fault  than  the  man  to  whom  he 
was  hired,  but  redress  there  was  none,  save  to  escape. 

The  hour  for  forwarding  the  party  by  the  Committee,  came  too  soon  to 
allow  time  for  the  writing  of  any  account  of  Peter  Pennington  and  Eliza 
Nokey.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  in  struggling  through  their  journey,  their 
spirits  never  flagged ;  they  had  determined  not  to  stop  short  of  Canada. 
They  truly  had  a  very  high  appreciation  of  freedom,  but  a  very  poor  opinion 
of  Maryland. 


SLAVE  TRADER  HALL  IS  FOILED. 

ROBEKT  M'COY  alias  WILLIAM  DON AR. 

In  October,  1854,  the  Committee  received  per  steamer,  directly  from 
Norfolk,  Va.,  Robert  McCoy  and  Elizabeth  Saunders.  Robert  had  con- 
stantly been  in  the  clutches  of  the  negro-trader  Hall,  for  the  last  sixteen 
years,  previous  to  his  leaving,  being  owned  by  him.  He  had,  therefore, 
possessed  very  favorable  opportunities  for  varied  observation  and  experience 
relative  to  the  trader's  conduct  in  his  nefa'rious  business,  as  well  as  for 
witnessing  the  effects  of  the  auction-block  upon  all  ages — rending  asunder 
the  dearest  ties,  despite  the  piteous  wails  of  childhood  or  womanhood, 
parental  or  conjugal  relations.  But  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  chronicle 
the  deeds  of  this  dealer  in  human  flesh.  Those  stories  fresh  from  the  lips 
of  one  who  had  just  escaped,  were  painful  in  the  extreme,  but  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  some  of  the  statements  are  too  revolting  to  be  published. 
In  lieu  of  this  fact,  except  the  above  allusions  to  the  trader's  business,  this 
sketch  will  only  refer  to  Robert's  condition  as  a  slave,  and  finally  as  a 
traveler  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

Robert  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  dark  mulatto,  of  more  than  ordinary 
intelligence.  His  duties  had  been  confined  to  the  house,  and  not  to  the  slave 
pen.  As  a  general  thing,  he  had  managed,  doubtless  through  much  shrewd- 
ness, to  avoid  very  severe  outrages  from  the  trader.  On  the  whole,  he  had 
fared  "  about  as  well "  as  the  generality  of  slaves. 

Yet,  in  order  to  free  himself  from  his  "  miserable"  life,  he  was  willing,  as 
he  declared,  to  suffer  almost  any  sacrifice.  Indeed,  his  conduct  proved 
the  sincerity  of  this  declaration,  as  he  had  actually  been  concealed  five 
months  in  a  place  in  the  city,  where  he  could  not  possibly  avoid  daily 
suffering  of  the  most  trying  kind.  Plis  resolve  to  be  free  was  all  this  while 
maturing.  The  trader  had  threatened  to  sell  Robert,  and  to  prevent  it 
Robert  (thus)  "  took  out."  Successfully  did  he  elude  the  keen  scent  and 


SLAVE  TRADER  HALL  IS  FOILED.  275 

grasp  of  the  hunters,  who  made  diligent  efforts  to  recapture  him.  Although 
a  young  man — only  about  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  his  health  was  by  no 
means  good.  His  system  had  evidently  been  considerably  shattered  by 
Slavery,  and  symptoms  of  consumption,  together  with  chronic  rheumatism, 
were  making  rapid  headway  against  the  physical  man.  Under  his  various 
ills,  he  declared,  as  did  many  others  from  the  land  of  bondage,  that  his  faith 
in  God  afforded  him  comfort  and  hope.  He  was  obliged  to  leave  his  wife, 
Eliza,  in  bonds,  not  knowing  whether  they  should  ever  meet  again  on  earth, 
but  he  was  somewhat  hopeful  that  the  way  would  open  for  her  escape  also. 

After  reaching  Philadelphia,  where  his  arrival  had  long  been  anticipated 
by  the  Vigilance  Committee,  his  immediate  wants  were  met,  and  in  due 
order  he  was  forwarded  to  New  Bedford,  where,  he  was  led  to  feel,  he  would 
be  happy  in  freedom. 

Scarcely  had  he  been  in  New  Bedford  one  month,  before  his  prayers  and 
hopes  were  realized  with  regard  to  the  deliverance  of  his  wife.  On  hearing 
of  the  good  news  of  her  coming  he  wrote  as  follows — 

NEW  BEDFORD,  Nov.  3, 1859. 

DEAR  SIR  : — i  embrace  this  opertunity  to  inform  you  that  i  received  your  letter  with 
pleasure,  i  am  enjoying  good  health  and  hope  that  these  few  lines  will  find  you  enjoying 
the  same  blessing,  i  rejoise  to  hear  from  you  i  feel  very  much  indetted  to  you  for  not 
writing  before  but  i  have  been  so  bissy  that  is  the  cause,  i  rejoise  to  heare  of  the  arrival 
of  my  wife,  and  hope  she  is  not  sick  from  the  roling  of  the  sea  and  if  she  is  not,  pleas  to 
send  her  on  here  Monday  with  a  six  baral  warlian  and  a  rifall  to  gard  her  up  to  my  resi- 
dance  i  thank  you  kindly  for  the  good  that  you  have  don  for  me.  Give  my  respects  to 
Mrs.  Still,  tell  her  i  want  to  see  her  very  bad  and  you  also  i  would  come  but  i  am  afraid 
yet  to  venture,  i  received  your  letter  the  second,  but  about  the  first  of  spring  i  hope  to 
pay  you  a  visit  or  next  summer,  i  am  getting  something  to  do  every  day.  i  will  write  on 
her  arrivall  and  tell  you  more.  Mr.  K.  White  sends  his  love  to  you  and  your  famerly  and 
says  that  he  is  very  much  indetted  to  you  for  his  not  writing  and  all  so  he  desires  to  know 
wheather  his  cloths  has  arived  yet  or  not,  and  if  they  are  please  to  express  them  on  to 
him  or  if  at  preasant  by  Mrs.  Donar.  Not  any  more  at  preasent.  i  remain  your  affec- 
tionate brother,  WILLIAM  DONAR. 

By  the  same  arrival,  and  similarly  secreted,  Elizabeth  Frances,  alias  Ellen 
Saunders,  had  the  good  luck  to  reach  Philadelphia.  She  was  a  single  young 
woman,  about  twenty-two,  with  as  pleasant  a  countenance  as  one  would  wish 
to  see.  Her  manners  were  equally  agreeable.  Perhaps  her  joy  over 
her  achieved  victory  added  somewhat  to  her  personal  appearance.  She  had, 
however,  belonged  to  the  more  favored  class  of  slaves.  She  had  neither 
been  over-worked  nor  badly  abused.  Elizabeth  was  the  property  of  a  lady 
a  few  shades  lighter  than  herself,  (Elizabeth  was  a  mulatto)  by  the  name  of 
Sarah  Shephard,  of  Norfolk.  In  order  the  more  effectually  to  profit  by  Eliza- 
beth's labor,  the  mistress  resorted  to  the  plan  of  hiring  her  out  for  a  given 
sum  per  month.  Against  this  usage  Elizabeth  urged  no  complaint.  Indeed 
the  only  very  serious  charge  she  brought  was  to  the  effect,  that  her  mistress 


276  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sold  her  mother  away  from  her  far  South,  when  she  was  a  child  only  ten 
years  old.  She  had  also  sold  a  brother  and  sister  to  a  foreign  southern 
market.  The  reflections  consequent  upon  the  course  that  her  mistress  had 
thus  pursued,  awakened  Elizabeth  to  much  study  relative  to  freedom,  and 
by  the  time  that  she  had  reached  womanhood  she  had  very  decided  convic- 
tions touching  her  duty  with  regard  to  escaping.  Thus  growing  to  hate 
slavery  in  every  way  and  manner,  she  was  prepared  to  make  a  desperate 
effort  to  be  free.  Having  saved  thirty-five  dollars  by  rigid  economy,  she 
was  willing  to  give  every  cent  of  it  (although  it  was  all  she  possessed),  to  be 
aided  from  Norfolk  to  Philadelphia.  After  reaching  the  city,  having  suffered 
severely  while  coming,  she  was  invited  to  remain  until  somewhat  recruited. 
In  the  healthy  air  of  freedom  she  was  soon  fully  restored,  and  ready  to 
take  her  departure  for  New  Bedford,  which  place  she  reached  without  diffi- 
culty and  was  cordially  welcomed.  The  following  letter,  expressive  of  her 
obligations  for  aid  received,  was  forwarded  soon  after  her  arrival  in  New 
Bedford  : 

NEW  BEDFOBD,  Mass.,  October  16th,  1854. 

ME.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — I  now  take  my  pen  in  my  hand  to  inform  you  of  my  health 
which  is  good  at  present  all  except  a  cold  I  have  got  but  I  hope  when  these  few  lines  reach 
you  you  may  be  enjoying  good  health.  I  arrived  in  New  Bedford  Thursday  morning 
safely  and  what  little  I  have  seen  of  the  city  I  like  it  very  much  my  friends  were  very  glad 
to  see  me.  I  found  my  sister  very  well.  Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Still  and  also  your  dear  little 
children.  I  am  now  out  at  service.  I  do  not  think  of  going  to  Canada  now.  I  think  I 
shall  remain  in  this  city  this  winter.  Please  tell  Mrs.  Still  I  have  not  met  any  person  who 
has  treated  me  any  kinder  than  she  did  since  I  left.  I  consider  you  both  to  have  been  true 
friends  to  me.  I  hope  you  will  think  me  the  same  to  you.  I  feel  very  thankful  to  you 
indeed.  It  might  been  supposed,  out  of  sight  out  of  mind,  but  it  is  not  so.  I  never  forget 
my  friends.  Give  my  love  to  Florence.  If  you  come  to  this  city  I  would  be  very  happy 
to  see  you.  Kiss  your  dear  little  children  for  me.  Please  to  answer  this  as  soon  as  possible,  so 
that  I  may  know  you  received  this.  No  more  at  present.  I  still  remain  your  friend, 

ELLEN  SAUNDEES. 

ELIZA  McCoy — the  wife  of  Robert  McCoy,  whose  narrative  has  just 
been  given — and  who  was  left  to  wait  in  hope  when  her  husband  escaped — 
soon  followed  him  to  freedom.  It  is  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  to  be  able 
to  present  her  narrative  in  so  close  proximity  to  her  husband's.  He  arrived 
about  the  first  of  October — she  about  the  first  of  November,  following.  From 
her  lips  testimony  of  much  weight  and  interest  was  listened  to  by  several 
friends  relative  to  her  sufferings  as  a  slave — on  the  auction-block,  and  in  a 
place  of  concealment  seven  months,  waiting  and.  praying  for  an  opportunity 
to  escape.  But  it  was  thought  sufficient  to  record  merely  a  very  brief  out- 
line of  her  active  slave  life,  which  consisted  of  the  following  noticeable 
features. 

Eliza  had  been  owned  by  Andrew  Sigany,  of  Norfolk — age  about  thirty- 
eight — mulatto,  and  a  woman  whose  appearance  would  readily  commaud 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  SLA  VE  PROPERTY  IN  VIRGINIA.         277 

attention  and  respect  anywhere  outside  of  the  barbarism  of  Slavery.  She 
stated  that  her  experience  as  a  sufferer  in  cruel  hands  had  been  very  trying, 
and  that  in  fretting  under  hardships,  she  had  "  always  wanted  to  be  free." 
Her  language  was  unmistakable  on  this  point.  Neither  mistress  nor  ser- 
vant was  satisfied  with  each  other ;  the  mistress  was  so  "  queer  "  and  "  hard 
to  please,"  that  Eliza  became  heartily  sick  of  trying  to  please  her — an  angel 
would  have  failed  with  such  a  woman.  So,  while  matters  were  getting  no 
better,  but,  on  the  contrary,  were  growing  worse  and  worse,  Eliza  thought 
she  would  seek  a  more  pleasant  atmosphere  in  the  North.  In  fact  she  felt 
that  it  would  afford  her  no  little  relief  to  allow  her  place  to  be  occupied 
by  another.  When  she  went  into  close  quarters  of  concealment,  she  fully 
understood  what  was  meant  and  all  the  liabilities  thereto.  She  had  pluck 
enough  to  endure  unto  the  end  without  murmuring.  The  martyrs  in  olden 
times  who  dwelt  in  "  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth/'  could  hardly  have  fared 
worse  than  some  of  these  way-worn  travelers. 

After  the  rest,  needed  by  one  who  had  suffered  so  severely  until  her  arri- 
val in  Philadelphia,  she  was  forwarded  to  her  anxiously  waiting  husband  in 
New  Bedford,  where  she  was  gladly  received. 

From  the  frequent  arrivals  from  Virginia,  especially  in  steamers,  it  may 
be  thought  that  no  very  stringent  laws  or  regulations  existed  by  which  of- 
fenders, who  might  aid  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  could  be  severely  pun- 
ished— that  the  slave-holders  were  lenient,  indifferent  and  unguarded  as  to 
how  this  property  took  wings  and  escaped.  In  order  to  enlighten  the  reader 
with  regard  to  this  subject,  it  seems  necessary,  in  this  connection,  to  publish 
at  least  one  of  the  many  statutes  from  the  slave  laws  of  the  South  bearing 
directly  on  the  aid  and  escape  of  slaves  by  vessels.  The  following  enact- 
ment is  given  as  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  in  1856 : 

THE  PROTECTION  OF  SLAVE  PROPERTY  IN  VIRGINIA. 

A  BILL  PROVIDING  ADDITIONAL  PROTECTION   FOB  THE  SLAVE  PROPERTY  OP    CITI- 
ZENS OF  THIS  COMMONWEALTH. 

(1.)  Be  it  enacted,  by  the  General  Assembly,  that  it  shall  not  be  lawful 
for  any  vessel,  of  any  size  or  description,  whatever,  owned  in  whole,  or  in 
part,  by  any  citizen  or  resident  of  another  State,  and  about  to  sail  or  steam 
for  any  port  or  place  in  this  State,  for  any  port  or  place  north  of  and 
beyond  the  capes  of  Virginia,  to  depart  from  the  waters  of  this  common- 
wealth, until  said  vessel  has  undergone  the  inspection  hereinafter  provided 
for  in  this  act,  and  received  a  certificate  to  that  effect.  If  any  such  vessel 
shall  depart  from  the  State  without  such  certificate  of  inspection,  the  captain 
or  owner  thereof,  shall  forfeit  and  pay  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars,  to 
be  recovered  by  any  person  who  will  sue  for  the  same,  in  any  court  of 
record  in  this  State,  in  the  name  of  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth. 


278  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Pending  said  suit,  the  vessel  of  said  captain  or  owner  shall  not  leave  the 
State  until  bond  be  given  by  the  captain  or  owner,  or  other  person  for  him, 
payable  to  the  Governor,  with  two  or  three  sureties  satisfactory  to  the  court, 
in  the  penalty  of  one  thousand  dollars,  for  the  payment  of  the  forfeit  or 
fine,  together  with  the  cost  and  expenses  incurred  in  enforcing  the  same ; 
and  in  default  of  such  bond,  the  vessel  shall  be  held  liable.  Provided  that 
nothing  contained  in  this  section,  shall  apply  to  vessels  belonging  to  the 
United  States  Government,  or  vessels,  American  or  foreign,  bound  direct  to 
any  foreign  country  other  than  the  British  American  Provinces. 

(2.)  The  pilots  licensed  under  the  laws  of  Virginia,  and  while  attached  to 
a  vessel  regularly  employed  as  a  pilot  boat,  are  hereby  constituted  inspectors 
to  execute  this  act,  so  far  as  the  same  may  be  applicable  to  the  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  the  waters  tributary  thereto,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  State, 
together  with  such  other  inspectors  as  may  be  appointed  by  virtue  of  this  act. 

(3.)  The  branch  or  license  issued  to  a  pilot  according  to  the  provisions  of 
the  92d  chapter  of  Code,  shall  be  sufficient  evidence  that  he  is  authorized 
and  empowered  to  act  as  inspector  as  aforesaid. 

(4.)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  inspector,  or  other  person  authorized  to  act 
under  this  law,  to  examine  and  search  all  vessels  hereinbefore  described,  to 
see  that  no  slave  or  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  this  State,  or  person 
charged  with  the  commission  of  any  crime  within  the  State,  shall  be  con- 
cealed on  board  said  vessel.  Such  inspection  shall  be  made  within  twelve 
hours  of  the  time  of  departure  of  such  vessel  from  the  waters  of  Virginia, 
and  may  be  made  in  any  bay,  river,  creek,  or  other  water-course  of  the 
State,  provided,  however,  that  steamers  plying  as  regular  packets,  between 
ports  in  Virginia  and  those  north  of,  and  outside  of  the  capes  of  Virginia, 
shall  be  inspected  at  the  port  of  departure  nearest  Old  Point  Comfort. 

(5.)  A  vessel  so  inspected  and  getting  under  way,  with  intent  to  leave  the 
waters  of  the  State,  if  she  returns  to  an  anchorage  above  Back  River  Point, 
or  within  Old  Point  Comfort,  shall  be  again  inspected  and  charged  as  if  an 
original  case.  If  such  vessel  be  driven  back  by  stress  of  weather  to  seek  a 
harbor,  she  shall  be  exempt  from  payment  of  a  second  fee,  unless  she  holds 
intercourse  with  the  shore. 

(6.)  If,  after  searching  the  vessel,  the  inspector  see  no  just  cause  to  detain 
her,  he  shall  give  to  the  captain  a  certificate  to  that  effect.  If,  however, 
upon  such  inspection,  or  in  any  other  manner,  any  slave  or  person  held  to 
service  or  labor,  or  any  person  charged  with  any  crime,  be  found  on  board 
of  any  vessel  whatever,  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  or  said  vessel  be  detected 
in  the  act  of  leaving  this  commonwealth  with  any  such  slave  or  person  on 
board,  or  otherwise  violating  the  provisions  of  this  act,  he  shall  attach  said 
vessel,  and  arrest  all  persons  on  board,  to  be  delivered  up  to  the  sergeant  or 
sheriff1  of  the  nearest  port  in  this  commonwealth,  to  be  dealt  with  according 
to  law. 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  SLA  VE  PROPERTY  IN  VIRGINIA.          279 

(7.)  If  any  inspector  or  other  officer  be  opposed,  or  shall  have  reason  to 
suspect  that  he  will  be  opposed  or  obstructed  in  the  discharge  of  any  duty 
required  of  him  under  this  act,  he  shall  have  power  to  summon  and  com- 
mand the  force  of  any  county  or  corporation  to  aid  him  in  the  discharge  of 
such  duty,  and  every  person  who  shall  resist,  obstruct,  or  refuse  to  aid  any 
inspector  or  other  officer  in  the  discharge  of  such  duty,  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and,  upon  conviction  thereof,  shall  be  fined  and 
imprisoned  as  in  other  cases  of  misdemeanor. 

(8.)  For  every  inspection  of  a  vessel  under  this  law,  the  inspector,  or  other 
officer  shall  be  entitled  to  demand  and  receive  the  sum  of  five  dollars ;  for 
the  payment  of  which  such  vessel  shall  be  liable,  and  the  inspector  or  other 
officer  may  seize  and  hold  her  until  the  same  is  paid,  together  with  all 
charges  incurred  in  taking  care  of  the  vessel,  as  well  as  in  enforcing  the 
payment  of  the  same.  Provided,  that  steam  packets  trading  regularly 
between  the  waters  of  Virginia  and  ports  north  of  and  beyond  the  capes  of 
Virginia,  shall  pay  not  more  than  five  dollars  for  each  inspection  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act ;  provided,  however,  that  for  every  inspection  of  a 
vessel  engaged  in  the  coal  trade,  the  inspector  shall  not  receive  a  greater  sum 
than  two  dollars. 

(9.)  Any  inspector  or  other  person  apprehending  a  slave  in  the  act  of 
escaping  from  the  state,  on  board  a  vessel  trading  to  or  belonging  to  a  non- 
slave-holding  state,  or  who  shall  give  information  that  will  lead  to  the 
recovery  of  any  slave,  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  entitled  to  a  reward  of  One 
Hundred  Dollars,  to  be  paid  by  the  owner  of  such  slave,  or  by  the  fiduciary 
having  charge  of  the  estate  to  which  such  slave  belongs  ;  and  if  the  vessel 
be  forfeited  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  he  shall  be  entitled  to  one-half 
of  the  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  vessel ;  and  if  the  same  amounts 
to  one  hundred  dollars,  he  shall  not  receive  from  the  owner  the  above 
reward  of  one  hundred  dollars. 

(10.)  An  inspector  permitting  a  slave  to  escape  for  the  want  of  proper 
exertion,  or  by  neglect  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  shall  be  fined  One  Hun- 
dred Dollars;  or  if  for*  like  causes  he  permit  a  vessel,  which  the  law  requires 
him  to  inspect,  to  leave  the  state  without  inspection,  he  shall  be  fined  not 
less  than  twenty,  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars,  to  be  recovered  by  warrant  by 
any  person  who  will  proceed  against  him. 

(11.)  No  pilot  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  laws  of  the  state,  shall 
pilot  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  this  state  any  such  vessel  as  is  described  in 
this  act,  which  has  not  obtained  and  exhibited  to  him  the  certificate  of 
inspection  hereby  required;  and  if  any  pilot  shall  so  offend,  he  shall  forfeit 
and  pay  not  less  than  twenty,  or  more  than  fifty  dollars,  to  be  recovered  in 
the  mode  prescribed  in  the  next  preceding  section  of  this  act. 

(12.)  The  courts  of  the  several  counties  or  corporations  situated  on  the 
Chesapeake  Bay,  or  its  tributaries,  by  an  order  entered  on  record,  may 


280  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

appoint  one  or  more  inspectors,  at  such  place  or  places  within  their  respective 
districts  as  they  may  deem  necessary,  to  prevent  the  escape  or  for  the  re- 
capture of  slaves  attempting  to  escape  beyond  the  limits  of  the  state,  arid  to 
search  or  otherwise  examine  all  vessels  trading  to  such  counties  or  corpora- 
tions. The  expenses  in  such  cases  to  be  provided  for  by  a  levy  on  negroes 
now  taxed  by  law ;  but  no  inspection  by  county  or  corporation  officers  thus 
appointed,  shall  supersede  the  inspection  of  such  vessels  by  pilots  and  other 
inspectors,  as  specially  provided  for  in  this  act. 

(13.)  It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  county  court  of  any  county,  upon  the  ap- 
plication of  five  or  more  slave-holders,  residents  of  the  counties  where  the 
application  is  made,  by  an  order  of  record,  to  designate  one  or  more  police 
stations  in  their  respective  counties,  and  a  captain  and  three  or  more  other 
persons  as  a  police  patrol  on  each  station,  for  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves ; 
which  patrol  shall  be  in  service  at  such  times,  and  such  stations  as  the  court 
shall  direct  by  their  order  aforesaid ;  and  the  said  court  shall  allow  a  reason- 
able compensation,  to  be  paid  to  the  members  of  such  patrol ;  and  for  that 
purpose,  the  said  court  may  from  time  to  time  direct  a  levy  on  negroes  now 
taxed  by  law,  at  such  rate  per  capita  as  the  court  may  think  sufficient,  to  be 
collected  and  accounted  for  by  the  sheriif  as  other  county  levies,  and  to  be 
called,  "The  fugitive  slave  tax."  The  owner  of  each  fugitive  slave  in  the 
act  of  escaping  beyond  the  limits  of  the  commonwealth,  to  a  non-slave-hold- 
ing state,  and  captured  by  the  patrol  aforesaid,  shall  pay  for  each  slave  over 
fifteen,  and  under  forty-five  years  old,  a  reward  of  One  Hundred  dollars; 
for  each  slave  over  five,  and  under  fifteen  years  old,  the  sum  of  sixty  dollars ; 
and  for  all  others,  the  sum  of  forty  dollars.  Which  reward  shall  be  divided 
equally  among  the  members  of  the  patrol  retaking  the  slave  and  actually  on 
duty  at  the  time ;  and  to  secure  the  payment  of  said  reward,  the  said  patrol 
may  retain  possession  and  use  of  the  slave  until  the  reward  is  paid  or 
secured  to  them. 

(14.)  The  executive  of  this  State  may  appoint  one  or  more  inspectors  for 
the  Rappahannock  and  Potomac  rivers,  if  he  shall  deem  it  expedient,  for 
the  due  execution  of  this  act.  The  inspectors  so  appointed  to  perform  the 
same  duties,  and  to  be  invested  with  the  same  powers  in  their  respective 
districts,  and  receive  the  same  fees,  as  pilots  acting  as  inspectors  in  other 
parts  of  the  State.  A  vessel  subject  to  inspection  under  this  law,  departing 
from  any  of  the  above-named  counties  or  rivers  on  her  voyage  to  sea,  shall 
be  exempted  from  the  payment  of  a  fee  for  a  second  inspection  by  another 
officer,  if  provided  with  a  certificate  from  the  proper  inspecting  officer  of 
that  district ;  but  if,  after  proceeding  on  her  voyage,  she  returns  to  the  port 
or  place  of  departure,  or  enters  any  other  port,  river,  or  roadstead  in  the 
State,  the  said  vessel  shall  be  again  inspected,  and  pay  a  fee  of  five  dollars, 
as  if  she  had  undergone  no  previous  examination  and  received  no  previous 
certificate. 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  SLA  VE  PROPERTY  IN  VIRGINIA.          281 

If  driven  by  stress  of  weather  to  seek  a  harbor,  and  she  has  no  intercourse 
with  the  shore,  then,  and  in  that  case,  no  second  fee  shall  be  paid  by  said 
vessel. 

(15.)  For  the  better  execution  of  the  provisions  of  this  act,  in  regard  to 
the  inspection  of  vessels,  the  executive  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to 
appoint  a  chief  inspector,  to  reside  at  Norfolk,  whose  duty  it  shall  be,  to 
direct  and  superintend  the  police,  agents,  or  inspectors  above  referred  to. 
He  shall  keep  a  record  of  all  vessels  engaged  in  the  piloting  business, 
together  with  a  list  of  such  persons  as  may  be  employed  as  pilots  and 
inspectors  under  this  law.  The  owner  or  owners  of  each  boat  shall  make  a 
monthly  report  to  him,  of  all  vessels  inspected  by  persons  attached  to  said 
pilot  boats,  the  names  of  such  vessels,  the  owner  or  owners  thereof,  and  the 
places  where  owned  or  licensed,  and  where  trading  to  or  from,  and  the 
business  in  which  they  are  engaged,  together  with  a  list  of  their  crews. 
Any  inspector  failing  to  make  his  report  to  the  chief  inspector,  shall  pay  a 
fine  of  twenty  dollars  for  each  such  failure,  which  fine  shall  be  recovered  by 
warrant,  before  a  justice  of  the  county  or  corporation.  The  chief  inspector 
may  direct  the  time  and  station  for  the  cruise  of  each  pilot  boat,  and  perform 
such  other  duty  as  the  Governor  may  designate,  not  inconsistent  with  the 
other  provisions  of  this  act.  He  shall  make  a  quarterly  return  to  the  exec- 
utive of  all  the  transactions  of  his  department,  reporting  to  him  any  failure 
or  refusal  on  the  part  of  inspectors  to  discharge  the  duty  assigned  to  them, 
and  the  Governor,  for  sufficient  cause,  may  suspend  or  remove  from  office 
any  delinquent  inspector.  The  chief  inspector  shall  receive  as  his  compen- 
sation, ten  per  cent,  on  all  the  fees  and  fines  received  by  the  inspectors 
acting  under  his  authority,  and  may  be  removed  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
executive. 

(16.)  All  fees  and  forfeitures  imposed  by  this  act,  and  not  otherwise 
specially  provided  for,  shall  go  one  half  to  the  informer,  and  the  other  be 
paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  State,  to  constitute  a  fund,  to  be  called  the 
"  fugitive  slave  fund,"  and  to  be  used  for  the  payment  of  rewards  awarded 
by  the  Governor,  for  the  apprehension  of  runaway  slaves,  and  to  pay  other 
expenses  incident  to  the  execution  of  this  law,  together  with  such  other  pur- 
poses as  may  hereafter  be  determined  on  by  the  General  Assembly. 

(17.)  This  act  shall  be  in  force  from  its  passage. 


ESCAPING  IN  A  CHEST. 

$150  REWARD.  Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  on  Sunday  night,  27th  inst., 
my  NEGRO  GIRL,  Lear  Green,  about  18  years  of  age,  black  complexion,  round- 
featured,  good-looking  and  ordinary  size;  she  had  on  and  with  her  when  she  left,  a 
tan-colored  silk  bonnet,  a  dark  plaid  silk  dress,  a  light  mouslin  delaine,  also  one  wa- 
tered silk  cape  and  oue  tan  colored  cape.  I  have  reason  to  be  confident  that  she  was  per- 


282  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

suaded  off  by  a  negro  man  named  Wm.  Adams,  black,  quick  spoken,  5  feet  10  inches  high, 
a  large  scar  on  one  side  of  his  face,  running  down  in  a  ridge  by  the  corner  of  his  mouth, 
about  4  inches  long,  barber  by  trade,  but  works  mostly  about  taverns,  opening  oysters,  &c. 
He  has  been  missing  about  a  week  ;  he  had  been  heard  to  say  he  was  going  to  marry  the 
above  girl  and  ship  to  New  York,  where  it  is  said  his.  mother  resides.  The  above  reward  will 
be  paid  if  said  girl  is  taken  out  of  the  State  of  Maryland  and  delivered  to  me  ;  or  fifcy  dol- 
lars if  taken  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  JAMES  NOBLE, 
rn26-3t.  No.  153  Broadway,  Baltimore. 

LEAR  GKEEN,  so  particularly  advertised  in  the  "  Baltimore  Sun "  by 
"  James  Noble/'  won  for  herself  a  strong  claim  to  a  high  place  among 
the  heroic  women  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  regard  to  description 
and  age  the  advertisement  is  tolerably  accurate,  although  her  master  might 
have  added,  that  her  countenance  was  one  of  peculiar  modesty  and  grace. 
Instead  of  being  "  black,"  she  was  of  a  "  dark-brown  color."  Of  her 
bondage  she  made  the  following  statement :  She  was  owned  by  "  James 
Noble,  a  Butter  Dealer  "  of  Baltimore.  He  fell  heir  to  Lear  by  the  will  of 
his  wife's  mother,  Mrs.  Rachel  Howard,  by  whom  she  had  previously  been 
owned.  Lear  was  but  a  mere  child  when  she  came  into  the  hands  of  Noble's 
family.  She,  therefore,  remembered  but  little  of  her  old  mistress.  Her 
young  mistress,  however,  had  made  a  lasting  impression  upon  her  mind ; 
for  she  was  very  exacting  and  oppressive  in  regard  to  the  tasks  she  was 
daily  in  the  habit  of  laying  upon  Lear's  shoulders,  with  no  disposition 
whatever  to  allow  her  any  liberties.  At  least  Lear  was  never  indulged  in 
this  respect.  In  this  situation  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  William  Adams 
proposed  marriage  to  her.  This  offer  she  was  inclined  to  accept,  but  dis- 
liked the  idea  of  being  encumbered  with  the  chains  of  slavery  and  the 
duties  of  a  family  at  the  same  time. 

After  a  full  consultation  with  her  mother  and  also  her  intended  upon 
the  matter,  she  decided  that  she  must  be  free  in  order  to  fill  the  station 
of  a  wife  and  mother.  For  a  time  dangers  and  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
escape  seemed  utterly  to  set  at  defiance  all  hope  of  success.  Whilst  every 
pulse  was  beating  strong  for  liberty,  only  one  chance  seemed  to  be  left,  the 
trial  of  which  required  as  much  courage  as  it  would  to  endure  the  cutting 
off  the  right  arm  or  plucking  out  the  right  eye.  An  old  chest  of  substan- 
tial make,  such  as  sailors  commonly  use,  was  procured.  A  quilt,  a  pillow, 
and  a  few  articles  of  raiment,  with  a  small  quantity  of  food  and  a  bottle 
of  water  were  put  in  it,  and  Lear  placed  therein ;  strong  ropes  were  fast- 
ened around  the  chest  and  she  was  safely  stowed  amongst  the  ordinary 
freight  on  one  of  the  Erricson  line  of  steamers.  Her  intended's  mother, 
who  was  a  free  woman,  agreed  to  come  as  a  passenger  on  the  same  boat. 
How  could  she  refuse?  The  prescribed  rules  of  the  Company  assigned 
colored  passengers  to  the  deck.  In  this  instance  it  was  exactly  where  this 
guardian  and  mother  desired  to  be — as  near  the  chest  as  possible.  Once 
or  twice,  during  the  silent  watches  of  the  night,  she  was  drawn  irresisti- 


ESCAPING  IN  A  CHEST. 


283 


bly  to  the  chest,  and  could  not  refrain  from  venturing  to  untie  the  rope 
and  raise  the  lid  a  little,  to  see  if  the  poor  child  still  lived,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  give  her  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  Without  uttering  a  whisper, 
that  frightful  moment,  this  office  was  successfully  performed.  That  the 
silent  prayers  of  this  oppressed  young  woman,  together  with  her  faithful 
protector's,  were  momentarily  ascending  to  the  ear  of  the  good  God  above, 
there  can  be  no  question.  Nor  is  it  to  be  doubted  for  a  moment  but  that 
some  ministering  angel  aided  the  mother  to  unfasten  the  rope,  and  at  the 
same  time  nerved  the  heart  of  poor  Lear  to  endure  the  trying  ordeal  of 
her  perilous  situation.  She  declared  that  she  had  no  fear. 

After  she  had  passed  eighteen  hours  in  the  chest,  the  steamer  arrived 
at  the  wharf  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  due  time  the  living  freight  was  brought 
off  the  boat,  and  at  first  was  delivered  at  a  house  in  Barley  street,  occupied 
by  particular  friends  of  the  mother.  Subsequently  chest  and  freight  were 
removed  to  the  residence  of  the  writer,  in  whose  family  she  remained  several 
days  under  the  protection  and  care  of  the  Vigilance  Committee. 

Such  hungering  and  thirsting  for  liberty,  as  was  evinced  by  Lear  Green, 
made  the  efforts  of  the  most  ardent  friends,  who  were  in  the  habit  of  aiding 
fugitives,  seem  feeble  in  the  extreme.  Of  all  the  heroes  in  Canada,  or  out 
of  it,  who  have  purchased  their  liberty  by  downright  bravery,  through  perils 
the  most  hazardous,  none  deserve  more  praise  than  Lear  Green. 

She  remained  for  a  time  in  this  family,  and  was  then  forwarded  to  El- 
niira.  In  this  place  she  was  married  to  William  Adams,  who  has  been. 


284  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

previously  alluded  to.  They  never  went  to  Canada,  but  took  up  their  per- 
manent abode  in  Elmira.  The  brief  space  of  about  three  years  only  was 
allotted  her  in  which  to  enjoy  freedom,  as  death  came  and  terminated  her 
career.  About  the  time  of  this  sad  occurrence,  her  mother-in-law  died  in 
this  city.  The  impressions  made  by  both  mother  and  daughter  can  never  be 
effaced.  The  chest  in  which  Lear  escaped  has  been  preserved  by  the  writer 
as  a  rare  trophy,  and  her  photograph  taken,  while  in  the  chest,  is  an  ex- 
cellent likeness  of  her  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  fitting  memorial. 


ISAAC  WILLIAMS,  HENRY  BANKS,  AND  KIT  NICKLESS. 

MONTHS  IN  A  CAVE. — SHOT  BY  SLAVE-HUNTERS. 

Rarely  were  three  travelers  from  the  house  of  bondage  received  at  the 
Philadelphia  station  whose  narratives  were  more  interesting  than  those  of 
the  above-named  individuals.  Before  escaping  they  had  encountered  diffi- 
culties of  the  most  trying  nature.  No  better  material  for  dramatic  effect 
could  be  found  than  might  have  been  gathered  from  the  incidents  of  their 
lives  and  travels.  But  all  that  we  can  venture  to  introduce  here  is  the  brief 
account  recorded  at  the  time  of  their  sojourn  at  the  Philadelphia  station 
when  on  their  way  to  Canada  in  1854.  The  three  journeyed  together.  They 
had  been  slaves  together  in  the  same  neighborhood.  Two  of  them  had 
shared  the  same  den  and  cave  in  the  woods,  and  had  been  shot,  captured,  and 
confined  in  the  same  prison ;  had  broken  out  of  prison  and  again  escaped ; 
consequently  their  hearts  were  thoroughly  cemented  in  the  hope  of  reaching 
freedom  together. 

ISAAC  was  a  stout-made  young  man,  about  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
possessing  a  good  degree  of  physical  and  mental  ability.  Indeed  his 
intelligence  forbade  his  submission  to  the  requirements  of  Slavery,  rendered 
him  unhappy  and  led  him  to  seek  his  freedom.  He  owed  services  to  D. 
Fitchhugh  up  to  within  a  short  time  before  he  escaped.  Against  Fitchhugh 
he  made  grave  charges,  said  that  he  was  a  "  hard,  bad  man."  It  is  but  fair 
to  add  that  Isaac  was  similarly  regarded  by  his  master,  so  both  were  dissat- 
isfied with  each  other.  But  the  master  had  the  advantage  of  Isaac,  he  could 
sell  him.  Isaac,  however,  could  turn  the  table  on  his  master,  by  running 
off.  But  the  master  moved  quickly  and  sold  Isaac  to  Dr.  James,  a  negro 
trader.  The  trader  designed  making  a  good  speculation  out  of  his  invest- 
ment: Isaac  determined  that  he  should  be  disappointed;  indeed  that  he 
should  lose  every  dollar  that  he  paid  for  him.  So  while  the  doctor  was 
planning  where  and  how  he  could  get  the  best  price  for  him,  Isaac  was 
planning  how  and  where  he  might  safely  get  beyond  his  reach.  The  time 
for  planning  and  acting  with  Isaac  was,  however,  exceedingly  short.  He 


ISAAC  WILLIAMS,  HENR  Y  BANKS,  AND  KIT  NICKLESS.         285 

was  daily  expecting  to  be  called  upon  to  take  his  departure  for  the  South. 
In  this  situation  he  made  known  his  condition  to  a  friend  of  his  who  was 
in  a  precisely  similar  situation;  had  lately  been  sold  just  as  Isaac  had  to 
the  same  trader  James.  So  no  argument  was  needed  to  convince  his  friend 
and  fellow-servant  that  if  they  meant  to  be  free  they  would  have  to  set  off 
immediately. 

That  night  Henry  Banks  and  Isaac  Williams  started  for  the  woods 
together,  preferring  to  live  among  reptiles  and  wild  animals,  rather  than  be 
any  longer  at  the  disposal  of  Dr.  James.  For  two  weeks  they  successfully 
escaped  their  pursuers.  The  woods,  however,  were  being  hunted  in  every 
direction,  and  one  day  the  pursuers  came  upon  them,  shot  them  both,  and 
carried  them  to  King  George's  Co.  jail.  The  jail  being  an  old  building 
had  weak  places  in  it ;  but  the  prisoners  concluded  to  make  no  attempt  to 
break  out  while  suffering  badly  from  their  wounds.  So  they  remained  one 
mouth  in  confinement.  All  the  while  their  brave  spirits  under  suffering 
grew  more  and  more  daring.  Again  they  decided  to  strike  for  freedom, 
but  where  to  go,  save  to  the  woods,  they  had  not  the  slightest  idea.  Of 
course  they  had  heard,  as  most  slaves  had,  of  cave  life,  and  pretty  well 
understood  all  the  measures  which  had  to  be  resorted  to  for  security  when 
entering  upon  so  hazardous  an  undertaking.  They  concluded,  however, 
that  they  could  not  make  their  condition  any  worse,  let  circumstances  be 
what  they  might  in  this  respect.  Having  discovered  how  they  could  break 
jail,  they  were  not  long  in  accomplishing  their  purpose,  and  were  out  and 
off  to  the  woods  again.  This  time  they  went  far  into  the  forest,  and  there 
they  dug  a  cave,  and  with  great  pains  had  every  thing  so  completely  ar- 
ranged as  to  conceal  the  spot  entirely.  In  this  den  they  stayed  three 
months.  Now  and  then  they  would  manage  to  secure  a  pig.  A  friend 
also  would  occasionally  serve  them  with  a  meal.  Their  sufferings  at  best 
were  fearful ;  but  great  as  they  were,  the  thought  of  returning  to  Slavery 
never  occurred  to  them,  and  the  longer  they  stayed  in  the  woods,  the 
greater  was  their  determination  to  be  free.  In  the  belief  that  their  owner 
had  about  given  them  up  they  resolved  to  take  the  North  Star  for  a  pilot, 
and  try  in  this  way  to  reach  free  land. 

KIT,  an  old  friend  in  time  of  need,  having  proved  true  to  them  in  their 
cave,  was  consulted.  He  fully  appreciated  their  heroism,  and  determined 
that  he  would  join  them  in  the  undertaking,  as  he  was  badly  treated  by  his 
master,  who  was  called  General  Washington,  a  common  farmer,  hard  drinker, 
and  brutal  fighter,  which  Kit's  poor  back  fully  evinced  by  the  marks  it 
bore.  Of  course  Isaac  and  Henry  were  only  too  willing  to  have  him  ac- 
company them. 

In  leaving  their  respective  homes  they  broke  kindred  ties  of  the  tendcrest 
nature.  Isaac  had  a  wife,  Eliza,  and  three  children,  Isaac,  Estella,  and 
Ellen,  all  owned  by  Fitchhugh.  Henry  was  only  nineteen,  single,  but  left 


286  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  all  owned  by  different  slave-holders.  Kit  had 
a  wife,  Matilda,  and  three  children,  Sarah  Ann,  Jane  Frances,  and  Ellen, 
slaves. 


SEPTEMBER  28,  1856. 

ARRIVAL  OF  FIVE  FROM  THE  EASTERN  SHORE  OF 

MARYLAND. 

CYRUS  MITCHELL,  alias  JOHN  STEEL  ;  JOSHUA  HANDY,  alias  HAMBLE- 
TON  HAMBYJ  CHARLES  DULTON,  alias  WILLIAM  ROBINSON;  EPHRAIM 
HUDSON,  alias  JOHN  SPRY;  FRANCIS  MOLOCK,  alias  THOMAS  JACK- 
SON; all  in  "good  order"  and  full  of  hope. 

The  following  letter  from  the  fearless  friend  of  the  slave,  Thomas  Garrett, 
is  a  specimen  of  his  manner  of  dispatching  Underground  Rail  Road  busi- 
ness. He  used  Uncle  Sam's  mail,  and  his  own  name,  with  as  much  freedom 
as  though  he  had  been  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Central  Rail  Road, 
instead  of  only  a  conductor  and  stock-holder  on  the  Underground  Rail 

Road. 

9  mo.  26th,  1856. 

RESPECTED  FRIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL,  I  send  on  to  thy  care  this  evening  by  Rail 
Road,  5  able-bodied  men,  on  their  way  North ;  receive  them  as  the  Good  Samaritan  of  old 
and  oblige  thy  friend,  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

The  "  able-bodied  men "  duly  arrived,  and  were  thus  recorded  on  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  books  as  trophies  of  the  success  of  the  friends  of 
humanity. 

CYRUS  is  twenty-six  years  of  age,  stout,  and  unmistakably  dark,  and  was 
owned  by  James  K.  Lewis,  a  store-keeper,  and  a  "hard  master."  He  kept 
slaves  for  the  express  purpose  of  hiring  them  out,  and  it  seemed  to  afford 
him  as  much  pleasure  to  receive  the  hard-earned  dollars  of  his  bondmen  as 
if  he  had  labored  for  them  with  his  own  hands.  "  It  mattered  not,  how 
mean  a  man  might  be,"  if  he  would  pay  the  largest  price,  he  was  the  man 
whom  the  store-keeper  preferred  to  hire  to.  This  always  caused  Cyrus  to 
dislike  him.  Latterly  he  had  been  talking  of  moving  into  the  State  of 
Virginia.  Cyrus  disliked  this  talk  exceedingly,  but  he  "said  nothing  to  the 
white  people  "  touching  the  matter.  However,  he  was  not  Jong  in  deciding 
that  such  a  move  would  be  of  no  advantage  to  him ;  indeed,  he  had  an  idea 
if  all  was  true  that  he  had  heard  about  that  place,  he  would  be  still  more 
miserable  there,  than  he  had  ever  been  under  his  present  owner.  At  once, 
he  decided  that  he  would  move  towards  Canada,  and  that  he  would  be  fixed 
in  his  new  home  before  his  master  got  off  to  Virginia,  unless  he  moved 
sooner  than  Cyrus  expected  him  to  do.  Those  nearest  of  kin,  to  whom  he 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS  ABO  UT  A  UG  UST  1st,  1855.  287 

felt  most  tenderly  allied,  arid  from  whom  he  felt  that  it  would  be  hard  to 
part,  were  his  father  and  mother.  He,  however,  decided  that  he  should 
have  to  leave  them.  Freedom,  he  felt,  was  even  worth  the  giving  up  of 
parents. 

Believing  that  company  was  desirable,  he  took  occasion  to  submit  his 
plan  to  certain  friends,  who  were  at  once  pleased  with  the  idea  of  a  trip  on 
the  Underground  Rail  Road,  to  Canada,  etc;  and  all  agreed  to  join  him. 
At  first,  they  traveled  on  foot;  of  their  subsequent  travel,  mention  has 
already  been  made  in  friend  Garrett's  epistle. 

JOSHUA  is  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  quite  stout,  brown  color,  and 
would  pass  for  an  intelligent  farm  hand.  He  was  satisfied  never  to  wear 
the  yoke  again  that  some  one  else  might  reap  the  benefit  of  his  toil.  His 
master,  Isaac  Harris,  he  denounced  as  a  "drunkard."  His  chief  excuse  for 
escaping,  was  because  Harris  had  "sold"  his  "only  brother."  He  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  father  and  mother  in  the  hands  of  his  master. 

CHARLES  is  twenty-two  years  of  age,  also  stout,  and  well-made,  and 
apparently  possessed  all  the  qualifications  for  doing  a  good  day's  work  on  a 
farm.  He  was  held  to  service  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hurley.  Charles  gave  no 
glowing  account  of  happiness  and  comfort  under  the  rule  of  the  female  sex, 
indeed,  he  was  positive  in  saying  that  he  had  "  been  used  rough."  During 
the  present  year,  he  was  sold  for  $1200. 

EPHRAIM  is  twenty-two  years  of  age,  stout  and  athletic,  one  who 
appears  in  every  way  fitted  for  manual  labor  or  anything  else  that  he  might 
be  privileged  to  learn.  John  Campbell  Henry,  was  the  name  of  the  man 
whom  he  had  been  taught  to  address  as  master,  and  for  whose  benefit  he  had 
been  compelled  to  labor  up  to  the  day  he  "  took  out."  In  considering  what 
he  had  been  in  Maryland  and  how  he  had  been  treated  all  his  life,  he 
alleged  that  John  Campbell  Henry  was  a  "bad  man."  Not  only  had 
Ephraim  been  treated  badly  by  his  master  but  he  had  been  hired  out  to  a 
man  no  better  than  his  master,  if  as  good.  Ephraim  left  his  mother  and 
six  brothers  and  sisters. 

FRANCIS  is  twenty-one,  an  able-bodied  "  article,"  of  dark  color,  and  was 
owned  by  James  A.  Waddell.  All  that  he  could  say  of  his  owner,  was, 
that  he  was  a  "  hard  master,"  from  whom  he  was  very  glad  to  escape. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  ABOUT  AUGUST  IST,  1855. 

Arrival  1st.   Frances  Hilliard. 

Arrival  2d.   Louisa  Harding,  alias  Rebecca  Hall. 

Arrival  3d.   John  Mackintosh. 

Arrival  4th.  Maria  Jane  Houston. 


288  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Arrival  5th.  Miles  Hoopes. 

Arrival  6th.  Samuel  Miles,  alias  Robert  King. 

Arrival  7th.  James  Henson,  alias  David  CaldweLU 

Arrival  8th.  Laura  Lewis. 

Arrival  9th.  Elizabeth  Banks. 

Arrival  10th.  Simon  Hill. 

Arrival  llth.  Anthony  and  Albert  Brown. 

Arrival  12th.  George  Williams  and  Charles  Holladay. 

Arrival  13th.  William  Go  van. 

While  none  in  this  catalogue  belonged  to  the  class  whose  daring  adven- 
tures rendered  their  narratives  marvellous,  nevertheless  they  represented  a 
very  large  number  of  those  who  were  continually  on  the  alert  to  get  rid  of 
their  captivity.  And  in  all  their  efforts  in  this  direction  they  manifested  a 
marked  willingness  to  encounter  perils  either  by  land  or  water,  by  day  or 
by  night,  to  obtain  their  God-given  rights.  Doubtless,  even  among  these 
names,  will  be  found  those  who  have  been  supposed  to  be  lost,  and  mys- 
teries will  be  -disclosed  which  have  puzzled  scores  of  relatives  longing  and 
looking  many  years  in  vain  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts  of  this  or  that 
companion,  brother,  sister,  or  friend.  So,  if  impelled  by  no  other  conside- 
ration than  the  hope  of  consoling  this  class  of  anxious  inquirers,  this  is  a 
sufficient  justification  for  not  omitting  them  entirely,  notwithstanding  the 
risk  of  seeming  to  render  these  pages  monotonous. 

ARRIVAL  No.  1.  First  on  this  record  was  a  young  mulatto  woman, 
twenty-nine  years  of  age — orange  color,  who  could  read  and  write  very  well, 
and  was  unusually  intelligent  and  withal  quite  handsome.  She  was  known 
by  the  name  of  Frances  Hilliard,  and  escaped  from  Richmond,  Ya.,  where 
she  was  owned  by  Beverly  Blair.  The  owner  hired  her  out  to  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Green,  from  whom  he  received  seventy  dollars  per  annum.  Green 
allowed  her  to  hire  herself  for  the  same  amount,  with  the  understanding 
that  Frances  should  find  all  her  own  clothes,  board  herself  and  find  her  own 
house  to  live  in.  Her  husband,  who  was  also  a  slave,  had  fled  nearly  one 
year  previous,  leaving  her  widowed,  of  course.  Notwithstanding  the  above 
mentioned  conditions,  under  which  she  had  the  privilege  of  living,  Frances 
said  that  she  "  had  been  used  well."  She  had  been  sold  four  times  in  her 
life.  In  the  first  instance  the  failure  of  her  master  was  given  as  the  reason 
of  her  sale.  Subsequently  she  was  purchased  and  sold  by  different  traders, 
•who  designed  to  speculate  upon  her  as  a  "  fancy  article."  They  would  dress 
her  very  elegantly,  in  order  to  show  her  off  to  the  best  advantage  possible, 
but  it  appears  that  she  had  too  much  regard  for  her  husband  and  her  honor, 
to  consent  to  fill  the  positions  which  had  been  basely  assigned  her  by  her 
owners. 

Frances  assisted  her  husband  to  escape  from  his  owner — Taits — and  was 


SUNDR Y  ARRIVALS,  ABOUT  AUG UST  1st,  1855.  28 9 

never  contented  until  she  succeeded  in  following  him  to  Canada.  In 
escaping,  she  left  her  mother,  Sarah  Corbin,  and  her  sister,  Maria.  On  reach- 
ing the  Vigilance  Committee  she  learned  all  about  her  husband.  She  was 
conveyed  from  Richmond  secreted  on  a  steamer  under  the  care  of  one  of  the 
colored  hands  on  the  boat.  From  here  she  was  forwarded  to  Canada  at  the 
expense  of  the  Committee.  Arriving  in  Toronto,  and  not  finding  her  hopes 
fully  realized,  with  regard  to  meeting  her  husband,  she  wrote  back  the  fol- 
lowing letter: 

TORONTO,  CANADA,  U.  C.,  October  15th,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  STILL  : — Sir — I  take  the  opportunity  of  writing  you  a  few  lines  to  inform 
you  of  my  health.  I  am  very  well  at  present,  and  hope  that  when  these  few  lines  reach 
you  they  may  find  you  enjoying  the  same  blessing.  Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Still  and  all 
the  children,  and  also  to  Mr.  Swan,  and  tell  him  that  he  must  give  you  the  money  that  he 
has,  and  you  will  please  send  it  to  me,  as  I  have  received  a  letter  from  my  husband  saying 
that  I  must  come  on  to  him  as  soon  as  I  get  the  money  from  him.  I  cannot  go  to  him 
until  I  get  the  money  that  Mr.  Swan  has  in  hand.  Please  tell  Mr.  Caustle  that  the  clothes 
he  spoke  of  my  mqther  did  not  know  anything  about  them.  I  left  them  with  Hinson 
Brown  and  he  promised  to  give  them  to  Mr.  Smith.  Tell  him  to  ask  Mr.  Smith  to  get  them 
from  Mr.  Brown  for  me,  and  when  I  get  settled  I  will  send  him  word  and  he  can  send  them 
to  me.  The  letters  that  were  sent  to  me  I  received  them  all.  I  wish  you  would  send  me 
word  if  Mr.  Smith  is  on  the  boat  yet — if  he  is  please  write  me  word  in  your  next  letter. 
Please  send  me  the  money  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can,  for  I  am  very  anxious  to  see  my 
.husband.  I  send  to  you  for  I  think  you  will  do  what  you  can  for  me.  No  more  at  present, 
but  remain  Yours  truly,  FRANCES  HILLIARD. 

Send  me  word  if  Mr.  Caustle  had  given  Mr.  Smith  the  money  that  he  promised  to  give 
him. 

For  one  who  had  to  steal  the  art  of  reading  and  writing,  her  letter  bears 
studying. 

ARRIVAL  No.  2.  Louisa  Harding,  alias  Rebecca  Hall.  Louisa  was  a 
mulatto  girl,  seventeen  years  of  age.  She  reported  herself  from  Baltimore, 
where  she  had  been  owned  by  lawyer  Magill.  It  might  be  said  that  she 
also  possessed  great  personal  attractions  as  an  "article"  of  much  value  in 
the  eye  of  a  trader.  All  the  near  kin  whom  she  named  as  having  left  be- 
hind, consisted  of  a  mother  and  a  brother. 

ARRIVAL  No.  3.  John  Mackintosh.  John's  history  is  short.  He  repre- 
sented himself  as  having  arrived  from  Darien,  Georgia,  where  he  had  seen 
"  hard  times."  Age,  forty-four.  This  is  all  that  was  recorded  of  John, 
except  the  expenses  met  by  the  Committee. 

ARRIVAL  No.  4.  Maria  Jane  Houston.  The  little  State  of  Delaware  lost 
in  the  person  of  Maria,  one  of  her  nicest-looking  bond-maids.  She  had  just 
arrived  at  the  age  of  twrenty-one,  and  felt  that  she  had  already  been  suffi- 
ciently wronged.  She  was  a  tall,  dark,  young  woman,  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Cantwrell's  Bridge.  Although  she  had  no  horrible  tales  of  suffering 
to  relate,  the  Committee  regarded  her  as  well  worthy  of  aid. 
19 


290  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL-ROAD. 

ARRIVAL  No.  5.  Miles  Hooper.  This  subject  came  from  North  Caro- 
lina; he  was  owned  by  George  Montigue,  who  lived  at  Federal  Mills,  was  a 
decided  opponent  to  the  no-pay  system,  to  flogging,  and  selling  likewise. 
In  fact  nothing  that  was  auxiliary  to  Slavery  was  relished  by  him.  Conse- 
quently he  concluded  to  leave  the  place  altogether.  At  the  time  that  Miles 
took  this  stand  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  a  dark-complexioned  man, 
rather  under  the  medium  height,  physically,  but  a  full-grown  man  mentally. 
"  My  owner  was  a  hard  man,"  said  Miles,  in  speaking  of  his  characteristics. 
His  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters  were  living,  at  least  he  had  reason  to 
believe  so,  although  they  were  widely  scattered. 

ARRIVAL  No.  6.  Samuel  Miles,  alias  Robert  King.  Samuel  was  a 
representative  of  Revel's  Neck,  Somerset  Co.,  Md.  His  master  he  regarded 
as  a  "  very  fractious  man,  hard  to  please."  The  cause  of  the  trouble  or  un- 
pleasantness, which  resulted  in  Samuel's  Underground  adventure,  was 
traceable  to  his  master's  refusal  to  allow  him  to  visit  his  wife.  Not  only 
was  Samuel  denied  this  privilege,  but  he  was  equally  denied  all  privileges. 
His  master  probably  thought  that  Sam  had  no  mind,  nor  any  need  of  a  wife. 
"Whether  this  was  really  so  or  not,  Sam  was  shrewd  enough  to  "  leave  his 
old  master  with  the  bag  to  hold,"  which  was  sensible.  Thirty-one  years  of 
Samuel's  life  were  passed  in  Slavery,  ere  he  escaped.  The  remainder  of  his 
days  he  felt  bound  to  have  the  benefit  of  himself.  In  leaving  home  he  had 
to  part  with  his  wife  and  one  child,  Sarah  and  little  Henry,  who  were  for- 
tunately free. 

On  arriving  in  Canada  Samuel  wrote  back  for  his  wife,  &c.,  as  follows : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  Aug.  20th,  1855. 

To  MR.  WM.  STILL,  DEAR  FRIEND  : — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  I  have 
had  the  good  fortune  to  reach  this  northern  Canaan.  I  got  here  yesterday  and  am  in  good 
health  and  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  Freedom,  but  am  very  anxious  to  have  my  wife 
and  child  here  with  me. 

I  wish  you  to  write  to  her  immediately  on  receiving  this  and  let  her  know  where  I  am 
you  will  recollect  her  name  Sarah  Miles  at  Baltimore  on  the  corner  of  Hamburg  and 
Eutaw  streets.  Please  encourage  her  in  making  a  start  and  give  her  the  necessary  direc- 
tions how  to  come.  She  will  please  to  make  the  time  as  short  as  possible  in  getting 
through  to  Canada.  Say  to  my  wife  that  I  wish  her  to  write  immediately  to  the  friends 
that  I  told  her  to  address  as  soon  as  she  hears  from  me.  Inform  her  that  I  now  stop  in 
St.  Catharines  near  the  Niagara  Falls  that  I  am  not  yet  in  business  but  expect  to  get  into 
business  very  soon — That  I  am  in  the  enjoyment  of  good  health  and  hoping  that  this  com- 
munication may  find  my  affectionate  wife  the  same.  That  I  have  been  highly  favored 
with  friends  throughout  my  journey  I  wish  my  wife  to  write  to  me  as  soon  as  she  can  and 
let  me  know  how  soon  I  may  expect  to  see  her  on  this  side  of  the  Niagara  River.  My 
wife  had  better  call  on  Dr.  Perkins  and  perhaps  he  will  let  her  have  the  money  he  had  in 
charge  for  me  but  that  I  failed  of  receiving  when  I  left  Baltimore.  Please  direct  the 
letter  for  my  wife  to  Mr.  George  Lister,  in  Hill  street  between  Howard  and  Sharp.  My 
compliments  to  all  enquiring  friends.  Very  respectfully  yours,  SAMUEL  MILES. 

P.  S.  Please  send  the  thread  along  as  a  token  and  my  wife  will  understand  that  all  is 
right.  S.  M. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  ABOUT  AUGUST  1st,  1855.  291 

ARRIVAL  No.  7.  James  Henson,  alias  David  Caldwcll.  James  fled 
from  Cecil  Co.,  Md.  He  claimed  that  he  was  entitled  to  his  freedom  ac- 
cording to  law  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  but  had  been  unjustly  deprived 
of  it.  Having  waited  in  vain  for  his  free  papers  for  four  years,  he  sus- 
pected that  he  was  to  be  dealt  with  in  a  manner  similar  to  many  others, 
who  had  been  willed  free  or  who  had  bought  their  time,  and  had  been 
shamefully  cheated  out  of  their  freedom.  So  in  his  judgment  he  felt  that 
his  only  hope  lay  in  making  his  escape  on  the  Underground  Kail  Road. 
He  had  no  faith  whatever  in  the  man  who  held  him  in  bondage,  Jacob 
Johnson,  but  no  other  charges  of  ill  treatment,  <fcc.,  have  been  found  against 
said  Johnson  on  the  books,  save  those  alluded  to  above. 

James  was  thirty- two  years  of  age,  stout  and  well  proportioned,  with  more 
than  average  intelligence  and  resolution.  He  left  a  wife  and  child,  both  free. 

ARRIVAL  No.  8.  Laura  Lewis.  Laura  arrived  from  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky. She  had  been  owned  by  a  widow  woman  named  Lewis,  but  as 
lately  as  the  previous  March  her  mistress  died,  leaving  her  slaves  and  other 
property  to  be  divided  among  her  heirs.  As  this  would  necessitate  a  sale 
of  the  slaves,  Laura  determined  not  to  be  on  hand  when  the  selling  day 
came,  so  she  took  time  by  the  forelock  and  left.  Her  appearance  indi- 
cated that  she  had  been  among  the  more  favored  class  of  slaves.  She 
was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  quite  stout,  of  mixed  blood,  and  intelli- 
gent, having  traveled  considerably  with  her  mistress.  She  had  been  North 
in  this  capacity.  She  left  her  mother,  one  brother,  and  one  sister  in  Louis- 
ville. 

ARRIVAL  No.  9.  Elizabeth  Banks,  from  near  Easton,  Maryland.  Her 
lot  had  been  that  of  an  ordinary  slave.  Of  her  slave-life  nothing  of  interest 
was  recorded.  She  had  escaped  from  her  owner  two  and  a  half  years  prior 
to  coming  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee,  and  had  been  living  in  Pennsyl- 
vania pretty  securely  as  she  had  supposed,  but  she  had  been  awakened  to  a 
sense  of  her  danger  by  well  grounded  reports  that  she  was  pursued  by  her 
claimant,  and  would  be  likely  to  be  captured  if  she  tarried  short  of  Canada. 
With  such  facts  staring  her  in  the  face  she  was  sent  to  the  Committee  for 
counsel  and  protection,  and  by  them  she  \vas  forwarded  on  in  the  usual 
way.  She  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  a  dark,  and  spare  structure. 

ARRIVAL  No.  10.  Simon  Hill.  This  fugitive  had  escaped  from  Virginia. 
The  usual  examination  was  made,  and  needed  help  given  him  by  the  Com- 
mittee, who  felt  satisfied  that  he  was  a  poor  brother  who  had  been  shame- 
fully wronged,  and  that  he  richly  deserved  sympathy.  He  was  aided  and 
directed  Canada-ward.  He  was  a  very  humble-looking  specimen  of  the 
peculiar  institution,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  medium  size,  and  of  a 
dark  hue. 

ARRIVAL  No.  11.  Anthony  and  Albert  Brown  (brothers),  Jones  Ander- 
son and  Isaiah. 


292  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

This  party  escaped  from  Tanner's  Creek.  Norfolk,  Virginia,  where  they 
had  been  owned  by  John  awl  Henry  Holland,  oystermen.  As  slaves  they 
alleged  that  they  had  been  subjected  to  very  brutal  treatment  from  their 
profane  and  ill-natured  owners.  Not  relishing  this  treatment,  Albert  and 
Anthony  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  understood  boating  well  enough 
to  escape  by  water.  They  accordingly  selected  one  of  their  master's  small 
oyster-boats,  which  was  pretty-well  rigged  with  sails,  and  off  they  started 
for  a  Northern  Shore.  They  proceeded  on  a  part  of  their  voyage  merely  by 
guess  work,  but  landed  safely,  however,  about  twenty-five  miles  north  of 
Baltimore,  though,  by  no  means,  on  free  soil.  They  had  no  knowledge 
of  the  danger  that  they  were  then  in.  but  they  were  persevering,  and  still 
determined  to  make  their  way  North,  and  thus,  at  last,  success  attended 
their  efforts.  Their  struggles  and  exertions  having  been  attended  with 
more  of  the  romantic  and  tragical  elements  than  had  characterized  the 
undertakings  of  any  of  the  other  late  passengers,  the  Committee  felt  in- 
clined to  make  a  fuller  notice  of  them  on  the  book,  yet  failed  to  do  them 
justice  in  this  respect. 

The  elder  brother  was  twenty-nine,  the  younger  twenty-seven.  Both 
were  mentally  above  the  average  run  of  slaves.  They  left  wives  in  Norfolk, 
named  Alexenia  and  Ellen.  While  Anthony  and  Albert,  in  seeking  their 
freedom,  were  forced  to  sever  their  connections  with  their  companions, 
they  did  not  forget  them  in  Canada. 

How  great  was  their  delight  in  freedom,  and  tender  their  regard  for  their 
wives,  and  the  deep  interest  they  felt  for  their  brethren  and  friends  gene- 
rally, may  be,  seen  from  a  perusal  of  the  following  letters  from  them : 

HAMELTON,  March  7th  1856. 

MR.  WM.  STILL  : — Sir: — I  now  take  the  opportunity  of  writting  you  a  few  lins  hoping 
to  find  yourself  and  famly  well  as  thes  lines  leves  me  at  present,  myself  and  brother, 
Anthony  &  Albert  brown's  respects.  We  have  spent  quite  agreeable  winter,  we  ware 
emploied  in  the  new  hotel,  name  Anglo  american,  wheare  we  wintered  and  don  very  well, 
we  also  met  with  our  too  trends  ho  came  from  home  with  us,  Jonas  anderson  and  Izeas, 
now  we  are  all  safe  in  hamilton,  I  wish  to  cale  you  to  youre  prommos,  if  convenient  to 
write  to  Norfolk,  Va.,  for  me,  and  let  my  wife  mary  Elen  Brown,  no  where  I  am,  and  my 
brothers  wife  Elickzener  Brown,  as  we  have  never  heard  a  word  from  them  since  we  left, 
tel  them  that  we  found  our  homes  and  situation  in  canady  much  better  than  we  expected, 
tel  them  not  to  think  hard  of  us,  we  was  boun  to  flee  from  the  rath  to  come,  tel  them  we 
live  in  the  hopes  of  meting  them  once  more  this  side  of  the  grave,  tel  them  if  we  never 
more  see  them,  we  hope  to  meet  them  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  pece,  tel  them  to 
remember  my  love  to  my  cherch  and  brethren,  tel  them  I  find  there  is  the  same  prayer- 
hearing  God  heare  as  there  is  in  old  Va ;  tel  them  to  remember  our  love  to  all  the  enquir- 
ing frends,  I  have  written  sevrel  times  but  have  never  reseived  no  answer,  I  find  a  gret 
meny  of  my  old  accuaintens  from  Va.,  heare  we  are  no  ways  lonesom,  Mr.  Still,  "I  have 
written  to  you  once  before,  but  reseve  no  answer.  Pleas  let  us  hear  from  you  by  any 
means.  Nothing  more  at  present,  but  remane  youre  frends, 

ANTHONY  &  ALBEET  BROWN. 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS,  ABOUT  A  UG UST  \st,  1855.  293 

HAMILTON  June  26th,  1856. 

MR.  WM.  STILL: — kine  Sir: — I  am  happy  to  say  to  you  that  I  have  jus  reseved  my 
letter  dated  5  of  the  present  month,  but  previeously  had  bin  in  form  las  night  by  Mr.  J. 
H.  Hall,  he  had  jus  reseved  a  letter  from  you  stating  that  my  wife  was  with  you,  oh  my 
I  was  so  glad  it  case  me  to  shed  tears. 

Mr.  Still,  I  cannot  return  you  the  thanks  for  the  care  of  my  wife,  for  I  am  so  Glad  that 
I  dont  now  what  to  say,  you  will  pleas  start  her  for  canaday.  I  am  yet  in  hamilton,  C. 
W,  at  the  city  hotel,  my  brother  and  Joseph  anderson  is  at  the  angle  american  hotel,  they 
send  there  respects  to  you  and  family  my  self  also,  and  a  greater  part  to  my  wife.  I 
came  by  the  way  of  syracruse  remember  me  to  Mrs.  logins,  tel  her  to  writ  back  to  my 
brothers  wife  if  she  is  living  and  tel  her  to  com  on  tel  her  to  send  Joseph  Andersons  love 
to  his  mother. 

i  now  send  her  10  Dollers  and  would  send  more  but  being  out  of  employment  some  of 
winter  it  pulls  me  back,  you  will  be  so  kine  as  to  forward  her  on  to  me,  and  if  life  las  I 
will  satisfie  you  at  some  time,  before  long.  Give  my  respects  and  brothers  to  Mr.  John 
Dennes,  tel  him  Mr.  Hills  famly  is  wel  and  send  there  love  to  them,  I  now  bring  my  letter 
to  a  close,  And  am  youre  most  humble  Servant,  ANTHONY  BROWN. 

P.  S.  I  had  given  out  the  notion  of  ever  seeing  my  wife  again,  so  I  have  not  been 
attending  the  office,  but  am  truly  sorry  I  did  not,  you  mention  in  yours  of  Mr.  Henry 
lewey,  he  has  left  this  city  for  Boston  about  2  weeks  ago,  we  have  not  herd  from  him  yet. 

A.  BROWN. 

AERIVAL  No.  12.  George  Williams  and  Charles  Holladay.  These  two 
travelers  were  about  the  same  age.  They  were  not,  however,  from  the 
same  neighborhood — they  happened  to  meet  each  other  as  they  were  trav- 
eling the  road.  George  fled  from  St.  Louis,  Charles  from  Baltimore.  George 
"owed  service"  to  Isaac  Hill,  a  planter;  he  found  no  special  fault  with  his 
master's  treatment  of  him  ;  but  with  Mrs.  Hill,  touching  this  point,  he  was 
thoroughly  dissatisfied.  She  had  treated  him  "cruelly,"  and  it  was  for  this 
reason  that  he  was  moved  to  seek  his  freedom. 

Charles,  being  a  Baltimorean,  had  not  far  to  travel,  but  had  pretty  sharp 
hunters  to  elude. 

His  claimant,  F.  Smith,  however,  had  only  a  term  of  years  claim  upon 
him,  which  was  within  about  two  years  of  being  out.  This  contract  for  the 
term  of  years,  Charles  felt  was  made  without  consulting  him,  therefore  he 
resolved  to  break  it  without  consulting  his  master.  He  also  declined  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  the  Baltimore  and  Wilmington  R.  R.  Co.,  consi- 
dering it  a  proscriptive  institution,  not  worthy  of  his  confidence.  He  started 
on  a  fast  walk,  keeping  his  eyes  wide  open,  looking  out  for  slave-hunters 
on  his  right  and  left.  In  this  way,  like  many  others,  he  reached  the  Com- 
mittee safely  and  was  freely  aided,  thenceforth  traveling  in  a  first  class  Un- 
derground Rail  Road  car,  till  he  reached  his  journey's  end. 

ARRIVAL  No.  13.  William  Govan.  Availing  himself  of  a  passage  on 
the  schooner  of  Captain  B.,  William  left  Petersburg,  where  he  had  been 
owned  by  "  Mark  Davis,  Esq.,  a  retired  gentleman,"  rather,  a  retired  negro 
trader. 


294  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

William  was  about  thirty-three  years  of  age,  and  was  of  a  bright  orange 
color.  Nothing  but  an  ardent  love  of  liberty  prompted  him  to  escape.  He 
was  quite  smart,  and  a  clever-looking  man,  worth  at  least  $1^000. 


DEEP  FURROWS  ON  THE  BACK. 

THOMAS   MADDEN. 

Of  all  the  passengers  who  had  hitherto  arrived  with  bruised  and  mangled 
bodies  received  at  the  hands  of  slave-holders,  none  brought  a  back  so  shame- 
fully lacerated  by  the  lash  as  Thomas  Madden.  Not  a  single  spot  had  been 
exempted  from  the  excoriating  cow-hide.  A  most  bloody  picture  did  the 
broad  back  and  shoulders  of  Thomas  present  to  the  eye  as  he  bared  his 
wounds  for  inspection.  While  it  was  sad  to  think,  that  millions  of  men, 
women,  and  children  throughout  the  South  were  liable  to  just  such  brutal 
outrages  as  Thomas  had  received,  it  was  a  satisfaction  to  think,  that  this 
outrage  had  made  a  freeman  of  him. 

He  was  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  but  that  punishment  convinced  him 
that  he  was  fully  old  enough  to  leave  such  a  master  as  E.  Ray,  who  had 
almost  murdered  him.  But  for  this  treatment,  Thomas  might  have  remained 
in  some  degree  contented  in  Slavery.  He  was  expected  to  look  after  the 
fires  in  the  house  on  Sunday  mornings.  In  a  single  instance  desiring  to 
be  absent,  perhaps  for  his  own  pleasure,  two  boys  offered  to  be  his  substi- 
tute. The  services  of  the  boys  were  accepted,  and  this  gave  offence  to  the 
master.  This  Thomas  declared  was  the  head  and  front  of  his  offending. 
His  simple  narration  of  the  circumstances  of  his  slave  life  was  listened  to 
by  the  Committee  with  deep  interest  and  a  painful  sense  of  the  situation  of 
slaves  under  the  despotism  of  suoh  men  as  Ray. 

After  being  cared  for  by  the  Committee  he  was  sent  on  to  Canada.  When 
there  he  wrote  back  to  let  the  Committee  know  how  he  was  faring,  the 
narrow  escape  he  had  on  the  way,  and  likewise  to  convey  the  fact,  that  one 
named  "  Rachel,"  left  behind,  shared  a  large  place  in  his  affections.  The 
subjoined  letter  is  the  only  correspondence  of  his  preserved : 

STANFORD,  June  1st,  1855,  Niagara  districk. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  set  down  to  inform  you  that  I  take  the  liberty  to  rite  for  a  frend  to 
inform  you  that  he  is  injoyinggood  health  and  hopes  that  this  will  finde  you  the  same  he 
got  to  this  cuntry  very  well  except  that  in  Albany  he  was  vary  neig  taking  back  to  his  oald 
home  but  escaped  and  when  he  came  to  the  suspention  bridg  he  was  so  glad  that  he  run 
for  freadums  shore  and  when  he  arived  it  was  the  last  of  October  and  must  look  for  sum 
wourk  for  the  winter  he  choped  wood  until  Feruary  times  are  good  but  money  is  scarce  he 
thinks  a  great  deal  of  the  girl  he  left  behind  him  he  thinks  that  there  is  non  like  her 
herenon  so  hansom  as  his  Rachel  right  and  let  him  hear  from  you  as  soon  as  convaniant 
no  more  at  presant  but  remain  yours,  ALBERT  METTER. 


PETE  MATTHEWS,  ALIAS  SAMUEL  SPARROWS.  295 

« PETE  MATTHEWS,"  ALIAS  SAMUEL  SPARROWS. 

"  I   MIGHT   AS   WELL   BE   IN  THE  PEKITENTIARY,  &C." 

Up  to  the  age  of  thirty-five  "  Pete  "  had  worn  the  yoke  steadily,  if  not 
patiently  under  William  S.  Matthews,  of  Oak  Hall,  near  Temperanceville, 
in  the  State  of  Virginia.  Pete  said  that  his  "master  was  not  a  hard  man," 
but  the  man  to  whom  he  "  was  hired,  George  Matthews,  was  a  very  cruel 
man."  "  I  might  as  well  be  in  the  penitentiary  as  in  his  hands,"  was  his 
declaration. 

One  day,  a  short  while  before  Pete  "  took  out,"  an  ox  broke  into  the 
truck  patch,  and  helped  himself  to  choice  delicacies,  to  the  full  extent  of 
his  capacious  stomach,  making  sad  havoc  with  the  vegetables  generally. 
Peter's  attention  being  directed  to  the  ox,  he  turned  him  out,  and  gave 
him  what  he  considered  proper  chastisement,  according  to  the  mischief  he 
had  done.  At  this  liberty  taken  by  Pete,  the  master  became  furious. 
"  He  got  his  gun  and  threatened  to  shoot  him."  "  Open  your  mouth  if  you 
dare,  and  I  will  put  the  whole  load  into  you,"  said  the  enraged  master. 
"  He  took  out  a  large  dirk-knife,  and  attempted  to  stab  me,  but  I  kept  out 
of  his  way,"  said  Pete.  Nevertheless  the  violence  of  the  master  did  not 
abate  until  he  had  beaten  Pete  over  the  head  and  body  till  he  was  weary, 
inflicting  severe  injuries.  A  great  change  was  at  once  wrought  in  Pete's 
mind.  He  was  now  ready  to  adopt  any  plan  that  might  hold  out  the  least 
encouragement  to  escape.  Having  capital  to  the  amount  of  four  dollars 
only,  he  felt  that  he  could  not  do  much  towards  employing  a  conductor, 
but  he  had  a  good  pair  of  legs,  and  a  heart  stout  enough  to  whip  two 
or  three  slave-catchers,  with  the  help  of  a  pistol.  Happening  to  know  a 
man  who  had  a  pistol  for  sale,  he  went  to  him  and  told  him  that  he 
wished  to  purchase  it.  For  one  dollar  the  pistol  became  Pete's  property. 
He  had  but  three  dollars  left,  but  he  was  determined  to  make  that  amount 
answer  his  purposes  under  the  circumstances.  The  last  cruel  beating  mad- 
dened him  almost  to  desperation,  especially  when  he  remembered  how  he 
had  been  compelled  to  work  hard  night  and  day,  under  Matthews.  Then, 
too,  Peter  had  a  wife,  whom  his  master  prevented  him  from  visiting;  this 
was  not  among  the  least  offences  with  which  Pete  charged  his  master. 
Fully  bent  on  leaving,  the  following  Sunday  was  fixed  by  him  on  which  to 
commence  his  journey. 

The  time  arrived  and  Pete  bade  farewell  to  Slavery,  resolved  to  follow 
the  North  Star,  with  his  pistol  in  hand  ready  for  action.  After  traveling 
about  two  hundred  miles  from  home  he  unexpectedly  had  an  opportunity  of 
using  his  pistol.  To  his  astonishment  he  suddenly  came  face  to  face  with  a 
former  master,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  a  long  time.  Pete  desired  no 
friendly  intercourse  with  him  whatever ;  but  he  perceived  that  his  old 


296  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

master  recognized  him  and  was  bent  upon  stopping  him.  Pete  held  on  to 
his  pistol,  but  moved  as  fast  as  his  wearied  limbs  would  allow  him,  in 
an  opposite  direction.  As  he  was  running,  Pete  cautiously,  cast  his  eye 
over  his  shoulder,  to  see  what  had  become  of  his  old  master,  when  to  his 
amazement,  he  found  that  a  regular  chase  was  being  made  after  him. 
Need  of  redoubling  his  pace  was  quite  obvious.  In  this  hour  of  peril,  Pete's 
legs  saved  him. 

After  this  signal  leg-victory,  Pete  had  more  confidence  in  his  "  under- 
standings," than  he  had  in  his  old  pistol,  although  he  held  on  to  it  until  he 
reached  Philadelphia,  where  he  left  it  in  the  possession  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Committee.  Considering  it  worth  saving  simply  as  a  relic  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road,  it  was  carefully  laid  aside.  Pete  was  now  christened 
Samuel  Sparrows.  Mr.  Sparrows  had  the  rust  of  Slavery  washed  off  as 
clean  as  possible  and  the  Committee  furnishing  him  with  clean  clothes,  a 
ticket,  and  letters  of  introduction,  started  him  on  Canada-ward,  looking 
quite  respectable.  And  doubtless  he  felt  even  more  so  than  he  looked; 
free  air  had  a  powerful  effect  "on  such  passengers  as  Samuel  Sparrows. 

The  unpleasantness  which  grew  out  of  the  mischief  done  by  the  ox  on 
George  Matthews'  farm  took  place  the  first  of  October,  1855.  Pete  may 
be  described  as  a  man  of  unmixed  blood,  well-made,  and  intelligent. 


"  MOSES  "  ARRIVES  WITH  SIX  PASSENGERS. 

"  NOT  ALLOWED  TO  SEEK  A  MASTER  ;" — "  VERY  DEVILISH  ;" — FATHER  "  LEAVES  TWO 
LITTLE  SONS  ;" — "  USED  HARD  j" — "  FEARED  FALLING  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  YOUNG 

HEIRS,"  ETC.  JOHN  CHASE,  ALIAS  DANIEL  FLOYD  ;  BENJAMIN  Eoss,  ALIAS 
JAMES  STEWART  ;  HENRY  Eoss,  ALIAS  LEVIN  STEWART  ;  PETER  JACKSON,  ALIAS 
STAUNCH  TILGHMAN  ;  JANE  KANE,  ALIAS  CATHARINE  KANE,  AND  EGBERT  Eoss. 

The  coming  of  these  passengers  was  heralded  by  Thomas  Garrett  as 

follows: 

THOMAS  GARRETT'S  LETTER. 

WILMINGTON,  12  mo.  29th,  1854. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  J.  MILLER  McKiM  : — We  made  arrangements  last  night,  and  sent 
away  Harriet  Tubman,  with  six  men  and  one  woman  to  Allen  Agnew's,  to  be  forwarded 
across  the  country  to  the  city.  Harriet,  and  one  of  the  men  had  worn  their  shoes  off 
their  feet,  and  I  gave  them  two  dollars  to  help  fit  them  out,  and  directed  a  carriage  to  be 
hired  at  my  expense,  to  take  them  out,  but  do  not  yet  know  the  expense.  I  now  have  two 
more  from  the  lowest  county  in  Maryland,  on  the  Peninsula,  upwards  of  one  hundred 
miles.  I  will  try  to  get  one  of  our  trusty  colored  men  to  take  them  to-morrow  morning  to 
the  Anti-slavery  office.  You  can  then  pass  them  on.  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

HARRIET  TUBMAN  had  been  their  "  Moses,"  but  not  in  the  sense  that 
Andrew  Johnson  was  the  "  Moses  of  the  colored  people."  She  had  faith- 


MOSES  AERIVES  WITH  SIX  PASSENGERS.  297 

fully  gone  down  into  Egypt,  and  had  delivered  these  six  boudnieu  by  her 
own  heroism.  Harriet  was  a  woman  of  no  pretensions,  indeed,  a  more 
ordinary  specimen  of  humanity  could  hardly  be  found  among  the  most 
unfortunate-looking  farm  hands  of  the  South.  Yet,  in  point  of  courage, 
shrewdness  and  disinterested  exertions  to  rescue  her  fellow-men,  by  making 
personal  visits  to  Maryland  among  the  slaves,  she  was  without  her  equal. 

Her  success  was  wonderful.  Time  and  again  she  made  successful  visits  to 
Maryland  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  would  be  absent  for  weeks, 
at  a  time,  running  daily  risks  while  making  preparations  for  herself  and 
passengers.  Great  fears  were  entertained  for  her  safety,  but  she  seemed 
wholly  devoid  of  personal  fear.  The  idea  of  being  captured  by  slave- 
hunters  or  slave-holders,  seemed  never  to  enter  her  mind.  She  was  appa- 
rently proof  against  all  adversaries.  While  she  thus  manifested  such 
utter  personal  indifference,  she  was  much  more  watchful  with  regard  to 
those  she  was  piloting.  Half  of  her  time,  she  had  the  appearance  of 
one  asleep,  and  would  actually  sit  down  by  the  road-side  and  go  fast  asleep 
when  on  her  errands  of  mercy  through  the  South,  yet,  she  would  not  suffer 
one  of  her  party  to  whimper  once,  about  "giving  out  and  going  back,"  how- 
ever wearied  they  might  be  from  hard  travel  day  and  night.  She  had  a 
very  short  and  pointed  rule  or  law  of  her  own,  which  implied  death  to  any 
who  talked  of  giving  out  and  going  back.  Thus,  in  an  emergency  she 
would  give  all  to  understand  that  "  times  were  very  critical  and  therefore  no 
foolishness  would  be  indulged  in  on  the  road."  That  several  who  were 
rather  weak-kneed  and  faint-hearted  were  greatly  invigorated  by  Harriet's 
blunt  and  positive  manner  and  threat  of  extreme  measures,  there  could  be  no 
doubt. 

After  having  once  enlisted,  "they  had  to  go  through  or  die."  Of 
course  Harriet  was  supreme,  and  her  followers  generally  had  full  faith  in 
her,  and  would  back  up  any  word  she  might  utter.  So  when  she  said 
to  them  that  "  a  live  runaway  could  do  great  harm  by  going  back,  but 
that  a  dead  one  could  tell  no  secrets,"  she  was  sure  to  have  obedience. 
Therefore,  none  had  to  die  as  traitors  on  the  "  middle  passage."  It  is  obvi- 
ous enough,  however,  that  her  success  in  going  into  Maryland  as  she  did, 
was  attributable  to  her  adventurous  spirit  and  utter  disregard  of  conse- 
quences. Her  like  it  is  probable  was  never  known  before  or  since.  On 
examining  the  six  passengers  who  came  by  this  arrival  they  were  thus 
recorded : 

December  29th,  1854 — John  is  twenty  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  of 
spare  build  and  smart.  He  fled  from  a  farmer,  by  the  name  of  John 
Campbell  Henry,  who  resided  at  Cambridge,  Dorchester  Co.,  Maryland. 
On  being  interrogated  relative  to  the  character  of  his  master,  John  gave  no 
very  amiable  account  of  him.  He  testified  that  he  was  a  "  hard  man  "  and 
that  he  "owned  about  one  hundred  and  forty  slaves  and  sometimes  he  would 


298  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sell,"  etc.  John  was  one  of  the  slaves  who  were  "  hired  out."  He  "  de- 
sired to  have  the  privilege  of  hunting  his  own  master."  His  desire  was 
not  granted.  Instead  of  meekly  submitting,  John  felt  wronged,  and  made 
this  his  reason  for  running  away.  This  looked  pretty  spirited  on  the  part 
of  one  so  young  as  John.  The  Committee's  respect  for  him  was  not  a 
little  increased,  when  they  heard  him  express  himself. 

BENJAMIN  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  medium  size, 
and  shrewd.  He  was  the  so-called  property  of  Eliza  Ann  Brodins,  who 
lived  near  Buckstown,  in  Maryland.  Ben  did  not  hesitate  to  say,  in  unqual- 
ified terms,  that  his  mistress  was  "very  devilish."  He  considered  his 
charges,  proved  by  the  fact  that  three  slaves  (himself  one  of  them)  were 
required  to  work  hard  and  fare  meagerly,  to  support  his  mistress'  family  in 
idleness  and  luxury.  The  Committee  paid  due  attention  to  his  ex  parte 
statement,  and  was  obliged  to  conclude  that  his  argument,  clothed  in  common 
and  homely  language,  was  forcible,  if  not  eloquent,  and  that  he  was  well 
worthy  of  aid.  Benjamin  left  his  parents  besides  one  sister,  Mary  Ann 
Williamson,  who  wanted  to  come  away  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

HENRY  left  his  wife,  Harriet  Ann,  to  be  known  in  future  by  the  name  of 
"  Sophia  Brown."  He  was  a  fellow-servant  of  Ben's,  and  one  of  the  sup- 
ports of  Eliza  A.  Brodins. 

HENRY  was  only  twenty-two,  'but  had  quite  an  insight  into  matters  and 
things  going  on  among  slaves  and  slave-holders  generally,  in  country  life. 
He  was  the  father  of  two  small  children,  whom  he  had  to  leave  behind. 

PETER  was  owned  by  George  Wenthrop,  a  farmer,  living  near  Cambridge, 
Md.  In  answer  to  the  question,  how  he  had  been  used,  he  said  "  hard." 
Not  a  pleasant  thought  did  he  entertain  respecting  his  master,  save  that  he 
was  no  longer  to  demand  the  sweat  of  Peter's  brow.  Peter  left  parents, 
who  were  free ;  he  was  born  before  they  were  emancipated,  consequently,  he 
was  retained  in  bondage. 

JANE,  aged  twenty-two,  instead  of  regretting  that  she  had  unadvisedly 
left  a  kind  mistress  and  indulgent  master,  who  had  afforded  her  necessary 
comforts,  affirmed  that  her  master,  "  Rash  Jones,  was  the  worst  man  in 
the  country."  The  Committee  were  at  first  disposed  to  doubt  her  sweeping 
statement,  but  when  they  heard  particularly  how  she  had  been  treated, 
they  thought  Catharine  had  good  ground  for  all  that  she  said.  Personal 
abuse  and  hard  usage,  were  the  common  lot  of  poor  slave  girls. 

ROBERT  was  thirty-five  years  of  age,  of  a  chestnut  color,  and  well  made. 
His  report  was  similar  to  that  of  many  others.  He  had  been  provided  with 
plenty  of  hard  drudgery — hewing  of  wood  and  drawing  of  water,  and  had 
hardly  been  treated  as  well  as  a  gentleman  would  treat  a  dumb  brute.  His 
feelings,  therefore,  on  leaving  his  old  master  and  home,  were  those  of  an 
individual  who  had  been  unjustly  in  prison  for  a  dozen  years  and  had  at 
last  regained  his  liberty. 


ESCAPED  FROM  A  WORTHLESS  SOT.  299 

The  civilization,  religion,  and  customs  under  which  Robert  and  his  com- 
panions had  been  raised,  were,  he  thought,  "  very  wicked."  Although  these 
travelers  were  all  of  the  field-hand  order,  they  were,  nevertheless,  very 
promising,  and  they  anticipated  better  days  in  Canada.  Good  advice  was 
proffered  them  on  the  subject  of  temperance,  industry,  education,  etc. 
Clothing,  food  and  money  were  also  given  them  to  meet  their  wants,  and 
they  were  sent  on  their  way  rejoicing. 


ESCAPED  FROM  "A  WORTHLESS  SOT." 

JOHN   ATKINSON. 

John  was  a  prisoner  of  hope  under  James  Ray,  of  Portsmouth,  Va., 
whom  he  declared  to  be  "a  worthless  sot."  This  character  was  fully  set 
forth,  but  the  description  is  too  disgusting  for  record.  John  was  a  dark 
mulatto,  thirty-one  years  of  age,  well-formed  and  intelligent.  For  some 
years  before  escaping  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  his  time  for  $120 
per  annum.  Daily  toiling  to  support  his  drunken  and  brutal  master,  was 
a  hardship  that  John  felt  keenly,  but  was  compelled  to  submit  to  up  to 
the  day  of  his  escape. 

A  part  of  John's  life  he  had  suffered  many  abuses  from  his  oppressor,  and 
only  a  short  while  before  freeing  himself,  the  auction-block  was  held  up 
before  his  troubled  mind.  This  caused  him  to  take  the  first  daring  step 
towards  Canada, — to  leave  his  wife,  Mary,  without  bidding  her  good-bye, 
or  saying  a  word  to  her  as  to  his  intention  of  fleeing. 

John  came  as  a  private  passenger  on  one  of  the  Richmond  steamers,  and 
was  indebted  to  the  steward  of  the  boat  for  his  accommodations.  Having 
been  received  by  the  Committee,  he  was  cared  for  and  sent  011  his  journey 
Canada-ward.  There  he  was  happy,  found  employment  and  wanted  for 
nothing  but  his  wife  and  clothing  left  in  Virginia.  On  these  two  points  he 
wrote  several  times  with  considerable  feeling. 

Some  slaves  who  hired  their  time  in  addition  to  the  payment  of  their 
monthly  hire,  purchased  nice  clothes  for  themselves,  which  they  usually 
valued  highly,  so  much  so,  that  after  escaping  they  would  not  be  contented 
until  they  had  tried  every  possible  scheme  to  secure  them.  They  would 
write  back  continually,  either  to  their  friends  in  the  North  or  South,  hoping 
thus  to  procure  them. 

Not  unfrequently  the  persons  who  rendered  them  assistance  in  the  South, 
would  be  entrusted  with  all  their  effects,  with  the  understanding,  that  such 
valuables  would  be  forwarded  to  a  friend  or  to  the  Committee  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  The  Committee  strongly  protested  against  fugitives  writing 
back  to  the  South  (through  the  mails)  on  account  of  the  liability  of  getting 


300  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

parties  into  danger,  as  all  such  letters  were  liable  to  be  intercepted  in 
order  to  the  discovery  of  the  names  of  such  as  aided  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  To  render  needless  this  writing  to  the  South  the  Committee 
often  submitted  to  be  taxed  with  demands  to  rescue  clothing  as  well  as 
wives,  etc.,  belonging  to  such  as  had  been  already  aided. 

The  following  letters  are  fair  samples  of  a  large  number  which  came  to 
the  Committee  touching  the  matter  of  clothing,  etc. : 

k_^_    ST.  CATHARINES,  Sept.  4th. 

DEAR  SIB  : — I  now  embrace  this  favorable  opportunity  of  writing  you  a  few  lines  to 
inform  you  that  I  am  quite  well  and  arrived  here  safe,  and  I  hope  that  these  few  lines 
may  find  you  and  your  family  the  same.  I  hope  you  will  intercede  for  my  clothes  and  as 
soon  as  they  come  please  to  send  them  to  me,  and  if  you  have  not  time,  get  Dr.  Lundy  to 
look  out  for  them,  and  when  they  come  be  very  careful  in  sending  them.  I  wish  you 
would  copy  off  this  letter  and  give  it  to  the  Steward,  and  tell  him  to  give  it  to  Henry 
Lewy  and  tell  him  to  give  it  to  my  wife.  Brother  sends  his  love  to  you  and  all  the  family 
and  he  is  overjoyed  at  seeing  me  arrive  safe,  he  can  hardly  contain  himself;  also  he  wants 
to  see  his  wife  very  much,  and  says  when  she  comes  he  hopes  you  will  send  her  on  as  soon 
as  possible.  Jerry  Williams'  love,  together  with  all  of  us.  I  had  a  message  for  Mr. 
Lundy,  but  I  forgot  it  when  I  was  there.  No  more  at  present,  but  remain  your  ever 
grateful  and  sincere  friend,  JOHN  ATKINSON. 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  Oct.  5th,  1854. 

MR.  WM.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — I  have  learned  of  my  friend,  Richmond  Bohm,  that  my 
clothes  were  in  Philadelphia.  Will  you  have  the  kindness  to  see  Dr.  Lundy  and  if  he  has 
my  clothes  in  charge,  or  knows  about  them,  for  him  to  send  them  on  to  me  immediately, 
as  I  am  in  great  need  of  them.  I  would  like  to  have  them  put  in  a  small  box,  and  the 
overcoat  I  left  at  your  house  to  be  put  in  the  box  with  them,  to  be  sent  to  the  care  of  my 
friend,  Hiram  Wilson.  On  receipt  of  this  letter,  I  desire  you  to  write  a  few  lines  to  my 
wife,  Mary  Atkins,  in  the  care  of  my  friend,  Henry  Lowey,  stating  that  I  am  well  and 
hearty  and  hoping  that  she  is  the  same.  Please  tell  her  to  remember  m'y  love  to  her 
mother  and  her  cousin,  Emelin,  and  her  husband,  and  Thomas  Hunter;  also  to  my  father 
and  mother.  Please  request  her  to  write  to  me  immediately,  for  her  to  be  of  good  courage, 
that  I  love  her  better  than  ever.  I  would  like  her  to  come  on  as  soon  as  she  can,  but  for 
her  to  write  and  let  me  know  when  she  is  going  to  start.  Affectionately  Yours, 

JOHN  ATKINS. 
W.  H.  ATKINSON,  Fugitive,  Oct.,  1854. 


WILLLIAM  BUTCHER,  ALIAS  WILLIAM  T.  MITCHELL. 

"HE  WAS  ABUSEFUL." 

This  passenger  reported  himself  from  Massey's  Cross-Roads,  near  George- 
town, Maryland.  William  gave  as  his  reason  for  being  found  destitute, 
and  under  the  necessity  of  asking  aid,  that  a  man  by  the  name  of  William 
Boyer,  who  followed  farming,  had  deprived  him  of  his  hard  earnings,  and 
also  claimed  him  as  his  property ;  and  withal  that  he  had  abused  him  for 


WHITE  ENOUGH  TO  PASS.  301 

years,  and  recently  had  "  threatened  to  sell "  him.     This  threat  made  his 
yoke  too  intolerable  to  be  borne. 

He  here  began  to  think  and  plan  for  the  future  as  he  had  never  done 
before.  Fortunately  he  was  possessed  with  more  than  an  average  amount 
of  mother  wit,  and  he  soon  comprehended  the  requirements  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road.  He  saw  exactly  that  he  must  have  resolution  and  self- 
dependence,  very  decided,  in  order  to  gain  the  victory  over  Boyer.  In  his 
hour  of  trial  his  wife,  Phillis,  and  child,  John  Wesley,  who  were  free, 
caused  him  much  anxiety;  but  his  reason  taught  him  that  it  was  his  duty 
to  throw  off  the  yoke  at  all  hazards,  and  he  acted  accordingly.  Of  course 
he  left  behind  his  wife  and  child.  The  interview  which  the  Committee 
held  with  William  was  quite  satisfactory,  and  he  was  duly  aided  and  regu- 
larly despatched  by  the  name  of  William  T.  Mitchell.  He  was  about 
twenty-eight  years  of  age,  of  medium  size,  and  of  quite  a  dark  hue. 


"  WHITE  ENOUGH  TO  PASS." 

JOHN  WESLEY  GIBSON  represented  himself  to  be  not  only  the  slave,  but 
also  the  son  of  William  Y.  Day,  of  Taylor's  Mount,  Maryland.  The 
faintest  shade  of  colored  blood  was  hardly  discernible  in  this  passenger. 
He  relied  wholly  on  his  father's  white  blood  to  secure  him  freedom.  Hav- 
ing resolved  to  serve  no  longer  as  a  slave,  he  concluded  to  "  hold  up  his 
head  and  put  on  airs."  He  reached  Baltimore  safely  without  being  di&7 
covered  or  suspected  of  being  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  as  far  as 
he  was  aware  of.  Here  he  tried  for  the  first  time  to  pass  for  white ;  the 
attempt  proved  a  success  beyond  his  expectation.  Indeed  he  could  but 
wonder  how  it  was  that  he  had  never  before  hit  upon  such  an  expedi- 
ent to  rid  himself  of  his  unhappy  lot.  Although  a  man  of  only  twenty- 
eight  years  of  age,  he  was  foreman  of  his  master's  farm,  But  he  was  not 
particularly  favored  in  any  way  on  this  account.  His  master  and  father 
endeavored  to  hold  the  reins  very  tightly  upon  him.  Not  even  allowing 
him  the  privilege  of  visiting  around  on  neighboring  plantations.  Perhaps 
the  master  thought  the  family  likeness  was  rather  too  discernible.  John 
believed  that  on  this  account  all  privileges  were  denied  him,  and  he  resolved 
to  escape.  His  mother,  Harriet,  "and  sister,  Frances,  were  named  as  near 
kin  whom  he  had  left  behind.  John  was  quite  smart,  and  looked  none  the 
worse  for  having  so  much  of  his  master's  blood  in  his  veins.  The  master 
was  alone  to  blame  for  John's  escape,  as  he  passed  on  his  (the  master's)  color. 


302 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ESCAPING  WITH  MASTER'S  CARRIAGES  AND  HORSES. 

HARRIET  SHEPHARD,   AND  HER   FIVE  CHILDREN,  WITH    FIVE    OTHER    PASSENGERS. 

One  morning  about  the  first  of  November,  in  1855,  the  sleepy,  slave- 
holding  neighborhood  of  Chestertown,  Maryland,was  doubtless  deeply  excited 
on  learning  that  eleven  head  of  slaves,  four  head  of  horses,  and  two  carriages 
were  missing.  It  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  first  report  must 
have  produced  a  shock,  scarcely  less  stunning  than  an  earthquake.  Aboli- 
tionists, emissaries,  and  incendiaries  were  farther  below  par  than  ever.  It 
may  be  supposed  that  cursings  and  threatenings  were  breathed  out  by  a 
deeply  agitated  community  for  days  in  succession. 

Harriet  Shephard,  the  mother  of  five  children,  for  whom  she  felt  of 
course  a  mother's  love,  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  having  her  off- 
spring compelled  to  wear  the  miserable  yoke  of  Slavery,  as  she  had  been 
compelled  to  do.  By  her  own  personal  experience,  Harriet  could  very  well 
judge  what  their  fate  would  be  when  reaching  man  and  womanhood.  She 
declared  that  she  had  never  received  "  kind  treatment."  It  was  not  on 
this  account,  however,  that  she  was  prompted  to  escape.  She  was  actuated 
by  a  more  disinterested  motive  than  this.  •  She  was  chiefly  induced  to  make 
the  bold  effort  to  save  her  children  from  having  to  drag  the  chains  of 
Slavery  as  she  herself  had  done. 

Anna  Maria,  Edwin,  Eliza  Jane,  Mary  Ann,  and  John  Henry  were 
the  names  of  the  children  for  whom  she  was  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice. 
They  were  young,  and  unable  to  walk,  and  she  was  penniless,  and  unable  to 


ESCAPING  WITH  MASTERS  CARRIAGES  AND  HORSES.          303 

hire  a  conveyance,  even  if  she  had  known  any  one  who  would  have  been 
willing  to  risk  the  law  in  taking  them  a  night's  journey.  So  there  was  no 
hope  in  these  directions.  Her  rude  intellect  being  considered,  she  was 
entitled  to  a  great  deal  of  credit  for  seizing  the  horses  and  carriages 
belonging  to  her  master,  as  she  did  it  for  the  liberation  of  her  children. 

Knowing  others  at  the  same  time,  who  were  wanting  to  visit  Canada, 
she  consulted  with  five  of  this  class,  males  and  females,  and  they  mutually 
decided  to  travel  together. 

It  is  not  likely  that  they  knew  much  about  the  roads,  nevertheless  they 
reached  Wilmington,  Delaware,  pretty  direct,  and  ventured  up  into  the  heart 
of  the  town  in  carriages,  looking  as  innocent  as  if  they  were  going  to 
meeting  to  hear  an  old  fashioned  Southern  sermon — "  Servants,  obey  your 
masters."  Of  course,  the  distinguished  travelers  were  immediately  reported  to 
the  noted  Thomas  Garrett,  who  was  accustomed  to  transact  the  affairs  of  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  in  a  cool  masterly  way.  But,  on  this  occasion, 
there  was  but  little  time  for  deliberation,  but  much  need  of  haste  to  meet 
the  emergency.  He  at  once  decided,  that  they  must  immediately  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  horses  and  carriages,  and  got  out  of  Wilmington  as  quickly 
as  possible.  With  the  courage  and  skill,  so  characteristic  of  Garrett, 
the  fugitives,  under  escort,  were  soon  on  their  way  to  Kennett  Square 
(a  hot-bed  of  abolitionists  and  stock-holders  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road), 
which  place  they  reached  safely.  It  so  happened,  that  they  reached  Long 
Wood  meeting-house  in  the  evening,  at  which  place  a  fair  circle  had  con- 
vened. Being  invited,  they  stayed  awhile  in  the  meeting,  then,  after  re- 
maining all  night  with  one  of  the  Kennett  friends,  they  were  brought  to 
Downingtown  early  in  the  morning  and  thence,  by  daylight,  within  a  short 
distance  of  Kimberton,  and  found  succor  with  friend  Lewis,  at  the  old  head- 
quarters of  the  fugitives. 

[A  letter  may  be  found  from  Miss  G.  A.  Lewis,  on  page  thirty-nine, 
throwing  much  light  on  this  arrival].  After  receiving  friendly  aid  and  ad- 
vice while  there,  they  were  forwarded  to  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia. 
Here  further  aid  was  afforded  them,  and  as  danger  was  quite  obvious,  they 
were  completely  divided  and  disguised,  so  that  the  Committee  felt  that  they 
might  safely  be  sent  on  to  Canada  in  one  of  the  regular  trains  considered 
most  private. 

Considering  the  condition  of  the  slave  mother  and  her  children  and 
friends,  all  concerned  rejoiced,  that  they  had  had  the  courage  to  use  their 
master's  horses  and  vehicles  as  tbey  did. 


304  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

EIGHT  AND  A  HALF  MONTHS  SECRETED. 

WASHINGTON  SOMLOR,   ALIAS  JAMES   MOORE. 

But  few  could  tell  of  having  been  eye-witnesses  to  outrages  more  revolt- 
ing and  disgraceful  than  "Washington  Somlor.  He  arrived  per  steamer 
Pennsylvania  (secreted),  directly  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  in  1855.  He  was 
thirty-two  years  of  age — a  man  of  medium  size  and  quite  intelligent.  A 
merchant  by  the  name  of  Smith  owned  Washington. 

Eight  and  a  half  months  before  escaping,  Washington  had  been  secreted 
in  order  to  shun  both  master  and  auction-block.  Smith  believed  in  sell- 
ing, flogging,  cobbing,  paddling,  and  all  other  kinds  of  torture,  by  which 
he  could  inflict  punishment  in  order  to  make  the  slaves  feel  his  power. 
He  thus  tyrannized  over  about  twenty-five  head. 

Being  naturally  passionate,  when  in  a  brutal  mood,  he  made  his  slaves 
suffer  unmercifully.  Said  Washington,  "On  one  occasion,  about  two  months 
before  I  was  secreted,  he  had  five  of  the  slaves  (some  of  them  women)  tied 
across  a  barrel,  lashed  with  the  cow-hide  and  then  cobbed — this  was  a 
common  practice." 

Such  treatment  was  so  inhuman  and  so  incredible,  that  the  Committee 
hesitated  at  first  to  give  credence  to  the  statement,  and  only  yielded  when 
facts  and  evidences  were  given  which  seemed  incontestible. 

The  first  effort  to  come  away  was  made  on  the  steamship  City  of  Rich- 
mond. Within  sixty  miles  of  Philadelphia,  in  consequence  of  the  ice  ob- 
struction in  the  river,  the  steamer  had  to  go  back.  How  sad  Washington 
felt  at  thus  having  his  hopes  broken  to  pieces  may  be  imagined  but  can- 
not be  described.  Great  as  was  his  danger,  when  the  steamer  returned  to 
Norfolk,  he  was  safely  gotten  off  the  boat  and  under  the  eye  of  officers 
walked  away.  Again  he  was  secreted  in  his  old  doleful  quarters,  where  he 
waited  patiently  for  the  Spring.  It  came.  Again  the  opportunity  for 
another  trial  was  presented,  and  it  was  seized  unhesitatingly.  This  time, 
his  tried  faith  was  rewarded  with  success.  He  came  through  safely  to  the 
Committee's  satisfaction  as  well  as  his  own.  The  recital  of  his  sufferings 
and  experience  had  a  very  inspiring  effect  on  those  who  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  Wash,  in  Philadelphia. 

Although  closely  secreted  in  Norfolk,  he  had,  through  friends,  some  little 
communication  with  the  outside  world.  Among  other  items  of  information 
which  came  to  his  ears,  was  a  report  that  his  master  was  being  pressed  by 
his  creditors,  and  had  all  his  slaves  advertised  for  sale.  An  item  still  more 
sad  also  reached  his  ear,  to  the  effect  that  his  wife  had  been  sold  away  to 
North  Carolina,  and  thus  separated  from  her  child,  two  years  old.  The 
child  was  given  as  a  present  to  a  niece  of  the  master.  While  this  is  only  a 
meagre  portion  of  his  interesting  story,  it  was  considered  at  the  time  suffi- 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  305 

cient  to  identify  him  should  the  occasion  ever  require  it.  We  content  our- 
selves, therefore,  simply  with  giving  what  was  recorded  on  the  book.  Wash, 
spent  a  short  while  in  Philadelphia  in  order  to  recruit,  after  which,  he  went 
on  North,  where  colored  men  were  free. 


ARTHUR  FOWLER,  ALIAS  BENJAMIN  JOHNSON. 

ARTHUR  came  from  Spring  Hill,  Maryland.  Edward  Fowler  held 
Arthur  in  fetters  and  usurped  authority  over  him  as  his  lord  and  master. 
Arthur  saw  certain  signs  connected  with  his  master's  family  which  presaged 
to  him  that  the  day  was  not  far  distant,  when  somebody  would  have  to  be 
sold  to  raise  money  to  pamper  the  appetites  of  some  of  the  superior  mem- 
bers of  the  patriarchal  institution.  Among  these  provocations  were  indul- 
gence in  a  great  deal  of  extravagance,  and  the  growing  up  of  a  number  of 
young  masters  and  mistresses.  Arthur  would  often  look  at  the  heirs,  and 
the  very  thought  of  their  coming  into  possession,  would  make  him  tremble. 
Nothing  so  affected  Arthur's  mind  so  much  in  moving  him  to  make  a  bold 
stroke  for  freedom  as  these  heirs. 

Under  his  old  master,  the  usage  had  been  bad  enough,  but  he  feared  that 
it  would  be  a  great  deal  worse  under  the  sons  and  daughters.  He  therefore 
wisely  concluded  to  avoid  the  impending  danger  by  availing  himself  of  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  After  completing  such  arrangements  as  he 
deemed  necessary,  he  started,  making  his  way  along  pretty  successfully,  with 
the  exception  of  a  severe  encounter  with  Jack  Frost,  by  which  his  feet  were 
badly  bitten.  He  was  not  discouraged,  however,  but  was  joyful  over  his 
victory  and  hopeful  in  view  of  his  prospects  in  Canada.  Arthur  was  ahout 
thirty  years  of  age,  medium  size,  and  of  a  dark  color.  The  Committee 
afforded  him  needed  assistance,  and  sent  him  off. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS. 

About  the  1st  of  June,  1855,  the  following  arrivals  were  noted  in  the 

record  book: 

EMORY  ROBERTS,  alias  WILLIAM  KEMP,  Talbot  Co.,  Maryland ;  DANIEL 
PAYNE,  Richmond,  Virginia;  HARRIET  MAYO,  JOHN  JUDAH,  and 
RICHARD  BRADLEY,  Petersburg  and  Richmond;  JAMES  CRUMMILL, 
SAMUEL  JONES,  TOLBERT  JONES,  and  HENRY  HOWARD,  Haverford 
Co.,  Maryland ;  LEWIS  CHILDS,  Richmond,  DANIEL  BENNETT,  alias 
HENRY  WASHINGTON,  and  wife  (MARTHA,)  and  two  children  (GEORGE 
and  a  nameless  babe). 
20 


306  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

The  road  at  this  time,  was  doing  a  fair  business,  in  a  quiet  way.  Passen- 
gers were  managing  to  come,  without  having  to  suffer  in  any  very  violent 
manner,  as  many  had  been  called  upon  to  do  in  making  similar  efforts.  The 
success  attending  some  of  these  passengers  was  partly  attributable  to  the 
intelligence  of  individuals,  who,  for  years,  had  been  planning  and  making 
preparations  to  effect  the  end  in  view.  Besides,  the  favorableness  of  the 
weather  tended  also  to  make  travel  more  pleasant  than  in  colder  seasons 
of  the  year. 

While  matters  were  thus  favorable,  the  long  stories  of  individual  suffering 
and  of  practices  and  customs  among  young  and  old  masters  and  mistresses, 
were  listened  to  attentively,  although  the  short  summer  nights  hardly 
afforded  sufficient  opportunity  for  writing  out  details. 

EMORY  arrived  safely  from  Talbot  county.  As  a  slave,  he  had  served 
Edward  Lloyd.  He  gave  his  master  the  character  of  treating  his  slaves 
Avith  great  severity.  The  "  lash "  was  freely  used  "  on  women  as  well  as 
men,  old  and  young."  In  this  kind  of  property  Lloyd  had  invested  to  the 
extent  of  "  about  five  hundred  head,"  so  Emory  thought.  Food  and  cloth- 
ing for  this  large  number  were  dealt  out  very  stintedly,  and  daily  suffering 
was  the  common  lot  of  slaves  under  Lloyd. 

EMORY  was  induced  to  leave,  to  avoid  a  terrible  flogging,  which  had  been 
promised  him  for  the  coming  Monday.  He  was  a  married  man,  but  exer- 
cised no  greater  control  over  his  wife  than  over  himself.  She  was  hired  on 
a  neighboring  plantation;  the  way  did  not  seem  open  for  her  to  accompany 
him,  so  he  had  to  leave  her  behind.  His  mother,  brothers,  and  sisters  had 
to  be  left  also.  The  ties  of  kindred  usually  strong  in  the  breasts  of  slaves, 
were  hard  for  Emory  to  break,  but,  by  a  firm  resolution,  that  he  would  not 
stay  on  Lloyd's  plantation  to  endure  the  impending  flogging,  he  was  nerved  to 
surmount  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  carrying  his  intention  into  execution. 
He  came  to  the  Committee  hungry  and  in  want  of  clothing,  and  was  aided 
in  the  usual  way. 

DANIEL  PAYNE.  This  traveler  was  a  man  who  might  be  said  to  be  full 
of  years,  infirm,  and  well-nigh  used  up  under  a  Virginia  task-master.  But 
within  the  old  man's  breast  a  spark  was  burning  for  freedom,  and  he  was 
desirous  of  reaching  free  land,  on  which  to  lay  his  body  when  life's  toil 
ended.  So  the  Committee  sympathized  with  him,  aided  him  and  sent  him 
on  to  Canada.  He  was  owned  by  a  man  named  M.  W.  Morris,  of  Rich- 
mond, whence  he  fled. 

HARRIET  MAYO,  John  Judah,  and  Richard  Bradley  were  the  next  who 
brought  joy  and  victory  with  them. 

HARRIET  was  a  tall,  well-made,  intelligent  young  woman,  twenty-two 
years  of  age.  She  spoke  with  feelings  of  much  bitterness  against  her 
master,  James  Cuthbert,  saying  that  he  was  a  "  very  hard  man,"  at  the  same 
time,  adding  that  his  "  wife  was  still  worse."  Harriet  "  had  been  sold  once." 


ARRIVALS.  307 

She  admitted  however,  having  beeu  treated  kindly  a  part  of  her  life.  In 
escaping,  she  had  to  leave  her  "  poor  old  mother  "  with  no  hope  of  ever  see- 
ing her  again;  likewise  she  regretted  having  to  leave  three  brothers,  who 
kindly  aided  her  to  escape.  But  having  her  heart  bent  on  freedom,  she 
resolved  that  nothing  should  deter  her  from  putting  forth  efforts  to  get  out 
of  Slavery. 

JOHN  was  a  mulatto,  of  genteel  address,  well  clothed,  and  looked  as  if  he 
had  been  "well  fed."  Miss  Eliza  Lambert  had  the  honor  of  owning  John, 
and  was  gracious  enough  to  allow  him  to  hire  his  time  for  one  hundred  and 
ten  dollars  per  annum.  After  this  sum  was  punctually  paid,  John  could  do 
what  he  pleased  with  any  surplus  earnings.  Now,  as  he  was  fond  of  nice 
clothing,  he  was  careful  to  earn  a  balance  sufficient  to  gratify  this  love. 
By  similar  means,  many  slaves  were  seen  in  southern  cities  elegantly  dressed, 
and,  strangers  and  travelers  from  the  North  gave  all  the  credit  to  "indul- 
gent masters,"  not  knowing  the  facts  in  the  case. 

John  accused  his  mistress  of  being  hard  in  money  matters,  not  caring  how 
the  servants  fared,  so  she  got  "  plenty  of  money  out  of  them."  For  himself, 
however,  he  admitted  that  he  had  never  experienced  as  great  abuses  as  many 
had.  He  was  fortunate  in  being  wedded  to  a  free  wife,  who  was  privy  to 
all  his  plans  and  schemes  looking  forth  to  freedom,  and  fully  acquiesced  in 
the  arrangement  of  matters,  promising  to  come  on  after  he  should  reach 
Canada.  This  promise  was  carried  out  in  due  time,  and  they  were  joyfully 
re-united  under  the  protection  of  the  British  Lion. 

RICHARD  was  about  twenty-seven.  For  years  the  hope  of  freedom  had 
occupied  his  thoughts,  and  many  had  been  the  longing  desires  to  see  the 
way  open  by  which  he  could  safely  get  rid  of  oppression.  He  was  suffi- 
ciently intelligent  to  look  at  Slavery  in  all  its  bearings,  and  to  smart 
keenly  under  even  ordinarily  mild  treatment.  Therefore,  he  was  very 
happy  in  the  realization  of  his  hopes.  In  the  recital  of  matters  touching 
his  slave  life,  he  alluded  to  his  master,  Samuel  Ball,  as  a  "very  hard  man,", 
utterly  unwilling  to  allow  his  servants  any  chance  whatever.  For  reasons 
which  he  considered  judicious,  he  kept  the  matter  of  his  contemplated  escape 
wholly  private,  not  even  revealing  it  to  his  wife.  Probably  he  felt  that  she 
would  not  be  willing  to  give  him  up,  not  even  for  freedom,  as  long  as  she 
could  not  go  too.  Her  name  was  Emily,  and  she  belonged  to  William 
Bolden.  How  she  felt  when  she  learned  of  her  husband's  escape  is  for  the 
imagination  to  picture.  These  three  interesting  passengers  were  brought 
away  snugly  secreted  in  Captain  B's.  schooner. 

JAMES  CRUMMILL,  SAMUEL  and  TOLBERT  JONES  and  HENRY  HOWARD. 
This  party  united  to  throw  off  the  yoke  in  Haverford  county,  Md. 

JAMES,  SAMUEL  and  TOLBERT  had  been  owned  by  William  Hutchins. 
They  agreed  in  giving  Hutchins  the  character  of  being  a  notorious  "frolicker," 


308  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  a  "  very  hard  master."  Under  him,  matters  were  growing  "  worse  and 
worse."  Before  the  old  master's  death  times  were  much  better. 

HENRY  did  not  live  under  the  same  authority  that  his  three  companions 
were  subjected  to,  but  belonged  to  Philip  Garrison.  The  continual  threat 
to  sell  harassed  Henry  so  much,  that  he  saw  no  chance  of  peace  or  hap- 
piness in  the  future.  So  one  day  the  master  laid  the  "last  straw  on  the 
camel's  back,"  and  not  another  day  would  Henry  stay.  Many  times  it 
required  a  pretty  heavy  pressure  to  start  off  a  number  of  young  men, 
but  in  this  instance  they  seemed  unwilling  to  wait  to  be  worn  out  under  the 
yoke  and  violent  treatment,  or  to  become  encumbered  with  wives  and  child- 
ren before  leaving.  All  were  single,  with  the  exception  of  James,  whose  wife 
was  free,  and  named  Charlotte ;  she  understood  about  his  going  to  Canada, 
and,  of  course,  was  true  to  him. 

These  young  men  had  of  course  been  reared  under  circumstances  alto- 
gether unfavorable  to  mental  development.  Nevertheless  they  had  fervent 
aspirations  to  strike  for  freedom. 

LEWIS  GILES  belonged,  in  the  prison-house  of  bondage,  in  the  city  of 
Richmond,  and  owed  service  to  a  Mr.  Lewis  Hill,  who  made  it  a  business  to 
keep  slaves  expressly  to  hire  out,  just  as  a  man  keeps  a  livery  stable. 
Lewis  was  not  satisfied  with  this  arrangement ;  he  could  see  no  fair  play  in  it. 
In  fact,  he  was  utterly  at  variance  with  the  entire  system  of  Slavery,  and, 
a  long  time  before  he  left,  had  plans  laid  with  a  view  of  escaping.  Through 
one  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  Agents  the  glad  tidings  were  borne  to 
him  that  a  passage  might  be  procured  on  a  schooner  for  twenty-five  dollars. 
Lewis  at  once  availed  himself  of  this  offer,  and  made  his  arrangements 
accordingly.  He,  however,  made  no  mention  of  this  contemplated  move- 
ment to  his  wife,  Louisa;  and,  to  her  astonishment,  he  was  soon  among 
the  missing.  Lewis  was  a  fine-looking  "  article,"  six  feet  high,  well  propor- 
tioned, and  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  worth  probably  $1200,  in  the  Rich- 
mond market.  Touching  his  slave  life,  he  said  that  he  had  been  treated 
"  pretty  well,"  except  that  he  "  had  been  sold  several  times."  Intellectually 
he  was  above  the  average  run  of  slaves.  He  left  on  the  twenty-third  of 
April,  and  arrived  about  the  second  of  June,  having,  in  the  meantime, 
encountered  difficulties  and  discouragements  of  various  kinds.  His  safe 
arrival,  therefore,  was  attended  with  unusual  rejoicing. 

DANIEL.  BENNETT  and  his  wife  and  children  were  the  next  in  order.  A 
woman  poorly  clad  with  a  babe  just  one  month  old  in  her  arms,  and  a  little 
boy  at  her  side,  who  could  scarcely  toddle,  together  with  a  husband  who  had 
never  dared  under  penalty  of  the  laws  to  protect  her  or  her  little  ones,  pre- 
sented a  most  painfully  touching  picture.  It  was  easy  enough  to  see,  that 
they  had  been  crushed.  The  husband  had  been  owned  by  Captain  James 
Taylor — the  wife  and  children  by  George  Carter. 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  309 

The  young  mother  gave  Carter  a  very  bad  character,  affirming,  that  it  was 
a  "common  practice  with  him  to  flog  the  slaves,  stripped  entirely  naked" — 
that  she  had  herself  been  so  flogged,  since  she  had  been  a  married  woman. 
How  the  husband  was  treated,  the  record  book  is  silent.  He  was  about 
thirty-two — the  wife  about  twenty-seven.  Especial  pains  were  taken  to 
provide  aid  and  sympathy  to  this  family  in  their  destitution,  fleeing  under 
such  peculiarly  trying  circumstances  and  from  such  loathsome  brutality.  They 
were  from  Aldie  P.  O.,  Loudon  County,  Virginia,  and  passed  through  the 
hands  of  the  Committee  about  the  llth  of  June.  What  has  been  their  fate 
since  is  not  known. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  ABOUT  JANUARY  FIRST,  1855. 

VEKENEA    MEKCER. 

The  steamship  Pennsylvania,  on  one  of  her  regular  trips  from  Richmond, 
brought  one  passenger,  of  whom  the  Captain  had  no  knowledge ;  no  permis- 
sion had  been  asked  of  any  officer  of  the  boat.  Nevertheless,  Verenea 
Mercer  managed,  by  the  most  extraordinary  strategy,  to  secrete  herself  on  the 
steamer,  and  thus  succeeded  in  reaching  Philadelphia.  She  was  following 
her  husband,  who  escaped  about  nine  months  before  her. 

Verenea  was  about  forty-one  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  pre- 
possessing in  manners,  intelligent  and  refined.  She  belonged  to  the  slave 
population  of  Richmond,  and  was  owned  by  Thomas  W.  Quales.  According 
to  her  testimony,  she  had  not  received  severe  treatment  during  the  eight 
and  a  half  years  that  she  had  been  in  his  hands.  Previous  to  his  becoming 
the  owner  of  Verenea,  it  might  have  been  otherwise,  although  nothing 
is  recorded  in  proof  of  this  inference,  except  that  she  had  the  misfortune  to 
lose  her  first  husband  by  a  sale.  Of  course  she  was  left  a  widow,  in  which 
state  she  remained  nine  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period,  she  married 
a  man  by  the  name  of  James  Mercer,  whose  narrative  may  be  found  on  p.  54. 

How  James  got  off,  and  where  he  went,  Verenea  knew  quite  well ;  conse- 
quently, in  planning  to  reach  him,  she  resorted  to  the  same  means  by  which 
he  achieved  success.  The  Committee  rendered  her  the  usual  aid,  and  sent 
her  on  direct  to  her  husband  in  Canada.  Without  difficulty  of  any  kind  she 
reached  there  safely,  and  found  James  with  arms  wide  open  to  embrace  her. 
Frequent  tidings  reached  the  Committee,  that  they  were  getting  along  quite 
well  in  Toronto. 

On  the  same  day  (January  1st),  PETER  DERRICKSON  and  CPIARLES 
PURNELL  arrived  from  Berlin,  Worcester  county,  Maryland.  Both  were 
able-bodied  young  men,  twenty-four  and  twenty-six  years  of  age,  just  the 
kind  that  a  trader,  or  an  experienced  slave-holder  in  the  farming  business, 


310  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

would  be  most  likely  to  select  for  doing  full  days'  work  in  the  field,  or  for 
bringing  high  prices  in  the  market. 

Peter  toiled  and  toiled,  with  twenty  others,  on  John  Derrickson's  farm. 
And  although  Derrickson  was  said  to  be  a  "  mild  master,"  Peter  decidedly 
objected  to  working  for  him  for  nothing.  He  thought  over  his  situation  a 
great  deal,  and  finally  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  he  must  get  from  under 
the  yoke,  if  possible,  before  entering  another  New  Year.  His  friend  Charles 
he  felt  could  be  confided  in,  therefore  he  made  up  his  mind,  that  he  would 
broach  the  question  of  Canada  and  the  Underground  Rail  Road  to  him. 
Charles  was  equally  ready  and  willing  to  enter  into  any  practical  arrange- 
ments by  which  he  could  get  rid  of  his  no-pay  task-master,  and  be  landed 
safely  in  Canada.  After  taking  into  account  the  dangers  likely  to  attend 
such  a  struggle,  they  concluded  that  they  would  risk  all  and  try  their  luck, 
as  many  had  done  before  them. 

"  What  made  you  leave,  Charles  ?"  said  a  member  of  the  Committee. 

"  I  left  because  I  wanted  my  time  and  money  for  myself." 

No  one  could  gainsay  such  a  plain  common-sense  answer  as  that.  The 
fact,  that  he  had  to  leave  his  parents,  three  brothers,  and  five  sisters,  all 
in  slavery,  brought  sad  reflections. 

LLOYD  RACKET,  alias  Perry  Watkins  and  WILLIAM  HENRY  JOHNSON, 
alias  John  Wesley. 

No  weather  was  too  cold  for  travel,  nor  way  too  rough,  when  the  slave 
was  made  to  feel  by  his  heartless  master,  that  he  was  going  to  sell  him  or 
starve  him  to  death. 

Lloyd  had  toiled  on  until  he  had  reached  fifty-five,  before  he  came  to 
the  conclusion,  that  he  could  endure  the  treatment  of  his  master,  John 
Griffin,  no  longer,  simply  because  "  he  was  not  good  to  feed  and  clothe,"  and 
was  a  "  great  fighter."  Moreover,  he  would  "  never  suffer  his  slaves  to  stop 
work  on  account  of  bad  weather."  Not  only  was  his  master  cruel  in  these 
particulars,  but  he  was  equally  cruel  with  regard  to  selling.  Georgia  was 
continually  held  up  to  the  slaves  with  a  view  of  producing  a  wholesome  fear, 
but  in  this  instance,  as  in  many  similar  ones,  it  only  awakened  desires  to 
seek  flight  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

Lloyd,  convinced  by  experience,  that  matters  with  him  would  be  no 
better,  but  worse  and  worse,  resolved  that  he  would  start  with  the  opening 
of  the  New  Year  to  see  if  he  could  not  find  a  better  country  than  the  one 
that  he  was  then  in. 

He  consulted  William,  who,  although  a  young  man  of  only  twenty-four 
years  of  age,  had  the  hate  of  slavery  exceedingly  strong  in  his  heart,  and 
was  at  once  willing  to  accompany  Lloyd — ready  to  face  cold  weather 
and  start  on  a  long  walk  if  freedom  could  be  thus  purchased,  and  his  master, 
John  Hall,  thus  defeated.  So  Lloyd  took  a  heroic  leave  of  his  wife,  Mary 
Ann,  and  their  little  boy,  one  brother,  one  sister,  and  two  nieces,  and  at  once 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  311 

set  out  with  William,  like  pilgrims  and  strangers  seeking  a  better  country — 
where  they  would  not  have  to  go  "hungry"  and  be  "worked  hard  in 
all  weather,"  threatened  with  the  auction-block,  and  brutally  flogged  if 
they  merely  seemed  unwilling  to  endure  a  yoke  too  grievous  to  be  borne. 
Both  these  travelers  were  mulattoes,  and  but  for  the  crushing  influences  that 
they  had  lived  under  would  have  made  smart  men — as  it  was  they  showed 
plainly,  that  they  were  men  of  shrewd  sense. 

Inadvertently  at  the  time  of  their  arrival,  the  names  of  the  State  and 
place  whence  they  fled  were  not  entered  on  the  book. 

In  traveling  they  suffered  severely  from  hunger  and  the  long  distance  they 
had  to  walk,  but  having  succeeded  victoriously  they  were  prepared  to  rejoice 
all  the  more. 

DAVID  EDWARDS.  John  J.  Slater,  coachmaker  of  Petersburg,  Virginia, 
if  he  is  still  living,  and  should  see  these  items,  may  solve  what  may  have 
been  for  years  a  great  mystery  to  him — namely,  that  David,  his  man- 
servant, was  enjoying  himself  in  Philadelphia  about  the  first  week  in  Jan- 
uary, 1855,  receiving  free  accommodations  and  obtaining  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  friends  in  Canada.  Furthermore,  that  David  alleged  that  he  was 
induced  to  escape  because  he  (the  coachmaker)  was  a  very  hard  man,  who 
took  every  dollar  of  his  earnings,  from  which  he  would  dole  out  to  him 
only  one  dollar  a  week  for  board,  etc.,  a  sum  less  than  David  could  manage 
to  get  along  with. 

David  was  thirty  years  of  age,  black,  weighed  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
pounds,  and  was  worth  one  thousand  dollars.  He  left  his  wife  behind. 

BEVERLY  GOOD  and  GEORGE  WALKER,  alias  Austin  Valentine.  These 
passengers  came  from  Petersburg,  per  steamship  Pennsylvania.  Richard 
Perry  was  lording  it  over  Beverly,  who  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-four 
years  of  age,  dark,  medium  size,  and  possessed  of  a  quick  intellect — just  the 
man  that  an  Underground  Rail  Road  agent  in  the  South  could  approach  with 
assurance  with  questions  such  as  these — "  What  do  you  think  of  Slavery  ?" 
"  Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  ?"  "  How  would  you 
like  to  be  free  ?''  "  Would  you  be  willing  to  go  to  Canada  if  you  could  get 
off  safely,"  etc.,  etc. 

Such  questions  at  once  kindled  into  a  flame  the  sparks  of  freedom  lying 
dormant  in  the  heart.  Although  uttered  in  a  whisper,  they  had  a  won- 
drous ring  about  them,  and  a  wide-awake  bondman  instantly  grasped  their 
meaning.  Beverly  was  of  this  class ;  he  needed  no  arguments  to  prove  that 
he  was  daily  robbed  of  his  rights — that  Slavery  was  merciless  and  freedom 
the  God-given  right  of  all  mankind.  Of  him,  therefore,  there  was  no  fear 
that  he  would  betray  his  trust  or  flinch  too  soon  when  cramped  up  in  his 
hiding-place  on  the  steamer. 

His  comrade,  George,  was  likewise  of  the  same  mettle,  and  was  aided  in 
the  same  way.  George,  however,  had  more  age  on  his  side,  being  about 


312  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

forty-three.  He  was  about  six  feet  high,  with  marked  physical  and  mental 
abilities,  but  Slavery  had  had  its  heel  upon  his  neck.  And  who  could 
then  have  risen  ? 

Eliza  Jones  held  the  deed  for  George,  and  by  her  he  was  hired  as  foreman 
in  a  tobacco  factory,  in  which  position  his  duties  were  onerous — especially  to 
one  with  a  heavy,  bleeding  heart,  throbbing  daily  for  freedom,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  mournfully  brooding  over  past  wrongs.  Of.  these  wrongs 
one  incident  must  suffice.  He  had  been  married  twice,  and  had  been  the 
father  of  six  children  by  his  first  wife ;  at  the  command  of  his  owner  the 
wedded  relations  were  abruptly  broken,  and  he  was  obliged  to  seek  another 
wife.  In  entering  this  story  on  the  book  at  the  time  of  the  arrival,  the  con- 
cluding words  were  written  thus :  "  This  story  is  thrilling,  but  time  will  not 
allow  its  being  penned." 

Although  safely  under  the  protection  of  the  British  Lion,  George's  heart 
was  in  Virginia,  where  his  wife  was  retained.  As  he  could  not  return  for 
her  deliverance,  he  was  wise  enough  to  resort  to  the  pen,  hoping  in  this  way 
to  effect  his  grand  object,  as  the  following  letter  will  show: 

TORONTO,  January  25th,  1855. 

DEAR  FRIEND  STILL  : — George  Walker,  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  is  now  in  my  office,  and 
requests  me  to  write  a  letter  to  you,  and  request  you  to  write  to  his  wife,  after  or  accord- 
ing to  the  instructions  he  gave  to  his  friend,  John  Brown,  in  your  city,  with  whom  he  says 
you  are  acquainted.  You  will  understand,  of  course,  his  reason  for  wanting  the  letter 
wrote  and  posted  at  Philadelphia.  You  will  please  attend  to  it  and  address  a  letter  to 
him  (Walker)  in  my  care.  He  and  Beverly  Good,  bis  comrade,  tender  much  love  to  you. 
Send  them  on  ;  we  are  prepared  for  them.  Yours  in  great  haste,  J.  B.  SMITH. 

P.  S. — Be  sure  and  follow  the  directions  given  to  Brown. 

ADAM  BROOKS,  alias  William  Smith.  Hardtown,  Montgomery  county, 
Maryland,  lost  a  rather  promising  "  article  of  merchandise,"  in  the  person  of 
Adam.  The  particulars  of  his  going  are  on  this  wise:  John  Phillips,  his 
so-called  master,  believed  in  selling,  and  practiced  accordingly,  to  the  extent 
at  least  of  selling  Adam's  mother,  brother,  and  sister  only  two  years  before 
his  escape. 

If  Adam  had  known  nothing  else  against  Phillips,  this  was  enough  in  all 
conscience  to  have  awakened  his  deadly  hate;  but,  added  to  this,  Phillips 
was  imprudent  in  his  habit  of  threatening  to  "sell,"  etc.  This  kept  the 
old  wound  in  Adam's  heart  continually  bleeding  and  forced  him  to  the 
conclusion,  that  his  master  was  not  only  a  hard  man,  as  a  driver  on  the  farm, 
but  that  at  heart  he  was  actually  a  bad  man.  Furthermore,  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  break  his  fetters  and  seek  his  freedom  in  Canada. 

In  thus  looking  at  his  situation,  his  mind  was  worked  up  to  fever  heat, 
and  he  resolved  that,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they  might,  go  he  must. 
In  this  promising  state  of  mind  he  started,  at  an  appointed  time,  for  Penn- 
sylvania, and,  sure  enough,  he  succeeded.  Having  the  appearance  of  a 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  313 

desirable  working-hand,  a  Pennsylvania  farmer  prevailed  on  him  to  stop 
for  a  time.  It  was  not  long  before  the  folly  of  this  halt  was  plainly  dis- 
cernible, as  his  master  had  evidently  got  wind  of  his  whereabouts,  and  was 
pretty  hot  in  pursuit.  Word  reached  Adam,  however,  barely  in  time  for 
him  to  make  his  escape  through  the  aid  of  friends. 

In  coming  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee  he  needed  no  persuading  to 
go  to  Canada;  he  was  occupied  with  two  interesting  problems,  to  go  back 
or  to  go  forward.  But  he  set  his  face  hopefully  towards  Canada,  and  had  no 
thought  of  stopping  short  thereof.  In  stature,  he  was  small;  color,  black; 
countenance,  pleasant,  and  intellect,  medium.  As  to  his  fitness  for  making 
a  good  citizen  in  Canada  the  Committee  had  no  doubt. 

SARAH  A.  DUNAGAN.  Having  no  one  to  care  for  her,  and,  having  been 
threatened  with  the  auction-block,  Sarah  mustered  pluck  and  started  out  in 
search  of  a  new  home  among  strangers  beyond  the  borders  of  slave  territory. 
According  to  her  story,  she  "was  born  free"  in  the  State  of  Delaware,  but 
had  been  "bound  out"  to  a  man  by  the  name  of  George  Churchman, 
living  in  Wilmington.  Here  she  averred,  that  she  "  had  been  flogged  re- 
peatedly," and  had  been  otherwise  ill-treated,  while  no  one  interfered  to 
take  her  part.  Consequently  she  concluded,  that  although  she  was  born  free, 
she  would  not  be  likely  to  be  benefited  thereby  unless  she  made  her  escape 
on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  This  idea  of  freedom  continued  to  agitate 
Sarah's  mind  until  she  decided  to  leave  forthwith.  She  was  a  young  mulatto 
woman,  single,  and  told  her  story  of  hardships  and  of  the  dread  of  being 
sold,  in  a  manner  to  elicit  much  sympathy.  She  had  a  mother  living  in 
New  Castle,  named  Ann  Eliza  Kingslow.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
free-born  persons  in  slave  States  to  lose  their  birth-right  in  a  manner  simi- 
lar to  that  by  which  Sarah  feared  that  she  had  lost  hers. 

"Arrived  JOSEPH  HALL,,  JR.,  son  of  Joseph  Hall,  of  Norfolk,  Virginia." 
This  is  all  that  is  recorded  of  this  passenger,  yet  it  is  possible  that  this  item 
of  news  may  lead  to  the  recognition  of  Joseph,  should  he  still  happen  to  be 
of  the  large  multitude  of  fugitives  scattered  over  the  land  amongst  the 
living. 

ISAAC  D.  DAVIS.  In  fleeing  from  bondage,  in  Maryland,  Davis  was 
induced  to  stop,  as  many  others  were,  in  Pennsylvania.  Not  comprehending 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  he  fancied  that  he  would  be  safe  so  long  as  he  kept 
matters  private  concerning  his  origin.  But  in  this  particular  he  labored 
under  a  complete  delusion — when  he  least  dreamed  of  danger  the  slave- 
catchers  were  scenting  him  close.  Of  their  approach,  however,  he  was  for- 
tunate enough  to  be  notified  in  time  to  place  himself  in  the  hands  of  the 
Committee,  who  soon  held  out  Canada  to  him,  as  the  only  sure  refuge  for 
him,  and  all  others  similarly  situated.  His  fears  of  being  carried  back 
opened  his  eyes,  and  understanding,  so  that  he  could  readily  see  the  force  of 
this  argument,  and  accepting  the  proffered  aid  of  the  Committee  was  sent  on 


314  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

his  way  rejoicing.  He  had  been  away  from  his  master  eighteen  months,  and 
in  the  meanwhile  had  married  a  wife  in  Pennsylvania.  What  became  of 
them  after  this  flight  the  book  contains  no  record. 

JACOB  MATTHIAS  BOYER  left  at  about  the  age  of  twenty.  He  had  no 
idea  of  working  in  the  condition  of  a  slave,  but  if  he  had  not  been  threat- 
ened with  the  auction-block,  he  might  have  remained  much  longer  than  he 
did.  He  had  been  owned  by  Richard  Carman,  cashier  of  one  of  the  Anna- 
polis banks,  and  who  had  recently  died.  Jacob  fled  from  Annapolis.  Very 
little  record  was  made  of  either  master  or  slave.  Probably  no  incidents 
were  related  of  sufficient  importance,  still  the  Committee  felt  pleased  to 
receive  one  so  young.  Indeed,  it  always  afforded  the  Committee  especial 
satisfaction  to  see  children,  young  people,  and  females  escaping  from  the 
prison-house.  Jacob  was  of  a  dark  hue,  a  little  below  medium  stature. 

ZECHARIAH  MEAD,  alias  John  Williams.  This  traveler  had  been  in  the 
house  of  bondage  in  Maryland,  doing  service  for  Charles  C.  Owens,  to 
whom  he  belonged.  According  to  Zechariah's  statement,  his  mistress  had 
been  very  unfortunate  with  her  slave  property,  having  lost  fifteen  head  out 
of  twenty  in  a  similar  manner  to  that  by  which  she  lost  Zechariah.  Thus 
she  had  been  considerably  reduced  in  circumstances.  But  Zechariah  had  no 
compassion  on  her  whatever,  but  insisted  that  she  was  a  hard  mistress. 
Doubtless  Zechariah  was  prompted  to  flee  by  the  "  bad  "  example  of  others 
who  had  succeeded  in  making  good  their  escape,  before  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  leave.  He  was  not  yet  quite  twenty-one,  but  was  wide-awake,  and 
it  appeared  from  his  conversation,  that  he  had  done  some  close  thinking 
before  he  started  for  freedom.  He  left  his  father,  mother,  and  three 
brothers,  all  slaves  except  his  father. 


SLAVE-HOLDER   IN   MARYLAND  WITH   THREE  COLORED 

WIVES. 

JAMES  GRIFFIN  ALIAS  THOMAS  BROWN. 

JAMES  was  a  tiller  of  the  soil  under  the  yoke  of  Joshua  Hitch,  who  lived 
on  a  farm  about  seventeen  miles  from  Baltimore.  James  spoke  rather  favor- 
ably of  him ;  indeed,  it  was  through  a  direct  act  of  kindness  on  the  part  of 
his  master  that  he  procured  the  opportunity  to  make  good  his  escape.  It 
appeared  from  his  story,  that  his  master's  affairs  had  become  particularly 
embarrassed,  and  the  Sheriff  was  making  frequent  visits  to  his  house.  This 
sign  was  interpreted  to  mean  that  James,  if  not  others,  would  have  to  be 
sold  before  long.  The  master  was  much  puzzled  to  decide  which  way  to 
turn.  He  owned  but  three  other  adult  slaves  besides  James,  and  they  were 


SLA  VE-HOLDER  IN  MAR  YLAND.  31 5 

females.  One  of  them  was  his  chief  housekeeper,  and  with  them  all  his 
social  relations  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  lead  James  and  others  to  think 
and  say  that  they  l<  were  all  his  wives."  Or  to  use  James's  own  language, 
"  he  had  three  slave  women;  two  were  sisters,  and  he  lived  with  them  all  as  his 
wives;  two  of  them  he  was  very  fond  of,"  and  desired  to  keep  them  from 
being  sold  if  possible.  The  third,  he  concluded  he  could  not  save,  she  would 
have  to  be  sold.  In  this  dilemma,  he  was  good  enough  to  allow  James  a 
few  days'  holiday,  for  the  purpose  of  finding  him  a  good  master.  Express- 
ing his  satisfaction  and  gratification,  James,  armed  with  full  authority  from 
his  master  to  select  a  choice  specimen,  started  for  Baltimore. 

On  reaching  Baltimore,  however,  James  carefully  steered  clear  of  all 
slave-holders,  and  shrewdly  turned  his  attention  to  the  matter  of  getting  an 
Underground  Rail  Road  ticket  for  Canada.  After  making  as  much  inquiry 
as  he  felt  was  safe,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  to  walk  of  nights  for  a  long 
distance.  He  examined  his  feet  and  legs,  found  that  they  were  in  good 
order,  and  his  faith  and  hope  strong  enough  to  remove  a  mountain.  Besides 
several  days  still  remained  in  which  he  was  permitted  to  look  for  a  new 
master,  and  these  he  decided  could  be  profitably  spent  in  making  his  way 
towards  Canada.  So  off  he  started,  at  no  doubt  a  very  diligent  pace,  for  at 
the  end  of  the  first  night's  journey,  he  had  made  much  headway,  but  at  the 
expense  of  his  feet. 

His  faith  was  stronger  than  ever.  So  he  rested  next  day  in  the  woods, 
concealed,  of  course,  and  the  next  evening  started  with  fresh  courage  and 
renewed  perseverance.  Finally,  he  reached  Columbia,  Pennsylvania,  and 
there  he  had  the  happiness  to  learn,  that  the  mountain  which  at  first  had 
tried  his  faith  so  severely,  was  removed,  and  friendly  hands  were  reached  out 
and  a  more  speedy  and  comfortable  mode  of  travel  advised.  He  was  directed 
to  the  Vigilance  Committee  in  Philadelphia,  from  whom  he  received  friendly 
aid,  and  all  necessary  information  respecting  Canada  and  how  to  get  there. 

James  was  thirty-one  years  of  age,  rather  a  fine-looking  man,  of  a  chest- 
nut color,  and  quite  intelligent.  He  had  been  a  married  man,  but  for  two 
years  before  his  escape,  he  had  been  a  widower — that  is,  his  wife  had  been 
sold  away  from  him  to  North  Carolina,  and  in  that  space  of  time  he  had 
received  only  three  letters  from  her ;  he  had  given  up  all  hope  of  ever  seeing 
her  again.  He  had  two  little  boys  living  in  Baltimore,  whom  he  was  obliged 
to  leave.  Their  names  were  Edward  and  William.  What  became  of  them 
afterwards  was  never  known  at  the  Philadelphia  station. 

James's  master  was  a  man  of  about  fifty  years  of  age — who  had  never 
been  lawfully  married,  yet  had  a  number  of  children  on  his  place  who  were 
of  great  concern  to  him  in  the  midst  of  other  pressing  embarrassments.  Of 
course,  the  Committee  never  learned  how  matters  were  settled  after  James 
left,  but,  in  all  probability,  his  wives,  Nancy  and  Mary  (sisters),  and  Lizzie, 
with  all  the  children,  had  to  be  sold. 


316  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  NINE  PASSENGERS. 

NAMES  OF  PASSENGERS. 

PETER  HEINES,  Eatontown,  North  Carolina;  MATTHEW  BOPAMS,  Ply- 
mouth, North  Carolina;  JAMES  MORRIS,  South  End,  North  Carolina; 
CHARLES  THOMPSON,  CHARITY  THOMPSON,  NATHANIEL  BOAVSER,  and 
THOMAS  COOPER,  Portsmouth,  Virginia ;  GEORGE  ANDERSON,  Elktou, 
Maryland. 

Their  arrival  was  announced  by  Thomas  Garrett  as  follows : 

WILMINGTON,  7th  mo.,  19th,  1856. 

RESPECTED  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  consigning  to  thy 
care  four  able-bodied  human  beings  from  North  Carolina,  and  five  from  Virginia,  one  of 
•which  is  a  girl  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age,  the  rest  all  men.  After  thee  has  seen  and 
conversed  with  them,  thee  can  determine  what  is  best  to  be  done  with  them.  I  am  as- 
sured they  are  such  as  can  take  good  care  of  themselves.  Elijah  Pennypacker,  some  time 
since,  informed  me  he  could  find  employment  in  his  neighborhood  for  two  or  three  good 
hands.  I  should  think  that  those  from  Carolina  would  be  about  as  safe  in  that  neighbor- 
hood as  any  place  this  side  of  Canada.  Wishing  our  friends  a  sale  trip,  I  remain  thy  sin- 
cere friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

After  conferring  with  Harry  Craige,  we  have  concluded  to  send  five  or  six  of  them  to- 
night in  the  cars,  and  the  balance,  if  those  go  safe,  to-morrow  night,  or  in  the  steam-boat 
on  Second  day  morning,  directed  to  the  Anti-Slavery  office. 

There  was  much  rejoicing  over  these  select  passengers,  and  very  much 
interesting  information  was  elicited  from  them. 

PETER  was  only  twenty-one  years  of  age,  composed  of  equal  parts  of  An- 
glo-Saxon and  Anglo- African  blood — rather  a  model-looking  "article," 
with  a  fair  share  of  intelligence.  As  a  slave,  he  had  fared  pretty  well — 
he  had  neither  been  abused  nor  stinted  of  food  or  clothing,  as  many  others 
had  been.  His  duties  had  been  to  attend  upon  his  master  (and  reputed 
father),  Elias  Heines,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  by  profession  in  North  Carolina. 

No  charges  whatever  appear  to  have  been  made  against  Mr.  Heines, 
according  to  the  record  book;  but  Peter  seemed  filled  with  great  delight  at 
the  prospects  ahead,  as  well  as  with  the  success  that  had  attended  his  efforts 
thus  far  in  striking  for  freedom. 

JAMES  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  His  experience  had  been  quite 
different  from  that  of  Peter's.  The  heel  of  a  woman,  by  the  name  of  Mrs. 
Ann  McCourt,  had  been  on  James's  neck,  and  she  had  caused  him  to  suffer 
severely.  As  James  recounted  his  grievances,  while  under  the  rule,  he  by 
no  means  gave  her  a  very  flattering  character,  but,  on  the  contrary,  he 
plainly  stated,  that  she  was  a  "  desperate  woman  " — that  he  had  "  never 
known  any  good  of  her,"  and  that  he  was  moved  to  escape  to  get  rid  of  her. 
In  other  words  she  had  threatened *to  sell  him  ;  this  well  nigh  produced  a 
frenzy  in  James's  mind,  for  too  well  did  he  remember,  that  he  had  already 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  NINE  PASSENGERS.  317 

been  sold  three  times,  and  in  different  stages  of  his  bondage  had  been  treated 
quite  cruelly.  In  the  change  of  masters  he  was  positive  in  saying,  that  he 
had  not  found  a  good  one,  and,  besides,  he  entertained  the  belief  that  such 
personages  were  very  rare. 

Those  of  the  Committee  who  listened  to  James  were  not  a  little  amazed 
at  his  fluency,  intelligence  and  earnestness,  and  acknowledged  that  he  dealt 
unusually  telling  blows  against  the  Patriarchal  Institution. 

MATTHEW  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  very  stout — no  fool — a  man  of 
decided  resolution,  and  of  the  very  best  black  complexion  produced  in  the 
South.  Matthew  had  a  very  serious  bill  of  complaints  against  Samuel  Sim- 
mons, who  professed  to  own  him  (Matthew),  both  body  and  mind,  while  in 
this  world  at  least.  Among  these  complaints  was  the  charge  of  ill- 
treatment.  Nevertheless  Matthew's  joy  and  pleasure  were  matchless  over 
his  Underground  Rail  Road  triumph,  and  the  prospect  of  being  so  soon  out 
of  the  land  and  reach  of  Slavery,  and  in  a  land  where  he  could  enjoy 
his  freedom  as  others  enjoyed  theirs.  Indeed  the  entire  band  evinced  similar 
feelings.  Matthew  left  a  brother  in  Martin  county. 

Further  sketches  of  this  interesting  company  were  not  entered  on  the  book 
at  the  time,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  great  press  of  Underground  Rail 
Road  business  which  engaged  the  attention  of  the  acting  Committee.  How- 
ever, they  were  all  duly  cared  for,  and  counselled  to  go  to  Canada,  where 
their  rights  would  be  protected  by  a  strong  and  powerful  government,  and 
they  could  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  common  with  "  all  the  world 
and  the  rest  of  mankind."  And  especially  were  they  advised  to  get  education; 
to  act  as  men,  and  remember  those  still  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,  and 
that  they  must  not  forget  to  write  back,  after  their  arrival  in  Canada,  to  in- 
form their  friends  in  Philadelphia  of  their  prospects,  and  what  they  thought 
of  the  "goodly  land."  Thus,  with  the  usual  Underground  Rail  Road  pass- 
ports, they  were  again  started  Canada-ward.  Without  difficulty  of  any  kind 
they  duly  reached  Canada,  and  a  portion  of  them  wrote  back  as  follows: 

"TORONTO,  C.  W.,  Aug.  17th,  ]S56. 
MB.  STILL: — Dear  Sir — These  few  lines  may  find  you  as  they  leave  us,  we  are  well  at 

present  and  arrived  safe  in  Toronto.     Give  our  respects  to  Mrs.  S. and  daughter. 

Toronto  is  a  very  extensive  place.  We  have  plenty  of  pork,  beef  and  mutton.  There  are 
five  market  houses  and  many  churches.  Female  wages -is  62£  cents  per  day,  men's  wages 
is  $1  and  york  shilling.  We  are  now  boarding  at  Mr.  George  Blunt's,  on  Centre  street, 
two  doors  from  Elm,  back  of  Lawyer's  Hall,  and  when  you  write  to  us,  direct  your  letter 
to  the  care  of  Mr.  George  Blunt,  &c.  (Signed),  James  Monroe,  Peter  Heines,  Henry 
James  Morris,  and  Matthew  Bodams." 

This  intelligence  was  very  gratifying,  and  most  assuredly  added  to  the 
pleasurable  contemplation  of  having  the  privilege  of  holding  out  a  helping 
hand  to  the  fleeing  bondman.  From  James  Morris,  one  of  this  company, 
however,  letters  of  a  painful  nature  were  received,  touching  his  wife  in 


318  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

bonds,  setting  forth  her  "awful  "  situation  and  appealing  to  the  Committee 
to  use  their  best  endeavors  to  rescue  her,  with  her  child,  from  Slavery.  One 
of  these  letters,  so  full  of  touching  seutimeuts  of  affection  and  appeal  on 
behalf  of  his  wife,  is  as  follows : 

TORONTO,  Canada  West,  upper,  18th  day  of  the  9th  mo.,  1856. 

ME.  WILLIAM  STILL: — Dear  Sir — I  hope  these  lines  may  find  you  and  your  family  as 
they  leave  me  give  my  respects  to  little  Caroline  and  her  mother. 

Dear  Sir,  I  have  received  two  letters  from  my  wife  since  I  saw  you,  and  the  second  was 
awful.  I  am  sorry  to  say  she  says  she  has  been  treated  awful  since  I  left,  and  she  told  the 
lady  she  thought  she  was  left  free  and  she  told  her  she  was  as  much  slave  as  ever  she  was 
that  the  state  was  not  to  be  settled  until  her  death  and  it  would  be  a  meracle  if  she  and 
her  child  got  it  then  and  that  her  master  left  a  great  many  relations  and  she  diden  no  what 
they  would  do.  Mr.  Still  dear  sir  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  my  wife  and  child  are  slaves 
if  you  please  dear  sir  inform  me  what  to  do  for  my  dear  wife  and  child.  She  said  she  has 
been  threatened  to  be  put  in  jail  three  times  since  I  left  also  she  tells  me  that  she  is  wash- 
ing for  the  captain  of  a  vesel  that  use  to  run  to  Petersburg  but  now  he  runs  to  Baltimore 
and  he  has  promas  to  take  her  to  Delaware  or  New  York  for  50  dollars  and  she  had  not 
the  money,  she  sent  to  me  and  I  sent  her  all  I  had  which  was  5  dollars  dear  sir  can  you 
inform  me  what  to  do  with  a  case  of  this  kind  the  captains  name  is  Thomas. 

My  wife  is  name  lucy  an  morris  my  child  is  name  lot,  if  you  please  dear  sir  answer  me 
as  soon  as  you  can  posable.  HENRY  JAMES  MORRIS,  Toronto  C.  W. 

Henry  James  Morris  in  care  of  Wm.  George  Blunt,  Centre  et.,  2  doors  from  Elam. 

This  sad  letter  made  a  mournful  impression,  as  it  was  not  easy  to  see  how 
her  deliverance  was  to  be  effected.  One  feature,  however,  about  this  epistle 
afforded  much  satisfaction,  namely,  to  know,  that  James  did  not  forget  his 
poor  wife  and  child,  who  were  in  the  prison-house.  Many  months  after  this 
first  letter  came  to  hand,  Mrs.  Dr.  Willis,  one  of  the  first  ladies  in  Toronto, 
wrote  on  his  behalf  as  follows: 

TORONTO,  15th  June,  Monday  morning,  1857. 

To  MR.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  write  you  this  letter  for  a  respectable  young  man  (his 
name  is  James  Morris),  he  passed  through  your  hands  July  of  last  year  (1856),  and  has 
just  had  a  letter  from  his  wife,  whom  he  left  behind  in  Virginia,  that  she  and  her  child  are 
likely  to  be  sold.  He  is  very  anxious  about  this  and  wishful  that  she  could  get  away  by 
some  vessel  or  otherwise.  His  wife's  name  is  Lucy  Morris  ;  the  child's  name  is  Lot  Mor- 
ris ;  the  lady's  name  she  lives  with  is  a  Mrs.  Hine  (I  hope  I  spell  her  name  right,  Hine),  at 
the  corner  of  Duke  street  and  Washington  street,  in  Norfolk  city,  Virginia.  She  is  hired 
out  to  this  rich  old  widow  lady.  James  Morris  wishes  me  to  write  you — he  has  saved 
forty  dollars,  and  will  send  it  to  you  whenever  it  is  required,  to  bring  her  on  to  Toronto, 
Canada  West.  It  is  in  the  bank  ready  upon  call.  Will  you  please,  sir,  direct  your  letter 
in  reply  to  this,  to  a  Mrs.  Ringgold,  Centre  street,  two  doors  from  Elam  street,  Toronto, 
Canada  West,  as  I  will  be  out  of  town.  I  write  this  instead  of  Mr.  Thomas  Henning, 
who  is  just  about  leaving  for  England.  Hoping  you  will  reply  soon,  I  remain,  sir, 
Respectfully  yours,  AGNES  WILLIS. 

Whether  James  ever  succeeded  in  recovering  his  wife  and  child,  is  not 
known  to  the  writer.  Many  similarly  situated  were  wont  to  appeal  again 
and  again,  until  growing  entirely  hopeless,  they  would  conclude  to  marry. 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  NINE  PASSENGERS.  319 

Here  it  may  be  remarked,  with  reference  to  marrying,  that  of  the  great 
number  of  fugitives  in  Canada,  the  male  sex  was  largely  in  preponderance 
over  the  female,  and  many  of  them  were  single  young  men.  This  class  found 
themselves  very  acceptable  to  Irish  girls,  and  frequently  legal  alliances  were 
the  result.  And  it  is  more  than  likely,  that  there  are  white  women  in  Can- 
ada to-day,  who  are  married  to  some  poor  slave  woman's  fugitive  husband. 

Verily,  the  romantic  and  tragic  phases  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
are  without  number,  if  not  past  finding  out. 

Scarcely  had  the  above-mentioned  nine  left  the  Philadelphia  depot,  ere  the 
following  way-worn  travelers  came  to  hand: 

PERRY  SHEPHARD,  and  ISAAC  REED,  Eastern  Shore,  Maryland ;  GEORGE 
SPERRYMAN,  alias  THOMAS  JOHNSON,  Richmond ;  VALENTINE  SPIRES, 
near  Petersburg;  DANIEL  GREEN,  alias  GEORGE  TAYLOR,  Leesburg,  Vir- 
ginia; JAMES  JOHNSON,  alias  WILLIAM  GILBERT  and  wife  HARRIET, 
Prince  George's  county,  Maryland;  HENRY  COOPER,  and  WILLIAM  ISRAEL 
SMITH,  Middletown,  Delaware ;  ANNA  DORSEY,  Maryland. 

Although  starting  from  widely  separated  localities  without  the  slightest 
communication  with  each  other  in  the  South,  each  separate  passenger  earn- 
estly bent  on  freedom,  had  endured  suffering,  hunger,  and  perils,  by  land 
and  water,  sustained  by  the  hope  of  ultimate  freedom. 

PERRY  SHEPHARD  and  ISAAC  REED  reported  themselves  as  having  fled 
from  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland ;  that  they  had  there  been  held  to 
service  or  Slavery  by  Sarah  Ann  Burgess,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  Houston, 
from  whom  they  fled.  No  incidents  of  slave  life  or  travel  were  recorded, 
save  that  Perry  left  his  wife  Milky  Ann,  and  two  children,  Nancy  and 
Rebecca  (free).  Also  Isaac  left  his  wife,  Hester  Ann  Louisa,  and  the 
following  named  children  :  Philip  Henry,  Harriet  Ann  and  Jane  Elizabeth. 

GEORGE  SPERRYMAN'S  lot  was  cast  amongst  the  oppressed  in  the  city  of 
Richmond,  Va.  Of  the  common  ills  of  slave  life,  George  could  *speak 
from  experience ;  but  little  of  his  story,  however,  was  recorded  at  the  time. 
He  had  reached  the  Committee  through  the  regular  channel — was  adjudged 
Avorthy  of  aid  and  encouragement,  and  they  gave  it  to  him  freely.  Nickless 
Templeman  was  the  loser  in  this  instance;  how  he  bore  the  misfortune  the 
Committee  was  not  apprised.  Without  question,  the  property  was  delighted 
with  getting  rid  of  the  owner. 

VALENTINE  SPIRES  came  a  fellow-passenger  with  George,  having  "  took 
out"  the  previous  Christmas,  from  a  place  called  Dun  woody,  near  Peters- 
burg. He  was  held  to  service  in  that  place  by  Dr.  Jesse  Squires.  Under 
his  oppressive  rules  and  demands,  Valentine  had  been  convinced  that  there 
could  be  no  peace,  consequently  he  turned  his  attention  to  one  idea — freedom 
and  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  with  this  faith,  worked  his  way 
through  to  the  Committee,  and  was  received,  and  aided  of  course. 


320  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

DAVID  GREEN,  fled  from  Warrington,  near  Leesburg.  Elliott  Curlett 
so  alarmed  David  by  threatening  to  sell  him,  that  the  idea  of  liberty  imme- 
diately took  possession  in  David's  mind.  David  had  suifered  many  hard- 
ships at  the  hands  of  his  master,  but  when  the  auction-block  was  held  up  to 
him,  that  was  the  worst  cut  of  all.  He  became  a  thinker  right  a\vay. 
Although  he  had  a  wife  and  one  child  in  Slavery,  he  decided  to  flee  for  his 
freedom  at  all  hazards,  and  accordingly  he  carried  out  his  firm  resolution. 

JAMES  JOHNSON.  This  "article"  was  doing  unrequited  labor  as  the  slave 
of  Thomas  Wallace,  in  Prince  George  county,  Maryland.  He  was  a  stout 
and  rugged-looking  man,  of  thirty-five  years  of  age.  On  escaping,  he  was 
fortunate  enough  to  bring  his  wife,  Harriet  with  him.  She  was  ten  years 
younger  than  himself,  and  had  been  owned  by  William  T.  Wood,  by  whom 
she  said  that  she  had  "been  well  treated."  But  of  late,  this  Wood  had 
taken  to  liquor,  and  she  felt  in  danger  of  being  sold.  She  knew  that  rum 
ruined  the  best  of  slave-holders,  so  she  was  admonished  to  get  out  of  danger 
as  soon  as  possible. 

CHARLES  HENRY  COOPER  and  WILLIAM  ISRAEL  SMITH.  These  passen- 
gers were  representatives  of  the  peculiar  Institution  of  Middletown,  Dela- 
ware. Charles  was  owned  by  Catharine  Mendine,  and  William  by  John  P. 
Gather.  According  to  their  confession,  Charles  and  William  it  seemed  had 
been  thinking  a  good  deal  over  the  idea  of  "  working  for  nothing,"  of  being 
daily  driven  to  support  others,  while  they  were  rendered  miserable  thereby. 
So  they  made  up  their  minds  to  try  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  "  hit  or 
miss."  This  resolution  was  made  and  carried  into  effect  (on  the  part  of 
Charles  at  least),  at  the  cost  of  leaving  a  mother,  three  brothers,  and  three 
sisters  in  Slavery,  without  hope  of  ever  seeing  them  again.  The  ages 
of  Charles  and  William  were  respectively  twenty-two  and  twenty-one.  Both 
stout  and  well-made  young  men,  with  intellects  well  qualified  to  make  the 
wilderness  of  Canada  bud  and  blossom  as  the  rose,  and  thitherward  they 
were  dispatched. 

ANNA  DORSEY  became  tired  of  Slavery  in  Maryland,  where  she  reported 
that  she  had  been  held  to  service  by  a  slave-holder,  known  by  the  name  of 
Eli  Molesworth.  The  record  is  silent  as  to  how  she  was  treated.  As  a 
slave,  she  had  been  brought  up  a  seamstress,  and  was  quite  intelligent.  Age 
twenty-two,  mulatto. 


OWEN  AXD  OTHO  TAYLOR'S  FLIGHT  WITH  HORSES,  ETC. 

THREE  BROTHERS,  TWO  OF  THEM  WITH  WIVES    AND  CHILDREN. 

About  the  latter  part  of  March,  1856,  Owen  Taylor  and  his  wife,  Mary 
Ann,  and  their  little  son,  Edward,  together  with  a  brother  and  his  wife  and 
two  children,  and  a  third  brother,  Benjamin,  arrived  from  near  Clear 


OWEN  AND  OTHO  TAYLORS  FLIGHT  WITH  HORSES,  ETC.       321 

Springs,  nine  miles  from  Hagerstown,  Maryland.  They  all  left  their  home, 
or  rather  escaped  from  the  prison-house,  on  Easter  Sunday,  and  came  via 
Harrisburg,  where  they  were  assisted  and  directed  to  the  Vigilance  Commit- 
tee in  Philadelphia.  A  more  interesting  party  had  not  reached  the  Com- 
mittee for  a  long  time. 

The  three  brothers  were  intelligent,  and  heroic,  and,  in  the  resolve  to 
obtain  freedom,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  for  their  wives  and  children 
desperately  in  earnest.  They  had  counted  welf  the  cost  of  this  struggle 
for  liberty,  and  had  fully  made  up  their  minds  that  if  interfered  with  by 
slave-catchers,  somebody  would  have  to  bite  the  dust.  That  they  had 
pledged  themselves  never  to  surrender  alive,  was  obvious.  Their  travel- 
worn  appearance,  their  attachment  for  each  other,  the  joy  that  the  tokens 
of  friendship  afforded  them,  the  description  they  gave  of  incidents  on  the 
road,  made  an  impression  not  soon  to  be  effaced. 

In  the  presence  of  a  group  like  this  Sumner's  great  and  eloquent  speech 
on  the  Barbarism  of  Slavery,  seemed  almost  cold  and  dead, — the  mute 
appeals  of  these  little  ones  in  their  mother's  arms — the  unlettered  language 
of  these  young  mothers,  striving  to  save  their  offspring  from  the  doom  of 
Slavery — the  resolute  and  manly  bearing  of  these  brothers  expressed  in 
words  full  of  love  of  liberty,  and  of  the  determination  to  resist  Slavery 
to  the  death,  in  defence  of  their  wives  and  children — this  was  Sunmer's 
speech  enacted  before  our  eyes. 

OWEN  was  about  thirty-one  years  of  age,  but  had  experienced  a  deal  of 
trouble.  He  had  been  married  twice,  and  both  wives  were  believed  to  be 
living.  The  first  one,  with  their  little  child,  had  been  sold  in  the  Baltimore 
market,  about  three  years  before,  the  mother  was  sent  to  Louisiana, 
the  child  to  South  Carolina.  Father,  mother,  and  child,  parted  with 
no  hope  of  ever  seeing  each  other  again  in  this  world.  After  Owen's 
wife  was  sent  South,  he  sent  her  his  likeness  and  a  dress ;  the  latter  was 
received,  and  she  was  greatly  delighted  with  it,  but  he  never  heard  of 
her  having  received  his  likeness.  He*  likewise  wrote  to  her,  but  he  was  not 
sure  that  she  received  his  letters.  Finally,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  as 
she  was  forever  dead  to  him,  he  would  do  well  to  marry  again.  Accord- 
ingly he  took  to  himself  another  partner,  the  one  who  now  accompanied 
him  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

Omitting  other  interesting  incidents,  a  reference  to-  his  handiwork  will 
suffice  to  show  the  ability  of  Owen.  Owen  was  a  born  mechanic,  and  his 
master  practically  tested  his  skill  in  various  ways  ;  sometimes  in  the  black- 
smith shop — at  other  times  as  a  wheelwright — again  at  making  brushes  and 
brooms,  and  at  leisure  times  he  would  try  his  hand  in  all  these  crafts. 
This  Jack-of-all-trades  was,  of  course,  very  valuable  to  his  master.  Indeed 
his  place  was  hard  to  fill. 

Henry  Fiery,  a  farmer,  "about  sixty-four  years  of  age,  a  stout,  crusty  old 


322  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

fellow,"  was 'the  owner  of  Owen  and  his  two  brothers.  Besides  slaves,  the 
old  man  was  in  possession  of  a  wife,  whose  name  was  Martha,  and  seven 
children,  who  were  pretty  well  grown  up.  One  of  the  sons  owned  Owen's 
wife  and  two  children.  Owen  declared,  that  they  had  been  worked  hard, 
while  few  privileges  had  been  allowed  them.  Clothing  of  the  poorest  tex- 
ture was  only  sparingly  furnished.  Nothing  like  Sunday  raiment  was  ever 
given  them ;  for  these  comforts  they  were  compelled  to  do  over- work  of 
nights.  For  a  long  time  the  idea  of  escape  had  been  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  this  party.  The  first  of  January,  past,  was  the  time  "solemnly  " 
fixed  upon  to  "  took  out,"  but  for  some  reason  or  other  (not  found  on  the 
record  book),  their  strategical  minds  did  not  see  the  way  altogether  clear,  and 
they  deferred  starting  until  Easter  Sunday. 

On  that  memorable  evening,  the  men  boldly  harnessed  two  of  Mr.  Fiery's 
steeds  and  placing  their  wives  and  children  in  the  carriage,  started  off  via 
Hagerstown,  in  a  direct  line  for  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  at  a  rate  that 
allowed  no  grass  to  grow  under  the  horses'  feet.  In  this  manner  they  made 
good  time,  reached  Chambersburg  safely,  and  ventured  up  to  a  hotel  where 
they  put  up  their  horses.  Here  they  bade  their  faithful  beasts  good-bye  and 
"took  out"  for  Harrisburg  by  another  mode  of  travel,  the  cars.  On  their 
arrival  they  naturally  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee,  who  hnrried 
them  off  to  Philadelphia,  apprising  the  Committee  there  of  their  approach 
by  a  dispatch  sent  ahead.  Probably  they  had  scarcely  reached  Philadelphia 
ere  the  Fierys  were  in  hot  haste  after  them,  as  far  as  Harrisburg,  if  not 
farther. 

It  hardly  need  be  hinted,  that  the  community  in  which  the  Fierys  lived 
was  deeply  agitated  for  days  after,  as  indeed  it  was  along  the  entire  route  to 
Chambersburg,  in  consequence  of  this  bold  and  successful  movement.  The 
horses  were  easily  captured  at  the  hotel,  where  they  were  left,  but,  of  course, 
they  were  mute  as  to  what  had  become  of  their  drivers.  The  furious 
Fierys  probably  got  wind  of  the  fact,  that  they  had  made  their  way  to 
Harrisburg.  At  any  rate  they  made"  very  diligent  search  at  this  point. 
"While  here  prosecuting  his  hunting  operations,  Fiery  managed  to  open 
communication  with  at  least  one  member  of  the  Harrisburg  Committee,  to 
whom  his  grievances  were  made  known,  but  derived  little  satisfaction. 

After  the  experience  of  a  few  weeks,  the  pursuers  came  to  the  conclusion, 
that  there  was  no  likelihood  of  recovering  them  through  these  agencies,  or 
through  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  In  their  despair,  therefore,  they  resorted 
to  another  "  dodge."  All  at  once  they  became  "sort-o'-friendly  " — indeed 
more  than  half  disposed  to  emancipate.  The  member  of  the  Committee 
in  Harrisburg  had,  it  is  probable,  frequently  left  room  for  their  great 
delusion,  if  he  did  not  even  go  so  far  as  to  feed  their  hopes  with  plausible 
suggestions,  thnt  some  assistance  might  be  afforded  by  which  an  amicable 
settlement  miarht  be  made  between  masters  and  slaves. 


OWEN  AND  OTHO  TAYLORS  FLIGHT  WITH  HORSES,  ETC.      323 

The  following  extract,  from  the  Committee's  letter,  relative  to  this  matter, 
is  open  to  this  inference,  and  may  serve  to  throw  some  light  on  the  subject: 

HARRISBURG,  April  28,  '56. 

FRIEND  STILL  : — Your  last  came  to  hand  in  due  season,  and  I  am  happy  to  hear  of  the 
safe  arrival  of  those  gents. 

I  have  before  me  the  Power  of  Attorney  of  Mr.  John  S.  Fiery,  son  of  Mr.  Henry  Fiery, 
of  Washington  county,  Md.,  the  owner  of  those  three  men,  two  women  and  three  children, 
who  arrived  in  your  town  on  the  24th  or  25th  of  March.  He  graciously  condescends  to 
liberate  the  oldest  in  a  year,  and  the  remainder  in  proportional  time,  if  they  will  come 
back  ;  or  to  sell,  them  their  time  for  $1300.  He  is  sick  of  the  job,  and  is  ready  to  make 
any  conditions.  Now,  if  you  personally  can  get  word  to  them  and  get  them  to  send  him 
a  letter,  in  my  charge,  informing  him  of  their  whereabouts  and  prospects,  I  think  it  will 
be  the  best  answer  I  can  make  him.  He  will  return  here  in  a  week  or  two,  to  know 
what  can  be  done.  He  offers  $500  to  see  them. 

Or  if  you  can  send  me  word  where   they  are,  I  will  endeavor  to  write  to  them  for  his 
special  satisfaction  ;  or  if  you  cannot  do  either,  send  me  your  latest  information,  for  I 
intend  to  make  him  spend  a  few  more  dollars,  and  if  possible  get  a  little  sicker  of  this  bad 
job.     Do  try  and  send  him  a  few  bitter  pills  for  his  weak  nerves  and  disturbed  mind. 
Yours  in  great  haste,  Jos.  C.  BUSTILL. 

A  subsequent  letter  from  Mr.  Bustill  contains,  besides  other  interesting 
Underground  Rail  Road  matter,  an  item  relative  to  the  feeling  of  disap- 
pointment experienced  by  Mr.  Fiery  on  learning  that  his  property  was  in 

Canada. 

HARRisBURa,  May  26,  '56. 

FRIEND  STILL  : — I  embrace  the  opportunity  presented  by  the  visit  of  our  friend,  John 
F.  Williams,  to  drop  you  a  few  lines  in  relation  to  our  future  operations. 

The  Lightning  Train  was  put  on  the  Road  on  last  Monday,  and  as  the  traveling  season 
has  commenced  and  this  is  the  Southern  route  for  Niagara  Falls,  1  have  concluded  not  to 
send  by  way  of  Auburn,  except  in  cases  of  great  danger ;  but  hereafter  we  will  use  the 
Lightning  Train,  which  leaves  here  at  1£  and  arrives  in  your  city  at  5  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  I  will  telegraph  about  5J  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  so  it  may  reach  you  be- 
fore you  close.  These  four  are  the  only  ones  that  have  come  since  my  last.  The  woman 
has  been  here  some  time  waiting  for  her  child  and  her  beau,  which  she  expects  here  about 
the  first  of  June.  If  possible,  please  keep  a  knowledge  of  her  whereabouts,  to  enable  me 
to  inform  him  if  he  comes.  ****** 

/  have  nothing  more  to  send  you,  except  that  John  Fiery  has  visited  us  again  and  much 
to  his  chagrin  received  the  information  of  their  being  in  Canada. 

Yours  as  ever,  Jos.  C.  BUSTILL. 

Whilst  the  Fierys  were  working  like  beavers  to  re- enslave  these  brave 
fugitives,  the  latter  were  daily  drinking  in  more  and  more  of  the  spirit  of 
freedom  and  were  busy  with  schemes  for  the  deliverance  of  other  near  kin 
left  behind  under  the  galling  yoke. 

Several  very  interesting  letters  were  received  from  Otho  Taylor,  relative 
to  a  raid  he  designed  making  expressly  to  effect  the  escape  of  his  family. 
The  two  subjoined  must  suffice,  (others,  much  longer,  cannot  now  be  pro- 
duced, they  have  probably  been  loaned  and  not  returned.) 


324  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

APRIL  15th,  1857. 

SIR— We  arrived  here  safely.  Mr.  Syrus  and  his  lady  is  well  situated.  They  have  a 
place  for  the  year  round  IS  dollars  per  month.  We  are  all  well  and  hope  that  you  are  all 
the  same.  Now  I  wish  to  know  whether  you  would  please  to  send  me  some  money  to  go 
after  those  people.  Send  it  here  if  you  please.  Yours  truly,  OTHO  TAYLOR. 

WILLIAM  STILL. 

ST.  CATHARINES,  Jan.  26,  1857. 

MR.  WM.  STILL  : — Dear  Sir — I  write  at  this  time  in  behalf  of  Otho  Taylor.  He  is  very 
anxious  to  go  and  get  his  family  at  Clear  Spring,  Washington  county,  Md.  He  would 
like  to  know  if  the  Society  there  would  furnish  him  the  means  to  go  after  them  from  Phil- 
adelphia, that  you  will  be  running  no  risk  in  doing  this.  If  the  Society  can  do  this,  he 
would  not  be  absent  from  P.  more  than  three  days. 

He  is  so  anxious  to  get  his  family  from  slavery  that  he  is  willing  to  do  almost  anything 
to  get  them  to  Canada.  You  may  possibly  recollect  him — he  was  at  your  place  last  Au- 
gust. I  think  he  can  be  trusted.  If  you  can  do  something  for  him,  he  has  the  means  to 
take  him  to  your  place. 

Please  let  me  know  immediately  if  you  can  do  this.        Respectfully  yours, 

M.  A.  H.  WILSON. 

Such  appeals  came  very  frequently  from  Canada,  causing  'much  sadness, 
as  but  little  encouragement  could  be  held  out  to  such  projects.  In  the  first 
place,  the  danger  attendant  upon  such  expeditions  was  so  fearful,  and  in 
the  second  place,  our  funds  were  so  inadequate  for  this  kind  of  work,  that, 
in  most  cases,  such  appeals  had  to  be  refused.  Of  course,  there  were  those 
whose  continual  coming,  like  the  poor  widow  in  the  Gospel,  could  not  be 
denied. 


HEAYY  REWARD. 

THEEE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscri- 
ber, residing  near  Bladensburg,  Prince  George's  county,  Maryland,  on  Saturday 
night,  the  22d  of  March,  1856,  my  negro  man,  Tom  Matthews,  aged  about  25 
years,  about  5  feet  9  or  10  inches  high,  dark  copper  color,  full  suit  of  bushy  hair, 
broad  face,  with  high  cheek  bones,  broad  and  square  shoulders,  stands  and  walks 
very  erect,  though  quite  a  sluggard  in  action,  except  in  a  dance,  at  which  he  is 
hard  to  beat.  He  wore  away  a  black  coat  and  brown  pantaloons.  I  will  give 
the  above  reward  if  taken  and  brought  home,  or  secured  in  jail,  so  that  I  get  him. 

E.  A.  JONES,  near  JBladensburg,  Md. 

As  Mr.  Jones  may  be  unaware  which  way  his  man  Tom  traveled, 
this  item  may  inform  him  that  his  name  was  entered  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  book  April  4th,  1856,  at  which  date  he  appeared  to  be  in  good 
health  and  full  of  hope  for  a  safe  sojourn  in  Canada.  He  was  destitute, 
of  course,  just  as  anybody  else  would  have  been,  if  robbers  had  stripped 
him  of  every  dollar  of  his  earnings  ;  but  he  felt  pretty  sure,  that  he  could 
take  care  of  himself  in  her  Majesty's  dominion. 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  PRIME  ARTICLES,       325 

The  Committee,  encouraged  by  his  efforts,  reached  him  a  helping 
hand  and  sent  him  on  to  swell  the  goodly  number  in  the  promised  land — 
Canada. 

On  the  same  day  that  Tom  arrived,  the  Committee  had  the  pleasure  of 
taking  JAMES  JONES  by  the  hand.  He  was  owned  by  Dr.  William 
Stewart,  of  King  George's  Court  House,  Maryland.  He  was  not,  however, 
in  the  service  of  his  master  at  the  time  of  his  escape  but  was  hired  out 
in  Alexandria.  For  some  reason,  not  noticed  in  the  book,  James  became 
dissatisfied,  changed  his  name  to  Henry  Rider,  got  an  Underground  Rail 
Road  pass  and  left  the  Dr.  and  his  other  associations  in  Maryland.  He  was 
one  of  the  well-cared  for  "  articles,"  and  was  of  very  near  kin  to  the  white 
people,  at  least  a  half-brother  (mulatto,  of  course).  He  was  thirty-two 
years  of  age,  medium  size,  hard-featured  and  raw-boned,  but  "  no  marks 
about  him." 

James  looked  as  if  he  had  had  pretty  good  health,  still  the  Committee 
thought  that  he  would  have  much  better  in  Canada.  After  hearing  a 
full  description  of  that  country  and  of  the  great  number  of  fugitives  there 
from  Maryland'  and  other  parts  of  the  South,  "  Jim"  felt  that  that  was  just 
the  place  he  wanted  to  find,  and  was  soon  off  with  a  free  ticket,  a  letter  of 
introduction,  etc. 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH    FOURTEEN    « PRIME  ARTI- 
CLES "  ON  BOARD. 

Thomas  Garrett  announced  this  in  the  following  letter: 

WILMINGTON,  3d  mo.,  23d,  1856. 

DEAE  FEIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  :— Captain  Fountain  has  arrived  all  safe,  with  the  hu- 
man cargo  thee  was  inquiring  for,  a  few  days  since.  I  had  men  waiting  till  12  o'clock 
till  the  Captain  arrived  at  his  berth,  ready  to  receive  them  ;  last  night  they  then  learned, 
that  he  had  landed  them  at  the  Rocks,  near  the  old  Swedes  church,  in  the  care  of  our  effi- 
cient Pilot,  who  ia  in  the  employ  of  my  friend,  John  Hillis,  and  he  has  them  now  in 
charge.  As  soon  as  my  breakfast  is  over,  I  will  see  Hillis  and  determine  what  is  best  to 
be  done  in  their  case.  My  own  opinion  is,  we  had  better  send  them  to  Hook  and  there 
put  them  in  the  cars  to-night  and  send  a  pilot  to  take  them  to  thy  house.  As  Marcus 
Hook  is  in  Pennsylvania,  the  agent  of  the  cars  runs  no  risk  of  the  fine  of  five  hundred 
dollars  our  State  imposes  for  assisting  one  of  God's  poor  out  of  the  State  by  steamboat  or 
cars-  As  ever  thy  friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

NAMES  OF   THE   "ARTICLES." 

Rebecca  Jones,  and  her  three  daughters,  Sarah  Frances,  Mary,  and  Re- 
becca; Isaiah  Robinson,  Arthur  Spence,  Caroline  Taylor,  and  her  two 
daughters,  Nancy,  and  Mary;  Daniel  Robinson;  Thomas  Page;  Benjamin 
Dickinson ;  David  Cole  and  wife. 


326  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

From  the  tenor  of  Thomas  Garrett's  letter,  the  Committee  was  prepared 
for  a  joyful  reception,  knowing  that  Captain  F.  was  not  in  the  habit  of  doing 
things  by  the  halves — that  he  was  not  in  the  habit  of  bringing  numb- 
skulls ;  indeed  he  brought  none  but  the  bravest  and  most  intelligent.  Yet 
notwithstanding  our  knowledge  of  his  practice  in  this  respect,  when  he 
arrived  we  were  surprised  beyond  measure.  The  women  outnumbered  the 
men.  The  two  young  mothers,  with  their  interesting,  hearty  and  fine- 
looking  children  representing  in  blood  the  two  races  about  equally — pre- 
sented a  very  impressive  spectacle. 

The  men  had  the  appearance  of  being  active,  smart,  and  well  disposed, 
much  above  the  generality  of  slaves;  but,  compared  with  those  of  the  oppo- 
site sex,  their  claims  for  sympathy  were  very  faint  indeed.  No  one  could 
possibly  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  these  mothers,  with  their  handsome 
daughters,  were  valued  on  the  Ledger  of  their  owners  at  enormously  high 
prices;  that  lustful  traders  and  sensualists  had  already  gloated  over  the 
thought  of  buying  them  in  a  few  short  years.  Probably  not  one  of  those 
beautiful  girls  would  have  brought  less  than  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand 
dollars  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  It  was  therefore  a  great  satisfaction  to  think, 
that  their  mothers,  who  knew  full  well  to  what  a  fate  such  slave  girls  were 
destined,  had  labored  so  heroically  to  snatch  them  out  of  this  danger  ere 
the  critical  hour  arrived. 

REBECCA  JONES  was  about  twenty-eight  years  of  age ;  mulatto,  good- 
looking,  considerably  above  medium  size,  very  intelligent,  and  a  true-born 
heroine. 

The  following  reward,  offered  by  the  notorious  negro-trader,  Hall,  proved 
that  Rebecca  and  her  children  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  go  free,  if  slave- 
hunters  could  be  induced  by  a  heavy  pecuniary  consideration  to  recapture 
them: 


REWARD  is  offered  for  the  apprehension  of  negro  woman,  REBECCA 
JONES  and  her  three  children,  and  man  ISAIAH,  belonging  to  W.  W.  Davidson, 
JiSSL  wno  have  disappeared  since  the  20th  inst.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  the 
apprehension  and  delivery  of  the  said  Negroes  to  my  Jail,  by  the  attorney  in  fact  of  the 
owner,  or  the  sum  of  $250  for  the  man  alone,  or  $150  for  the  woman  and  three  children 
alone.  WM.  W.  HALL,  for  the  Attorney, 

feb.  1. 

Years  before  her  escape,  her  mistress  died  in  England;  and  as  Rebecca 
had  always  understood,  long  before  this  event,  that  all  the  slaves  were  to 
be  freed  at  the  death  of  her  mistress,  she  was  not  prepared  to  believe  any 
other  report.  It  turned  out,  however,  as  in  thousands  of  other  instances, 
that  no  will  could  be  found,  and,  of  course,  the  administrators  retained 
the  slave  property,  regardless  of  any  verbal  expressions  respecting  freeing, 
etc.  Rebecca  closely  watched  the  course  of  the  administrators,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  firmly  resolved,  that  neither  she  nor  her  children  should  eve>* 
serve  another  master.  Rather  than  submit,  she  declared  that  she  would 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  PRIME  ARTICLES.        327 

take  the  lives  of  her  children  and  then  her  own.  Notwithstanding  her 
bold  and  decided  stand,  the  report  went  out  that  she  was  to  be  sold, 
and  that  all  the  slaves  were  still  to  be  held  in  bondage.  Rebecca's 
sympathizers  and  friends  advised  her,  as  they  thought  for  the  best,  to 
get  a  friend  or  gentleman  to  purchase  her  for  herself.  To  this  she  replied : 
"  Xot  three  cents  would  I  give,  nor  do  I  want  any  of  my  friends  to  buy  me, 
not  if  they  could  get  me  for  three  cents.  It  would  be  of  no  use,"  she  con- 
tended, "  as  she  was  fully  bent  on  dying,  rather  than  remain  a  slave."  The 
slave-holders  evidently  understood  her,  and  were  in  no  hurry  about  bringing 
her  case  to  an  issue — they  rather  gave  her  time  to  become  calm.  But  Re- 
becca was  inflexible. 

Six  years  before  her  arrival,  her  husband  had  escaped,  in  company  with 
the  noted  fugitive,  "Shadrach."  For  a  time  after  he  fled,  she  frequently 
received  letters  from  him,  but  for  a  long  while  he  had  ceased  to  write,  and 
of  late  she  had  heard  nothing  from  him. 

In  escaping  stowed  away  in  the  boat,  she  suffered  terribly,  but  faithfully 
endured  to  the  end,  and  was  only  too  happy  when  the  agony  was  over.  After 
resting  and  getting  thoroughly  refreshed  in  Philadelphia,  she,  with  others, 
was  forwarded  to  Boston,  for  her  heart  was  there.  Several  letters  were 
received  from  her,  respecting  her  prospects,  etc.,  from  which  it  appears  that 
she  had  gained  some  knowledge  of  her  husband,  although  not  of  a  satisfac- 
tory nature.  At  any  rate  she  decided  that  she  could  not  receive  him 
back"again.  The  following  letter  has  reference  to  her  prospects,  going  to 
California,  her  husband,  etc. : 

PARKER  HOUSE,  School  street,  Boston,  Oct.  18th,  '56. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  can  hardly  express  the  pleasure  I  feel  at  the  receipt  of  your  kind 
letter ;  but  allow  me  to  thank  you  for  the  same. 

And  now  I  will  tell  you  my  reasons  for  going  to  California.  Mrs.  Tarrol,  a  cousin  of 
my  husband,  has  sent  for  me.  She  says  I  can  do  much  better  there  than  in  Boston.  And 
as  I  have  my  children's  welfare  to  look  to,  I  have  concluded  to  go.  Of  course  I  shall  be 
just  as  likely  to  hear  from  home  there  as  here.  Please  tell  Mr.  Bagnale  I  shall  expect  one 
letter  from  him  before  I  leave  here. 

I  should  like  to  hear  from  my  brothers  and  sisters  once  more,  and  let  me  hear  every 
particular.  You  never  can  know  how  anxious  I  am  to  hear  from  them  ;  do  please  impress 
this  upon  their  minds. 

I  have  written  two  letters  to  Dr.  Lundy  and  never  received  an  answer.  I  heard  Mrs. 
Lnndy  was  dead,  and  thought  that  might  possibly  be  the  reason  he  had  not  replied  to  me. 
Please  tell  the  Doctor  I  should  take  it  as  a  great  favor  if  he  would  write  me  a  few  lines. 

I  suppose  you  think  I  am  going  to  live  with  my  husband  again.  Let  me  assure  you 
'tis  no  such  thing.  My  mind  is  as  firm  as  ever.  And  believe  me,  in  going  away  from 
Boston,  I  am  going  away  from  him,  for  I  have  heard  he  is  living  somewhere  near.  He 
has  been  making  inquiries  about  me,  but  that  can  make  no  difference  in  my  feelings  to 
him.  I  hope  that  yourself,  wife  and  family  are  all  quite  well.  Please  remember  me  to 
them  all.  Do  me  the  favor  to  give  my  love  to  all  inquiring  friends.  I  should  be  most 
happy  to  have  any  letters  of  introduction  yon  may  think  me  worthy  of,  and  I  trust  I  shall 
ever  remain  Yours  faithfully,  KEBECCA  JONES. 


328  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

P.  S. — I  do  not  know  if  I  shall  go  this  Fall,  or  in  the  Spring.  It  will  depend  upon  the 
letter  I  receive  from  California,  but  whichever  it  may  be,  I  shall  be  happy  to  hear  from 
you  very  soon. 

ISAIAH,  who  was  a  fellow-servant  with  Rebecca,  and  was  included  in  the 
reward  offered  by  Hall  for  Rebecca,  etc.,  was  a  young  man  about  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  a  mulatto,  intelligent  and  of  prepossessing  manners.  A 
purely  ardent  thirst  for  liberty  prompted  him  to  flee ;  although  he  declared 
that  he  had  been  treated  very  badly,  and  had  even  suffered  severely  from 
being  shamefully  "beaten."  ,He  had,  however,  been  permitted  to  hire 
his  time  by  the  year,  for  which  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  were 
regularly  demanded  by  his  owner.  Young  as  he  was,  he  was  a  married 
man,  with  a  wife  and  two  children,  to  whom  he  was  devoted.  He  had 
besides  two  brothers  and  two  sisters  for  whom  he  felt  a  warm  degree  of 
brotherly  affection ;  yet  when  the  hour  arrived  for  him  to  accept  a  chance 
for  freedom  at  the  apparent  sacrifice  of  these  dearest  ties  of  kindred,  he  was 
found  heroic  enough  for  this  painful  ordeal,  and  to  give  up  all  for  freedom. 

CAROLINE  TAYLOR,  and  her  two  little  children,  were  also  from  Norfolk, 
and  came  by  boat.  Upon  the  whole,  they  were  not  less  interesting  than  Re- 
becca Jones  and  her  three  little  girls.  Although  Caroline  was  not  in  her 
person  half  so  stately,  nor  gave  such  promise  of  heroism  as  Rebecca — for 
(Caroline  was  rather  small  of  stature — yet  she  was  more  refined,  and  quite 
as  intelligent  as  Rebecca,  and  represented  considerably  more  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood.  She  was  a  mulatto,  and  her  children  were  almost  fair  erl'ough 
to  pass  for  white — probably  they  were  quadroons,  hardly  any  one  would 
have  suspected  that  they  had  only  one  quarter  of  colored  blood  in  their  veins. 
For  ten  years  Caroline  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  her  time  at  the 
rate  of  seventy-five  dollars  per  year,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  year, 
when  her  hire  was  raised  to  eighty-four  dollars.  So  anxious  was  she  to 
have  her  older  girl  (eleven  years  old)  at  home  with  her,  that  she  also  hired 
her  time  by  the  year,  for  which  she  was  compelled  to  pay  twenty-four 
dollars.  As  her  younger  child  was  not  sufficiently  grown  to  hire  out  for 
pay,  she  was  permitted  to  have  it  at  home  with  her  on  the  conditions  that 
she  would  feed,  clothe  and  take  good  care  of  it,  permitting  no  expense  what- 
ever to  fall  upon  the  master. 

Judging  from  the  appearance  and  manners  of  the  children,  their  mother 
had,  doubtless,  been  most  faithful  to  them,  for  more  handsome,  well-behaved, 
intelligent  and  pleasing  children  could  not  easily  be  selected  from  either 
race  or  any  station  of  life.  The  younger,  Mary  by  name,  nine  years  of  age, 
attracted  very  great  attention,  by  the  deep  interest  she  manifested  in  a  poor 
fugitive  (whom  she  had  never  seen  before),  at  the  Philadelphia  station, 
confined  to  the  bed  and  suffering  excruciating  pain  from  wounds  he  had 
received  whilst  escaping.  Hours  and  hours  together,  during  the  two  or 
three  days  of  their  sojourn,  she  spent  of  her  own  accord,  by  his  bed-side, 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  PRIME  ARTICLES.      329 

manifesting  almost  womanly  sympathy  in  the  most  devoted  and  tender 
manner.  She  thus,  doubtless,  unconsciously  imparted  to  the  sufferer  a 
great  deal  of  comfort.  Very  many  affecting  incidents  had  come  under  the 
observation  of  the  acting  Committee,  under  various  circumstances,  but  never 
before  had  they  witnessed  a  sight  more  interesting,  a  scene  more  touching. 

Caroline  and  her  children  were  owned  by  Peter  March,  Esq.,  late  of 
Norfolk,  but  at  that  time,  he  was  living  in  New  York,  and  was  carrying 
on  the  iron  business.  He  came  into  possession  of  them  through  his  wife, 
who  was  the  daughter  of  Caroline's  former  master,  and  almost  the  only  heir 
left,  in  consequence  of  the  terrible  fever  of  the  previous  summer.  Caroline 
was  living  under  the  daily  fear  of  being  sold ;  this,  together  with  the  task 
of  supporting  herself  and  two  children,  made  her  burden  very  grievous. 
Not  a  great  while  before  her  escape,  her  New  York  master  had  been  on  to 
Norfolk,  expressly  with  a  view  of  selling  her,  and  asked  two  thousand 
dollars  for  her.  This,  however,  he  failed  to  get,  and  was  still  awaiting  an 
offer. 

These  ill  omens  aroused  Caroline  to  think  more  seriously  over  the  con- 
dition of  herself  and  children  than  she  had  ever  done  before,  and  in  this 
state  of  mind  she  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  she  would  strive  to  save  her- 
self and  children  by  flight  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  She  knew  full 
well,  that  it  was  no  faint-hearted  struggle  that  was  required  of  her,  so  she 
had  nerved  herself  with  the  old  martyr  spirit  to  risk  her  all  on  her  faith 
in  God  and  Freedom,  and  was  ready  to  take  the  consequences  if  she  fell  back 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  This  noble  decision  was  the  crowning  act 
in  the  undertakings  of  thousands  similarly  situated.  Through  this  faith 
she  gained  the  liberty  of  herself  and  her  children.  Quite  a  number  of  the 
friends  of  the  slave  saw  these  interesting  fugitives,  and  wept,  and  rejoiced 
with  them. 

Col.  A.  Cummings,  in  those  days  Publisher  of  the  "  Evening  Bulletin," 
for  the  first  time,  witnessed  an  Underground  Rail  Road  arrival.  Some  time 
previous,  in  conversation  with  Mr.  J.  M.  McKim,  the  Colonel  had  ex- 
pressed views  not  altogether  favorable  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road; 
indeed  he  was  rather  inclined  to  apologize  for  slavery,  if  not  to  defend  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  While  endeavoring  somewhat  tenaciously  to  maintain 
his  ground,  Mr.  McKim  opposed  to  him  not  only  the  now  well  established 
Anti-Slavery  doctrines,  but  also  offered  as  testimony  Underground  Rail 
Road  facts — the  results  of  personal  knowledge  from  daily  proofs  of  the 
heroic  struggles,  marvellous  faith,  and  intense  earnestness  of  the  fugitives. 

In  all  probability  the  Colonel  did  not  feel  prepared  to  deny  wholly  Mr. 
McKim's  statement,  yet,  he  desired  to  see  " some "  for  himself.  "Well," 
said  Mr.  McK.,  "  you  shall  see  some."  So  when  this  arrival  came  to  hand, 
true  to  his  promise,  Mr.  McK.  called  on  the  Colonel  and  invited  him  to 
accompany  him  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road  station.  He  assured  the 


330  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Colonel  that  he  did  not  want  any  money  from  him,  but  simply  wanted  to 
convince  him  of  his  error  in  the  recent  argument  that  they  had  held  on  the 
subject.  Accordingly  the  Colonel  accompanied  him,  and  found  that  twenty- 
two  passengers  had  been  on  hand  within  the  past  twenty-four  hours,  and 
at  least  sixteen  or  seventeen  were  then  in  his  presence.  It  is  needless  to 
say,  that  such  a  sight  admitted  of  no  contradiction — no  argument  — no 
doubt.  The  facts  were  too  self-evident.  The  Colonel  could  say  but  little, 
so  complete  was  his  amazement;  but  he  voluntarily  attested  the  thoroughness 
of  his  conversion  by  pulling  out  of  his  pocket  and  handing  to  Mr.  McK.  a 
twenty  dollar  gold  piece  to  aid  the  passengers  on  to  freedom. 

In  these  hours  of  rest  and  joyful  anticipation  the  necessities  of  both  large 
and  small  were  administered  to  according  to  their  needs,  before  forwarding 
them  still  further.  The  time  and  attention  required  for  so  many  left  but 
little  opportunity,  however,  for  the  Secretary  to  write  their  narratives. 
He  had  only  evening  leisure  for  the  work.  Ten  or  twelve  of  that 
party  had  to  be  sent  off  without  having  their  stories  recorded.  Daniel 
Robertson  was  one  of  this  number ;  his  name  is  simply  entered  on  the 
roll,  and,  but  for  letters  received  from  him,  after  he  passed  on  North, 
no  further  knowledge  would  have  been  obtained.  In  Petersburg,  whence 
he  escaped,  he  left  his  wife,  for  whose  deliverance  he  felt  bound  to  do 
everything  that  lay  in  his  power,  as  the  subjoined  letters  will  attest : 

HAVANA,  August  11,  1856,  Schuylkill  Co.,  N.  Y. 

ME.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir: — I  came  from  Virginia  in  March,  and  was  at  your  office 
the  last  of  March.  My  object  in  writing  you,  is  to  inquire  what  I  can  do,  or  what  can  be 
done  to  help  my  wife  to  escape  from  the  same  bondage  that  I  was  in.  You  will  know 
by  your  books  that  I  was  from  Petersburg,  Va.,  and  that  is  where  my  wife  now  is.  I 
have  received  two  or  three  letters  from  a  lady  in  that  place,  and  the  last.one  says,  that  my 
wife's  mistress  is  dead,  and  that  she  expects  to  be  sold.  I  am  very  anxious  to  do  what  I 
can  for  her  before  it  is  too  late,  and  beg  of  you  to  devise  some  means  to  get  her  away. 
Capt.  the  man  that  brought  me  away,  knows  the  colored  agent  at  Petersburg,  and 
knows  he  will  do  all  he  can  to  forward  my  wife.  The  Capt.  promised,  that  when  I  could 
raise  one  hundred  dollars  for  him  that  he  would  deliver  her  in  Philadelphia.  Tell  him  that 
I  can  now  raise  the  money,  and  will  forward  it  to  you  at  any  day  that  he  thinks  that  he 
can  bring  her.  Please  see  the  Captain  and  find  when  he  will  undertake  it,  and  then  let  me 
know  when  to  forward  the  money  to  you.  I  am  at  work  for  the  Hon.  Charles  Cook,  and 
can  send  the  money  any  day.  My  wife's  name  is  Harriet  Kobertson,  and  the  agent  at 
Petersburg  knows  her. 

Please  direct  your  answer,  with  all  necessary  directions,  to  N.  Coryell,  of  this  village, 
and  he  will  see  that  all  is  right.  Very  respectfully,  DANIEL  KOBEE.TSON. 

HAVANA,  Aug.  18,  1856. 

ME.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir: — Yours  of  the  18th,  for  D.  Robertson,  was  duly  received. 
In  behalf  of  Daniel,  I  thank  you  kindly  for  the  interest  you  manifest  in  him.  The  letters 
that  have  gone  from  him  to  his  friends  in  Virginia,  have  been  written  by  me,  and  sent  in 
such  a  manner  as  we  thought  would  best  ensure  safety.  Yet  I  am  well  aware  of  the  risk 
of  writing,  and  have  restrained  him  as  far  as  possible,  and  the  last  one  I  wrote  was  to  be 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  PRIME  ARTICLES.      331 

the  last,  till  an  effort  was  made  to  reclaim  his  wife.  Daniel  is  a  faithful,  likely  man,  and 
is  well  liked  by  all  who  know  him.  He  is  industrious  and  prudent,  and  is  bending  his 
whole  energies  toward  the  reclaiming  his  wife.  He  can  forward  to  you  the  one  hundred 
dollars  at  any  day  that  it  may  be  wanted,  and  if  you  can  do  anything  to  forward  his  inter- 
ests it  will  be  very  gratefully  received  as  an  additional  favor  on  your  part.  He  asks  for 
no  money,  but  your  kindly  efforts,  which  he  regards  more  highly  than  money. 

Very  respectfully,  N.  COEYEL-L. 

The  letters  that  have  been  written  for  him  were  dated  "  Niagara  Falls,  Canada  West," 
and  his  friends  think  he  is  there — none  of  them  know  to  the  contrary — it  is  important 
that  they  never  do  know.  N.  C. 

HAVANA,  Sept.  29,  1856. 

MR.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir : — I  enclose  herewith  a  draft  on  New  York,  payable  to  your 
order,  for  $100,  to  be  paid  on  the  delivery  at  Philadelphia  of  Daniel  Robertson's  wife. 

You  can  readily  see  that  it  has  been  necessary  for  Daniel  to  work  almost  night  and  day 
to  have  laid  up  so  large  an  amount  of  money,  since  the  first  of  April,  as  this  one  hundred 
dollars.  Daniel  is  industrious  and  prudent,  and  saves  all  of  his  earnings,  above  his  most 
absolute  wants.  If  the  Captain  is  not  successful  in  getting  Daniel's  wife,  you,  of  course, 
will  return  the  draft,  without  charge,  as  you  said.  I  hope  success  will  attend  him,  for 
Daniel  deserves  to  be  rewarded,  if  ever  man  did.  Yours,  &c.  N.  CORYELL. 

HAVANA,  Jan.  2,  1857. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  favor  containing  draft  on  N.  York,  for  Daniel  Robertson,  came  to 
hand  on  the  31st  ult.  Daniel  begs  to  tender  his  acknowledgments  for  your  kind  interest 
manifested  in  his  behalf,  and  says  he  hopes  you  will  leave  no  measure  untried  which  has 
any  appearance  of  success,  and  that  the  money  shall  be  forthcoming  at  a  moment's  notice. 
Daniel  thinks  that  since  Christmas,  the  chances  for  his  wife's  deliverance  are  fewer  than 
before,  for  at  that  time  he  fears  she  was  disposed  of  and  possibly  went  South. 

The  paper  sent  me,  with  your  well- written  article,  was  received,  and  on  reading  it  to 
Daniel,  he  knew  some  of  the  parties  mentioned  in  it — he  was  much  pleased  to  hear  it 
read.  Daniel  spent  New  Year's  in  Elmira,  about  18  miles  from  this  place,  and  there  he 
met  two  whom  he  was  well  acquainted  with.  Yours,  &c.,  N.  CORYELL. 

WM.  STILL,  Esq.,  Phila. 

Such  devotion  to  freedom,  such  untiring  labor,  such  appeals  as  these  letters 
contained  awakened  deep  interest  in  the  breasts  of  Daniel's  new  friends, 
which  spoke  volumes  in  favor  of  the  Slave  and  against  slave-holders.  But, 
alas,  nothing  could  be  done  to  relieve  the  sorrowing  mind  of  poor  Daniel  for 
the  deliverance  of  his  wife  in  chains.  The  Committee  sympathized  deeply 
with  him,  but  could  do  no  more.  What  other  events  followed,  in  Daniel's 
life  as  a  fugitive,  were  never  made  known  to  the  Committee. 

ARTHUR  SPENCE  also  deserves  a  notice.  He  was  from  North  Carolina, 
about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  of  pleasing  appearance,  and  was  heart 
and  soul  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
In  North  Carolina  he  declared  that  he  had  been  heavily  oppressed  by  being 
compelled  to  pay  $175  per  annum  for  his  hire.  In  order  to  get  rid  of  this 
heavy  load,  by  shrewd  management  he  gained  access  to  the  kind-hearted 
Captain  and  procured  an  Underground  Rail  Road  ticket.  In  leaving 


332  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

bondage,  he  was  obliged  to  leave  his  mother,  two  brothers  and  one  sister. 
He  appeared  to  be  composed  of  just  the  kind  of  material  for  making  a  good 
British  subject. 

BEN  DICKINSON.  Ben  was  also  a  slave  in  North  Carolina— located  at 
Eatontown,  being  the  property  of  "  Miss  Ann  Blunt,  who  was  very  hard." 
In  slave  property  Miss  Blunt  was  interested  to  the  number  of  about  "ninety 
head."  She  was  much  in  the  habit  of  hiring  out  servants,  and  in  thus  dis- 
posing of  her  slaves  Ben  thought  she  was  a  great  deal  more  concerned  in 
getting  good  prices  for  herself  than  good  places  for  them.  Indeed  he  de- 
clared that  "she  did  not  care  how  mean  the  place  was,  if  she  could  only  get 
her  price."  For  three  years  Ben  had  Canada  and  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
in  view,  having  been  "  badly  treated."  At  last  the  long-looked  for  time 
arrived,  and  he  conferred  neither  with  master  nor  mistress,  but  "  picked 
himself  up  "  and  "  took  out."  Age  twenty-eight,  medium  size,  quite  dark, 
a  good  carpenter,  and  generally  intelligent.  Left  two  sisters,  etc. 

Of  this  heroic  and  promising  party  we  can  only  mention,  in  conclusion, 
one  more  passenger,  namely: 

TOM  PAGE.  At  the  time  of  his  arrival,  his  name  only  was  enrolled  on 
the  book.  Yet  he  was  not  a  passenger  soon  to  be  forgotten — he  was  but  a 
mere  boy,  probably  eighteen  years  of  age ;  but  a  more  apt,  ready-witted, 
active,  intelligent  and  self-reliant  fellow  is  not  often  seen. 

Judging  from  his  smartness,  under  slavery,  with  no  chances,  it  was  easy 
to  imagine  how  creditably  he  might  with  a  white  boy's  chances  have 
climbed  the  hill  of  art  and  science.  Obviously  he  had  intellect  enough, 
if  properly  cultivated,  to  fill  any  station  within  the  ordinary  reach  of 
intelligent  American  citizens.  He  could  read  and  write  remarkably  well  for 
a  slave,  and  well  did  he  understand  his  advantages  in  this  particular ;  indeed 
if  slave-holders  had  only  been  aware  of  the  growing  tendency  of  Tom's 
mind,  they  would  have  rejoiced  at  hearing  of  his  departure  for  Canada ;  he 
was  a  most  dangerous  piece  of  property  to  be  growing  up  amongst  slaves. 

After  leaving  the  Committee  and  going  North  his  uncaged  mind  felt  the 
need  of  more  education,  and  at  the  same  time  he  was  eager  to  make  money, 
and  do  something  in  life.  As  he  had  no  one  to  depend  on,  parents  and 
relatives  being  left  behind  in  Norfolk,  he  felt  that  he  must  rely  upon 
himself,  young  as  he  was.  He  first  took  up  his  abode  in  Boston,  or 
New  Bedford,  where  most  of  the  party  with  whom  he  escaped  went,  and 
where  he  had  an  aunt,  and  perhaps  some  other  distant  kin.  There  he 
worked  and  was  a  live  young  man  indeed — among  the  foremost  in  ideas  and 
notions  about  freedom,  etc.,  as  many  letters  from  him  bore  evidence.  After 
spending  a  year  or  more  in  Massachusetts,  he  had  a  desire  to  see  how  the 
fugitives  were  doing  in  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  and  if  any  better  chances 
existed  in  these  parts  for  men  of  his  stamp. 

Some  of  his  letters,  from  different  places,  gave  proof  of  real  thought 


CAPTAIN  F.  ARRIVES  WITH  FOURTEEN  PRIME  ARTICLES.      333 

and  close  observation,  but  they  were  not  generally  saved,  probably  were 
loaned  to  be  read  by  friendly  eyes.  Nevertheless  the  two  subjoined  will,  in 
a  measure,  suffice  to  give  some  idea  of  his  intelligence,  etc. 

BOSTON,  Mass.,  Feb.  25th,  1857. 

WILLIAM  STILL,  Esq. : — Dear  Sir — I  have  not  heard  from  you  for  some  time.  I  take 
this  opportunity  of  writing  you  a  few  lines  to  let  you  and  all  know  that  I  am  well  at 
present  and  thank  God  for  it.  Dear  Sir,  I  hear  that  the  under  ground  railroad  was  in 
operation.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that.  Give  my  best  respects  to  your  family  and  also  to 
Dr.  L.,  Mr.  Warrick,  Mr.  Camp  and  familys,  to  Mr.  Fisher,  Mr.  Taylor  to  all  Friends 
names  too  numerous  to  mention.  Please  to  let  me  know  when  the  road  arrived  with 
another  cargo.  I  want  to  come  to  see  you  all  before  long,  if  nothing  happens  and  life 
lasts.  Mrs.  Gault  requested  me  to  learn  of  you  if  you  ask  Mr.  Bagnal  if  he  will  see 
father  and  what  he  says  about  the  children.  Please  to  answer  as  soon  as  possible.  No 
more  at  present  from  a  friend,  THOMAS  F.  PAGE. 

NIAGABA  FALLS,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  6th,  '58. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  received  your  kind  letter  and  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you  and  your 
family.  This  leaves  me  well,  and  I  hope  when  this  comes  to  hand  it  may  find  you  the 
same.  I  have  seen  a  large  number  of  your  U.  G.  R.  E,.  friends  in  my  travels  through  the 
Eastern  as  well  as  the  Western  States.  Well  there  are  a  good  many  from  my  own  city 
who  I  know — some  I  talk  to  on  private  matters  and  some  I  wont.  Well  around  here 
there  are  so  many — Tom,  Dick  and  Harry — that  you  do  not  know  who  your  friend  is. 
So  it  don't  hurt  any  one  to  be  careful.  Well,  somehow  or  another,  I  do  not  like  Canada, 
or  the  Provinces.  I  have  been  to  St.  John,  N.  B.,  Lower  Province,  or  Lower  Canada, 
also  St.  Catharines,  C.  W.,  and  all  around  the  Canada  side,  and  I  do  not  like  it  at  all.  The 
people  seem  to  be  so  queer — though  I  suppose  if  I  had  of  went  to  Canada  when  I  first 
came  North  to  live,  I  might  like  it  by  this  time.  I  was  home  when  Aunt  had  her  Ambro- 
type  taken  for  you.  She  often  speaks  of  your  kindness  to  her.  There  are  a  number  of 
your  friends  wishes  you  well.  My  little  brother  is  going  to  school  in  Boston.  The  lady, 
Mrs.  Hillard,  that  my  Aunt  lives  with,  thinks  a  good  deal  of  him.  He  is  very  smart  and 
I  think,  if  he  lives,  he  may  be  of  some  account.  Do  you  ever  see  my  old  friend,  Capt. 
Fountain  ?  Please  to  give  my  love  to  him,  and  tell  him  to  come  to  Boston,  as  there  are 
a  number  of  his  friends  that  would  like  to  see  him.  My  best  respects  to  all  friends.  I  must 
now  bring  my  short  epistle  to  a  close,  by  saying  I  remain  your  friend  truly, 

THOMAS  F.  PAGE. 

While  a  portion  of  the  party,  on  hand  with  him,  came  as  passengers  with 
Capt.  F.,  another  portion  was  brought  by  Capt.  B.,  both  parties  arriving 
within  twelve  hours  of  each  other  ;  and  both  had  likewise  been  frozen  up 
on  the  route  for  weeks  with  their  respective  live  freight  on  board. 

The  sufferings  for  food,  which  they  were  called  upon  to  endure,  were  be- 
yond description.  They  happened  to  have  plenty  of  salt  fat  pork,  and  per- 
haps beans,  Indian  meal  and  some  potatoes  for  standing  dishes ;  the  more 
delicate  necessaries  did  not  probably  last  longer  than  the  first  or  second  week 
of  their  ice-bondage. 

Without  a  doubt,  one  of  these  Captains  left  Norfolk  about  the  twentieth 
of  January,  but  did  not  reach  Philadelphia  till  about  the  twentieth  of 


334  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

March,  having  been  frozen  up,  of  course,  during  the  greater  part  of  that 
time.  Men,  women  and  children  were  alike  sharers  in  the  common  struggle 
for  freedom — were  alike  an  hungered,  in  prison,  naked,  and  sick,  but  it  was 
a  fearful  thing  in  those  days  for  even  women  and  children  to  whisper  their 
sad  lamentations  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  except  to  those  friendly  to  the 
Underground  Rail  Road. 

Doubtless,  if  these  mothers,  with  their  children  and  partners  in  tribula- 
tion, could  have  been  seen  as  they  arrived  direct  from  the  boats,  many  hearts 
would  have  melted,  and  many  tears  would  have  found  their  way  down  many 
cheeks.  But  at  that  time  cotton  was  acknowledged  to  be  King — the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  was  supreme,  and  the  notorious  decision  of  Judge  Taney, 
that  "black  men  had  no  rights  which  white  men  were  bound  to  respect," 
echoed  the  prejudices  of  the  masses  too  clearly  to  have  made  it  safe  to  reveal 
the  fact  of  their  arrival,  or  even  the  heart-rending  condition  of  these  Fugi- 
tives. 

Nevertheless,  they  were  not  turned  away  empty,  though  at  a  peril  they 
were  fed,  aided,  and  comforted,  and  sent  away  well  clothed.  Indeed,  so 
bountifully  were  the  women  and  children  supplied,  that  as  they  were  being 
conveyed  to  the  Camden  and  Amboy  station,  they  looked  more  like  a  plea- 
suring party  than  like  fugitives.  Some  of  the  good  friends  of  the  slave 
sent  clothing,  and  likewise  cheered  them  with  their  presence. 

[Before  the  close  of  this  volume,  such  friends  and  sympathizers  will  be 
more  particularly  noticed  in  an  appropriate  place.] 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS— LATTER  PART  OF  DECEMBER,  1855, 
AND  BEGINNING  OF  JANUARY,  1856. 

JOSEPH  CORNISH,  Dorchester  Co.,  Md.;  LEWIS  FRANCIS,  alias  LEWIS 
JOHNSON,  Harford  Co.,  Md.;  ALEXANDER  MUNSON,  Chestertown,  Md. ; 
SAMUEL  and  ANN  SCOTT,  Cecil  Cross-Roads,  Md.;  WM.  HENRY  LAM- 
INSON,  Del.;  ISAAC  STOUT,  alias  GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  CAROLINE 
GRAVES,  Md.;  HENRY  and  ELIZA  WASHINGTON,  Alexandria,  Va.; 
HENRY  CHAMBERS,  JOHN  CHAMBERS,  SAMUEL  FALL,  and  THOMAS 
ANDERSON,  Md. 

JOSEPH  CORNISH  was  about  forty  years  of  age  when  he  escaped.  The 
heavy  bonds  of  Slavery  made  him  miserable.  He  was  a  man  of 
much  natural  ability,  quite  dark,  well-made,  and  said  that  he  had  been 
"  worked  very  hard."  According  to  his  statement,  he  had  been  an  "  accep- 
table preacher  in  the  African  Methodist  Church,"  and  was  also  "  respected 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  335 

by  the  respectable  white  and  colored  people  in  his  neighborhood."  He  would 
not  have  escaped  but  for  fear  of  being  sold,  as  he  had  a  wife  and  five  chil- 
dren to  whom  he  was  very  much  attached,  but  had  to  leave  them  behind. 
Fortunately  they  were  free. 

Of  his  ministry  and  connection  with  the  Church,  he  spoke  with  feelings 
of  apparent  solemnity,  evidently  under  the  impression  that  the  little  flock 
he  left  would  be  without  a  shepherd.  Of  his  master,  Captain  Samuel  Le 
Count,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  he  had  not  one  good  word  to  speak ;  at  least 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  found  on  the  Record  Book ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
he  declared  that  "he  was  very  hard  on  his  servants,  allowing  them  no 
chance  whatever  to  make  a  little  ready  money  for  themselves."  So  in  turn- 
ing his  face  towards  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  his  back  against 
slavery,  he  felt  that  he  was  doing  God  service. 

The  Committee  regarded  him  as  a  remarkable  man,  and  was  much  im- 
pressed with  his  story,  and  felt  it  to  be  a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  aid  him. 

LEWIS  FRANCIS  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  twenty-seven  years  of  age, 
good-looking  and  intelligent.  He  stated  that  he  belonged  to  Mrs.  Delinas, 
of  Abingdon,  Harford  Co.,  Md.,  but  that  he  had  been  hired  out  from  a  boy 
to  a  barber  in  Baltimore.  For  his  hire  his  mistress  received  eight  dollars 
per  month. 

To  encourage  Lewis,  his  kind-hearted  mistress  allowed  him  out  of  his 
own  wages  the  sum  of  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  annum  !  His  cloth- 
ing he  got  as  best  he  could,  but  nothing  did  she  allow  him  for  that  purpose. 
Even  with  this  arrangement  she  had  been  dissatisfied  of  late  years,  and 
thought  she  was  not  getting  enough  out  of  Lewis;  she,  therefore,  talked 
strongly  of  selling  him.  This  threat  was  very  annoying  to  Lewis, 
so  much  so,  that  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  one  day  let  her  see, 
that  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  it  was  easier  to  talk  of  selling  than  it  would 
be  to  carry  out  her  threat. 

With  this  growing  desire  for  freedom  he  gained  what  little  light  he  could 
on  the  subject  of  traveling,  Canada,  etc.,  and  at  a  given  time  off  he  started 
on  his  journey  and  found  his  way  to  the  Committee,  who  imparted  substan- 
tial aid  as  usual. 

ALEXANDER  Muxsox,  alias  Samuel  Garrett.  This  candidate  for  Canada 
was  only  eighteen  years  of  age ;  a  well-grown  lad,  however,  and  had  the 
one  idea  that  "  all  men  were  born  free  "  pretty  deeply  rooted  in  his  mind. 
He  was  quite  smart,  and  of  a  chestnut  color.  By  the  will  of  his  original 
owner,  the  slaves  were  all  entitled  to  their  freedom,  but  it  appeared,  from 
Alexander's  story,  that  the  executor  of  the  estate  did  not  regard  this  freedom 
clause  in  the  will.  He  had  already  sold  some  of  the  slaves,  and  others — 
he  among  them — were  expecting  to  be  sold  before  coming  into  possession  of 
their  freedom.  Two  of  them  had  been  sold  to  Alabama,  therefore,  with 
these  evil  warnings,  young  Alexander  resolved  to  strike  out  at  once  for 


336  THE     UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Canada,  despite  Maryland  slave-holders.  With  this  bold  and  manly  spirit 
he  succeeded,  of  course. 

ANXA  SCOTT  and  husband,  Samuel  Scott.  This  couple  escaped  from  Cecil 
Cross-Roads,  Md.  The  wife,  in  this  instance,  evidently  took  the  lead,  and 
acted  the  more  manly  part  in  striking  for  freedom ;  therefore,  our  notice  of 
this  arrival  will  chiefly  relate  to  her. 

Anna  was  owned  by  a  widow,  named  Mrs.  Ann  Elizabeth  Lushy,  who 
resided  on  a  farm  of  her  own.  Fifteen  slaves,  with  other  stock,  were 
kept  on  the  place.  She  was  accustomed  to  rule  with  severity,  being  governed 
by  a  "high  temper,"  and  in  nowise  disposed  to  allow  her  slaves  to  enjoy 
even  ordinary  privileges,  and  besides,  would  occasionally  sell  to  the  Southern 
market.  She  was  calculated  to  render  slave  life  very  unhappy.  Anna  por- 
trayed her  mistress's  treatment  of  the  slaves  with  much  earnestness,  espe- 
cially when  referring  to  the  sale  of  her  own  brother  and  sister.  Upon  the 
whole,  the  mistress  was  so  hateful  to  Anna,  that  she -resolved  not  to  live  in 
the  house  with  her.  During  several  years  prior  to  her  escape,  Anna  had 
been  hired  out,  where  she  had  been  treated  a  little  more  decently  than  her 
mistress  was  wont  to  do;  on  this  account  she  was  less  willing  to  put  up  with 
any  subsequent  abuse  from  her  mistress. 

To  escape  was  the  only  remedy,  so  she  made  up  her  mind,  that  she  would 
leave  at  all  hazards.  She  gave  her  husband  to  understand,  that  she 
had  resolved  to  seek  a  home  in  Canada.  Fortunately,  he  was  free,  but 
slavery  had  many  ways  of  putting  the  yoke  on  the  colored  man,  even  though 
he  might  be  free;  it  was  bound  to  keep  him  in  ignorance,  and  at  the  same 
time  miserably  abject,  so  that  he  would  scarcely  dare  to  look  up  in  the 
presence  of  white  people. 

SAM,  apparently,  was  one  of  the  number  who  had  been  greatly  wronged 
in  this  particular.  He  had  less  spirit  than  his  wife,  who  had  been 
directly  goaded  to  desperation.  He  agreed,  however,  to  stand  by  her 
in  her  struggles  while  fleeing,  and  did  so,  for  which  he  deserves 
credit.  It  must  be  admitted,  that  it  required  some  considerable  nerve 
for  a  free  man  even  to  join  his  wife  in  an  effort  of  this  character. 
In  setting  out,  Anna  had  to  leave  her  father  (Jacob  Trusty),  seven  sis- 
ters and  two  brothers.  The  names  of  the  sisters  were  as  follows:  Erne- 
line,  Susan  Ann,  Delilah,  Mary  Eliza,  Rosetta,  Effie  Ellender  and  Eliza- 
beth; the  brothers — Emson  and  Perry.  For  the  commencement  of  their 
journey  they  availed  themselves  of  the  Christmas  holidays,  but  had  to  suffer 
from  the  cold  weather  they  encountered.  Yet  they  got  along  tolerably  well, 
and  were  much  cheered  by  the  attention  and  aid  they  received  from  the 
Committee. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  LAMINSON  came  from  near  Newcastle,  Delaware.  He 
was  smart  enough  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  escape  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one.  As  he  had  given  the  matter  his  fullest  attention  for  a  long 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  337 

time,  he  was  prepared  to  make  rapid  progress  when  he  did  start,  and  as  he 
had  no  great  distance  to  travel  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  while  his  master  was 
one  night  sleeping  soundly,  this  young  piece  of  property  (worth  at  least 
$1,000  in  the  market),  was  crossing  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  and  steering 
directly  for  Canada.  Francis  Harkins  was  the  name  of  the  master.  William 
did  not  give  him  a  very  bad  character. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON  GOOSEBERRY,  alias  Isaac  Stout,  also  took  advan- 
tage of  the  holidays  to  separate  from  his  old  master,  Anthony  Rybold,  a 
farmer  living  near  Newcastle,  Delaware.  Nothing  but  the  desire  to  be  free 
moved  George  to  escape.  He  was  a  young  man  about  twenty -three  years  of 
age,  of  a  pure  black  color,  in  stature,  medium  size,  and  well-made.  Nothing 
remarkable  is  noted  in  the  book  in  any  way  connected  with  his  life  or  escape. 

CAROLINE  GRAVES.  Caroline  was  of  the  bond  class  belonging  to  the 
State  of  Maryland.  Having  reached  the  age  of  forty  without  being 
content,  and  seeing  no  bright  prospect  in  the  future,  she  made  up  her 
mind  to  break  away  from  the  bonds  of  Slavery  and  seek  a  more  congenial 
atmosphere  among  strangers  in  Canada.  She  had  had  the  privilege  of  trying 
two  masters  in  her  life-time;  the  first  she  admitted  was  "kind"  to  her,  but 
the  latter  was  "  cruel."  After  arriving  in  Canada,  she  wrote  back  as  fol- 
lows: 

g  TORONTO,  Jan.  22,  1856. 

DEAR  SIR  : — WILLIAM  STILL — 1  have  found  my  company  they  arrived  here  on  monday 
eving  I  found  them  on  tusday  evening.  Please  to  be  so  kind  as  to  send  them  boxes  we 
are  here  without  close  to  ware  we  have  some  white  frendes  is  goin  to  pay  for  them  at  thia 
end  of  the  road.  The  reason  that  we  send  this  note  we  are  afraid  the  outher  one  woudent 
go  strait  because  it  wasent  derected  wright.  Please  to  send  them  by  the  express  then 
thay  wont  be  lost.  Please  to  derect  these  boxes  for  Carline  Graives  in  the  car  of  mrs. 
Brittion.  Please  to  send  the  bil  of  the  boxes  on  with  them.  Mrs.  Brittion,  Lousig  street 
near  young  street. 

GEORGE  GRAHAM  and  wife,  Jane,  alias  Henry  Washington  and  Eliza. 
The  cold  weather  of  January  was  preferred,  in  this  instance,  for  traveling. 
Indeed  matters  were  so  disagreeable  with  them  that  they  could  not  tarry  in 
their  then  quarters  any  longer.  George  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  quite 
smart,  pleasant  countenance,  and  of  dark  complexion. 

He  had  experienced  "rough  usage"  all  the  way  along  through  life,  not  un- 
frequently  from  severe  floggings.  Twice,  within  the  last  year,  he  had  been 
sold.  In  order  to  prevent  a  renewal  of  these  inflictions  he  resorted  to  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  with  his  wife,  to  whom  he  had  only  been  married 
six  months. 

In  one  sense,  they  appeared  to  be  in  a  sad  condition,  it  being  the  dead  of 

winter,  but   their   condition   in  Alexandria,   under  a   brutal   master  and 

mistress  which  both  had  the  misfortune  to  have,  was  much  sadder.     To 

give  all  their  due,  however,  George's  wife  acknowledged,  that  she   had 

22 


338  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

been  "well  treated  under  her  old  mistress,"  but  through  a  change,  she  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  "new  one,"  by  whom  her  life  had  been  rendered 
most  "  miserable ;"  so  much  so,  that  she  was  willing  to  do  almost  anything 
to  get  rid  of  her,  and  was,  therefore,  driven  to  join  her  husband  in  running 
away. 

HENRY  CHAMBERS,  John  Chambers,  Samuel  Fall,  and  Jonathan  Fisher. 
This  party  represented  the  more  promising-looking  field-hand  slave  popula- 
tion of  Maryland.  Henry  and  John  were  brothers,  twenty-four  and  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  stout  made,  chestnut  color,  good-looking,  but  in  height 
not  quite  medium.  Henry  "  owed  service  or  labor,"  to  a  fellow-man  by  the 
name  of  William  Rybold,  a  farmer  living  near  Sassafras  Neck,  Md.  Henry 
evidently  felt,  that  he  did  master  Rybold  no  injustice  in  testifying  that  he 
knew  no  good  of  him,  although  he  had  labored  under  him  like  a  beast  of 
burden  all  his  days.  He  had  been  "  clothed  meanly,"  and  "  poorly  fed." 
He  also  alleged,  that  his  mistress  was  worse  than  his  master,  as  she  would 
"think  nothing  of  knocking  and  beating  the  slave  women  for  nothing." 
John  was  owned  by  Thomas  Murphy.  From  that  day  to  this,  Thomas  may 
have  been  troubling  his  brain  to  know  why  his  man  John  treated  him  so 
shabbily  as  to  leave  him  in  the  manner  that  he  did.  Jack  had  a  good  reason 
for  his  course,  nevertheless.  In  his  corn  field-phrase  he  declared,  that  his 
master  Murphy  would  not  give  you  half  clothes,  and  besides  he  was  a  "  hard 
man,"  who  kept  Jack  working  out  on  hire.  Thereiore,  feeling  his  wrongs 
keenly,  Jack  decided,  with  his  other  friends,  to  run  off  and  be  free. 

SAM,  another  comrade,  was  also  owned  by  William  Rybold.  Sam  had 
just  arrived  at  his  maturity  (twenty-one),  when  he  was  invited  to  join 
in  the  plot  to  escape.  At  first,  it  might  be  thought  strange,  why  one  so 
young  should  seek  to  escape.  A  few  brief  words  from  Sam  soon  explained 
the  mystery.  It  was  this :  his  master,  as  he  said,  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
tying  him  up  by  the  hands  and  flogging  him  unmercifully;  besides,  in 
the  allowance  of  food  and  clothing,  he  always  "  stinted  the  slaves  yet  worked 
them  very  hard."  Sam's  chances  for  education  had  been  very  unfavorable, 
but  he  had  mind  enough  to  know  that  liberty  was  worth  struggling  for. 
He  was  willing  to  make  the  trial  with  the  other  boys.  He  was  of  a  dark 
chestnut  color,  and  of  medium  size. 

JONATHAN  belonged  to  A.  Rybold,  and  was  only  nineteen  years  of  age. 
All  that  need  be  said  in  relation  to  his  testimony,  is,  that  it  agreed  with  his 
colleague's  and  fellow-servant's,  Samuel.  Before  starting  on  their  journey, 
they  felt  the  need  of  new  names,  and  in  putting  their  wits  together,  they 
soon  fixed  this  matter  by  deciding  to  pass  in  future  by  the  following  names: 
James  and  David  Green,  John  Henry,  and  Jonathan  Fisher. 

In  the  brief  sketches  given  in  this  chapter,  some  lost  ones,  seeking  inform- 
ation of  relatives,  may  find  comfort,  even  if  the  general  reader  should  fail  to 
be  interested. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  339 


PART  OF  THE  ARRIVALS  IX  DECEMBER,  1855. 

THOMAS  JERVJS  GOOSEBERRY  and  WILLIAM  THOMAS  FREEMAX,  alias 
EZEKIEL  CHAMBERS  ;  HENRY  HOOPER  ;  JACOB  HALL,  alias  HENRY 
THOMAS,  and  wife,  HENRIETTA  and  child;  Two  men  from  near 
Chester-town,  Md. ;  FENTON  JONES  ;  MARY  CURTIS  ;  WILLIAM 
BROWN;  CHARLES  HENRY  BROWN;  OLIVER  PURNELL  and  ISAAC 
FIDGET. 

THOMAS  JERVIS  GOOSEBERRY  and  WILLIAM  THOMAS  FREEMAN.  The 
coming  of  this  party  was  announced  in  the  subjoined  letter: 

SCHUYLKILL,  llth  Mo.,  29th,  1855. 

WILLIAM  STILL  :  DEAR  FRIEND  : — Those  boys  will  be  along  by  the  last  Norristown 
train  to-morrow  evening.  I  think  the  train  leaves  Norristown  at  6  o'clock,  but  of  this 
inform  thyself.  The  boys  will  be  sent  to  a  friend  at  Norristown,  with  instructions  (o 
assist  them  in  getting  seats  in  the  last  train  that  leaves  Norristown  to-morrow  evening. 
They  are  two  of  the  eleven  who  left  some  time  since,  and  took  with  them  some  of  their 
master's  horses ;  I  have  told  them  to  remain  in  the  cars  at  Green  street  until  somebody 
meets  them.  E.  F.  PENNYP  ACKER. 

Having  arrived  safely,  by  the  way  and  manner  indicated  in  E.  F.  Penny- 
packer's  note,  as  they  were  found  to  be  only  sixteen  and  seventeen  years  of 
age,  considerable  interest  was  felt  by  the  Acting  Committee  to  hear  their 
story.  They  were  closely  questioned  in  the  usual  manner.  They  proved  to 
be  quite  intelligent,  considering  how  young  they  were,  and  how  the  harrow 
of  Slavery  had  been  upon  them  from  infancy. 

They  escaped  from  Chestertown,  Md.,  in  company  with  nine  others  (they 
being  a  portion  of  the  eleven  who  arrived  in  Wilmington,  with  two  car- 
riages, etc.,  noticed  on  page  302),  but,  for  prudential  reasons  they  were 
separated  while  traveling.  Some  were  sent  on,  but  the  boys  had  to  be 
retained  with  friends  in  the  country.  Many  such  separations  were  inevit- 
able. In  this  respect  a  great  deal  of  care  and  trouble  had  to  be  endured 
for  the  sake  of  the  cause. 

THOMAS  JERVIS,  the  elder  boy,  was  quite  dark,  and  stammered  somewhat, 
yet  he  was  active  and  smart.  «He  stated  that  Sarah  Maria  Perkins  was 
his  mistress  in  Maryland.  He  was  disposed  to  speak  rather  favorably  of 
her,  at  least  he  said  that  she  was  "tolerably  kind"  to  her  servants.  She, 
however,  was  in  the  habit  of  hiring  out,  to  reap  a  greater  revenue  for 
them,  and  did  not  always  get  them  places  where  they  were  treated  as  well 
as  she  herself  treated  them.  Tom  left  his  father,  Thomas  Gooseberry,  and 
three  sisters,  Julia  Ann,  Mary  Ellen,  and  Katie  Bright,  all  slaves. 


340  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

EZEKIEL,  the  younger  boy,  was  of  a  chestnut  color,  clever-looking,  smart, 
and  well-grown,  just  such  an  one  as  a  father  enjoying  the  blessings  of  educa- 
tion and  citizenship,  might  have  felt  a  considerable  degree  of  pride  in.  He 
was  owned  by  a  man  called  John  Dwa,  who  followed  "farming  and  drink- 
ing," and  when  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  was  disposed  to  ill-treat  the 
slaves.  Ezekiel  had  not  seen  his  mother  for  many  years,  although  she  was 
living  in  Baltimore,  and  was  known  by  the  name  of  u  Dorcas  Denby." 
He  left  no  brothers  nor  sisters. 

The  idea  of  boys,  so  young  and  inexperienced  as  they  were,  being  thrown 
on  the  world,  gave  occasion  for  serious  reflection.  Still  the  Committee  were 
rejoiced  that  they  were  thus  early  in  life,  getting  away  from  the  "Sum  of  all 
villanies."  In  talking  with  them,  the  Committee  endeavored  to  impress 
them  with  right  ideas  as  to  how  they  should  walk  in  life,  aided  them,  of 
course,  and  sent  them  off  with  a  double  share  of  advice.  What  has  been 
their  destiny  since,  is  not  known. 

HENRY  HOOPEE,  a  young  man  of  nineteen  years  of  age,  came  from 
Maryland,  in  December,  in  a  subsequent  Underground  Rail  Road  arrival. 
That  he  came  in  good  order,  and  was  aided  and  sent  off,  was  fully  enough 
stated  on  the  book,  but  nothing  else ;  space,  however  was  left  for  the  writing 
out  of  his  narrative,  but  it  was  never  filled  up.  Probably  the  loose  sheet 
on  which  the  items  were  jotted  down,  was  lost. 

JACOB  HALL,,  alias  Henry  Thomas,  wife  Henrietta,  and  child,  were  also 
among  the  December  passengers.  On  the  subject  of  freedom  they  were 
thoroughly  converted.  Although  Jacob  was  only  about  twenty  years  of 
age,  he  had  seen  enough  of  Slavery  under  his  master,  "  Major  William 
Hutchins,"  whom  he  described  as  a  "farmer,  commissioner,  drunkard,  and 
hard  master,"  to  know  that  no  hope  could  be  expected  from  him,  but  if  he 
remained,  he  would  daily  have  to  be  under  the  "harrow."  The  desire  to 
work  for  himself  was  so  strong,  that  he  could  not  reconcile  his  mind  to  the 
demands  of  Slavery.  While  meditating  upon  freedom,  he  concluded  to 
make  an  effort  with  his  wife  and  child  to  go  to  Canada. 

His  wife,  Henrietta,  who  was  then  owned  by  a  woman  named  Sarah  Ann 
McGough,  was  as  unhappily  situated  as  himself.  Indeed  Henrietta  had 
come  to  the  conclusion,  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  for  a  servant  to 
please  her  mistress,  it  mattered  not  how  hard  she  might  try ;  she  also  said, 
that  her  mistress  drank,  and  that  made  her  "wus." 

Besides,  she  had  sold  Henrietta's  brother1  and  sister,  and  was  then  taking 
steps  to  sell  her, — had  just  had  her  appraised  with  this  view.  It  was  quite 
easy,  therefore,  looking  at  their  condition  in  the  light  of  these  plain  facts, 
for  both  husband  and  wife  to  agree,  that  they  could  not  make  their  condi- 
tion any  worse,  even  if  they  should  be  captured  in  attempting  to  escape. 
Henrietta  also  remembered,  that  years  before  her  mother  had  escaped,  and 
got  off  to  Canada,  which  was  an  additional  encouragement.  Thus,  as  her 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  341 

own  faith  was  strengthened,  she  could  strengthen  that  of  her  hus- 
band. 

Their  little  child  they  resolved  to  cling  to  through  thick  and  thin ;  so,  in 
order  that  they  might  not  have  so  far  to  carry  him,  father  and  mother  each 
bridled  a  horse  and"lpok  out"  in  the  direction  of  the -first  Underground 
Eail  Road  station.  Their  faithful  animals  proved  of  incalculable  service, 
but  they  were  obliged  to  turn  them  loose  on  the  road  without  even  having 
the  opportunity  or  pleasure  of  rewarding  them  with  a  bountiful  feed  of  oats. 

Although  they  had  strange  roads,  woods  and  night  scenes  to  pass  through, 
yet  they  faltered  not.  They  found  friends  and  advisers  on  the  road,  however, 
and  reached  the  Committee  in  safety,  who  was  made  to  rejoice  that  such 
promising-looking  "  property  "  could  come  out  of  Ladies'  Manor,  Maryland. 
The  Committee  felt  that  they  had  acted  wisely  in  taking  the  horses  to 
assist  them  the  first  night. 

The  next  arrival  is  recorded  thus:  "Dec.  10,  1855.  Arrived,  two  men 
from  near  Chestertown,  Md.  They  came  to  Wilmington  in  a  one  horse 
wagon,  and  through  aid  of  T.  G.  they  were  sent  on."  (Further  account  at 
the  time,  written  on  a  loose  piece  of  paper,  is  among  the  missing). 

FENTON  JONES  escaped  from  Frederick,  Md.  After  arriving  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Ercildoun,  Pa.,  he  was  induced  to  tarry  awhile  for  the 
purpose  of  earning  means  to  carry  him  still  farther.  But  he  was  soon 
led  to  apprehend  danger,  and  was  advised  and  directed  to  apply  to  the 
Vigilance  Committee  of  Philadelphia  for  the  needed  aid,  which  he  did,  and 
was  dispatched  forthwith  to  Canada. 

About  the  same  time  a  young  woman  arrived,  calling  herself  Mary  Curtis. 
She  was  from  Baltimore,  and  was  prompted  to  escape  to  keep  from  being 
sold.  She  was  nineteen  years  of  age,  small  size,  dark  complexion.  No 
special  incidents  in  her  life  were  noted. 

WILLIAM  BROWN  came  next.  If  others  had  managed  to  make  their  way 
out  of  the  prison-house  without  great  difficulties,  it  was  far  from  William 
to  meet  with  such  good  luck,  as  he  had  suifered  excessively  for  five  weeks 
while  traveling.  It  was  an  easy  matter  for  a  traveler  to  get  lost,  not  know- 
ing the  roads,  nor  was  it  safe  to  apply  to  a  stranger  for  information  or  direc- 
tion— therefore,  in  many  instances,  the  journey  would  either  have  to  be  given 
up,  or  be  prosecuted,  suffering  almost  to  the  death. 

In  the  trying  circumstances  in  which  William  found  himself,  dark  as 
everything  looked,  he  could  not  consent  to  return  to  his  master,  as  he  felt 
persuaded,  that  if  he  did,  there  would  be  no  rest  on  earth  for  him.  He 
well  remembered,  that,  because  he  had  resisted  being  flogged  (being  high 
spirited),  his  master  had  declined  to  sell  him  for  the  express  purpose  of 
making  an  example  of  him — as  a  warning  to  the  other  slaves  on  the  place. 
William  was  as  much  opposed  to  being  thus  made  use  of  as  he  was  to  being 


342  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

flogged.  His  reflections  and  his  stout  heart  enabled  him  to  endure  five 
weeks  of  severe  suffering  while  fleeing  from  oppression.  Of  course,  when 
he  did  succeed,  the  triumph  was  unspeakably  joyous.  Doubtless,  he  had 
thought  a  great  deal  during  this  time,  and  being  an  intelligent  fugitive,  he 
interested  the  Committee  greatly.  » 

The  man  that  he  escaped  from  was  called  William  Elliott,  a  farmer,  living 
in  Prince  George's  county,  Md.  William  Elliott  claimed  the  right  to  flog 
and  used  it  too.  William,  however,  gave  him  the  character  of  being 
among  the  moderate  slave-holders  of  that  part  of  the  country.  This  was 
certainly  a  charitable  view.  William  was  of  a  chestnut  color,  well  made, 
and  would  have  commanded,  under  the  "  hammer,"  a  high  price,  if  his  ap- 
parent intelligence  had  not  damaged  him.  He  left  his  father,  grand-mother, 
four  sisters  and  two  brothers,  all  living  where  he  fled  from. 

CHARLES  HENRY  BROWN.  This  "  chattel  "  was  owned  by  Dr.  Richard 
Dorsey,  of  Cambridge,  Maryland.  Up  to  twenty.-seven  years  of  age,  he  had 
experienced  and  observed  how  slaves  were  treated  in  his  neighborhood,  and 
he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  was  not  in  favor  of  'the  Institution  in  any 
form  whatever.  Indeed  he  felt,  that  for  a  man  to  put  his  hand  in  his  neigh- 
bor's pocket  and  rob  him,  was  nothing  compared  to  the  taking  of  a  man's 
hard  earnings  from  year  to  year.  Really  Charles  reasoned  the  case  so  well, 
in  his  uncultured  country  phrases,  that  the  Committee  was  rather  surprised, 
and  admired  his  spirit  in  escaping.  He  was  a  man  of  not  quite  medium 
size,  with  marked  features  of  mind  and  character. 

OLIVER  PURNELL  and  ISAAC  FIDGET  arrived  from  Berlin,  Md.  Each 
had  different  owners.  Oliver  stated  that  Mose  Purnell  had  owned  him, 
and  that  he  was  a  tolerably  moderate  kind  of  a  slave-holder,  although  he 
was  occasionally  subject  to  fractious  turns.  Oliver  simply  gave  as  his  reason 
for  leaving  in  the  manner  that  he  did,  that  he  wanted  his  "  own  earnings." 
He  felt  that  he  had  as  good  a  right  to  the  fruit  of  his  labor  as  anybody  else. 
Despite  all  the  pro-slavery  teachings  he  had  listened  to  all  his  life,  he  was 
far  from  siding  with  the  pro-slavery  doctrines.  He  was  about  twenty-six 
years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  wide  awake  and  a  man  of  promise ;  yet  it 
was  sadly  obvious  that  he  had  been  blighted  and  cursed  by  slavery  even  in 
its  mildest  forms  He  left  his  parents,  two  brothers  and  three  sisters  all 
slaves  in  the  hands  of  Purnell,  the  master  whom  he  deserted. 

ISAAC,  his  companion,  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  dark,  and  in  intellect 
about  equal  to  the  average  passengers  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He 
had  a  very  lively  hope  of  finding  his  wife  in  freedom,  she  having  escaped 
the  previous  Spring;  but  of  her  whereabouts  he  was  ignorant,  as  he  had  had 
no  tidings  of  her  since  her  departure.  A  lady  by  the  name  of  Mrs.  Fidget 
held  the  deed  for  Isaac.  He  spoke  kindly  of  her,  as  he  thought  she  treated 
her  slaves  quite  as  well  at  least  as  the  best  of  slave-holders  in  his  neighbor- 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLA  VE  BILL  OF  1850.  343 

hood.     His  view  was  a  superficial  one,  it  meant  only  that  they  had  not  been 
beaten  and  starved  half  to  death. 

As  the  heroic  adventures  and  sufferings  of  Slaves  struggling  for  freedom, 
shall  be  read  by  coming  generations,  were  it  not  for  unquestioned  statutes 
upholding  Slavery  in  its  dreadful  heinousness,  people  will  hardly  be  able  to 
believe  that  such  atrocities  were  enacted  in  the  nineteenth  century,  under  a 
highly  enlightened,  Christianized,  and  civilized  government.  Having 
already  copied  a  statute  enacted  by  the  State  of  Virginia,  as  a  sample  of 
Southern  State  laws,  it  seems  fitting  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  enacted  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  also  copied,  in  order  to  com- 
memorate that  most  infamous  deed,  by  which,  it  may  be  seen,  how  great 
were  the  bulwarks  of  oppression  to  be  surmounted  by  all  who  sought  to 
obtain  freedom  by  flight. 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL  OF  1850. 

"AN  ACT  RESPECTING  FUGITIVES   FROM  JUSTICE,  AND  PERSONS  ESCAPING  FEOM 
THE  SERVICE  OF  THEIR   MASTERS." 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled : 

That  the  persons  who  have  been,  or  may  hereafter  be  appointed  commis- 
sioners, in  virtue  of  any  Act  of  Congress,  by  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United 
States,  and  who,  in  consequence  of  such  appointment,  are  authorized  to 
exercise  the  powers  that  any  justice  of  the  peace  or  other  magistrate  of  any  of 
the  United  States,  may  exercise  in  respect  to  offenders  for  any  crime  or  offence 
against  the  United  States,  by  arresting,  imprisoning,  or  bailing  the  same 
under  and  by  virtue  of  the  thirty-third  section  of  the  act  of  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  September,  seventeen  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  entitled,  "  An  act 
to  establish  the  judicial  courts  of  the  United  States/'  shall  be,  and  are 
hereby  authorized  and  required  to  exercise  and  discharge  all  the  powers  and 
duties  conferred  by  this  act. 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted :  That  the  superior  court  of  each  organ- 
ized territory  of  the  United  States,  shall  have  the  same  power  to  appoint 
commissioners  to  take  acknowledgments  of  bail  and  affidavit,  and  to  take 
depositions  of  witnesses  in  civil  causes,  which  is  now  possessed  by  the 
circuit  courts  of  the  United  States,  and  all  commissioners,  who  shall  here- 
after be  appointed  for  such  purposes,  by  the  superior  court  of  any  organized 
territory  of  the  United  States,  shall  possess  all  the  powers,  and  exercise  all 
the  duties  conferred  by  law,  upon  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  circuit 


344  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

courts  of  the  United  States  for  similar  purposes,  and  shall,  moreover,  exer- 
cise and  discharge  all  the  powers  and  duties  conferred  by  this  act. 

SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted  :  That  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  superior  courts  of  each  organized  territory  of  the  United 
States,  shall,  from  time  to  time,  enlarge  the  number  of  Commissioners,  with 
a  view  to  afford  reasonable  facilities  to  reclaim  fugitives  from  labor,  and  to 
the  prompt  discharge  of  the  duties  imposed  by  this  act. 

SE&  4.  And  be  it  further  -enacted,  that  the  commissioners  above  named, 
shall  have  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  judges  of  the  circuit  and  district 
courts  of  the  United  States,  in  their  respective  circuits  and  districts  within 
the  several  States,  and  the  judges  of  the  superior  courts  of  the  Territories 
severally  and  collectively,  in  term  time  and  vacation ;  and  shall  grant  cer- 
tificates to  such  claimants,  upon  satisfactory  proof  being  made,  with 
authority  to  take  and  remove  such  fugitives  from  service  or  labor,  under  the 
restrictions  herein  contained,  to  the  State  or  territory  from  which  such 
persons  may  have  escaped  or  fled. 

SEC.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted  :  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all 
marshals  and  deputy  marshals,  to  obey  and  execute  all  warrants  and  pre- 
cepts issued  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  when  to  them  directed ;  and 
should  any  marshal  or  deputy  marshal  refuse  to  receive  such  warrant  or 
other  process  when  tendered,  or  to  use  all  proper  means  diligently  to  exe- 
cute the  same,  he  shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be  fined  in  the  sum  of  one 
thousand  dollars  to  the  use  of  such  claimant,  on  the  motion  of  such  claimant 
by  the  circuit  or  district  court  for  the  district  of  such  marshal;  and  after  arrest 
of  such  fugitive  by  the  marshal,  or  his  deputy,  or  whilst  at  any  time  in  his 
custody,  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  should  such  fugitive  escape,  whether 
with  or  without  the  assent  of  such  marshal  or  his  deputy,  such  marshal  shall 
be  liable,  on  his  official  bond,  to  be  prosecuted,  for  the  benefit  of  such  claim- 
ant, for  the  full  value  of  the  service  or  labor  of  said  fugitive  in  the  State, 
Territory  or  district  \vhence  he  escaped ;  and  the  better  to  enable  the  said 
commissioners,  when  thus  appointed,  to  execute  their  duties  faithfully  and 
efficiently,  in  conformity  with  the  requirements  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  this  act,  they  are  hereby  authorized  and  empowered, 
within  their  counties  respectively,  to  appoint  in  writing  under  their  hands, 
any  one  or  more  suitable  persons,  from  time  to  time,  to  execute  all  such 
warrants  and  other  process  as  may  be  issued  by  them  in  the  lawful  perform- 
ance of  their  respective  duties,  with  an  authority  to  such  commissioners,  or 
the  persons  to  be  appointed  by  them,  to  execute  process  as  aforesaid,  to  sum- 
mon and  call  to  their  aid  the  bystanders  or  posse  comitatus,  of  the  proper 
county,  when  necessary  to  insure  a  faithful  observance  of  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  referred  to,  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  this  act ;  and 
all  good  citizens  are  hereby  commanded  to  aid  and  assist  in  the  prompt  and 
efficient  execution  of  this  law,  whenever  their  services  may  be  required,  as 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLA  VE  BILL  OF  1850.  345 

aforesaid,  for  that  purpose ;  and  said  warrants  shall  run  and  be  executed  by 
said  officers  anywhere  in  the  State  within  which  they  are  issued. 

SEC.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  a  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  has  heretofore,  or  shall 
hereafter  escape  into  another  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  the 
person  or  persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due,  or  his,  her  or 
their  agent  or  attorney,  duly  authorized,  by  power  of  attorney,  in  writing, 
acknowledged  and  certified  under  the  seal  of  some  legal  office  or  court  of  the 
State  or  Territory,  in  which  the  same  may  be  executed,  may  pursue  and  re- 
claim such  fugitive  person,  either  by  procuring  a  warrant  from  some  one  of 
the  courts,  judges,  or  commissioners  aforesaid,  of  the  proper  circuit,  district 
or  county,  for  the  apprehension  of  such  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  or  by 
seizing  and  arresting  such  fugitive,  where  the  same  can  be  done  without 
process,  and  by  taking,  or  causing  such  person  to  be  taken,  forthwith,  before 
such  court,  judge  or  commissioner,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  hear  and  deter- 
mine the  case  of  such  claimant  in  a  summary  manner,  and  upon  satisfactory 
proof  being  made,  by  deposition  or  affidavit,  in  writing,  to  be  taken  and 
certified  by  such  court,  judge  or  commissioner,  or  by  other  satisfactory  testi- 
mony, duly  taken  and  certified  by  some  court,  magistrate,  justice  of  the 
peace,  or  other  legal  officer  authorized  to  administer  an  oath  and  take  depo- 
sitions under  the  laws  of  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  such  person 
owing  service  or  labor  may  have  escaped,  with  a  certificate  of  such  magis- 
trate, or  other  authority,  as  aforesaid,  with  the  seal  of  the  proper  court  or 
officer  thereto  attached,  which  seal  shall  be  sufficient  to  establish  the  com- 
petency of  the  proof,  and  with  proof  also,  by  affidavit,  of  the  identity  of  the 
person  whose  service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due,  as  aforesaid,'  that  the 
person  so  arrested  does  in  fact  owe  service  or  labor  to  the  person  or  persons 
claiming  him  or  her,  in  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  such  fugitive  may 
have  escaped,  as  aforesaid,  and  that  said  person  escaped,  to  make  out  and 
deliver  to  such  claimant,  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney,  a  certificate  setting 
forth  the  substantial  facts  as  to  the  service  or  labor  due  from  such  fugitive 
to  the  claimant,  and  of  his  or  her  escape  from  the  State  or  Territory  in 
which  such  service  or  labor  was  due,  to  the  State  or  Territory,  in  which  he 
or  she  was  arrested,  with  authority  to  such  claimant,  or  his  or  her  agent  or 
attorney,  to  use  such  reasonable  force  and  restraint  as  may  be  necessary, 
under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  to  take  and  remove  such  fugitive  person 
back  to  the  State  or  Territory  from  whence  he  or  she  may  have  escaped,  as 
aforesaid.  In  no  trial  or  hearing,  under  this  act,  shall  the  testimony  of  such 
alleged  fugitives  be  admitted  in  evidence,  and  the  certificates  in  this  and  the 
first  section  mentioned,  shall  be  conclusive  of  the  right  of  the  person  or  per- 
sons in  whose  favor  granted  to  remove  such  fugitives  to  the  State  or  Ter- 
ritory from  which  they  escaped,  and  shall  prevent  all  molestation  of  said 


346  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

person  or  persons  by  any  process  issued  by  any  court,  judge,  magistrate,  or 
other  person  whomsoever. 

SEC.  7.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  any  person  who  shall  knowingly 
and  willfully  obstruct,  hinder,  or  prevent  such  claimant,  his  agent,  or  attor- 
ney, or  any  person  or  persons  lawfully  assisting  him,  her  or  them  from 
arresting  such  a  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  either  with  or  without  pro- 
cess, as  aforesaid,  or  shall  rescue,  or  attempt  to  rescue,  such  fugitive  from 
service  or  labor,  or  from  the  custody  of  such  claimant,  his  or  her  agent,  or 
attorney,  or  other  person  or  persons  lawfully  assisting,  as  aforesaid,  when  so 
arrested,  pursuant  to  the  authority  herein  given  and  declared,  or  shall  aid, 
abet,  or  assist  such  person,  so  owing  service  or  labor,  as  aforesaid,  directly  or 
indirectly,  to  escape  from  such  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  or  other  person 
or  persons  legally  authorized,  as  aforesaid,  or  shall  harbor  or  conceal  such  fugi- 
tive, so  as  to  prevent  the  discovery  and  arrest  of  such  person,  after  notice  or 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  such  person  was  a  fugitive  from  service  or  labor, 
as  aforesaid,  shall,  for  either  of  said  offences,  be  subject  to  a  fine  not  ex- 
ceeding one  thousand  dollars,  and  imprisonment  not  exceeding  six  mouths, 
by  indictment  and  conviction  before  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  district  in  which  such  offence  may  have  been  committed,  or  before 
the  proper  court  of  criminal  jurisdiction,  if  committed  within  any  one  of  the 
organized  Territories  of  the  United  States  ;  and  shall,  moreover,  forfeit  and 
pay,  by  way  of  civil  damages,  to  the  party  injured  by  such  illegal  conduct, 
the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  each  fugitive  so  lost,  as  aforesaid,  to  be 
recovered  by  action  of  debt  in  any  of  the  District  or  Territorial  Courts  afore- 
said, within  whose  jurisdiction  the  said  offence  may  have  been  committed. 

SEC.  8.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Marshals,  their  deputies,  and 
the  clerks  of  the  said  districts  and  territorial  courts,  shall  be  paid  for  their' 
services  the  like  fees  as  may  be  allowed  to  them  for  similar  services  in  other 
cases ;  and  where  such  services  are  rendered  exclusively  in  the  arrest,  cus- 
tody, and  delivery  of  the  fugitives  to  the  claimant,  his  or  her  agent,  or  attor- 
ney, or  where  such  supposed  fugitive  may  be  discharged  out  of  custody  from 
the  want  of  sufficient  proof,  as  aforesaid,  then  such  fees  are  to  be  paid  in 
the  whole  by  such  complainant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  and  in  all  cases  where 
the  proceedings  are  before  a  Commissioner,  he  shall  be  entitled  to  a  fee  of 
ten  dollars  in  full  for  his  services  in  each  case,  upon  the  delivery  of  the  said 
certificate  to  the  claimant,  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney ;  or  a  fee  of  five 
dollars  in  cases  where  proof  shall  not,  in  the  opinion  of  said  Commissioner, 
warrant  such  certificate  and  delivery,  inclusive  of  all  services  incident  to 
such  arrest  and  examination,  to  be  paid  in  either  case,  by  the  claimant,  his 
or  her  agent  or  attorney.  The  person  or  persons  authorized  to  execute  the 
process  to  be  issued  by  such  Commissioners  for  the  arrest  and  detention  of 
fugitives  from  service  or  labor,  as  aforesaid,  shall  also  be  entitled  to  a  fee  of 
five  dollars  each  for  each  person  he  or  they  may  arrest  and  take  before  any 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLA  VE  BILL  OF  1850.  347 

such  Commissioners,  as  aforesaid,  at  the  instance  and  request  of  such  claim- 
ant, with  such  other  fees  as  may  be  deemed  reasonable  by  such  Commissioner 
for  such  other  additional  services  as  may  be  necessarily  performed  by  him 
or  them  ;  such  as  attending  to  the  examination,  keeping  the  fugitive  in  cus- 
tody, and  providing  him  with  food  and  lodgings  during  his  detention,  and 
until  the  final  determination  of  such  Commissioner ;  and  in  general  for  per- 
forming such  other  duties  as  may  be  required  by  such  claimant,  his  or  her 
attorney  or  agent  or  commissioner  in  the  premises ;  such  fees  to  be  made  up 
in  conformity  with  the  fees  usually  charged  by  the  officers  of  the  courts  of 
justice  within  the  proper  district  or  county  as  far  as  may  be  practicable,  and 
paid  by  such  claimants,  their  agents  or  attorneys,  whether  such  supposed  fugi- 
tive from  service  or  labor  be  ordered  to  be  delivered  to  such  claimants  by 
the  final  determination  of  such  Commissioners  or  not. 

SEC.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  upon  affidavit  made  by  the 
claimant  of  such  fugitive,  his  agent  or  attorney,  after  such  certificate  has  been 
issued,  that  he  has  reason  to  apprehend  that  such  fugitive  will  be  rescued 
by  force  from  his  or  their  possession  before  he  can  be  taken  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  State  in  which  the  arrest  is  made,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  officer 
making  the  arrest  to  retain  such  fugitive  in  his  custody,  and  to  remove  him 
to  the  State  whence  he  fled,  and  there  to  deliver  him  to  said  claimant,  his 
agent  or  attorney.  And  to  this  end  the  officer  aforesaid  is  hereby  author- 
ized and  required  to  employ  so  many  persons  as  he  may  deem  necessary,  to 
overcome  such  force,  and  to  retain  them  in  his  service  so  long  as  circumstan- 
ces may  require ;  the  said  officer  and  his  assistants,  while  so  employed,  to 
receive  the  same  compensation,  and  to  be  allowed  the  same  expenses  as  are 
now  allowed  by  law  for  the  transportation  of  criminals,  to  be  certified  by  the 
judge  of  the  district  within  which  the  arrest  is  made,  and  paid  out  of  the 
treasury  of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  any  person  held  to  service 
or  labor  in  any  State  or  Territory,  or  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  shall 
escape  therefrom,  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  shall  be  due,  his, 
her,  or  their  agent,  or  attorney  may  apply  to  any  court  of  record  therein,  or 
judge  thereof  in  vacation,  and  make  such  satisfactory  proof  to  such  court  or 
judge  in  vacation,  of  the  escape  aforesaid,  and  that  the  person  escaping 
owed  service  or  labor  to  such  party.  Thereupon  the  court  shall  cause  a 
record  to  be  made  of  the  matters  so  proved,  and  also  a  personal  description 
of  the  person  so  escaping,  with  such  convenient  certainty  as  may  be ;  and  a 
transcript  of  such  record,  authenticated  by  the  attestation  of  the  clerk,  and 
of  the  seal  of  said  court  being  produced  in  any  other  State,  Territory  or  Dis- 
trict in  which  the  person  so  escaping  may  be  found,  and  being  exhibited  to 
any  judge,  commissioner,  or  other  officer  authorized  by  the  law  of  the  United 
States  to  cause  persons  escaping  from  service  or  labor  to  be  delivered  up, 
shall  be  held  and  taken  to  be  full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact  of 


348  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

escape,  and  that  the  service  or  labor  of  the  person  escaping  is  due  to  the 
party  in  such  record  mentioned.  And  upon  the  production,  by  the  said 
party,  of  other  and  further  evidence,  if  necessary,  either  oral  or  by  affidavit, 
in  addition  to  what  is  contained  in  said  record  of  the  identity  of  the  person 
escaping,  he  or  she  shall  be  delivered  up  to  the  claimant.  And  said 
court,  commissioners,  judge,  or  other  persons  authorized  by  this  act  to  grant 
certificates  to  claimants  of  fugitives,  shall,  upon  the  production  of  the  record 
and  other  evidence  aforesaid,  grant  to  such  claimant  a  certificate  of  his  right 
to  take  any  such  person,  identified  and  proved  to  be  owing  service  or  labor 
as  aforesaid,  which  certificate  shall  authorize  such  claimant  to  seize,  or  arrest, 
and  transport  such  person  to  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  he  escaped : 
Provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  as  requiring  the 
production  of  a  transcript  of  such  record  as  evidence  as  aforesaid,  but  in  its 
absence,  the  claim  shall  be  heard  and  determined  upon  other  satisfactory 
proofs  competent  in  law. 


THE  SLAVE-HUNTING  TRAGEDY  IN  LANCASTER  COUNTY, 
IN  SEPTEMBER,  1851. 
"TREASON  AT  CHRISTIANA." 

Having  inserted  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  in  these  records  of  the  Un- 
derground Rail  Road,  one  or  two  slave  cases  will  doubtless  suffice  to 
illustrate  the  effect  of  .its  passage  on  the  public  mind,  and  the  colored 
people  in  particular.  The  deepest  feelings  of  loathing,  contempt  and  opposi- 
tion were  manifested  by  the  opponents  of  Slavery  on  every  hand.  Anti- 
slavery  papers,  lecturers,  preachers,  etc.,  arrayed  themselves  boldly  against  it 
on  the  ground  of  its  inhumanity  and  violation  of  the  laws  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  slave-holders  South,  and  their  pro-slavery  adherents 
in  the  North  demanded  the  most  abject  obedience  from  all  parties,  regardless 
of  conscience  or  obligation  to  God.  In  order  to  compel  such  obedience, 
as  well  as  to  prove  the  practicability  of  the  law,  unbounded  zeal  daily 
marked  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  slave-holders  and  slave-catchers  to  refasten 
the  fetters  on  the  limbs  of  fugitives  in  different  parts  of  the  North,  whither 
they  had  escaped. 

In  this  dark  hour,  when  colored  men's  rights  were  so  insecure,  as  a 
matter  of  self-defence,  they  felt  called  upon  to  arm  themselves  and  resist  all 
kidnapping  intruders,  although  clothed  with  the  authority  of  wicked  law. 
Among  the  most  exciting  cases  tending  to  justify  this  course,  the  following 
may  be  named  : 

JAMES  HAMLET  was  the  first  slave  case  who  was  summarily  arrested 
under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  sent  back  to  bondage  from  New  York. 


THE  SLAVE-HUNTING  TRAGEDY.  349 

WILLIAM  and  ELLEN  CKAFT  were  hotly  pursued  to  Boston  by  hunters 
from  Georgia. 

ADAM  GIBSON,  a  free  colored  man,  residing  in  Philadelphia,  was  arrested, 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  his  alleged  claimants,  by  commissioner  Edward 
D.  Ingraham,  and  hurried  into  Slavery. 

EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS  (the  mother  of  six  living  children), — her  case  ex- 
cited much  interest  and  sympathy. 

SHADRACH  was  arrested  and  rescued  in  Boston. 

HANNAH  DELLUM  and  her  child  were  returned  to  Slavery  from  Phila- 
delphia. 

THOMAS  HALL  and  his  wife  were  pounced  upon  at  midnight  in  Chester 
county,  beaten  and  dragged  off  to  Slavery,  etc. 

And,  as  if  gloating  over  their  repeated  successes,  and  utterly  regardless  of 
all  caution,  about  one  year  after  the  passage  of  this  nefarious  bill,  a  party 
of  slave-hunters  arranged  for  a  grand  capture  at  Christiana. 

One  year  from  the  passage  of  the  law,  at  a  time  when  alarm  and  excite- 
ment were  running  high,  the  most  decided  stand  was  taken  at  Christiana, 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  to  defeat  the  law,  and  defend  freedom.  For- 
tunately for  the  fugitives  the  plans  of  the  slave-hunters  and  officials  leaked 
out  while  arrangements  were  making  in  Philadelphia  for  the  capture,  and, 
information  being  sent  to  the  Anti-slavery  office,  a  messenger  was  at  once 
dispatched  to  Christiana  to  put  all  persons  supposed  to  be  in  danger  on  their 
guard. 

Among  those  thus  notified,  were  brave  hearts,  who  did  not  believe  in 
running  away  from  slave-catchers.  They  resolved  to  stand  up  for  the 
right  of  self-defence.  They  loved  liberty  and  hated  Slavery,  and  when  the 
slave-catchers  arrived,  they  were  prepared  for  them.  Of  the  contest,  on  that 
bloody  morning,  we  have  copied  a  report,  carefully  written  at  the  time,  by 
C.  M.  Burleigh,  editor  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Freeman,"  who  visited  the 
scene  of  battle,  immediately  after  it  was  over,  and  doubtless  obtained  as 
faithful  an  account  of  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  as  could  then  be  had. 

"Last  Thursday  morning,  (the  llth  inst.),  a  peaceful  neighborhood  in  the 
borders  of  Lancaster  county,  was  made  the  scene  of  a  bloody  battle,  result- 
ing from  an  attempt  to  capture  seven  colored  men  as  fugitive  slaves.  As 
the  reports  of  the  affray  which  came  to  us  were  contradictory,  and  having 
good  reason  to  believe  that  those  of  the  daily  press  were  grossly  one-sided 
and  unfair,  we  repaired  to  the  scene  of  the  tragedy,  and,  by  patient  inquiry 
and  careful  examination,  endeavered  to  learn  the  real  facts.  To  do  this, 
from  the  varying  and  conflicting  statements  which  we  encountered,  scarcely 
two  of  which  agreed  in  every  point,  was  not  easy ;  but  we  believe  the 
account  we  give  below,  as  the  result  of  these  inquiries,  is  substantially 
correct. 

Very  early  on  the  llth  inst.  a  party  of  slave-hunters  went  into  a  neigh- 


350  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

borhood  about  two  miles  west  of  Christiana,  near  the  eastern  border  of 
Lancaster  county,  in  pursuit  of  fugitive  slaves.  The  party  consisted  of 
Edward  Gorsuch,  his  son,  Dickerson  Gorsuch,  his  nephew,  Dr.  Pearce, 
Nicholas  Hutchins,  and  others,  all  from  Baltimore  county,  Md.,  and  one 
Henry  H.  Kline,  a  notorious  slave-catching  constable  from  Philadelphia, 
who  had  been  deputized  by  Commissioner  Ingraham  for  this  business.  At 
about  day-dawn  they  were  discovered  lying  in  an  ambush  near  the  house 
of  one  William  Parker,  a  colored  man,  by  an  inmate  of  the  house,  who  had 
started  for  his  work.  He  fled  back  to  the  house,  pursued  by  the  slave- 
hunters,  who  entered  the  lower  part  of  the  house,  but  were  unable  to  force 
their  way  into  the  upper  part,  to  which  the  family  had  retired.  A  horn  was 
blown  from  an  upper  window;  two  shots  were  fired,  both,  as  we  believe, 
though  we  are  not  certain,  by  the  assailants,  one  at  the  colored  man  who 
fled  into  the  house,  and  the  other  at  the  inmates,  through  the  window.  No 
one  was  wounded  by  either.  A  parley  ensued.  The  slave-holder  demanded 
his  slaves,  who  he  said  were  concealed  in  the  house.  The  colored  men 
presented  themselves  successively  at  the  window,  and  asked  if  they  were 
the  slaves  claimed ;  Gorsuch  said,  that  neither  of  them  was  his  slave.  They 
told  him  that  they  were  the  only  colored  men  in  the  house,  and  were 
determined  never  to  be  taken  alive  as  slaves.  Soon  the  colored  people  of 
the  neighborhood,  alarmed  by  the  horn,  began  to  gather,  armed  with  guns, 
axes,  corn-cutters,  or  clubs.  Mutual  threaten  ings  were  uttered  by  the  two 
parties.  The  slave-holders  told  the  blacks  that  resistance  would  be  useless, 
as  they  had  a  party  of  thirty  men  in  the  woods  near  by.  The  blacks  warned 
them  again  to  leave,  as  they  would  die  before  they  would  go  into  Slavery. 

From  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a  half  passed  in  these  parleyings,  angry 
conversations,  and  threats;  the  blacks  increasing  by  new  arrivals,  until  they 
probably  numbered  from  thirty  to  fifty,  most  of  them  armed  in  some  way. 
About  this  time,  Castner  Hanaway,  a  white  man,  and  a  Friend,  who  resided 
in  the  neighborhood,  rode  up,  and  was  soon  followed  by  Elijah  Lewis, 
another  Friend,  a  merchant,  in  Cooperville,  both  gentlemen  highly  esteemed 
as  worthy  and  peaceable  citizens.  As  they  came  up,  Kline,  the  deputy 
marshal,  ordered  them  to  aid  him,  as  a  United  States  officer,  to  capture  the 
fugitive  slaves.  They  refused  of  course,  as  would  any  man  not  utterly  desti- 
tute of  honor,  humanity,  and  moral  principle,  and  warned  the  assailants  that 
it  was  madness  for  them  to  attempt  to  capture  fugitive  slaves  there,  or  even 
to  remain,  and  begged  them  if  they  wished  to  save  their  own  lives,  to  leave 
the  ground.  Kline  replied,  "Do  you  really  think  so?"  "Yes,"  was  the 
answer,  "  the  sooner  you  leave,  the  better,  if  you  would  prevent  bloodshed." 
Kline  then  left  the  ground,  retiring  into  a  very  safe  distance  into  a  corn- 
field, and  toward  the  woods.  The  blacks  were  so  exasperated  by  his  threats, 
that,  but  for  the  interposition  of  the  two  white  Friends,  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  he  would  have  escaped  without  injury.  Messrs.  Hanaway  and 


THE  SLAVE-HUNTING  TRAGEDY.  351 

Lewis  both  exerted  their  influence  to  dissuade  the  colored  people  from 
violence,  and  would  probably  have  succeeded  in  restraining  them,  had  not 
the  assailing  party  fired  upon  them.  Young  Gorsuch  asked  his  father  to 
leave,  but  the  old  man  refused,  declaring,  as  it  is  said  and  believed,  that  he 
would  "  go  to  hell,  or  have  his  slaves." 

Finding  they  could  do  nothing  further,  Hanaway  and  Lewis  both  started 
to  leave,  again  counselling  the  slave-hunters  to  go  away,  and  the  colored 
people  to  peace,  but  had  gone  but  a  few  rods,  when  one  of  the  inmates  of 
the  house  attempted  to  come  out  at  the  door.  Gorsuch  presented  his  re- 
volver, ordering  him  back.  The  colored  man  replied,  "  You  had  better  go 
away,  if  you  don't  want  to  get  hurt,"  and  at  the  same  time  pushed  him  aside 
and  passed  out.  Maddened  at  this,  and  stimulated  by  the  question  of  his 
nephew,  whether  he  would  "  take  such  an  insult  from  a  d — d  nigger,"  Gor- 
such fired  at  the  colored  man,  and  was  followed  by  his  son  and  nephew,  who 
both  fired  their  revolvers.  The  fire  was  returned  by  the  blacks,  who  made 
a  rush  upon  them  at  the  same  time.  Gorsuch  and  his  son  fell,  the  one  dead 
the  other  wounded.  The  rest  of  the  party  after  firing  their  revolvers,  fled 
precipitately  through  the  corn  and  to  the  woods,  pursued  by  some  of  the 
blacks.  One  was  wounded,  the  rest  escaped  unhurt.  Kline,  the  deputy 
marshal,  who  now  boasts  of  his  miraculous  escape  from  a  volley  of  musket- 
balls,  had  kept  at  a  safe  distance,  though  urged  by  young  Gorsuch  to  stand 
by  his  father  and  protect  him,  when  he  refused  to  leave  the  ground.  He  of 
course  came  off  unscathed.  Several  colored  men  were  wounded,  but  none 
severely.  Some  had  their  hats  or  their  clothes  perforated  with  bullets ; 
others  had  flesh  wounds.  They  said  that  the  Lord  protected  them,  and  they 
shook  the  bullets  from  their  clothes.  One  man  found  several  shot  in  his 
boot,  which  seemed  to  have  spent  their  force  before  reaching  him,  and  did 
not  even  break  the  skin.  The  slave-holders  having  fled,  several  neighbors, 
mostly  Friends  and  anti-slavery  men,  gathered  to  succor  the  wounded  and 
take  charge  of  the  dead.  We  are  told  that  Parker  himself  protected  the 
wounded  man  from  his  excited  comrades,  and  brought  water  and  a  bed  from 
his  own  house  for  the  invalid,  thus  showing  that  he  was  as  magnanimous  to 
his  fallen  enemy  as  he  was  brave  in  the  defence  of  his  own  liberty.  The 
young  man  was  then  removed  to  a  neighboring  house,  where  the  family 
received  him  with  the  tenderest  kindness  and  paid  him  every  attention, 
though  they  told  him  in  Quaker  phrase,  that  "they  had  no  unity  with  his 
cruel  business,"  and  were  very  sorry  to  see  him  engaged  in  it.  He  was 
much  affecte'd  by  their  kindness,  and  we  are  told,  expressed  his  regret  that 
he  had  been  thus  engaged,  and  his  determination,  if  his  life  was  spared, 
never  again  to  make  a  similar  attempt.  His  wounds  are  very  severe,  and  it 
is  feared  mortal.  All  attempts  to  procure  assistance  to  capture  the  fugitive 
slaves  failed,  the  people  in  the  neighborhood  either  not  relishing  the  busi- 
ness of  slave-catching,  or  at  least,  not  choosing  to  risk  their  lives  in  it. 


352  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

There  was  a  very  great  reluctance  felt  to  going  even  to  remove  the  body  and 
the  wounded  man,  until  several  abolitionists  and  Friends  had  collected  for 
that  object,  when  others  found  courage  to  follow  on.  The  excitement 
caused  by  this  most  melancholy  affair  is  very  great  among  all  classes.  The 
abolitionists,  of  course,  mourn  the  occurrence,  while  they  see  in  it  a  legiti- 
mate fruit  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  just  such  a  harvest  of  blood  as  they 
had  long  feared  that  the  law  would  produce,  and  which  they  had  earnestly 
labored  to  prevent.  We  believe  that  they  alone,  of  all  classes  of  the  nation, 
are  free  from  responsibility  for  its  occurrence,  having  wisely  foreseen  the 
danger,  and  faithfully  labored  to  avert  it  by  removing  its  causes,  and  pre- 
venting the  inhuman  policy  which  has  hurried  ou  the  bloody  convulsion. 

The  enemies  of  the  colored  people,  are  making  this  the  occasion  of  fresh 
injuries,  and  a  more  bitter  ferocity  toward  that  defenceless  people,  and  of 
new  misrepresentation  and  calumnies  against  the  abolitionists. 

The  colored  people,  though  the  great  body  of  them  had  no  connection 
with  this  affair,  are  hunted  like  partridges  upon  the  mountains,  by  the 
relentless  horde  which  has  been  poured  forth  upon  them,  under  the  pretense 
of  arresting  the  parties  concerned  in  the  fight.  When  we  reached  Chris- 
tiana, on  Friday  afternoon,  we  found  that  the  Deputy- Attorney  Thompson, 
of  Lancaster,  was  there,  and  had  issued  warrants,  upon  the  depositions  of 
Kline  and  others,  for  the  arrest  of  all  suspected  persons.  A  company  of 
police  were  scouring  the  neighborhood  in  search  of  colored  people,  several 
of  whom  were  seized  while  at  their  work  near  by,  and  brought  in. 

CASTNER  HANAWAY  and  Elijah  Lewis,  hearing  that  warrants  were  issued 
against  them,  came  to  Christiana,  and  voluntarily  gave  themselves  up,  calm 
and  strong  in  the  confidence  of  their  innocence.  They,  together  with  the 
arrested  colored  men,  were  sent  to  Lancaster  jail  that  night. 

The  next  morning  we  visited  the  ground  of  the  battle,  and  the  family 
where  young  Gorsuch  now  lives,  and  while  there,  we  saw  a  deposition  which 
he  had  just  made,  that  he  believed  no  white  persons  were  engaged  in  the 
affray,  beside  his  own  party.  As  he  was  on  the  ground  during  the  whole 
controversy,  and  deputy  Marshall  Kline  had  discreetly  run  off  into  the 
corn-field,  before  the  fighting  began,  the  hireling  slave-catcher's  eager  and 
confident  testimony  against  our  white  friends,  will;  we  think,  weigh  lightly 
with  impartial  men. 

On  returning  to  Christiana,  we  found  that  the  United  States  Marshal  from 
the  city,  had  arrived  at  that  place,  accompanied  by  Commissioner  Ingraham, 
Mr.  Jones,  a  special  commissioner  of  the  United  States,  from  Washington, 
the  U.  S.  District  Attorney  Ashmead,  with  forty-five  U.  S.  Marines  from 
the  Navy  Yard,  and  a  posse  of  about  forty  of  the  City  Marshal's  police, 
together  with  a  large  body  of  special  constables,  eager  for  such  a  man- 
hunt, from  Columbia  and  Lancaster  and  other  places.  This  crowd  divided 
into  parties,  of  from  ten  to  twenty-five,  and  scoured  the  country,  in  every 


THE  SLAVE-HUNTING  TRAGEDY.  353 

direction,  for  miles  around,  ransacking  the  houses  of  the  colored  people,  and 
captured  every  colored  man  they  could  find,  with  several  colored  women, 
and  two  other  white  men.  Never  did  our  heart  bleed  with  deeper  pity  for 
the  peeled  and  persecuted  colored  people,  than  when  we  saw  this  troop  let 
loose  upon  them,  and  witnessed  the  terror  and  distress  which  its  approach 
excited  in  families,  wholly  innocent  of  the  charges  laid  against  them." 

On  the  ether  hand,  a  few  extracts  from  the  editorials  of  some  of  the  lead- 
ing papers,  will  suffice  to  show  the  state  of  public  feeling  at  that  time,  and 
the  dreadful  opposition  abolitionists  and  fugitives  had  to  contend  with. 

From  one  of  the  leading  daily  journals  of  Philadelphia,  we  copy  as 
follows : 

"  There  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  concerning  the  shocking  affair 
which  occurred  at  Christiana,  on  Thursday,  the  resisting  of  a  law  of  Con- 
gress by  a  band  of  armed  negroes,  whereby  the  majesty  of  the  Government 
was  defied  and  life  taken  in  one  and  the  same  act.  There  is  something  more 
than  a  mere  ordinary,  something  more  than  even  a  murderous,  riot  in  all 
this.  It  is  an  act  of  insurrection,  we  might,  considering  the  peculiar  class 
and  condition  of  the  guilty  parties,  almost  call  it  a  servile  insurrection — if 
not  also  one  of  treason.  Fifty,  eighty,  or  a  hundred  persons,  whether  white 
or  black,  who  are  deliberately  in  arms  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  the  law, 
even  the  law  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  are  in  the  attitude  of  levying 
war  against  the  United  States ;  and  doubly  heavy  becomes  the  crime  of 
murder  in  such  a  case,  and  doubly  serious  the  accountability  of  all  who  have 
any  connection  with  the  act  as  advisers,  suggesters,  countenancers,  or  acces- 
sories in  any  way  whatever." 

In  those  days,  the  paper  from  which  this  extract  is  taken,  represented  the 
Whig  party  and  the  more  moderate  and  respectable  class  of  citizens. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  leading  democratic  organ  of  Philadel- 
phia: 

"  We  will  not,  however,  insult  the  reader  by  arguing  that  which  has  not 
been  heretofore  doubted,  and  which  is  not  doubted  now,  by  ten  honest  men 
in  the  State,  and  that  is  that  the  abolitionists  are  implicated  in  the  Chris- 
tiana murder.  All  the  ascertained  facts  go  to  show  that  they  were  the  real, 
if  not  the  chief  instigators.  White  men  are  known  to  harbor  fugitives,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Christiana,  and  these  white  men  are  known  to  be  aboli- 
tionists, known  to  be  opposed  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  known  to  be 
the  warm  friends  of  William  F.  Johnston,  (Governor  of  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania). And,  as  if  to  clinch  the  argument,  no  less  than  three  white  men 
are  now  in  the  Lancaster  prison,  and  were  arrested  as  accomplices  in  the 
dreadful  affair  on  the  morning  of  the  eleventh.  And  one  of  these  white 
men  was  committed  on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  on  Saturday  last,  by 
United  States  Commissioner  Ingraham." 

Another  daily  paper  of  opposite  politics  thus  spake: 
23 


354  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  The  unwarrantable  outrage  committed  last  week,  at  Christiana,  Lancas- 
ter county,  is  a  foul  stain  upon  the  fair  name  and  fame  of  our  State.  We 
are  pleased  to  see  that  the  officers  of  the  Federal  and  State  Governments 
are  upon  the  tracks  of  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  riot,  and  that  several 
arrests  have  been  made. 

We  do  not  wish  to  see  the  poor  misled  blacks  who  participated  in  the 
affair,  suffer  to  any  great  extent,  for  they  were  but  tools.  The  men  who  are 
really  chargeable  with  treason  against  the  United  States  Government,  and 
with  the  death  of  Mr.  Gorsuch,  an  estimable  citizen  of  Maryland,  are  unques- 
tionably white,  with  hearts  black  enough  to  incite  them  to  the  commission  of 
any  crime  equal  in  atrocity  to  that  committed  in  Lancaster  county. 
Pennsylvania  has  now  but  one  course  to  pursue,  and  that  is  to  aid,  and 
warmly  aid,  the  United  States  in  bringing  to  condign  punishment,  every 
man  engaged  in  the  riot.  She  owes  it  to  herself  and  to  the  Union.  Let 
her  in  this  resolve,  be  just  and  fearless." 

From  a  leading  neutral  daily  paper  the  following  is  taken:  "One  would 
suppose  from  the  advice  of  forcible  resistance,  so  familiarly  given  by  the  abo- 
litionists, that  they  are  quite  unaware  that  there  is  any  such  crime  as  treason 
recognized  by  the  Constitution,  or  punished  with  death  by  the  laws  of  the 
United  States.  We  would  remind  them,  that  not  only  is  there  such  a  crime, 
but  that  there  is  a  solemn  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  that  all  who  are 
concerned  in  a  conspiracy  which  ripens  into  treason,  whether  present  or 
absent  from  the  scene  of  actual  violence,  are  involved  in  the  same  liabilities 
as  the  immediate  actors.  If  they  engage  in  the  conspiracy  and  stimulate  the 
treason,  they  may  keep  their  bodies  from  the  affray  without  saving  their 
necks  from  a  halter. 

It  would  be  very  much  to  the  advantage  of  society,  if  an  example  could 
be  made  of  some  of  these  persistent  agitators,  who  excite  the  ignorant  and 
reckless  to  treasonable  violence,  from  which  they  themselves  shrink,  but  who 
are,  not  only  in  morals,  but  in  law,  equally  guilty  and  equally  amenable  to 
punishment  with  the  victims  of  their  inflammatory  counsels." 

A  number  of  the  most  influential  citizens  represented  the  occurrence  to 
the  Governor  as  follows: 

"To  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania: 

The  undersigned,  citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  respectfully  represent: 

That  citizens  of  a  neighboring  State  have  been  cruelly  assassinated  by  a 
band  of  armed  outlaws  at  a  place  not  more  than  three  hours' journey  distant 
from  the  seat  of  Government  and  from  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the 
State : 

That  this  insurrectionary  movement  in  one  of  the  most  populous  parts  of 
the  State  has  been  so  far  successful  as  to  overawe  the  local  ministers  of 
j  ustice  and  paralyze  the  power  of  the  law : 

That  your  memorialists  are  not  aware  that  '  any  military  force '  has  been 


THE  SLA  VE-HUNTING  TEA  GED  Y.  355 

sent  to  the  seat  of  insurrection,  or  that  the  civil  authority  has  been  strength- 
ened by  the  adoption  of  any  measures  suited  to  the  momentous  crisis. 

They,  therefore,  respectfully  request  the  chief  executive  magistrate  of 
Pennsylvania  to  take  into  consideration  the  necessity  of  vindicating  the  out- 
raged laws,  and  sustaining  the  dignity  of  the  Commonwealth  on  this  im- 
portant and  melancholy  occasion." 

Under  this  high  pressure  of  public  excitement,  threatening  and  alarm 
breathed  so  freely  on  every  hand,  that  fugitive  slaves  and  their  friends  in 
this  region  of  Pennsylvania  at  least,  were  compelled  to  pass  through  an 
hour  of  dreadful  darkness — an  ordeal  extremely  trying.  The  authorities  of 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  the  authorities  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Maryland,  were  diligently  making  arrests  wherever  a  suspected  party 
could  be  found,  who  happened  to  belong  in  the  neighborhood  of  Christiana. 

In  a  very  short  time  the  following  persons  were  in  custody :  J.  Castner 
Hanaway,  Elijah  Lewis,  Joseph  Scarlett,  Samuel  Kendig,  Henry  Spins, 
George  Williams,  Charles  Hunter,  Wilson  Jones,  Francis  Harkins,  Benja- 
min Thomson,  William  Brown  (No.  1),  William  Brown  (No.  2),  John  Hal- 
liday,  Elizabeth  Mosey,  John  Morgan,  Joseph  Berry,  John  Norton,  Denis 
Smith,  Harvey  Scott,  Susan  Clark,  Tansy  Brown,  Eliza  Brown,  Eliza  Par- 
ker, Hannah  Pinckney,  Robert  Johnson,  Miller  Thompson,  Isaiah  Clark,  and 
Jonathan  Black. 

These  were  not  all,  but  sufficed  for  a  beginning ;  at  least  it  made  an  inter- 
esting entertainment  for  the  first  day's  examination ;  and  although  there  were 
two  or  three  non-resistant  Quakers,  and  a  number  of  poor  defenceless  colored 
women  among  those  thus  taken  as  prisoners,  still  it  seemed  utterly  impos- 
sible for  the  exasperated  defenders  of  Slavery  to  divest  themselves  of  the 
idea,  that  this  heroic  deed,  in  self-defence,  on  the  part  of  men  who  felt  that 
their  liberties  were  in  danger,  was  anything  less  than  actually  levying  war 
against  the  United  States. 

Accordingly,  therefore,  the  hearing  gravely  took  place  at  Lancaster. 
On  the  side  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  following  distinguished  counsel 
appeared  on  examination:  Hon.  John  L.  Thompson,  District  Attorney;  Wm. 
B.  Faulney,  Esq. ;  Thos.  E.  Franklin,  Esq.,  Attorney-General  of  Lancaster 
county;  George  L.  Ashmead,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  representative  of  the 
United  States  authorities ;  and  Hon.  Robert  Brent,  Attorney-General  of 
Maryland. 

For  the  defence — Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Reah  Frazer,  Messrs.  Ford, 
Cline,  and  Dickey,  Esquires. 

From  a  report  of  the  first  day's  hearing  we  copy  a  short  extract,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"The  excitement  at  Christiana,  during  yesterday,  was  very  great.  Several 
hundred  persons  were  present,  and  the  deepest  feeling  was  manifested 
against  the  perpetrators  of  the  outrage.  At  two  o'clock  yesterday  afternoon, 


356  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  United  States  Marshal,  Mr.  Roberts,  United  States  District  Attorney, 
J.  H.  Ashmead,  Esq.,  Mr.  Commissioner  Ingraham,  and  Recorder  Lee, 
accompanied  by  the  United  States  Marines,  returned  to  the  city.  Lieut. 
Johnson,  and  officers  Lewis  S.  Brest,  Samuel  Mitchell,  Charles  McCully, 
Samuel  Neff,  Jacob  Albright,  Robert  McEwen,  and  —  Perkenpine,  by 
direction  of  the  United  States  Marshal,  had  charge  of  the  following  named 
prisoners,  who  were  safely  lodged  in  Moyamensing  prison,  accompanied  by 
the  Marines : — Joseph  Scarlett,  (white),  William  Brown,  Ezekiel  Thompson, 
Isaiah  Clarkson,  Daniel  Caulsberry,  Benjamin  Pendergrass,  Elijah  Clark, 
George  W.  H.  Scott,  Miller  Thompson,  and  Samuel  Hanson,  all  colored. 
The  last  three  were  placed  in  the  debtors'  apartment,  and  the  others  in  the 
criminal  apartment  of  the  Moyamensing  prison  to  await  their  trial  for 
treason,  &c." 

In  alluding  to  the  second  day's  doings,  the  Philadelphia  Ledger  thus 
represented  matters  at  the  field  of  battle  : 

"  The  intelligence  received  last  evening,  represents  the  country  for  miles 
around,  to  be  in  as  much  excitement  as  at  any  time  since  the  horrible  deed 
was  committed.  The  officers  sent  there  at  the  instance  of  the  proper 
authorities  are  making  diligent  search  in  every  direction,  and  securing  every 
person  against  whom  the  least  suspicion  is  attached.  The  police  force  from 
this  city,  amounting  to  about  sixty  men,  are  under  the  marshalship  of  Lieut. 
Ellis.  Just  as  the  cars  started  east,  in  the  afternoon,  five  more  prisoners 
who  were  secured  at  a  place  called  the  Welsh  Mountains,  twelve  miles 
distant,  were  brought  into  Christiana.  They  were  placed  in  custody  until 
such  time  as  a  hearing  will  take  place." 

Although  the  government  had  summoned  its  ablest  legal  talent  and  the 
popular  sentiment  was  as  a  hundred  to  one  against  William  Parker  and  his 
brave  comrades  who  had  made  the  slave-hunter  "bite  the  dust,"  most  nobly 
did  Thaddeus  Stevens  prove  that  he  was  not  to  be  cowed,  that  he  believed 
in  the  stirring  sentiment  so  much  applauded  by  the  American  people, 
"  Give  me  liberty,  or  give  me  death,"  not  only  for  the  white  man  but  for  all 
men.  Thus  standing  upon  such  great  and  invulnerable  principles,  it  was 
soon  discovered  that  one  could  chase  a  thousand,  and  two  put  ten  thousand 
to  flight  in  latter  as  well  as  in  former  times. 

At  first  even  the  friends  of  freedom  thought  that  the  killing  of  Gorsuch 
•was  not  only  wrong,  but  unfortunate  for  the  cause.  Scarcely  a  week  passed, 
however,  before  the  matter  was  looked  upon  in  a  far  different  light,  and  it 
was  pretty  generally  thought  that,  if  the  Lord  had  not  a  direct  hand  in  it,  the 
cause  of  Freedom  at  least  would  be  greatly  benefited  thereby. 

And  just  in  proportion  as  the  masses  cried,  Treason  !  Treason  !  the  hosts 
of  freedom  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other  were  awakened  to  sympa- 
thize with  the  slave.  Thousands  were  soon  aroused  to  show  sympathy 
who  had  hitherto  been  dormant.  Hundreds  visited  the  prisoners  in  their 


THE  SLA  VE-HUNTING  TEA  GED  Y.  357 

cells  to  greet,  cheer,  and  offer  them  aid  and  counsel  in  their  hour  of  sore 
trial. 

The  friends  of  freedom  remained  calm  even  while  the  pro-slavery  party- 
were  fiercely  raging  and  gloating  over  the  prospect,  as  they  evidently  thought 
of  the  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from  teaching  the  abolitionists  a  lesson  from 
the  scaffold,  which  would  in  future  prevent  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers  from  killing  their  masters  when  in  pursuit  of  them. 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  authorities  three  white  men,  and  twenty-seven 
colored  had  been  safely  lodged  in  Moyamensing  prison,  under  the  charge  of 
treason.  The  authorities,  however,  had  utterly  failed  to  catch  the  hero, 
William  Parker,  as  he  had  been  sent  to  Canada,  via  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  and  was  thus  "  sitting  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  where  none 
dared  to  molest,  or  make  him  afraid." 

As  an  act  of  simple  justice  it  may  here  be  stated  that  the  abolitionists  and 
prisoners  found  a  true  friend  and  ally  at  least  in  one  United  States  official, 
who,  by  the  way,  figured  prominently  in  making  arrests,  etc.,  namely :  the 
United  States  Marshal,  A.  E.  Roberts.  In  all  his  intercourse  with  the 
prisoners  and  their  friends,  he  plainly  showed  that  all  his  sympathies  were 
on  the  side  of  Freedom,  and  not  with  the  popular  pro-slavery  sentiment 
which  clamored  so  loudly  against  traitors  and  abolitionists. 

Two  of  his  prisoners  had  been  identified  in  the  jail  as  fugitive  slaves  by 
their  owners.  When  the  trial  came  on  these  two  individuals  were  among 
the  missing.  How  they  escaped  was  unknown ;  the  Marshal,  however, 
was  strongly  suspected  of  being  a  friend  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and 
to  add  now,  that  those  suspicions  were  founded  on  fact,  will,  doubtless,  do 
him  no  damage. 

In  order  to  draw  the  contrast  between  Freedom  and  Slavery,  simply  with 
a  view  of  showing  how  the  powers  that  were  acted  and  judged  in  the  days 
of  the  reign  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  unquestionably  nothing  better  could 
be  found  to  meet  the  requirements  of  this  issue  than  the  charge  of  Judge 
Kane,  coupled  with  the  indictment  of  the  Grand  Jury.  In  the  light  of  the 
Emancipation  and  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  they  are  too  transparent  to 
need  a  single  word  of  comment.  Judge  and  jury  having  found  the  accused 
chargeable  with  Treason,  nothing  remained,  so  far  as  the  men  were  con- 
cerned, but  to  bide  their  time  as  best  they  could  in  prison.  Most  of  them 
were  married,  and  had  wives  and  children  clinging  to  them  in  this  hour  of 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment. 


358  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


THE  LAW  OF  TREASON,  AS  LAID  DOWN  BY  JUDGE  KANE. 

The  following  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  United  States  District 
Court,  in  reference  to  the  Slave-hunting  affray  in  Lancaster  county,  and  pre- 
paratory to  their  finding  bills  of  indictment  against  the  prisoners,  was  deliv- 
ered on  Monday,  September  28,  by  Judge  Kane : 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  Grand  Jury : — It  has  been  represented  to  me,  that 
since  we  met  last,  circumstances  have  occurred  in  one  of  the  neighboring 
counties  in  our  District,  which  should  call  for  your  prompt  scrutiny,  and 
perhaps  for  the  energetic  action  of  the  Court.  It  is  said,  that  a  citizen  of  the 
State  of  Maryland,  who  had  come  into  Pennsylvania  to  reclaim  a  fugitive 
from  labor,  was  forcibly  obstructed  in  the  attempt  by  a  body  of  armed  men, 
assaulted,  beaten  and  murdered ;  that  some  members  of  his  family,  who  had 
accompanied  him  in  the  pursuit,  were  at  the  same  time,  and  by  the  same 
party  maltreated  and  grievously  wounded ;  and  that  an  officer  of  justice, 
constituted  under  the  authority  of  this  Court,  who  sought  to  arrest  the  fugi- 
tive, was  impeded  and  repelled  by  menaces  and  violence,  while  proclaiming 
his  character,  and  exhibiting  his  warrant.  It  is  said,  too,  that  the  time  and 
manner  of  these  outrages,  their  asserted  object,  the  denunciations  by  which 
they  were  preceded,  and  the  simultaneous  action  of  most  of  the  guilty  par- 
ties, evinced  a  combined  purpose  forcibly  to  resist  and  make  nugatory  a 
constitutional  provision,  and  the  statutes  enacted  in  pursuance  of1  it:  and 
it  is  added,  in  confirmation  of  this,  that  for  some  months  back,  gatherings  of 
people,  strangers,  as  well  as  citizens,  have  been  held  from  time  to  time  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  place  of  the  recent  outbreaks,  at  which  exhortations  were 
made  and  pledges  interchanged  to  hold  the  law  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive 
slaves  as  of  no  validity,  and  to  defy  its  execution.  Such  are  some  of  the 
representations  that  have  been  made  in  my  hearing,  and  in  regard  to  which, 
it  has  become  your  duty,  as  the  Grand  Inquest  of  the  District,  to  make  legal 
inquiry.  Personally,  I  know  nothing  of  the  facts,  or  the  evidence  relating 
to  them.  As  a  member  of  the  Court,  before  which  the  accused  persons  may 
hereafter  be  arraigned  and  tried,  I  have  sought  to  keep  my  mind  altogether 
free  from  any  impressions  of  their  guilt  or  innocence,  and  even  from  an  extra- 
judicial  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  which  must  determine  the  legal 
character  of  the  offence  that  has  thus  been  perpetrated.  It  is  due  to  the 
great  interests  of  public  justice,  no  less  than  to  the  parties  implicated  in 
a  criminal  charge,  that  their  cause  should  be  in  no  wise  and  in  no  degree  pre- 
judged.' And  in  referring,  therefore,  to  the  representations  which  have  been 
made" to  me,  I  have  no  other  object  than  to  point  you  to  the  reasons  for  my 
addressing  you  at  this  advanced  period  of  our  sessions,  and  to  enable  you 


THE  LA  W  OF  TREASON.  359 

to  apply  with  more  facility  and  certainty  the  principles  and  rules  of  law, 
which  I  shall  proceed  to  lay  before  you. 

If  the  circumstances,  to  which  I  have  adverted,  have  in  fact  taken  place, 
they  involve  the  highest  crime  known  to  our  laws.  *  Treason  against  the 
United  States  is  defined  by  the  Constitution,  Art.  3,  Sec.  3,  cl.  1,  to  consist 
in  "  levying  war  against  them,  or  adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid 
and  comfort."  This  definition  is  borrowed  from  the  ancient  Law  of  England, 
Stat.  25,  Edw.  3,  Stat.  5,  Chap.  2,  and  its  terms  must  be  understood,  of 
course,  in  the  sense  which  they  bore  in  that  law,  and  which  obtained  here 
when  the  Constitution  was  adopted.  The  expression,  "levying  war,"  so 
regarded,  embraces  not  merely  the  act  of  formal  or  declared  war,  but  any 
combination  forcibly  to  prevent  or  Oppose  the  execution  or  enforcement  of  a 
provision  of  the  Constitution,  or  of  a  public  Statute,  if  accompanied  or 
followed  by  an  act  of  forcible  opposition  in  pursuance  of  such  combination. 
This,  in  substance,  has  been  the  interpretation  given  to  these  words  by  the 
English  Judges,  and  it  has  been  uniformly  and  fully  recognized  and  adopted 
in  the  Courts  of  the  United  States.  (See  Foster,  Hale,  and  Hawkins,  and 
the  opinions  of  Iredell,  Patterson,  Chase,  Marshall,  and  Washington,  J.  J., 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  of  Peters,  D.  J.,  in  U.  S.  vs.  Vijol,  U.  S.  vs. 
Mitchell,  U.  S.  vs.  Fries,  U.  S.  vs.  Bollman  and  Swartwout,  and  U.  S.  vs. 
Burr). 

The  definition,  as  you  will  observe,  includes  two  particulars,  both  of  them 
indispensable  elements  of  the  offence.  There  must  have  been  a  combination 
or  conspiring  together  to  oppose  the  law  by  force,  and  some  actual  force  must 
have  been  exerted,  or  the  crime  of  treason  is  not  consummated.  The  highest, 

9  O  7 

or  at  least  the  direct  proof  of  the  combination  may  be  found  in  the  declared 
purposes  of  the  individual  party  before  the  actual  outbreak;  or  it  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  proceedings  of  meetings,  in  which  he  took  part  openly;  or  which 
he  either  prompted,  or  made  effective  by  his  countenance  or  sanction, — com- 
mending, counselling  and  instigating  forcible  resistance  to  the  law.  I  speak, 
of  course,  of  a  conspiring  to  resist  a  law,  not  the  more  limited  purpose  to 
violate  it,  or  to  prevent  its  application  and  enforcement  in  a  particular  case, 
or  against  a  particular  individual.  The  combination  must  be  directed  against 
the  law  itself.  But  such  direct  proof  of  this  element  of  the  offence  is  not 
legally  necessary  to  establish  its  existence.  The  concert  of  purpose  may  be 
deduced  from  the  concerted  action  itself,  or  it  may  be  inferred  from  facts 
occurring  at  the  time,  or  afterwards,  as  well  as  before.  Besides  this,  there 
must  be  some  act  of  violence,  as  the  result  or  consequence  of  the  combining. 
But  here  again,  it  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  the  individual  accused 
was  a  direct,  personal  actor  in  the  violence.  If  he  was  present,  directing, 
aiding,  abetting,  counselling,  or  countenancing  it,  he  is  in  law  guilty  of  the 
forcible  act.  Nor  is  even  his  personal  presence  indispensable.  Though  he 
be  absent  at  the  time  of  its  actual  perpetration,  yet,  if  he  directed  the  act, 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL-ROAD: 

devised,  or  knowingly  furnished  the  means  for  carrying  it  into  effect,  insti- 
gated others  to  perform  it,  he  shares  their  guilt. 

In  treason  there  are  no  accessories.  There  has  been,  I  fear,  an  erroneous 
impression  on  this  subject,  among  a  portion  of  our  people.  If  it  has  been 
thought  safe,  to  counsel  and  instigate  others  to  acts  of  forcible  oppugnation 
to  the  provisions  of  a  statute,  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  by 
appeals  to  passion,  and  denunciations  of  the  law  as  oppressive,  unjust, 
revolting  to  the  conscience,  and  not  binding  on  the  actions  of  men,  to  repre- 
sent the  constitution  of  the  land  as  a  compact  of  iniquity,  which  it  were 
meritorious  to  violate  or  subvert,  the  mistake  has  been  a  grievous  one ;  and 
they  who  have  fallen  into  it  may  rejoice,  if  perad venture  their  appeals  and 
their  counsels  have  been  hitherto  without  effect.  The  supremacy  of  the 
constitution,  in  all  its  provisions,  is  at  the  very  basis  of  our  existence  as  a 
nation.  He,  whose  conscience,  or  whose  theories  of  political  or  individual 
right,  forbid  him  to  support  and  maintain  it  in  its  fullest  integrity,  may 
relieve  himself  from  the  duties  of  citizenship,  by  divesting  himself  of  its 
rights.  But  while  he  remains  within  our  borders,  he  is  to  remember,  that 
successfully  to  instigate  treason,  is  to  commit  it.  I  shall  not  be  supposed  to 
imply  in  these  remarks,  that  I  have  doubts  of  the  law-abiding  character  of 
our  people.  No  one  can  know  them  well,  without  the  most  entire  reliance 
on  their  fidelity  to  the  constitution.  Some  of  them  may  differ  from  the 
mass,  as  to  the  rightfulness  or  the  wisdom  of  this  or  the  other  provision 
that  is  found  in  the  federal  compact,  they  may  be  divided  in  sentiment  as  to 
the  policy  of  a  particular  statute,  or  of  some  provision  in  a  statute ;  but  it  is 
their  honest  purpose  to  stand  by  the  engagements,  all  the  engagements, 
which  bind  them  to  their  brethren  of  the  other  States.  They  have  but  one 
country ;  they  recognize  no  law  of  higher  social  obligation  than  its  constitu- 
tion and  the  laws  made  in  pursuance  of  it ;  they  recognize  no  higher  appeal 
than  to  the  tribunals  it  has  appointed  ;  they  cherish  no  patriotism  that  looks 
beyond  the  union  of  the  States.  That  there  are  men  here,  as  elsewhere, 
whom  a  misguided  zeal  impels  to  violations  of  law ;  that  there  are  others 
who  are  controlled  by  false  sympathies,  and  some  who  yield  too  readily  and 
too  fully  to  sympathies  not  always  false,  or  if  false,  yet  pardonable,  and 
become  criminal  by  yielding,  that  we  have,  not  only  in  our  jails  and  alms- 
houses,  but  segregated  here  and  there  in  detached  portions  of  the  State, 
ignorant  men,  many  of  them  without  political  rights,  degraded  in  social 
position,  and  instinctive  of  revolt,  all  this  is  true.  It  is  proved  by  the 
daily  record  of  our  police  courts,  and  by  the  ineffective  labors  of  those  good 
men  among  us,  who  seek  to  detach  want  from  temptation,  passion  from  vio- 
lence, and  ignorance  from  crime. 

But  it  should  not  be  supposed  that  any  of  these  represent  the  sentiment 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  it  would  be  to  wrong  our  people  sorely,  to  include 
them  in  the  same  category  of  personal,  social,  or  political  morals.  It  is 


THE  LA  W  OF  TREASON.  361 

declared  in  the  article  of  the  constitution,  which  I  have  already  cited,  that 
'no  person  shall  be  convicted  of  treason,  unless  on  the  testimony  of  two 
witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  or  on  confession  in  open  court.7  This  and 
the  corresponding  language  in  the  act  of  Congress  of  the  30th  of  April, 
1790,  seem  to  refer  to  the  proofs  on  the  trial,  and  not  to  the  preliminary 
hearing  before  the  committing  magistrate,  or  the  proceeding  before  the  grand 
inquest.  There  can  be  no  conviction  until  after  arraignment  on  bill  found. 
The  previous  action  in  the  case  is  not  a  trial,  and  cannot  convict,  whatever 
be  the  evidence  or  the  number  of  witnesses.  I  understand  this  to  have  been 
the  opinion  entertained  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  1  Burr's  Trial,  195,  and 
though  it  differs  from  that  expressed  by  Judge  Iredell  on  the  indictment  of 
Fries,  (1  Whart.  Am.  St.  Tr.  480),  I  feel  authorized  to  recommend  it  to 
you,  as  within  the  terms  of  the  Constitution,  and  involving  no  injustice  to 
the  accused.  I  have  only  to  add  that  treason  against  the  United  States, 
may  be  committed  by  any  one  resident  or  sojourning  within  its  territory,  and 
under  the  protection  of  its  laws,  whether  he  be  a  citizen  or  an  alien.  (Fost. 
C.  L.  183,  5.— 1  Hale  59,  60,  62.  1  Hawk.  ch.  17,  §  5,  Kel.  38). 

Besides  the  crime  of  treason,  which  I  have  thus  noticed,  there  are  offences 
of  minor  grades,  against  the  Constitution  and  the  State,  some  or  other  of 
which  may  be  apparently  established  by  the  evidence  that  will  come  before 
you.  These  are  embraced  in  the  act  of  Congress,  on  the  30th  of  Sept.,  1790, 
Ch.  9,  Sac.  22,  on  the  subject  of  obstructing  or  resisting  the  service  of  legal 
process, — the  act  of  the  2d  of  March,  1831,  Chap.  99,  Sec.  2,  which  secures 
the  jurors,  witnesses,  and  officers  of  our  Courts  in  the  fearless,  free,  and 
impartial  administration  of  their  respective  functions, — and  the  act  of  the 
18th  of  September,  1850,  Ch.  60,  which  relates  more  particularly  to  the 
rescue,  or  attempted  rescue  of  a  fugitive  from  labor.  These  Acts  were  made 
the  subject  of  a  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  this  Court  in  November  last, 
of  which  I  shall  direct  a  copy  to  be  laid  before  you ;  and  I  do  not  deem  it 
necessary  to  repeat  thgir  provisions  at  this  time. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Grand  Jury :  You  are  about  to  enter  upon  a  most  grave 
and  momentous  duty.  You  will  be  careful  in  performing  it,  not  to  permit 
your  indignation  against  crime,  or  your  just  appreciation  of  its  perilous  con- 
sequences, to  influence  your  judgment  of  the  guilt  of  those  who  may  be 
charged  before  you  with  its  commission.  But  you  will  be  careful,  also,  that 
no  misguided  charity  shall  persuade  you  to  withhold  the  guilty  from  the  retri- 
butions of  justice.  You  will  inquire  whether  an  offence  has  been  committed, 
what  was  its  legal  character,  and  who  were  the  offenders, — and  this  done,  and 
this  only,  you  will  make  your  presentments  according  to  the  evidence  and 
the  law.  Your  inquiries  will  not  be  restricted  to  the  conduct  of  the  people 
belonging  to  our  own  State.  If  in  the  progress  of  them,  you  shall  find,  that 
men  have  been  among  us,  who,  under  whatever  mask  of  conscience  or  of 
peace,  have  labored  to  incite  others  to  treasonable  violence,  and  who,  after 


362  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

arranging  the  elements  of  the  mischief,  have  withdrawn  themselves  to  await 
the  explosion  they  had  contrived,  you  will  feel  yourselves  bound  to  present 
the  fact  to  the  Court,— and  however  distant  may  be  the  place  in  which  the 
offenders  may  have  sought  refuge,  we  give  you  the  pledge  of  the  law,  that 
its  far-reaching  energies  shall  be  exerted  to  bring  them  up  for  trial, — if 
guilty,  to  punishment.  The  offence  of  treason  is  not  triable  in  this  Court ; 
but  by  an  act  of  Congress,  passed  on  the  8th  of  August,  1845,  Chap.  98,  it  is 
made  lawful  for  the  Grand  Jury,  empanelled  and  sworn  in  the  District  Court, 
to  take  cognizance  of  all  the  indictments  for  crimes  against  the  United  States 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  either  of  the  Federal  Courts  of  thq  District. 
There  being  no  Grand  Jury  in  attendance  at  this  time  in  the  Circuit  Court, 
to  pass  upon  the  accusations  I  have  referred  to  in  the  first  instance,  it  has 
fallen  to  my  lot  to  assume  the  responsible  office  of  expounding  to  you  the 
law  in  regard  to  them.  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing,  that  if  the  views 
I'have  expressed  are  in  any  respect  erroneous,  they  must  undergo  the  revi- 
sion of  my  learned  brother  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  presides  in  this  Cir- 
cuit, before  they  can  operate  to  the  serious  prejudice  of  any  one  ;  and  that 
if  they  are  doubtful  even,  provision  exists  for  their  re-examination  in  the 
highest  tribunal  of  the  country." 

On  the  strength  of  Judge  Kane's  carefully-drawn  up  charge  the  Grand 
Jury  found  true  bills  of  indictment  against  forty  of  the  Christiana  offenders, 
charged  with  treason.  James  Jackson,  an  aged  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  (a  Quaker),  and  a  well-known  non-resistant  abolitionist,  was  of  this 
number.  With  his  name  the  blanks  were  filled  up ;  the  same  form  (with 
regard  to  these  bills)  was  employed  in  the  case  of  each  one  of  the  accused. 
The  following  is  a 

COPY   OP   THE   INDICTMENT. 

Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania,  ss. : 

The  Grand  Inquest  of  the  United  States  of  America,  inquiring  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania,  on  their  oaths  and  affirmations,  respect- 
fully do  present,  that  James  Jackson,  yeoman  of  the  District  aforesaid,  owing 
allegiance  to  the  United  States  of  America,  wickedly  devising  and  intending 
the  peace  and  tranquility  of  said  United  States,  to  disturb,  and  prevent  the 
execution  of  the  laws  thereof  within  the  same,  to  wit,  a  law  of  the  United 
States,  entitled  "An  act  respecting  fugitives  from  justice  and  persons  escaping 
from  the  service  of  their  masters,"  approved  February  twelfth,  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  ninety-three,  and  also  a  law  of  the  United  States, 
entitled  "  An  act  to  amend,  and  supplementary  to,  the  act  entitled,  An  act 
respecting  fugitives  from  justice  and  persons  escaping  from  the  service  of 
their  masters,  approved  February  the  twelfth,  one  thousand  seven  hundred 


THE  LA  W  OF  TREASON.  363 

and  ninety-three,"  which  latter  supplementary  act  was  approved  September 
eighteenth,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty,  on  the  eleventh  day  of 
September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty- 
one,  in  the  county  of  Lancaster,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  District 
aforesaid,  and  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Court,  wickedly  and  traitor- 
ously did  intend  to  levy  war  against  the  United  States  within  the  same. 
And  to  fulfill  and  bring  to  effect  the  said  traitorous  intention  of  him,  the 
said  James  Jackson,  he,  the  said  James  Jackson  afterward,  to  wit,  on  the  day 
and  year  aforesaid,  in  the  State,  District  and  County  aforesaid,  and  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  this  Court,  with  a  great  multitude  of  persons,  whose 
names,  to  this  Inquest  are  as  yet  unknown,  to  a  great  number,  to  wit,  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  persons  and  upwards,  armed  and  arrayed  in  a  war- 
like manner,  that  is  to  say,  with  guns,  swords,  and  other  warlike  weapons, 
as  well  offensive  as  defensive,  being  then  and  there  unlawfully  and  traitor- 
ously assembled,  did  traitorously  assemble  and  combine  against  the  said 
United  States,  and  then  and  there,  with  force  and  arms,  wickedly  and  trai- 
torously, and  with  the  wicked  and  traitorous  intention  to  oppose  and  prevent, 
by  means  of  intimidation  and  violence,  the  execution  of  the  said  laws  of  the 
United  States  within  the  same,  did  array  and  dispose  themselves  in  a  war- 
like and  hostile  manner  against  the  said  United  States,  and  then  and  there, 
with  force  and  arms,  in  pursuance  of  such  their  traitorous  intention,  he,  the 
said  James  Jackson,  with  the  said  persons  so  as  aforesaid,  wickedly  and  trai- 
torously did  levy  war  against  the  United  States. 

And  further,  to  fulfill  and  bring  to  effect  the  said  traitorous  intention  of 
him,  the  said  James  Jackson,  and  in  pursuance  and  in  execution  of  the  said 
wicked  and  traitorous  combination  to  oppose,  resist  and  prevent  the  said 
laws  of  the  United  States  from  being  carried  into  execution,  he,  the  said 
James  Jackson,  afterwards,  to  wit,  on  the  day  and  year  first  aforesaid,  in  the 
State,  District  and  county  aforesaid,  and  within  the  jurisdiction  aforesaid, 
with  the  said  persons  whose  names  to  this  Inquest  are  as  yet  unknown,  did, 
wickedly  and  traitorously  assemble  against  the  said  United  States,  with  the 
avowed  intention  by  force  of  arms  and  intimidation  to  prevent  the  execu- 
tion of  the  said  laws  of  the  United  States  within  the  same ;  and  in  pursu- 
ance and  execution  of  such  their  wicked  and  traitorous  combination,  he,  the 
said  James  Jackson,  then  and  there  with  force  and  arms,  with  the  said  per- 
sons to  a  great  number,  to  wit,  the  number  of  one  hundred  persons  and 
upwards,  armed  and  arrayed  in  a  warlike  manner,  that  is  to  say,  with  guns, 
swords,  and  other  warlike  weapons,  as  well  offensive  as  defensive,  being 
then  and  there,  unlawfully  and  traitorously  assembled,  did  wickedly,  know- 
ingly, and  traitorously  resist  and  oppose  one  Henry  H.  Kline,  an  officer, 
duly  appointed  by  Edward  D.  Ingraharn,  Esq.,  a  commissioner,  duly 
appointed  by  tha  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  said  district,  in 
the  execution  of  the  duty  of  the  office  of  the  said  Kline,  he,  the  said  Kline, 


364  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

being  appointed  by  the  said  Edward  Ingraham,  Esq.,  by  writing  under  his 
hand,  to  execute  warrants  and  other  process  issued  by  him,  the  said 
Ingraham,  in  the  performance  of  his  duties  as  Commissioner,  under  the  said 
laws  of  the  United  States,  and  then  and  there,  with  force  and  arms,  with 
the  said  great  multitude  of  persons,  so  as,  aforesaid,  unlawfully  and  traitor- 
ously assembled,  and  armed  and  arrayed  in  manner  as  aforesaid,  he,  the  said, 
James  Jackson,  wickedly  and  traitorously  did  oppose  and  resist,  and  pre- 
vent the  said  Kline,  from  executing  the  lawful  process  to  him  directed  and 
delivered  by  the  said  commissioner  against  sundry  persons,  then  residents  of 
said  county,  who  had  been  legally  charged  before  the  said  commissioner  as 
being  persons  held  to  service  or  labor  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  owing 
such  service  or  labor  to  a  certain  Edward  Gorsuch,  under  the  laws  of  the 
said  State  of  Maryland,  had  escaped  therefrom,  into  the  said  Eastern  district 
of  Pennsylvania ;  which  process,  duly  issued  by  the  said  commissioner,  the 
said  Kline  then  and  there  had  in  his  possession,  and  was  then  and  there  pro- 
ceeding to  execute,  as  by  law  he  was  bound  to  do;  and  so  the  grand  inquest, 
upon  their  respective  oaths  and  affirmations  aforesaid,  do  say,  that  the  said 
James  Jackson,  in  manner  aforesaid,  as  much  as  in  him  lay,  wickedly  and 
traitorously  did  prevent,  by  means  of  force  and  intimidation,  the  execution 
of  the  said  laws  of  the  United  States,  in  the  said  State  and  District.  And 
further,  to  fulfill  and  bring  to  effect,  the  said  traitorous  intention  of  him,  the 
said  James  Jacksou,  and  in  further  pursuance,  and  in  the  execution  of  the 
said  wicked  and  traitorous  combination  to  expose,  resist,  and  prevent  the 
execution  of  the  said  laws  of  the  said  United  States,  in  the  State  and  Dis- 
trict aforesaid,  he,  the  said  James  Jackson,  afterwards,  to  wit,  on  the  day 
and  year  first  aforesaid,  in  the  State,  county,  and  district  aforesaid,  and 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  court,  with  the  said  persons  whose  names  to 
the  grand  inquest  aforesaid,  are  as  yet  unknown,  did,  wickedly  and  traitor- 
ously assemble  against  the  said  United  States  with  the  avowed  intention,  by 
means  of  force  and  intimidation,  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  said  laws 
of  the  United  States  in  the  State  and  district  aforesaid,  and  in  pursuance 
and  execution  of  such,  their  wicked  and  traitorous  combination  and  inten- 
tion, then  and  there  to  the  State,  district,  and  county  aforesaid,  and  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  this  court,  with  force  and  arms,  with  a  great  multitude  of 
persons,  to  wit,  the  number  of  one  hundred  persons  and  upwards,  armed  and 
arrayed  in  a  warlike  manner,  that  is  to  say,  with  guns,  swords,  and  other 
warlike  weapons,  as  well  offensive  as  defensive,  being  then  and  there  un- 
lawfully and  traitorously  assembled,  he,  the  said  James  Jackson,  did,  know- 
ingly, and  unlawfully  assault  the  said  Henry  H.  Kline,  he,  the  said  Kline, 
being  an  officer  appointed  by  writing,  under  the  hand  of  the  said  Edward 
D.  Ingraham,  Esq.,  a  commissioner  under  said  laws,  to  execute  warrants 
and  other  process,  issued  by  the  said  commissioner  in  the  performance  of  his 
duties  as  such;  and  he,  the  said  James  Jackson,  did,  then  and  there, 


THE  LA  W  OF  TREASON.  365 

traitorously,  with  force  and  arms,  against  the  will  of  the  said  Kline,  libe- 
rate and  take  out  of  his  custody,  persons  by  him  before  that  time  arrested, 
and  in  his  lawful  custody,  then  and  there  being,  by  virtue  of  lawful  process 
against  them  issued  by  the  said  commissioner,  they  being  legally  charged 
with  being  persons  held  to  service  or  labor  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  and 
owino-  such  service  or  labor  to  a  certain  Edward  Gorsuch,  under  the  laws  of 

O  * 

the  said  State  of  Maryland,  who  had  escaped  therefrom  into  the  said  district ; 
and  so  the  grand  inquest  aforesaid,  upon  their  oaths  and  affirmations,  afore- 
said, do  say,  that  he,  the  said  James  Jackson,  as  much  as  in  him  lay,  did, 
then -and  there,  in  pursuance  and  in  execution  of  the  said  wicked  and 
traitorous  combination  and  intention,  wickedly  and  traitorously,  by  means 
of  force  and  intimidation,  prevent  the  execution  of  the  said  laws  of  the 
United  States,  in  the  said  State  and  district. 

And  further  to  fulfill  and  bring  to  effect,  the  said  traitorous  intention  of 
him,  the  said  James  Jackson,  and  in  pursuance  and  in  execution  of  the  said 
wicked  and  traitorous  combination  to  oppose,  resist  and  prevent  the  said 
laws  of  the  United  States  from  being  carried  into  execution,  he,  the  said 
James  Jackson,  afterwards,  to  wit,  on  the  day  and  year  first  aforesaid,  and 
on  divers  other  days,  both  before  and  afterwards  in  the  State  and  district 
aforesaid,  and  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  court,  with  the  said  persons  to 
this  inquest  as  yet  unknown,  maliciously  and  traitorously  did  meet,  conspire, 
consult,  and  agree  among  themselves,  further  to  oppose,  resist,  and  prevent, 
by  means  of  force  and  intimidation,  the  execution  of  the  said  laws  herein 
before  specified. 

And  further  to  fulfill,  perfect,  and  bring  to  effect  the  said  traitorous  inten- 
tion of  him  the  said  James  Jackson,  and  in  pursuance  and  execution  of  the 
said  wicked  and  traitorous  combination  to  oppose  and  resist  the  said  laws  of 
the  United  States  from  being  carried  into  execution,  in  the  State  and  district 
aforesaid,  he,  the  said  James  Jackson,  together  with  the  other  persons  whose 
names  are  to  this  inquest  as  yet  unknown,  on  the  day  and  year  first  afore- 
said, and  on  divers  other  days  and  times,  as  well  before  and  after,  at  the 
district  aforesaid,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  said  court,  with  force  and  arms, 
maliciously  and  traitorously  did  prepare  and  compose,  and  did  then  and 
there  maliciously  and  traitorously  cause  and  procure  to  be'prepared  and 
composed,  divers  books,  pamphlets,  letters,  declarations,  resolutions, 
addresses,  papers  and  writings,  and  did  then  and  there  maliciously  and  trait- 
orously publish  and  disperse  and  cause  to  be  published  and  dispersed,  divers 
other  books  and  pamphlets,  letters,  declarations,  resolutions,  addresses, 
papers  and  writings ;  the  said  books,  pamphlets,  letters,  declarations,  resolu- 
tions, addresses,  papers  and  writings,  so  respectively  prepared,  composed, 
published  and  dispersed,  as  last  aforesaid,  containing  therein,  amongst  other 
things,  incitements,  encouragements,  and  exhortations,  to  move,  induce  and 
persuade  persons  held  to  service  in  any  of  the  United  States,  by  the  laws 


366  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

thereof,  who  had  escaped  into  the  said  district,  as  well  as  other  persons, 
citizens  of  said  district,  to  resist,  oppose,  and  prevent,  by  violence  and  intimi- 
dation, the  execution  of  the  said  laws,  and  also  containing  therein,  instruc- 
tions and  directions  how  and  upon  what  occasion,  the  traitorous  purposes 
last  aforesaid,  should  and  might  be  carried  into  effect,  contrary  to  the  form 
of  the  act  of  Congress  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  and  against  the 
peace  and  dignity  of  the  United  States. 

JOHN  W.  ASHMEAD, 
Attorney  of  the  U.  S.  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  abolitionists  were  leaving  no  stone  unturned  in  order  to  triumphantly 
meet  the  case  in  Court.  During  the  interim  many  tokens  of  kindness  and 
marks  of  Christian  benevolence  were  extended  to  the  prisoners  by  their 
friends  and  sympathizers ;  among  these  none  deserve  more  honorable  mention 
than  the  noble  act  of  Thomas  L.  Kane  (son  of  Judge  Kane,  and  now  Gen- 
eral), in  tendering  all  the  prisoners  a  sumptuous  Thanksgiving  dinner,  con- 
sisting of  turkey,  etc.,  pound  cake,  etc.,  etc.  The  dinner  for  the  white 
prisoners,  Messrs.  Hanaway,  Davis,  and  Scarlett,  was  served  in  appropriate 
style  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Morrison,  one  of  the  keepers.  The  U.  S.  Marshal, 
A.  E.  Roberts,  Esq.,  several  of  the  keepers,  and  Mr.  Hanes,  one  of  the 
prison  officers,  dined  with  the  prisoners  as  their  guests.  Mayor  Charles 
Gilpin  was  also  present  and  accepted  an  invitation  to  test  the  quality  of 
the  luxuries,  thus  significantly  indicating  that  he  was  not  the  enemy  of 
Freedom. 

Mrs.  Martha  Hanaway,  the  wife  of  the  "  traitor  "  of  that  name,  and  who 
had  spent  most  of  her  time  with  her  husband  since  his  incarceration,  served 
each  of  the  twenty-seven  colored  "  traitors  "  with  a  plate  of  the  delicacies, 
and  the  supply  being  greater  than  the  demand,  the  balance  was  served  to 
outsiders  in  other  cells  on  the  same  corridor. 

The  pro-slavery  party  were  very  indignant  over  the  matter,  and  the  Hon. 
Mr.  Brent  thought  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  bring  this  high  handed  proce- 
dure to  the  notice  of  the  Court,  where  he  received  a  few  crumbs  of  sympathy, 
from  the  pro-slavery  side,  of  course.  But  the  dinner  had  been  so  handsomely 
arranged,  and^oming  from  the  source  that  it  did,  it  had  a  very  telling  effect. 
Long  before  this,  however,  Mr.  T.  L.  Kane  had  given  abundant  evidence 
that  he  approved  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  was  a  decided  oppo- 
.  nent  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law ;  in  short,  that  he  believed  in  freedom  for 
all  men,  irrespective  of  race  or  color. 

Castnor  Hanaway  was  first  to  be  tried ;  over  him,  therefore,  the  great 
contest  was  to  be  made.  For  the  defence  of  this  particular  case,  the  aboli- 
tionists selected  J.  M.  Read,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Joseph  S.  Lewis  and  Theo- 
dore Cuyler,  Esqs.  On  the  side  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  against  the 
"  traitors,"  were  U.  S.  District  Attorney,  John  "W.  Ashmead,  Hon.  James 


THE  LA  W  OF  TREASON.  367 

Cooper,  James  R.  Ludlow,  Esq.,  and  Robert  G.  Brent,  Attorney  General  of 
Maryland.  Mr.  Brent  was  allowed  to  act  as  "overseer"  in  conducting 
matters  on  the  side  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  On  this  infamous  enact- 
ment, combined  with  a  corrupted  popular  sentiment,  the  pro- slavery  side 
depended  for  success.  The  abolitionists  viewed  matters  in  the  light  of  free- 
dom and  humanity,  and  hopefully  relied  upon  the  justice  of  their  cause  and 
the  power  of  truth  to  overcome  and  swallow  up  all  the  Pharaoh's  rods  of 
serpents  as  fast  as  they  might  be  thrown  down. 

The  prisoners  having  lain  in  their  cells  nearly  three  months,  the  time  for 
their  trial  arrived.  Monday  morning,  November  24th,  the  contest  began. 
The  first  three  days  were  occupied  in  procuring  jurors.  The  pro-slavery 
side  desired  none  but  such  as  believed  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  in 
"  Treason  "  as  expounded  in  the  Judge's  charge  and  the  finding  of  the  Grand 
Jury. 

The  counsel  for  the  "Traitors"  carefully  weighed  the  jurors,  and  when 
found  wanting  challenged  them;  in  so  doing,  they  managed  to  get  rid 
of  most  all  of  that  special  class  upon  whom  the  prosecution  depended 
for  a  conviction.  The  jury  having  been  sworn  in,  the  battle  commenced  in 
good  earnest,  and  continued  unabated  for  nearly  two  weeks.  It  is  needless 
to  say,  that  the  examinations  and  arguments  would  fill  volumes,  and  were 
of  the  most  deeply  interesting  nature. 

No  attempt  can  here  be  made  to  recite  the  particulars  of  the  trial  other 
than  by  a  mere  reference.  It  was,  doubtless,  the  most  important  trial 
that  ever  took  place  in  this  country  relative  to  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  passengers,  and  in  its  results  more  good  was  brought  out  of  evil  than 
can  easily  be  estimated.  The  pro-slavery  theories  of  treason  were  utterly 
demolished,  and  not  a  particle  of  room  was  left  the  advocates  of  the  pecu- 
liar institution  to  hope,  that  slave-hunters  in  future,  in  quest  of  fugitives, 
would  be  any  more  safe  than  Gorsuch,  The  tide  of  public  sentiment 
changed — Hanaway,  and  the  other  "  traitors,"  began  to  be  looked  upon  as 
having  been  greatly  injured,  and  justly  entitled  to  public  sympathy  and 
honor,  while  confusion  of  face,  disappointment  and  chagrin  were  plainly 
visible  throughout  the  demoralized  ranks  of  the  enemy.  Hanaway  was  vic- 
torious. 

An  effort  was  next  made  to  convict  Thompson,  one  of  the  colored  "trai- 
tors." To  defend  the  colored  prisoners,  the  old  Abolition  Society  had 
retained  Thaddeus  Stevens,  David  Paul  Brown,  William  S.  Pierce,  and  Ro- 
bert P.  Kane,  Esqs.,  (son  of  Judge  Kane).  Stevens,  Brown  and  Pierce 
were  well-known  veterans,  defenders  of  the  slave  wherever  and  whenever 
called  upon  so  to  do.  In  the  present  case,  they  were  prepared  for  a  gallant 
stand  and  a  long  siege  against  opposing  forces.  Likewise,  R.  P.  Kane, 
Esq.,  although  a  young  volunteer  in  the  anti-slavery  war,  brought  to  the 
work  great  zeal,  high  attainments,  large  sympathy  and  true  pluck,  while,  in 


368  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

view  of  all  the  circumstances,  the  committee  of  arrangements  felt  very  much 
gratified  to  have  him  in  their  ranks. 

By  this  time,  however,  the  sandy  foundations  of  "  overseer "  Brent  and 
Co.,  (on  the  part  of  slavery),  had  been  so  completely  swept  away  by  the 
Hon.  J.  M.  Read  and  Co.,  on  the  side  of  freedom,  that  there  was  but  little 
chance  left  to  deal  heavy  blows  upon  the  defeated  advocates  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  Thompson  was  pronounced  "  not  guilty."  The  other  prison- 
ers, of  course,  shared  the  same  good  luck.  The  victory  was  then  complete, 
equally  as  much  so  as  at  Christiana.  Underground  Rail  Road  stock  arose 
rapidly,  and  a  feeling  of  universal  rejoicing  pervaded  the  friends  of  freedom 
from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 

Especially  were  slave-holders  taught  the  wholesome  lesson,  that  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  was  no  guarantee  against  "  red  hot  shot,"  nor  the  charges  of 
U.  S.  Judges  and  the  findings  of  Grand  Juries,  together  with  the  superior 
learning  of  counsel  from  slave-holding  Maryland,  any  guarantee  that  "  trai- 
tors "  would  be  hung.  In  every  respect,  the  Underground  Rail  Road  made 
capital  by  the  treason.  Slave-holders  from  Maryland  especially  were  far 
less  disposed  to  hunt  their  runaway  property  than  they  had  hitherto  been. 
The  Deputy  Marshal  .likewise  considered  the  business  of  catching  slaves 
very  unsafe. 


WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT. 

FEMALE  SLAVE  IN  MALE  ATTIKE,  FLEEING  AS  A  PLANTER,  WITH  HER  HUSBAND  AS 

HER  BODY  SERVANT. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  William  and  Ellen  Craft  were  slaves  in  the 
State  of  Georgia.  With  them,  as  with  thousands  of  others,  the  desire  to 
be  free  wa&  very  strong.  For  this  jewel  they  were  willing  to  make  any 
sacrifice,  or  to  endure  any  amount  of  suffering.  In  this  state  of  mind  they 
commenced  planning.  After  thinking  of  various  ways  that  might  be  tried, 
it  occurred  to  William  and  Ellen,  that  one  might  act  the  part  of  master  and 
the  other  the  part  of  servant. 

Ellen  being  fair  enough  to  pass  for  white,  of  necessity  would  have  to  be 
transformed  into  a  young  planter  for  the  time  being.  All  that  was  needed, 
however,  to  make  this  important  change  was  that  she  should  be  dressed 
elegantly  in  a  fashionable  suit  of  male  attire,  and  have  her  hair  cut  in  the 
style  usually  worn  by  young  planters.  Her  profusion  of  dark  hair  offered 
a  fine  opportunity  for  the  change.  So  far  this  plan  looked  very  tempting. 
But  it  occurred  to  them  that  Ellen  was  beardless.  After  some  mature  reflec- 
tion, they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  difficulty  could  be  very  readily 
obviated  by  having  the  face  muffled  up  as  though  the  young  planter  was 
suffering  badly  with  the  face  or  toothache;  thus  they  got  rid  of  this  trouble. 
Straightway,  upon  further  reflection,  several  other  very  serious  difficulties 


WILLIAM  CRAFT. 


ELLEN  CRAFT. 


WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT.  309 

stared  them  in  the  face.  For  instance,  in  traveling,  they  knew  that  they 
would  be  under  the  necessity  of  stopping  repeatedly  at  hotels,  and  that  the 
custom  of  registering  would  have  to  be  conformed  to,  unless  some  very  good 
excuse  could  be  given  for  not  doing  so. 

Here  they  again  thought  much  over  matters,  and  wisely  concluded  that 
the  young  man  had  better  assume  the  attitude  of  a  gentleman  very  much 
indisposed.  He  must  have  his  right  arm  placed  carefully  in  a  sling ;  that 
would  be  a  sufficient  excuse  for  not  registering,  etc.  Then  he  must  be  a 
little  lame,  with  a  nice  cane  in  the  left  hand ;  he  must  have  large  green  spec- 
tacles over  his  eyes,  and  withal  he  must  be  very  hard  of  hearing  and  depen- 
dent on  his  faithful  servant  (as  was  no  uncommon  thing  with  slave-holders), 
to  look  after  all  his  wants. 

William  was  just  the  man  to  act  this  part.  To  begin  with,  he  was  very 
"  likely-looking ;''  smart,  active  and  exceedingly  attentive  to  his  young  mas- 
ter— indeed  he  was  almost  eyes,  ears,  hands  and  feet  for  him.  William 
knew  that  this  would  please  the  slave-holders.  The  young  planter  would 
have  nothing  to  do  but  hold  himself  subject  to  his  ailments  and  put 
on  a  bold  air  of  superiority ;  he  was  not  to  deign  to  notice  anybody.  If, 
while  traveling,  gentlemen,  either  politely  or  rudely,  should  venture  to 
scrape  acquaintance  with  the  young  planter,  in  his  deafness  he  was  to  remain 
mute  ;  the  servant  was  to  explain.  In  every  instance  when  this  occurred,  as 
it  actually  did,  the  servant  was  fully  equal  to  the  emergency — none  dreaming 
of  the  disguises  in  which  the  Underground  Eail  Road  passengers  were 
traveling. 

They  stopped  at  a  first-class  hotel  in  Charleston,  where  the  young  planter 
and  his  body  servant  were  treated,  as  the  house  was  wont  to  treat  the  chi- 
valry. They  stopped  also  at  a  similar  hotel  in  Richmond,  and  with  like 
results. 

They  knew  that  they  must  pass  through  Baltimore,  but  they  did  not  know 
the  obstacles  that  they  would  have  to  surmount  in  the  Monumental  City. 
They  proceeded  to  the  depot  in  the  usual  manner,  and  the  servant 
asked  for  tickets  for  his  master  and  self.  Of  course  the  master  could  have 
a  ticket,  but  "bonds  will  have  to  be  entered  before  you  can  get  a  ticket," 
said  the  ticket  master.  "  It  is  the  rule  of  this  office  to  require  bonds  for  all 
negroes  applying  for  tickets  to  go  North,  and  none  but  gentlemen  of  well- 
known  responsibility  will  be  taken,"  further  explained  the  ticket  master. 

The  servant  replied,  that  he  knew  "  nothing  about  that  " — that  he  was 
"simply  traveling  with  his  young  master  to  take  care  of  him — he  being  in  a 
very  delicate  state  of  health,  so  much  so,  that  fears  were  entertained  that  he 
might  not  be  able  to  hold  out  to  reach  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  hastening 
for  medical  treatment,"  and  ended  his  reply  by  saying,  "  my  master  can't  be 
detained."  Without  further  parley,  the  ticket  master  very  obligingly  waived 
the  old  "  rule,"  and  furnished  the  requisite  tickets.  The  mountain  being 
24 


370  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

thus  removed,  the  young  planter  and  his  faithful  servant  were  safely  in  the 
cars  for  the  city  of.Brotherly  Love. 

Scarcely  had  they  arrived  on  free  soil  when  the  rheumatism  departed 
— the  right  arm  was  unslung — the  toothache  was  gone — the  beardless 
face  was  unmuffled — the  deaf  heard  and  spoke — the  blind  saw — and  the 
lame  leaped  as  an  hart,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  few  astonished  friends  of 
the  slave,  the  facts  of  this  unparalleled  Underground  Rail  Road  feat  were 
fully  established  by  the  most  unquestionable  evidence. 

The  constant  strain  and  pressure  on  Ellen's  nerves,  however,  had  tried  her 
severely,  so  much  so,  that  for  days  afterwards,  she  was  physically  very  much 
prostrated,  although  joy  and  gladness  beamed  from  her  eyes,  which  bespoke 
inexpressible  delight  within. 

Never  can  the  writer  forget  the  impression  made  by  their  arrival.  Even 
now,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  is  easy  to  picture  them 
in  a  private  room,  surrounded  by  a  few  friends — Ellen  in  her  fine  suit  of 
black,  with  her  cloak  and  high-heeled  boots,  looking,  in  every  respect,  like  a 
young  gentleman ;  in  an  hour  after  having  dropped  her  male  attire,  and 
assumed  the  habiliments  of  her  sex  the  feminine  only  was  visible  in  every 
line  and  feature  of  her  structure. 

Her  husband,  William,  was  thoroughly  colored,  but  was  a  man  of  marked 
natural  abilities,  of  good  manners,  and  full  of  pluck,  and  possessed  of  per- 
ceptive faculties  very  large. 

It  was  necessary,  however,  in  those  days,  that  they  should  seek  a  perma- 
nent residence,  where  their  freedom  would  be  more  secure  than  in  Philadel- 
phia; therefore  they  were  advised  to  go  to  headquarters,  directly  to  Boston. 
There  they  would  be  safe,  it  was  supposed,  as  it  had  then  been  about  a  gene- 
ration since  a  fugitive  had  been  taken  back  from  the  old  Bay  State,  and 
through  the  incessant  labors  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  great  pioneer,  and 
his  faithful  coadjutors,  it  was  conceded  that  another  fugitive  slave  case  could 
never  be  tolerated  on  the  free  soil  of  Massachusetts.  So  to  Boston  they  went. 

On  arriving,  the  warm  hearts  of  abolitionists  welcomed  them  heartily,  and 
greeted  and  cheered  them  without  let  or  hindrance.  They  did  not  pretend  to 
keep  their  coming  a  secret,  or  hide  it  under  a  bushel ;  the  story  of  their  escape 
was  heralded  broadcast  over  the  country — North  and  South,  and  indeed  over 
the  civilized  world.  For  two  years  or  more,  not  the  slightest  fear  was  enter- 
tained that  they  were  not  just  as  safe  in  Boston  as  if  they  had  gone  to 
Canada.  But  the  day  the  Fugitive  Bill  passed,  even  the  bravest  abolitionist 
began  to  fear  that  a  fugitive  slave  was  no  longer  safe  anywhere  under  the 
stars  and  stripes,  North  or  South,  and  that  William  and  Ellen  Craft  were 
liable  to  be  captured  at  any  moment  by  Georgia  slave  hunters.  Many 
abolitionists  counselled  resistance  to  the  death  at  all  hazards.  Instead  of 
running  to  Canada,  fugitives  generally  armed  themselves  and  thus  said, 
"  Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death." 


WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT.  371 

William  and  Ellen  Craft  believed  that  it  was  their  duty,  as  citizens  of 
Massachusetts,  to  observe  a  more  legal  and  civilized  mode  of  conforming  to 
the  marriage  rite  than  had  been  permitted  them  in  slavery,  and  as 
Theodore  Parker  had  shown  himself  a  very  warm  friend  of  their's,  they 
agreed  to  have  their  wedding  over  again  according  to  the  laws  of  a  free 
State.  After  performing  the  ceremony,  the  renowned  and  fearless  advocate 
of  equal  rights  (Theodore  Parker),  presented  William  with  a  revolver  and 
a  dirk-knife,  counselling  him  to  use  them  manfully  in  defence  of  his  wife 
and  himself,  if  ever  an  attempt  should  be  made  by  his  owners  or  anybody 
else  to  re-enslave  them. 

But,  notwithstanding  all  the  published  declarations  made  by  abolitionists 
and  fugitives,  to  the  effect,  that  slave-holders  and  slave-catchers  in  visiting 
Massachusetts  in  pursuit  of  their  runaway  property,  would  be  met  by  just 
such  weapons  as  Theodore  Parker  presented  William  with,  to  the  surprise 
of  all  Boston,  the  owners  df  William  and  Ellen  actually  had  the  effrontery 
to  attempt  their  recapture  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  How  it  was  done, 
and  the  results,  taken  from  the  Old  Liberator,  (William  Lloyd  Garrison's 
organ),  we  copy  as  follows  : 

From  the  "Liberator,"  Nov.  1,  1850. 
SLAVE-HUNTERS   IN    BOSTON. 

Our  city,  for  a  week  past,  has  been  thrown  into  a  state  of  intense  excite- 
ment by  the  appearance  of  two  prowling  villains,  'named  Hughes  and 
Knight,  from  Macon,  Georgia,  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  William  and  Ellen 
Craft,  under  the  infernal  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  carrying  them  back  to 
the  hell  of  Slavery.  Since  the  day  of  '76,  there  has  not  been  such  a  popular 
demonstration  on  the  side  of  human  freedom  in  this  region.  The  humane 
and  patriotic  contagion  has  infected  all  classes.  Scarcely  any  other  subject 
has  been  talked  about  in  the  streets,  or  in  the  social  circle.  On  Thursday,  of 
last  week,  warrants  for  the  arrest  of  William  and  Ellen  were  issued  by 
Judge  Levi  Woodbury,  but  no  officer  has  yet  been  found  ready  or  bold 
enough  to  serve  them.  In  the  meantime,  the  Vigilance  Committee, 
appointed  at  the  Faneuil  Hall  meeting,  has  not  been  idle.  Their  number 
has  been  increased  to  upwards  of  a  hundred  "  good  men  and  true,"  including 
some  thirty  or  forty  members  of  the  bar;  and  they  have  been  in  constant 
session,  devising  every  legal  method  to  baffle  the  pursuing  bloodhounds,  and 
relieve  the  city  of  their  hateful  presence.  On  Saturday  placards  were  posted 
up  in  all  directions,  announcing  the  arrival  of  these  slave-hunters,  and 
describing  their  persons.  On  the  same  day,  Hughes  and  Knight  were 
arrested  on  the  charge  of  slander  against  William  Craft.  The  Chronotype 
says,  the  damages  being  laid  at  $10,000  ;  bail  was  demanded  in  the  same 
sum,  and  was  promptly  furnished.  By  whom?  is  the  question.  An  immense 
crowd  was  assembled  in  front  of  the  Sheriff's  office,  while  the  bail  matter 


372  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

was  being  arranged.  The  reporters  were  not  admitted.  It  was  only  known 
that  Watson  Freeman,  Esq.,  who  once  declared  his  readiness  to  hang  any 
number  of  negroes  remarkably  cheap,  came  in,  saying  that  the  arrest  was  a 
shame,  all  a  humbug,  the  trick  of  the  damned  abolitionists,  and  proclaimed 
his  readiness  to  stand  bail.  John  H.  Pearson  was  also  sent  for,  and  came — 
the  same  John  H.  Pearson,  merchant  and  Southern  packet  agent,  who  immor- 
talized himself  by  sending  back,  on  the  10th  of  September,  1846,  in  the 
bark  Niagara,  a  poor  fugitive  slave,  who  came  secreted  in  the  brig  Ottoman, 
from  New  Orleans — being  himself  judge,  jury  and  executioner,  to  consign  a 
fellow-being  to  a  life  of  bondage — in  obedience  to  the  law  of  a  slave  State, 
and  in  violation  of  the  law  of  his  own.  This  same  John  H.  Pearson,  not 
contented  with  his  previous  infamy,  was  on  hand.  There  is  a  story  that  the 
slave-hunters  have  been  his  table-guests  also,  and  whether  he  bailed  them  or 
not,  we  don't  know.  What  we  know  is,  that  soon  after  Pearson  came  out 
from  the  back  room,  where  he  and  Knight  and  the  Sheriff  had  been  closeted, 
the  Sheriff  said  that  Knight  was  bailed — he  would  not  say  by  whom. 
Knight  being  looked  after,  was  not  to  be  found.  He  had  slipped  out 
through  a  back  door,  and  thus  cheated  the  crowd  of  the  pleasure  of  greeting 
him — possibly  with  that  rough  and  ready  affection  which  Barclay's  brewers 
bestowed  upon  Haynau.  The  escape  was  very  fortunate  every  way. 
Hughes  and  Knight  have  since  been  twice  arrested  and  put  under  bonds  of 
$10,000  (making  $30,000  in  all),  charged  with  a  conspiracy  to  kidnap  and 
abduct  William  Craft,  a  peaceable  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  etc.  Bail  was 
entered  by  Hamilton  Willis,  of  Willis  &  Co.,  25  State  street,  and  Patrick 
Eiley,  U.  S.  Deputy  Marshal. 

The  following  (says  the  Chronotype),  is  a  verbatim  d  literatim  copy  of  the 
letter  sent  by  Knight  to  Craft,  to  entice  him  to  the  U.  S.  Hotel,  in  order  to 
kidnap  him.  It  shows,  that  the  school-master  owes  Knight  more  "  service 
and  labor  "  than  it  is  possible  for  Craft  to : 

BOSTON,  Oct.  22, 1850, 11  Oclk  P.  M. 

"Wm.  Craft— Sir— I  have  to  leave  so  Eirley  in  the  moring  that  I  cold  not  call  according 
to  promis,  so  if  you  want  me  to  carry  a  letter  home  with  me,  you  must  bring  it  to  the 
United  States  Hotel  to  morrow  and  leave  it  in  box  44,  or  come  your  self  to  morro  eaven- 
ing  after  tea  and  bring  it.  let  me  no  if  you  come  your  self  by  sending  a  note  to  box  44 
U.  S.  Hotel  so  that  I  may  know  whether  to  wate  after  tea  or  not  by  the  Bearer.  If  your 
wife  wants  to  see  me  you  cold  bring  her  with  you  if  you  come  your  self. 

JOHN  KNIGHT. 
P.  S.     I  shall  leave  for  home  eirley  a  Thursday  moring.  J.  K. 

At  a  meeting  of  colored  people,  held  in  Belknap  Street  Church,  on  Friday 
evening,  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That  God  willed  us  free ;  man  willed  us  slaves.  We  will  as 
God  wills  ;  God's  will  be  done. 

Resolved,  That  our  oft  repeated  determination  to  resist  oppression  is  the 


WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT.  373 

same  now  as  ever,  and  we  pledge  ourselves,  at  all  hazards,  to  resist  unto 
death  any  attempt  upon  our  liberties. 

Resolved,  That  as  South  Carolina  seizes  and  imprisons  colored  seamen 
from  the  North,  under  the  plea  that  it  is  to  prevent  insurrection  and  rebel- 
lion among  her  colored  population,  the  authorities  of  this  State,  and  city  in 
particular,  be  requested  to  lay  hold  of,  and  put  in  prison,  immediately,  any 
and  all  fugitive  slave-hunters  who  may  be  found  among  us,  upon  the  same 
ground,  and  for  similar  reasons. 

Spirited  addresses,  of  a  most  emphatic  type,  were  made  by  Messrs.  Remond, 
of  Salem,  Roberts,  Nell,  and  Allen,  of  Boston,  and  Davis,  of  Plymouth. 
Individuals  and  highly  respectable  committees  of  gentlemen  have  repeatedly 
waited  upon  these  Georgia  miscreants,  to  persuade  them  to  make  a  speedy 
departure  from  the  city.  After  promising  to  do  so,  and  repeatedly  falsifying 
their  word,  it  is  said  that  they  left  on  Wednesday  afternoon,  in  the  express 
train  for  New  York,  and  thus  (says  the  Chronotype),  they  have  "  gone  off 
with  their  ears  full  of  fleas,  to  fire  the  solemn  word  for  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  I" 

Telegraphic  intelligence  is  received,  that  President  Fillmore  has  announced 
his  determination  to  sustain  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  at  all  hazards.  Let 
him  try !  The  fugitives,  as  well  as  the  colored  people  generally,  seem  deter- 
mined to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  the  resolutions  to  their  fullest  extent. 

ELLEX  first  received  information  that  the  slave-hunters  from  Georgia 
were  after  her  through  Mrs.  Geo.  S.  Hilliard,  of  Boston,  who'  had  been  a 
good  friend  to  her  from  the  day  of  her  arrival  from  slavery.  How  Mrs. 
Hilliard  obtained  the  information,  the  impression  it  made  on  Ellen,  and 
where  she  was  secreted,  the  following  extract  of  a  letter  written  by  Mrs. 
Hilliard,  touching  the  memorable  event,  will  be  found  deeply  interesting: 

"  In  regard  to  William  and  Ellen  Craft,  it  is  true  that  we  received  her  at  our  house 
when  the  first  warrant  under  the  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty  was  issued. 

Dr.  Bowditch  called  upon  us  to  say,  that  the  warrant  must  be  for  William  and  Ellen,  as 
they  were  the  only  fugitives  here  known  to  have  come  from  Georgia,  and  the  Dr.  asked 
what  we  could  do.  I  went  to  the  house  of  the  Eev.  F.  T.  Gray,  on  Mt.  Vernon  street, 
where  Ellen  was  working  with  Miss  Dean,  an  upholsteress,  a  friend  of  ours,  who  had  told 
us  she  would  teach  Ellen  her  trade.  I  proposed  to  Ellen  to  come  and  do  some  work  for 
me,  intending  not  to  alarm  her.  My  manner,  which  I  supposed  to  be  indifferent  and 
calm,  betrayed  me,  and  she  threw  herself  into  my  arms,  sobbing  and  weeping.  She,  how- 
ever, recovered  her  composure  as  soon  as  we  reached  the  street,  and  was  very  firm  ever 
after. 

My  husband  wished  her,  by  all  means,  to  be  brought  to  our  house,  and  to  remain  under 
his  protection,  saying:  'I  am  perfectly  willing  to  meet  the  penalty,  should  she  be  found 
here,  but  will  never  give  her  up.'  The  penalty,  you  remember,  wag  six  months'  imprison- 
ment and  a  thousand  dollars  fine.  William  Craft  went,  after  a  time,  to  Lewis  Hayden. 
He  was  at  first,  as  Dr.  Bowditch  told  us,  '  barricaded  in  his  shop  on  Cambridge  street.'  I 
saw  him  there,  and  he  said,  '  Ellen  must  not  be  left  at  your  house.'  'Why?  William,' 
eaid  I,  '  do  you  think  we  would  give  her  up  ?'  '  Never,'  said  he,  '  but  Mr.  Hilliard  is  not 


374  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

only  our  friend,  but  he  is  a  U.  S.  Commissioner,  and  should  Ellen  be  found  in  his  house, 
he  must  resign  his  office,  as  well  as  incur  the  penalty  of  the  law,  and  I  will  not  subject  a 
friend  to  such  a  punishment  for  the  sake  of  our  safety.'  Was  not  this  noble,  when  you 
think  how  small  was  the  penalty  that  any  one  could  receive  for  aiding  slaves  to  escape, 
compared  to  the  fate  which  threatened  them  in  case  they  were  captured  ?  William  C.  made 
the  same  objection  to  having  his  wife  taken  to  Mr.  Ellis  Gray  Loring's,  he  also  being  a 
friend  and  a  Commissioner." 

This  deed  of  humanity  and  Christian  charity  is  worthy  to  be  commemo- 
rated and  classed  with  the  act  of  the  good  Samaritan,  as  the  same  spirit 
is  shown  in  both  cases.  Often  was  Mrs.  Hilliard's  house  an  asylum  for 
fugitive  slaves. 

After  the  hunters  had  left  the  city  in  dismay,  and  the  storm  of  excitement 
had  partially  subsided,  the  friends  of  William  and  Ellen  concluded  that 
they  had  better  seek  a  country  where  they  would  not  be  in  daily  fear  of 
slave-catchers,  backed  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  They 
were,  therefore,  advised  to  go  to  Great  Britain.  Outfits  were  liberally  pro- 
vided for  them,  passages  procured,  and  they  took  their  departure  for  a  habi- 
tation in  a  foreign  land. 

Much  might  be  told  concerning  the  warm  reception  they  met  with  from 
the  friends  of  humanity  on  every  hand,  during  a  stay  in  England  of  nearly 
a  score  of  years,  but  we  feel  obliged  to  make  the  following  extract  suffice : 

EXTRACT  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  WM.  FARMER,  ESQ.,  OF  LONDON,  TO  WM. 
LLOYD  GARRISON,  JUNE  26,  1851 — "FUGITIVE  SLAVES  AT  THE  GREAT 
EXHIBITION." 

Fortunately,  we  have,  at  the  present  moment,  in  the  British  Metropolis, 
some  specimens  of  what  were  once  American  "  chattels  personal/'  in  the 
persons  of  William  and  Ellen  Craft,  and  William  W.  Brown,  and  their 
friends  resolved  that  they  should  be  exhibited  under  the  world's  huge  glass 
case,  in  order  that  the  world  might  form  its  opinion  of  the  alleged  mental 
inferiority  of  the  African  race,  and  their  fitness  or  unfitness  for  freedom. 
A  small  party  of  anti-slavery  friends  was  accordingly  formed  to  accompany 
the  fugitives  through  the  Exhibition.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Estlin,  of  Bristol,  and 
a  lady  friend,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Richard  Webb,  of  Dublin,  and  a  son  and 
daughter,  Mr.  McDonnell,  (a  most  influential  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  National  Reform  Association — one  of  our  unostentatious, 
but  highly  efficient  workers  for  reform  in  this  country,  and  whose  public 
and  private  acts,  if  you  were  acquainted  with,  you  would  feel  the  same 
esteem  and  affection  for  him  as  is  felt  towards  him  by  Mr.  Thompson,  myself 
and  many  others) — these  ladies  and  gentlemen,  together  with  myself,  met 
at  Mr.  Thompson's  house,  and,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Thompson,  and  Miss 
Amelia  Thompson,  the  Crafts  and  Brown,  proceeded  from  thence  to  the 
Exhibition.  Saturday  was  selected,  as  a  day  upon  which  the  largest  number 
of  the  aristocracy  and  wealthy  classes  attend  the  Crystal  Palace,  and  the 


WILLIAM  AND  ELLEN  CRAFT.  375 

company  was,  on  this  occasion,  the  most  distinguished  that  had  been  gath- 
ered together  within  its  walls  since  its  opening  day.  Some  fifteen  thousand, 
mostly  of  the  upper  classes,  were  there  congregated,  including  the  Queen, 
Prince  Albert,  and  the  royal  children,  the  anti-slavery  Duchess  of  Suther- 
land, (by  whom  the  fugitives  were  evidently  favorably  regarded),  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  St.  Asaph,  a  large  number  of 
peers,  peeresses,  members  of  Parliament,  merchants  and  bankers,  and  distin- 
guished men  from  almost  all  parts  of  the  world,  surpassing,  in  variety  of 
tongue,  character  and  costume,  the  description  of  the  population  of  Jerusa- 
lem on  the  day  of  Pentecost — a  season  of  which  it  is  hoped  the  Great  Exhi- 
bition will  prove  a  type,  in  the  copious  outpouring  of  the  holy  spirit  of 
brotherly  union,  and  the  consequent  diffusion,  throughout  the  world,  of  the 
anti-slavery  gospel  of  good  will  to  all  men. 

In  addition  to  the  American  exhibitors,  it  so  happened  that  the  American 
visitors  were  particularly  numerous,  among  whom  the  experienced  eyes  of 
Brown  and  the  Crafts  enabled  them  to  detect  slave-holders  by  dozens.  Mr. 
McDonnell  escorted  Mrs.  Craft,  and  Mrs.  Thompson ;  Miss  Thompson,  at 
her  own  request,  took  the  arm  of  Wm.  Wells  Brown,  whose  companion  she 
elected  to  be  for  the  day;  Wm.  Craft  walked  with  Miss  Amelia  Thompson 
and  myself.  This  arrangement  was  purposely  made  in  order  that  there 
might  be  no  appearance  of  patronizing  the  fugitives,  but  that  it  might  be 
shown  that  we  regarded  them  as  our  equals,  and  honored  them  for  their 
heroic  escape  from  Slavery.  Quite  contrary  to  the  feeling  of  ordinary  visi- 
tors, the  American  department  was  our  chief  attraction.  Upon  arriving  at 
Powers'  Greek  Slave,  our  glorious  anti-slavery  friend,  Punch's  'Virginia 
Slave '  was  produced.  I  hope  you  have  seen  this  production  of  our  great 
humorous  moralist.  It  is  an  admirably-drawn  figure  of  a  female  slave  in 
chains,  with  the  inscription  beneath,  'The  Virginia  Slave,  a  companion  for 
Powers'  Greek  Slave/  The  comparison  of  the  two  soon  drew  a  small  crowd, 
including  several  Americans,  around  and  near  us.  Although  they  refrained 
from  any  audible  expression  of  feeling,  the  object  of  the  comparison  was 
evidently  understood  and  keenly  felt.  It  would  not  have  been  prudent  in 
us  to  have  challenged,  in  words,  an  anti-slavery  discussion  in  the  World's 
Convention ;  but  everything  that  we  could  with  propriety  do  was  done  to 
induce  them  to  break  silence  upon  the  subject.  We  had  no  intention,  ver- 
bally, of  taking  the  initiative  in  such  a  discussion;  we  confined  ourselves  to 
speaking  at  them,  in  order  that  they  might  be  led  to  speak  to  us ;  but  our 
efforts  were  of  no  avail.  The  gauntlet,  which  was  unmistakably  thrown 
down  by  our  party,  the  Americans  were  too  wary  to  take  up.  We  spoke 
among  each  other  of  the  wrongs  of  Slavery;  it  was  in  vain.  We  discoursed 
freely  upon  the  iniquity  of  a  professedly  Christian  Republic  holding  three 
millions  of  its  population  in  cruel  and  degrading  bondage;  you  might  as 
well  have  preached  to  the  winds.  Wm.  Wells  Brown  took  '  Punch's  Vir- 


376  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ginia  Slave '  and  deposited  it  within  the  enclosure  by  the  '  Greek  Slave/ 
saying  audibly,  'As  an  American  fugitive  slave,  I  place  this  ( Virginia 
Slave '  by  the  side  of  the  '  Greek  Slave/  as  its  most  fitting  companion.'  Not 
a  word,  or  reply,  or  remonstrance  from  Yankee  or  Southerner.  We  had 
not,  however,  proceeded  many  steps  from  the  place  before  the  'Virginia 
Slave '  was  removed.  "We  returned  to  the  statue,  and  stood  near  the  Ame- 
rican by  whom  it  had  been  taken  up,  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  making 
any  remarks  he  chose  upon  the  matter.  Whatever  were  his  feelings,  his 
policy  was  to  keep  his  lips  closed.  If  he  had  felt  that  the  act  was  wrongful, 
would  he  not  have  appealed  to  the  sense  of  justice  of  the  British  bystanders, 
who  are  always  ready  to  resist  an  insult  offered  to  a  foreigner  in  this  country? 
If  it  was  an  insult,  why  not  resent  it,  as  became  high-spirited  Americans? 
But  no;  the  chivalry  of  the  South  tamely  allowed  itself  to  be  plucked  by 
the  beard ;  the  garrulity  of  the  North  permitted  itself  to  be  silenced  by  three 

fugitive  slaves We  promenaded  the  Exhibition  between  six 

and  seven  hours,  and  visited  nearly  every  portion  of  the  vast  edifice.  Among 
the  thousands  whom  we  met  in  our  perambulations,  who  dreamed  of  any 
impropriety  in  a  gentleman  of  character  and  standing,  like  Mr.  McDonnell, 
walking  arm-in-arm  with  a  colored  woman ;  or  an  elegant  and  accomplished 
young  lady,  like  Miss  Thompson,  (daughter  of  the  Hon.  George  Thompson, 
M.  C.),  becoming  the  promenading  companion  of  a  colored  man  ?  Did  the 
English  peers  or  peeresses  ?  Not  the  most  aristocratic  among  them.  Did 
the  representatives  of  any  other  country  have  their  notions  of  propriety 
shocked  by  the  matter?  None  but  Americans.  To  see  the  arm  of  a  beau- 
tiful English  young  lady  passed  through  that  of  'a  nigger/  taking  ices  and 
other  refreshments  with  him,  upon  terms  of  the  most  perfect  equality,  cer- 
tainly was  enough  to  '  rile/  and  evidently  did  '  rile '  the  slave-holders  who 
beheld  it;  but  there  was  no  help  for  it.  Even  the  New  York  Broadway 
bullies  would  not  have  dared  to  utter  a  word  of  insult,  much  less  lift  a 
finger  against  Wm.  Wells  Brown,  when  walking  with  his  fair  companion  in 
the  World's  Exhibition.  It  was  a  circumstance  not  to  be  forgotten  by  these 
Southern  Bloodhounds.  Probably,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  they  felt 
themselves  thoroughly  muzzled;  they  dared  not  even  to  bark,  much  less 
bite.  Like  the  meanest  curs,  they  had  to  sneak  through  the  Crystal  Palace, 
unnoticed  and  uncared  for ;  while  the  victims  who  had  been  rescued  from 

their  jaws,  were  warmly  greeted  by  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
*  *  *  ***** 

Brown  and  the  Crafts  have  paid  several  other  visits  to  the  Great  Exhi- 
bition, in  one  of  which,  Wm.  Craft  succeeded  in  getting  some  Southerners 
"out"  upon  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  respecting  which  a  discussion  was  held 
between  them  in  the  American  department.  Finding  themselves  worsted  at 
every  point,  they  were  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  lying,  and  unblushingly 
denied  that  the  bill  contained  the  provisions  which  Craft  alleged  it  did. 


ARRIVALS  FROM  RICHMOND.  377 

Craft  took  care  to  inform  them  who  and  what  he  was.  He  told  them  that 
there  had  been  too  much  information  upon  that  measure  diffused  in  England 
for  lying  to  conceal  them.  He  has  subsequently  met  the  same  parties,  \vho, 
with  contemptible  hypocrisy,  treated  "the  nigger"  with  great  respect. 

In  England  the  Crafts  were  highly  respected.  While  under  her  British 
Majesty's  protection,  Ellen  became  the  mother  of  several  children,  (having  had 
none  under  the  stars  and  stripes).  These  they  spared  no  pains  in  educating 
for  usefulness  in  the  world.  Some  two  years  since  William  and  Ellen 
returned  with  two  of  their  children  to  the  United  States,  and  after  visiting 
Boston  and  other  places,  William  concluded  to  visit  Georgia,  his  old 
home,  with  a  view  of  seeing  what  inducement  war  had  opened  up  to  enter- 
prise, as  he  had  felt  a  desire  to  remove  his  family  thither,  if  encouraged. 
Indeed  he  was  prepared  to  purchase  a  plantation,  if  he  found  matters  satis- 
factory. This  visit  evidently  furnished  the  needed  encouragement,  judging 
from  the  fact  that  he  did  purchase  a  plantation  somewhere  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Savannah,  and  is  at  present  living  there  with  his  family. 

The  portraits  of  William  and  Ellen  represent  them  at  the  present  stage 
of  life,  (as  citizens  of  the  U.  S.) — of  course  they  have  greatly  changed  in 
appearance  from  what  they  were  when  they  first  fled  from  Georgia.  Obvi- 
ously the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  its  crusade  against  William  and  Ellen  Craft, 
reaped  no  advantages,  but  on  the  contrary,  liberty  was  greatly  the  gainer. 


ARRIVALS  FROM  RICHMOND. 

LEWIS  COBB  AND  NANCY  BRISTER. 

No  one  Southern  city  furnished  a  larger  number  of  brave,  wide-awake  and 
likely-looking  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers  than  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond. Lewis  and  Nancy  were  fair  specimens  of  the  class  of  travelers  coming 
from  that  city.  Lewis  was  described  as  a  light  yellow  man,  medium  size, 
good-looking,  and  intelligent.  In  referring  to  bondage,  he  spoke  with 
great  earnestness,  and  in  language  very  easily  understood ;  especially  when 
speaking  of  Samuel  Myers,  from  whom  he  escaped,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
give  him  the  character  of  being  a  very  hard  man,  who  was  never  satisfied, 
no  matter  how  hard  the  slaves  might  try  to  please  him. 

Myers  was  engaged  in  the  commission  and  forwarding  business,  and  was 
a  man  of  some  standing  in  Richmond.  From  him  Lewis  had  received  very 
severe  floggings,  the  remembrance  of  which  he  would  not  only  carry  with 
him  to  Canada,  but  to  the  grave.  It  was  owing  to  abuse  of  this  kind  that 
he  was  awakened  to  look  for  a  residence  under  the  protection  of  the  British 


378  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Lion.     For  eight  months  he  longed  to  get  away,  and  had  no  rest  until  he 
found  himself  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

His  master  was  a  member  of  the  Century  Methodist  Church,  as  was  also 
his  wife  and  family ;  but  Lewis  thought  that  they  were  strangers  to  practical 
Christianity,  judging  from  the  manner  that  the  slaves  were  treated  by  both 
master  and  mistress.  Lewis  was  a  Baptist,  and  belonged  to  the  second 
church.  Twelve  hundred  dollars  had  beesn  offered  for  him.  He  left  his 
father  (Judville),  and  his  brother,  John  Harris,  both  slaves.  In  view  of  his 
prospects  in  Canada,  Lewis'  soul  overflowed  with  pleasing  anticipations  of 
freedom,  and  the  Committee  felt  great  satisfaction  in  assisting  him. 

NANCY  was  also  from  Richmond,  and  came  in  the  same  boat  with  Lewis. 
She  represented  the  most  "likely-looking  female  bond  servants."  Indeed 
her  appearance  recommended  her  at  once.  She  was  neat,  modest,  and  well- 
behaved — with  a  good  figure  and  the  picture  of  health,  with  a  countenance 
beaming  with  joy  and  gladness,  notwithstanding  the  late  struggles  and 
sufferings  through  which  she  had  passed.  Young  as  she  was,  she  had  seen 
much  of  slavery,  and  had,  doubtless,  profited  by  the  lessons  thereof.  At  all 
events,  it  was  through  cruel  treatment,  having  been  frequently  beaten  after 
she  had  passed  her  eighteenth  year,  that  she  was  prompted  to  seek  free- 
dom. It  was  so  common  for  her  mistress  to  give  way  to  unbridled  passions 
that  Nancy  never  felt  safe.  Under  the  severest  infliction  of  punishment  she 
was  not  allowed  to  complain.  Neither  from  mistress  nor  master  had  she  any 
reason  to  expect  mercy  or  leniency — indeed  she  saw  no  way  of  escape  but 
by  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

It  was  true  that  the  master,  Mr.  William  Bears,  was  a  Yankee  from  Con- 
necticut, and  his  wife  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  but  Nancy's  yoke 
seemed  none  the  lighter  for  all  that.  Fully  persuaded  that  she  would  never 
find  her  lot  any  better  while  remaining  in  their  hands,  she  accepted  the 
advice  and  aid  of  a  young  man  to  whom  she  was  engaged;  he  was  shrewd 
enough  to  find  an  agent  in  Richmond,  with  whom  he  entered  into  a  cove- 
nant to  have  Nancy  brought  away.  With  a  cheerful  heart  the  journey  was 
undertaken  in  the  manner  aforesaid,  and  she  safely  reached  the  Committee. 
Her  mother,  one  brother  and  a  sister  she  had  to  leave  in  Richmond.  One 
thousand  dollars  were  lost  in  the  departure  of  Nancy. 

Having  been  accommodated  and  aided  by  the  Committee,  they  were  for- 
warded to  Canada.  Lewis  wrote  back  repeatedly  and  expressed  himself  very 
gratefully  for  favors  received,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  appended  letters  from 
him: 

TOBONTO,  April  25,  1857. 

To  ME.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir: — I  take  this  opportunity  of  addressing  these  few  lines 
to  inform  you  that  I  am  well  and  hope  that  they  may  find  you  and  your  family  enjoying 
the  same  good  health.  Please  to  give  my  love  to  you  and  your  family.  I  had  a  very 
pleasant  trip  from  your  house  that  morning.  Dear  sir,  you  would  oblige  me  much,  if  you 


PASSENGERS  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA.  379 

have  not  sent  that  box  to  Mr.  Robinson,  to  open  it  and  take  out  the  little  yellow  box  that 
I  tied  up  in  the  large  one  and  send  it  on  by  express  to  me  in  Toronto.  Lift  up  a  few  of 
the  things  and  you  will  find  it  near  the  top.  All  the  clothes  that  I  have  are  in  that  box 
and  I  stand  in  need  of  them.  You  would  oblige  me  much  by  so  doing.  I  stopped  at  Mr. 
Jones'  in  Elmira,  and  was  very  well  treated  by  him  while  there.  I  am  now  in  Toronto 
and  doing  very  well  at  present.  I  am  very  thankful  to  you  and  your  family  for  the  atten- 
tion you  paid  to  me  while  at  your  house.  I  wish  you  would  see  Mr.  Ormsted  and  ask 
him  if  he  has  not  some  things  for  Mr.  Anthony  Loney,  and  if  he  has,  please  send  them  on 
with  my  things,  as  we  are  both  living  together  at  this  time.  Give  my  love  to  Mr.  An- 
thony, also  to  Mr.  Ormsted  and  family.  Dear  sir,  we  both  would  be  very  glad  for  you  to 
attend  to  this,  as  we  both  do  stand  very  much  in  need  of  them  at  this  time.  Dear  sir,  you 
will  oblige  me  by  giving  my  love  to  Miss  Frances  Watkins,  and  as  she  said  she  hoped  to 
be  out  in  the  summer,  I  should  like  to  see  her.  I  have  met  with  a  gentleman  here  by  the 
name  of  Mr.  Truehart,  and  he  sends  his  best  love  to  you  and  your  family.  Mr.  Truehart 
desires  to  know  whether  you  received  the  letter  he  sent  to  you,  and  if  so,  answer  it  as  soon 
as  possible.  Please  answer  this  letter  as  soon  as  possible.  I  must  now  come  to  a  close 
by  saying  that  I  remain  your  beloved  friend,  LEWIS  COBB. 

The  young  man  who  was  there  that  morning,  Mr.  Robinson,  got  married  to  that  young 
lady. 

TORONTO,  June  2d,  1857. 

To  MR.  WM.  STILL — Dear  Sir  : — I  received  yours  dated  May  6th,  and  was  extremely 
happy  to  hear  from  you.  You  may  be  surprised  that  I  have  not  answered  you  before  this, 
but  it  was  on  account  of  not  knowing  anything  concerning  the  letter  being  in  the  post- 
office  until  I  was  told  so  by  a  friend.  The  box,  of  which  I  had  been  inquiring,  I  have  re- 
ceived, and  am  infinitely  obliged  to  you  for  sending  it.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Benson  are  living  in 
Hamilton,  C.  W.  They  send  their  best  love  to  you  and  your  family.  I  am  at  present 
residing  in  Toronto,  C.  W.  Mr.  Anthony  Loney  has  gone  on  to  Boston,  and  is  desirous 
of  my  coming  on  to  him  ;  and  as  I  have  many  acquaintances  there,  I  should  like  to.  know 
from  you  whether  it  would  be  advisable  or  not.  Give,  if  you  please,  my  best  love  to  your 
family  and  accept  the  same  for  yourself,  and  also  to  Mr.  James  Ormsted  and  family.  Tell 
James  Ormsted  I  would  be  glad  if  he  would  send"  me  a  pair  of  thick,  heavy  boots,  for  it 
rains  and  hails  as  often  out  here  in  the  summer,  as  it  does  there  in  the  winter.  Tell  him 
to  send  No.  9,  and  anything  he  thinks  will  do  me  good  in  this  cold  country.  Please  to 
give  to  Mr.  James  Ormsted  to  give  to  Mr.  Robert  Seldon,  and  tell  him  to  give  it  to  my 
father.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Truehart  send  their  love  to  you  and  your  family.  If  the  gentleman, 
Mr.  R.  S.,  is  not  running  on  the  boat  now,  you  can  give  directions  to  Ludwill  Cobb,  in 
care  of  Mr.  R.  Seldon,  Richmond,  Va.  Tell  Mr.  Ormsted  not  to  forget  my  boots  and 
send  them  by  express.  No  more  at  present,  but  remain  yours  very  truly, 

Please  write  soon.  LEWIS  COBB. 


PASSENGERS  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

[BY  SCHOONER.] 

MAJOR  LATHAM,  WILLIAM  WILSON,  HENRY  QORHAM,  WILEY  MADDISON,  AND  ANDREW 

SHEPHERD. 

The  above  named  passengers  were  delivered  into  the  hands  of  Thomas 
Garrett  by  the  Captain  who  brought  them,  and  were  aided  and  forwarded  to 
the  Committee  in  Philadelphia,  as  indicated  by  the  subjoined  letter : 


380  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

WILMINGTON,  llth  mo.,  6th,  1856. 

RESPECTED  FBIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL  : — Thine  of  yesterday,  came  to  hand  this  morn- 
ing, advising  me  to  forward  those  four  men  to  thee,  which  I  propose  to  send  from  here  in 
the  steam  boat,  at  two  o'clock,  P.  M.  to  day  to  thy  care ;  one  of  them  thinks  he  has  a 
brother  and  cousin  in  New  Bedford,  and  is  anxious  to  get  to  them,  the  others  thee  can  do 
what  thee  thinks  best  with,  after  consulting  with  thena,  we  have  rigged  them  up  pretty 
comfortably  with  clothes,  and  I  have  paid  for  their  passage  to  Philadelphia,  and  also  for  the 
passage  of  their  pilot  there  and  back  ;  he  proposed  to  ask  thee  for  three  dollars,  for  the 
three  days  time  he  lost  with  them,  but  that  we  will  raise  here  for  him,  as  one  of  them 
expects  to  have  some  money  brought  from  Carolina  soon,  that  belongs  to  him,  and  wants 
thee  when  they  are  fixed,  to  let  me  know  so  that  I  may  forward  it  to  them.  I  will  give 
each  of  them  a  card  of  our  firm.  Hoping  they  may  get  along  safe,  I  remain  as  ever,  thy 
sincere  friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

The  passengers  by  this  arrival  were  above  the  ordinary  plantation  or 
farm  hand  slave,  as  will  appear  from  a '  glance  at  their  condition  under  the 
yoke. 

MAJOE  LATHAM  was  forty-four  years  of  age,  mulatto,  very  resolute, 
with  good  natural  abilities,  and  a  decided  hater  of  slavery.  John  Latham 
was  the  man  whom  he  addressed  as  "  master,"  which  was  a  very  bitter  pill 
for  him  to  swallow.  He  had  been  married  twice,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
escape  he  was  the  husband  of  two  wives.  The  first  one,  with  their  three 
children,  in  consequence  of  changes  incident  to  slave  life,  was  sold  a  long 
distance  from  her  old  home  and  husband,  thereby  ending  the  privilege  of 
living  together ;  he  could  think  of  them,  but  that  was  all ;  he  was  compelled 
to  give  them  up  altogether.  After  a  time  he  took  to  himself  another 
wife,  with  whom  he  lived  several  years.  Three  more  children  owned  him  as 
father — the  result  of  this  marriage.  During  his  entire  manhood  Major 
had  been  brutally  treated  by  his  master,  which  caused  him  a  great  deal  of 
anguish  and  trouble  of  mind. 

Only  a  few  weeks  before  he  escaped,  his  master,  in  one  of  his  fits  of  passion, 
flogged  him  most  cruelly.  From  that  time  the  resolution  was  permanently 
grounded  in  his  mind  to  find  the  way  to  freedom,  if  possible,  before  many 
more  weeks  had  passed.  Day  and  night  he  studied,  worked  and  planned, 
with  freedom  uppermost  in  his  mind.  The  hour  of  hope  arrived  and  with 
it  Captain  F. 

WILLIAM,  a  fellow-passenger  with  Major,  was  forty-two  years  of  age,  just 
in  the  prime  of  life,  and  represented  the  mechanics  in  chains,  being  a  black- 
smith by  trade.  Dr.  Thomas  Warren,  who  followed  farming  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Eatontown,  was  the  owner  of  William.  In  speaking  of  his 
slave  life  William  said:  "I  was  sold  four  times;  twice  I  was  separated  from 
my  wives.  I  was  separated  from  one  of  my  wives  when  living  in  Ports- 
mouth, Virginia,"  etc. 

In  his  simple  manner  of  describing  the  trials  he  had  been  called  upon  to 
endure,  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  was  willing  to  forsake  all  and 


PASSENGERS  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA.  381 

run  fearful  risks  in  order  to  rid  himself  not  only  of  the  "load  on  his  back," 
but  the  load  on  his  heart.  By  the  very  positive  character  of  William's  testi- 
mony against  slavery,  the  Committee  felt  more  than  ever  justified  in  encour- 
aging the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

HEXRY  GORHAM  was  thirty-four  years  of  age,  a  "  prime,"  heavy,  dark, 
smart,  "  article,"  and  a  good  carpenter.  He  admitted  that  he  had  never 
felt  the  lash  on  his  back,  but,  nevertheless,  he  had  felt  deeply  on  the 
subject  of  slavery.  For  years  the  chief  concern  with  him  was  as  to  how  he 
could  safely  reach  a  free  State.  Slavery  he  hated  with  a  perfect  hatred.  To 
die  in  the  woods,  live  in  a  cave,  or  sacrifice  himself  in  some  way,  he  was 
bound  to  do,  rather  than  remain  a  slave.  The  more  he  reflected  over  his 
condition  the  more  determined  he  grew  to  seek  his , freedom.  Accordingly 
he  left  and  went  to  the  woods;  there  he  prepared  himself  a  cave  and  re- 
solved to  live  and  die  in  it  rather  than  return  to  bondage.  Before  he 
found  his  way  out  of  the  prison-house  eleven  months  elapsed.  His  strong 
impulse  for  freedom,  and  intense  aversion  to  slavery,  sustained  him  until 
he  found  an  opportunity  to  escape  by  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

One  of  the  tried  Agents  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  was  alone  cogni- 
zant of  his  dwelling  in  the  cave,  and  regarding  him  as  a  tolerably  safe  pas- 
senger (having  been  so  long  secreted),  secured  him  a  passage  on  the  schooner, 
and  thus  he  was  fortunately  relieved  from  his  eleven  months'  residence  in 
his  den.  No  rhetoric  or  fine  scholarship  was  needed  in  his  case  to  make  his 
story  interesting.  None  but  hearts  of  stone  could  have  listened  without 
emotion. 

ANDREW,  another  fellow-passenger,  was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  a 
decidedly  inviting-looking  specimen  of  the  peculiar  institution.  He  filled 
the  situation  of  an  engineer.  He,  with  his  wife  and  one  child,  belonged  to 
a  small  orphan  girl,  who  lived  at  South  End,  Camden  county,  N.  C.  His 
wife  and  child  had  to  be  left  behind.  While  it  seemed  very  hard  for  a 
husband  thus  to  leave  his  wife,  every  one  that  did  so  weakened  slavery  and 
encouraged  and  strengthened  anti-slavery. 

Numbered  with  these  four  North  Carolina  passengers  is  found  the  name 
of  WILEY  MADDISON,  a  young  man  nineteen  years  of  age,  who  escaped  from 
Petersburg  on  the  cars  as  a  white  man.  He  was  of  promising  appearance, 
and  found  no  difficulty  whatever  on  the  road.  With  the  rest,  however,  he 
concluded  himself  hardly  safe  this  side  of  Canada,  and  it  afforded  the  Com- 
mittee special  pleasure  to  help  them  all. 


382  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

THOMAS  CLINTON,  SAUNEY  PRY  AND  BENJAMIN  DUCKET. 

PASSED   OVER   THE   U.  G.  R.  R.,    IN   THE   FALL   OF   1856. 

THOMAS  escaped  from  Baltimore.  He  described  the  man  from  whom  he 
fled  as  a  "  rum  drinker"  of  some  note,  by  the  name  of  Benjamin  Walmsly, 
and  he  testified  that  under  him  he  was  neither  "  half  fed  nor  clothed,"  in 
consequence  of  which  he  was  dissatisfied,  and  fled  to  better  his  condition. 
Luckily  Thomas  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  when  about  twenty-one  years 
of  age.  His  appearance  and  smartness  indicated  resolution  and  gave  promise 
of  future  success.  He  was  well  made  and  of  a  chestnut  color. 

SAUNEY  PRY  came  from  Loudon  Co.,  Va.  He  had  been  one  of  the 
"  well-cared  for,"  on  the  farm  of  Nathan  Clapton,  who  owned  some  sixty  or 
seventy  slaves.  Upon  inquiry  as  to  the  treatment  and  character  of  his 
master,  Sauney  unhesitatingly  described  him  as  a  "very  mean,  swearing, 
blustering  man,  as  hard  as  any  that  could  be  started."  It  was  on  this 
account  that  he  was  prompted  to  turn  his  face  against  Virginia  and  to 
venture  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Sauney  was  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  chestnut  color,  medium  size,  and  in  intellect  was  at  least  up  to  the 
average. 

BENJAMIN  DUCKET  came  from  Bell  Mountain,  Prince  George's  Co., 
Maryland.  He  stated  to  the  Committee  that  he  escaped  from  one  Sicke 
Perry,  a  farmer.  Of  his  particular  master  he  spoke  thus:  "He  was  one  of 
the  baddest  men  about  Prince  George ;  he  would  both  fight  and  kill  up." 

These  characteristics  of  the  master  developed  in  Ben  very  strong  desires 
to  get  beyond  his  reach.  In  fact,  his  master's  conduct  was  the  sole  cause  of 
his  seeking  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  At  the  time  that  he  came  to 
Philadelphia,  he  was  recorded  as  twenty-three  years  of  age,  chestnut  color, 
medium  size,  and  wide  awake.  He  left  his  father,  mother,  two  brothers, 
and  three  sisters,  owned  by  Marcus  Devoe. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  passengers  just  described  received  succor, 
ELIZABETH  LAMBERT,  with  three  children,  reached  the  Committee.  The 
names  of  the  children  were,  Mary,  Horace,  and  William  Henry,  quite 
marketable-looking  articles. 

They  fled  from  Middletown,  Delaware,  where  they  had  been  owned  by 
Andrew  Peterson.  The  poor  mother's  excuse  for  leaving  her  "comfortable 
home,  free  board,  and  kind-hea*rted  master  and  mistress,"  was  simply  because 
she  was  tired  of  such  "  kindness,"  and  was,  therefore,  willing  to  suffer  in 
order  to  get  away  from  it. 

HILL,  JONES,  a  lad  of  eighteen,  accompanied  Elizabeth  with  her  children 
from  Middletown.  He  had  seen  enough  of  Slavery  to  satisfy  him  that  he 
could  never  relish  it  His  owner  was  known  by  the  name  of  John  Cochran, 
and  followed  farming.  He  was  of  a  chestnut  color,  and  well-grown. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  383 

AKRIVALS  IN  APRIL,  1856. 

CHARLES  HALL,  JAMES  JOHNSON,  CHARLES  CARTER,  GEORGE,  AND  JOHN  LOGAN,  JAMES 

HENRY  WATSON,  ZEBULON  GREEN,  LEWIS,  AND  PETER  BTJRRELL,  WILLIAM  WILLIAMS, 

AND   HIS  WIFE — HARRIET  TUBMAN,   WITH    FOUR   PASSENGERS. 

CHARLES  HALL.  This  individual  was  from  Maryland,  Baltimore  Co., 
where  "  black  men  had  no  rights  which  white  men  were  bound  to  respect," 
according  to  the  decision  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Taney  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States. 

Charles  was  owned  by  Atwood  A.  Blunt,  a  farmer,  much  of  whose  time 
was  devoted  to  card  playing,  rum-drinking  and  fox-hunting,  so  Charles 
stated.  Charles  gave  him  the  credit  of  being  as  mild  a  specimen  of  a  slave- 
holder as  that  region  of  country  could  claim  when  in  a  sober  mood,  but 
when  drunk  every  thing  went  wrong  with  him,  nothing  could  satisfy  him. 

Charles  testified,  however,  that  the  despotism  of  his  mistress  was  much 
worse  than  that  of  his  master,  for  she  was  all  the  time  hard  on  the  slaves. 
Latterly  he  had  heard  much  talk  about  selling,  and,  believing  that  matters 
would  soon  have  to  come  to  that,  he  concluded  to  seek  a  place  where  colored 
men  had  rights,  in  Canada. 

JAMES  JOHNSON.  James  fled  from  Deer  Creek,  Harford  Co.,  Md.,  where 
he  was  owned  by  William  Rautty.  "  Jim's  "  hour  had  come.  Within  one 
day  of  the  time  fixed  for  his  sale,  he  was  handcuffed,  and  it  was  evidently 
supposed  that  he  was  secure.  Trembling  at  his  impending  doom  he  resolved 
to  escape  if  possible.  He  could  not  rid  himself  of  the  handcuffs.  Could 
he  have  done  so,  he  was  persuaded  that  he  might  manage  to  make  his 
way  along  safely.  He  resolved  to  make  an  effort  with  the  handcuffs  on. 

With  resolution  his  freedom  was  secured.  What  Master  Rautty  said 
when  he  found  his  property  gone  with  the  handcuffs,  we  know  not. 

The  next  day  after  Jim  arrived,  Charles  Carter,  -George  and  John 
Logan  came  to  hand. 

CHARLES  had  been  under  the  yoke  in  the  city  of  Richmond,  held  to 
service  by  Daniel  Delaplain,  a  flour  inspector.  Charles  was  hired  out  by 
the  flour  inspector  for  as  much  as  he  could  command  for  him,  for  being 
a  devoted  lover  of  money,  ordinary  Avages  hardly  ever  satisfied  him.  In 
other  respects  Charles  spoke  of  his  master  rather  favorably  in  comparison 
with  slaveholders  generally. 

A  thirty  years'  apprenticeship  as  a  slave  had  not,  however,  won  him  over 
to  the  love  of  the  system ;  he  had  long  since  been  convinced  that  it  was  non- 
sense to  suppose  that  such  a  thing  as  happiness  could  be  found  even  under 
the  best  of  masters.  He  claimed  to  have  a  wife  and  four  little  children 
living  in  Alexandria  Ya. ;  the  name  of  the  wife  was  Lucinda.  In  the 
estimation  of  slave-holders,  the  fact  of  Charles  having  a  family  might  have 


384  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

offered  no  cause  for  unhappiness,  but  Charles  felt  differently  in  relation  to 
the  matter.  Again,  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  owner,  lie  talked  of 
selling  Charles.  On  this  point  Charles  also  felt  quite  nervous,  so  he  began  to 
think  that  he  had  better  make  an  attempt  to  get  beyond  the  reach  of  buyers 
and  sellers.  He  knew  that  many  others  similarly  situated  had  got  out  of 
bondage  simply  by  hard  struggling,  and  he  felt  that  he  could  do  likewise. 
When  he  had  thus  determined  the  object  was  half  accomplished.  True, 
every  step  that  he  should  take  was  liable  to  bring  trouble  upon  himself,  yet 
with  the  hope  of  freedom  buoying  him  up  he  resolved  to  run  the  risk. 
Charles  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  likely-looking,  well  made,  intelligent, 
and  a  mulatto. 

GEORGE  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  quite  dark,  medium  size,  and 
bore  the  marks  of  a  man  of  considerable  pluck.  He  was  the  slave  of  Mrs. 
Jane  Coultson.  No  special  complaint  of  her  is  recorded  on  the  book.  She 
might  have  been  a  very  good  mistress,  but  George  was  not  a  very  happy 
and  contented  piece  of  property,  as  was  proved  by  his  course  in  escaping. 
The  cold  North  had  many  more  charms  for  him  than  the  sunny  South. 

JOHN  has  been  already  described  in  the  person  of  his  brother  George. 
He  was  not,  however,  the  property  of  Mrs.  Coultson,  but  was  owned  by 
Miss  Cox,  near  Little  Georgetown,  Berkeley  Co.,  Va.  These  three  individ- 
uals were  held  as  slaves  by  that  class  of  slave-holders,  known  in  the  South 
as  the  most  kind-hearted  and  indulgent,  yet  they  seemed  just  as  much  de- 
lighted with  the  prospects  of  freedom  as  any  other  passengers. 

The  next  day  following  the  arrival  of  the  party  just  noticed  JAMES  HENRY 
WATSON  reached  the  Committee.  He  was  in  good  condition,  the  spring 
weather  having  been  favorable,  and  the  journey  made  without  any  serious 
difficulty. 

He  was  from  Snowhill,  Worcester  county,  Md.,  and  had  escaped  from 
James  Purnell,  a  farmer  of  whom  he  did  not  speak  very  favorably.  Yet 
James  admitted  that  his  master  was  not  as  hard  on  his  slaves  as  some  others. 

For  the  benefit  of  James'  kinsfolk,  who  may  still  perchance  be  making 
searches  for  him,  not  having  yet  learned  whither  he  went  or  what  became 
of  him,  we  copy  the  following  paragraph  as  entered  on  our  book  April 
llth,  1856: 

JAMES  HENRY  is  twenty  years  of  age,  dark,  well-made,  modest,  and 
seems  fearful  of  apprehension  ;  was  moved  to  escape  in  order  to  obtain  his 
freedom.  He  had  heard  of  others  who  had  run  away  and  thus  secured  their 
freedom ;  he  thought  he  could  do  the  same.  He  left  his  father,  mother, 
three  brothers  and  five  sisters  owned  by  Purnell.  His  father's  name  was 
Ephraim,  his  mother's  name  Mahala.  The  names  of  his  sisters  and 
brothers  were  as  follows:  Hetty,  Betsy,  Dinah,  Catharine  and  Harriet; 
Homer,  William  and  James. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS.  385 

ZEBULON  GREEST  was  the  next  traveler.  He  arrived  from  Duck  Creek, 
Md.  John  Appleton,  a  farmer,  was  chargeable  with  having  deprived  Zeb 
of  his  rights.  But,  as  Zeb  was  only  about  eighteen  years  of  age  when  he 
made  his  exit,  Mr.  Appleton  did  not  get  much  the  start  of  him  In  answer 
to  the  question  as  to  the  cause  of  his  escape,  he  replied  "  bad  usage."  He 
was  smart,  and  quite  dark.  In  traveling,  he  changed  his  name  to  Samuel 
Hill.  The  Committee  endeavored  to  impress  him  thoroughly,  with  the  idea 
that  he  could  do  much  good  in  the  world  for  himself  and  fellow-men,  by 
using  his  best  endeavors  to  acquire  education,  etc.,  and  forwarded  him  on  to 
Canada. 

LEWIS  BURRELL  and  his  brother  PETER  arrived  safely  from  Alexandria, 
Virginia,  April  21,  1856.  Lewis  had  been  owned  by  Edward  M.  Clark, 
Peter  by  Benjamin  Johnson  Hall.  These  passengers  seemed  to  be  well 
posted  in  regard  to  Slavery,  and  understood  full  well  their  responsibilities 
in  fleeing  from  "kind-hearted"  masters.  All  they  feared  was  that  they 
might  not  reach  Canada  safely,  although  they  were  pretty  hopeful  and  quite 
resolute.  Lewis  left  a  wife,  Winna  Ann,  and  two  children,  Joseph  and 
Mary,  who  were  owned  by  Pembroke  Thomas,  at  Culpepper,  Va.,  nearly 
a  hundred  miles  distant  from  him.  Once  or  twice  in  the  year,  was  the 
privilege  allowed  him  to  visit  his  wife  and  little  ones  at  this  long  distance. 
This  separation  constituted  his  daily  grief  and  was  the  cause  of  his  escape. 
Lewis  and  Peter  left  their  father  and  mother  in  bondage,  also  one  brother 
(Reuben),  and  three  sisters,  two  of  whom  had  been  sold  far  South. 

After  a  sojourn  in  freedom  of  nearly  three  years,  Lewis  wrote  on  behalf 

of  his  wife  as  follows  : 

TORONTO,  C.  W.,  Feb.  2,  1859. 

MR.  WM.  STILL  : 

DEAR  SIR  : — It  have  bin  two  years  since  I  war  at  your 'house,  at  that  time  I  war  on 
my  way  to  cannadia,  and  I  tould  you  that  I  had  a  wife  and  had  to  leave  her  behind,  and 
you  promiest  me  that  you  would  healp  me  to  gait  hir  if  I  ever  heaird  from  hir,  and  I 
think  my  dear  frend,  that  the  time  is  come  for  me  to  strick  the  blow,  will  you  healp  me, 
according  to  your  promis.  I  recived  a  letter  from  a  frend  in  Washington  last  night  and 
he  says  that  my  wife  is  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  she  will  come  away  if  she  can  find  a 
frend  to  healp  hir,  so  I  thought  I  would  writ  to  you  as  you  are  acquanted  with  foulks 
theare  to  howm  you  can  trust  with  such  matthas.  1  could  write  to  Mr  Noah  davis  in 
Baltimore,  who  is  well  acquanted  with  my  wife,  but  I  do  not  think  that  he  is-  a  trew 
frend,  and  I  could  writ  to  Mr  Samual  Maden  in  the  same  city,  but  I  am  afread  that  a 
letter  coming  from  cannada,  might  be  dedteced,  but  if  you  will  writ  to  soume  one  that 
you  know,  and  gait  them  to  see  Mr  Samual  Maden  he  will  give  all  the  information  that 
you  want,  as  he  is  acquanted  with  my  wife,  he  is  a  preacher  and  belongs  to  the  Baptis 
church.  My  wifes  name  is  Winne  Ann  Berrell,  and  she  is  oned  by  one  Dr.  Tarns  who  is 
on  a  viset  to  Baltimore,  now  Mr  Still  will  you  attend  to  this  thing  for  me,  fourthwith,  if 
you  will  I  will  pay  you  four  your  truble,  if  we  can  dow  any  thing  it  must  be  doji  now,  as 
she  will  leave  theare  in  the  spring,  and  if  you  will  take  the  matter  in  hand,  you  mous 
•writ  me  on  to  reseption  of  this  letter,  whether  you  will  or  not.  Yours  truly, 

LEWIS  BURRELL. 

No.  49  Victoria  St.,  Toronto,  C.  W. 
25 


38G  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

As  in  the  case  of  many  others,  the  way  was  so  completely  blocked  that 
nothing  could  be  done  for  the  wife's  deliverance.  Until  the  day  when  the 
millions  of  fetters  were  broken,  nothing  gave  so  much  pain  to  husbands  and 
wives  as  these  heart-breaking  separations. 

William  Williams  and  his  wife  were  the  next  who  arrived.  They  came 
from  Haven  Manor,  Md.  They  had  been  owned  by  John  Peak,  by  whom, 
according  to  their  report,  they  had  been  badly  treated,  and  the  Committee 
had  no  reason  to  doubt  their  testimony. 

The  next  arrival  numbered  four  passengers,  and  came  under  the  guidance 
of  "  Moses "  (Harriet  Tubman),  from  Maryland.  They  were  adults, 
looking  as  though  they  could  take  care  of  themselves  very  easily,  although 
they  had  the  marks  of  Slavery  on  them.  It  was  no  easy  matter  for  men 
and  women  who  had  been  ground  down  all  their  lives,  to  appear  as  though 
they  had  been  enjoying  freedom.  Indeed,  the  only  wonder  was  that  so 
many  appeared  to  as  good  advantage  as  they  did,  after  having  been  crushed 
down  so  long. 

The  paucity  of  the  narratives  in  the  month  of  April,  is  quite  noticeable. 
Why  fuller  reports  were  not  written  out,  cannot  now  be  accounted  for; 
probably  the  feeling  existed  that  it  was  useless  to  write  out  narratives, 
except  in  cases  of  very  special  interest. 


t  FIVE  FROM  GEORGETOWN  CROSS  ROADS. 

MOTHER    AND   CHILD   FROM    KORFOLK,   VA.,   ETC. 

ABE  FINEER,  SAM  DAVIS,  HENRY  SAUNDERS,  WTM.  HENRY  THOMP- 
SON and  THOMAS  PARKER  arrived  safely  from  the  above  named  place. 
Upon  inquiry,  the  following  information  was  gleaned  from  them. 

ABE  spoke  with  feelings  of  some  bitterness  of  a  farmer  known  by  the 
name  of  George  Spencer,  who  had  deprived  him  of  the  hard  earnings  of  his 
hands.  Furthermore,  he  had  worked  him  hard,  stinted  him.  for  food  and 
clothing  and  had  been  in  the  habit  of  flogging  him  whenever  he  felt  like  it. 
In  addition  to  the  above  charges,  Abe  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  his  master 
meddled  too  much  with  the  bottle,  in  consequence  of  which,  he  was  often  in 
a  "  top-heavy  "  state.  Abe  said,  however,  that  he  was  rich  and  stood  pretty 
high  in  the  neighborhood — stinting,  flogging  and  drinking  were  no  great 
disadvantages  to  a  man  in  Georgetown,  Maryland. 

ABE  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  pure  black,  ordinary  size,  and  spirited, 
a  thorough  convert  to  the  doctrine  that  all  men  are  born  free,  and  although 
he  had  been  held  in  bondage  up  to  the  hour  of  his  escape,  he  gave  much 
reason  for  believing  that  he  would  not  be  an  easy  subject  to  manage  under 
the  yoke,  if  ever  captured  and  carried  back. 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS.  387 

SAM  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  genuine  black,  common  size,  and  a 
hater  of  slavery;  he  was  prepared  to  show,  by  the  scars  he  bore  about  his 
person,  why  he  talked  as  he  did.  Forever  will  he  remember  James  Hurst, 
his  so-called  master,  who  was  a  very  blustering  man  oft-times,  and  in  the 
habit  of  abusing  his  slaves.  Sam  was  led  to  seek  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  his  master  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  better 
for  himself  than  he  could  possibly  do  in  Slavery.  He  had  to  leave  his  wife, 
Phillis,  and  one  child. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  of  a  chestnut 
color.  He  too  talked  of  slave-holders,  and  his  master  in  particular,  just  as 
any  man  would  talk  who  had  been  shamefully  robbed  and  wronged  all  his  life. 

TOM,  likewise,  told  the  same  story,  and  although  they  used  the  corn-field 
vernacular,  they  were  in  earnest  and  possessed  an  abundance  of  mother-wit, 
so  that  their  testimony  was  not  to  be  made  light  of. 

The  following  letter  from  Thomas  Garrett  speaks  for  itself: 

WILMINGTON,  5  mo.  llth,  1856. 

ESTEEMED  FRIENDS — McKim  and  Still : — I  purpose  sending  to-morrow  morning  by  the 
steamboat  a  woman  and  child,  whose  husband,  I  think,  went  some  nine  months  previous 
to  New  Bedford.  She  was  furnished  with  a  free  passage  by  the  same  line  her  husband 
came  in.  She  has  been  away  from  the  person  claiming  to  be  her  master  some  five  months; 
we,  therefore,  think  there  cannot  be  much  risk  at  present.  Those  four  I  wrote  thee  about 
arrived  safe  up  in  the  neighborhood  of  Longwood,  and  Harriet  Tubman  followed  after  in 
the  stage  yesterday.  I  shall  expect  five  more  from  the  same  neighborhood  next  trip. 
Captain  Lambdin  is  desirous  of  having  sent  him  a  book,  or  books,  with  the  strongest 
arguments  of  the  noted  men  of  the  South  against  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  he  wishes 
to  prepare  to  defend  himself,  as  he  has  little  confidence  in  his  attorney.  Cannot  you  send 
to  me  something  that  will  be  of  benefit  to  him,  or  send  it  direct  to  him  ?  Would  not  W. 
Goodell's  book  be  of  use  ?  His  friends  here  think  there  is  no  chance  for  him  but  to  go  to 
the  penitentiary.  They  now  refuse  to  let  any  one  but  his  attorney  see  him. 

As  ever  your  friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

The  woman  and  child  alluded  to  were  received  and  noted  on  the  record 
book  as  follows: 

WINNIE  PATTY,  and  her  daughter,  ELIZABETH,  arrived  safely  from  Nor- 
folk, Va.  The  mother  is  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  good-looking  and 
of  chestnut  color,  smart  and  brave.  From  the  latter  part  of  October, 
1855,  to  the  latter  part  of  March,  1856,  this  young  slave  mother,  with  her 
child,  was  secreted  under  the  floor  of  a  house.  The  house  was  occupied  by 
a  slave  family,  friends  of  Winnie.  During  the  cold  winter  weather  she 
suffered  severely  from  wet  and  cold,  getting  considerably  frosted,  but  her  faith 
failed  not,  even  in  the  hour  of  greatest  extremity.  She  chose  rather  to 
suffer  thus  than  endure  slavery  any  longer,  especially  as  she  was  aware  that 
the  auction-block  awaited  her.  She  had  already  been  sold  three  times;  she 
knew  therefore  what  it  was  to  be  sold. 


388  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Jacob  Sinister  was  the  name  of  the  man  whom  she  spoke  of  as  her  tor- 
mentor and  master,  and  from  whom  she  fled.  He  had  been  engaged  in 
the  farming  business,  and  had  owned  quite  a  large  number  of  slaves,  but 
from  time  to  time  he  had  been  selling  oif,  until  he  had  reduced  his  stock 
considerably. 

Captain  Lambdin,  spoken  of  in  Thomas  Garrett's  letter,  had,  in  the  kind- 
ness of  his  heart,  brought  away  in  his  schooner  some  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers,  but  unfortunately  he  was  arrested  and  thrust  into  prison  in 
Norfolk,  Va.,  to  await  trial.  Having  no  confidence  in  his  attorney  there  he 
found  that  he  would  have  to  defend  himself  as  best  he  could,  consequently  he 
wanted  books,  etc.  He  was  in  the  attitude  of  a  drowning  man  catching  at 
a  straw.  The  Committee  was  powerless  to  aid  him,  except  with  some  money ; 
as  the  books  that  he  desired  had  but  little  effect  in  the  lions'  den,  in  which 
he  was.  He  had  his  trial,  and  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary,  of  course. 

ONE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
living  in  Rockville,  Montgomery  county,  Md.,  on  Saturday,  31st  of  May  last, 

NEGRO  MAN,  ALFRED, 

about  twenty-tvro  years  of  age  ;  five  feet  seven  inches  high  ;  dark  copper  color, 
and  rather  good  looking. 

He  had  on  when  he  left  a  dark  blue  and  green  plaid  frock  coat,  of  cloth,  and 
lighter  colored  plaid  pantaloons. 
I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  taken  out  of  the  county,  and  in  any  of  the  States,  or 
fifty  dollars  if  taken-  in  the  county  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  secured  so  that  I  get 
him  again.  JOHN  W.  ANDERSON. 

j6-lwW2. 

A  man  calling  himself  Alfred  Homer,  answering  to  the  above  description, 
came  to  the  Vigilance  Committee  in  June,  1856.  As  a  memorial  we  trans- 
ferred the  advertisement  of  John  W.  Anderson  to  our  record  book,  and  con- 
cluded to  let  that  suffice.  Alfred,  however,  gave  a  full  description  of  his 
master's  character,  and  the  motives  which  impelled  him  to  seek  his  freedom. 
He  was  listened  to  attentively,  but  his  story  was  not  entered  on  the  book. 


PASSENGERS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  MOODY,  BELIKDA  BIVANS,  ETC. 

WILLIAM  was  about  twenty  years  of  age,  black,  usual  size,  and  a  lover 
of  liberty.  He  had  heard  of  Canada,  had  formed  a  very  favorable  opinion 
of  the  country  and  was  very  desirous  of  seeing  it.  The  man  who  had 
habitually  robbed  him  of  his  hire,  was  a  "  stout-built,  ill-natured  man/' 
a  farmer,  by  the  name  of  William  Hyson. 

To  meet  the  expenses  of  an  extensive  building  enterprise  which  he  had 
undertaken,  it  was  apparent  that  Hyson  would  have  to  sell  some  of  his  pro- 


PASSENGERS  FROM  MAR  YLAND,  1857.  389 

perty.  William  and  some  six  others  of  the  servants  got  wind  of  the  fact 
that  they  would  stand  a  chance  of  being  in  the  market  soon.  Not  relishing 
the  idea  of  going  further  South  they  unanimously  resolved  to  emigrate  to 
Canada.  Accordingly  they  borrowed  a  horse  from  Dr.  Wise,  and  another 
from  H.  K.  Tice,  and  a  carriage  from  F.  J.  Posey,  and  Joseph  P.  Mong's 
buggy  (so  it  was  stated  in  the  Baltimore  Sun,  of  May  27th),  and  off  they 
started  for  the  promised  land.  The  horses  and  carriages  were  all  captured 
at  Chambersburg,  a  day  or  two  after  they  set  out,  but  the  rest  of  the  property 
hurried  on  to  the  Committee.  How  Mr.  Hyson  raised  the  money  to  carry 
out  his  enterprise,  William  and  his  "  ungrateful "  fellow-servants  seemed  not 
to  be  concerned. 

BELINDA  BIVAISTS.  Belinda  was  a  large  woman,  thirty  years  of  age, 
wholly  black,  and  fled  from  Mr.  Hyson,  in  company  with  William,  and  those 
above  referred  to,  with  the  idea  of  reaching  Canada,  whither  her  father  had 
fled  eight  years  before. 

She  was  evidently  pleased  with  the  idea  of  getting  away  from  her  ill- 
natured  mistress,  from  poor  fare  and  hard  work  without  pay.  She  had 
experienced  much  hardship,  and  had  become  weary  of  her  trial  in  bondage. 
She  had  been  married,  but  her  husband  had  died,  leaving  her  with  two  little 
girls  to  care  for,  both  of  whom  she  succeeded  in  bringing  away  with  her. 

In  reference  to  the  church  relations  of  her  master  and  mistress,  she 
represented  the  former  as  a  backslider,  and  added  that  money  was  his 
church ;  of  the  latter  she  said,  "  she  would  go  and  take  the  sacrament,  come 
back  and  the  old  boy  would  be  in  her  as  big  as  a  horse."  Belinda  could  see 
but  little  difference  between  her  master  and  mistress. 

JOSEPH  WINSTON.  In  the  Richmond  Dispatch,  of  June  9th,  the  follow- 
ing advertisement  was  found : 

RUNAWAY.—  $200  REWARD  will  be  given  if  taken  in  the  state,  and  $500  if 
taken  out  of  the  state. 

Run  away,  my  negro  boy  JOE,  sometimes  called  JOE  WINSTON  ;  about  23  years 
old,  a  little  over  5  feet  high,  rather  stout-built,  dark  ginger-bread  color,  small 
moustache,  stammers  badly  when  confused  or  spoken  to ;  took  along  two  or 
three  suits  of  clothes,  one  a  blue  dress  coat  with  brass  buttons,  black  pants,  and 
patent  leather  shoes,  white  hat,  silver  watch  with  gold  chain  ;  was  last  seen  in 
this  city  on  Tuesday  last,  had  a  pass  to  Hanover  county,  and  supposed  to  be  making  his 
way  towards  York  River,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  oil  board  some  coasting  vessel. 

SAMUEL  ELLIS. 

The  passenger  above  described  reached  the  Underground  Rail  Road  sta- 
tion, June  6th,  1857. 

"  Why  did  you  leave  your  master  ?  "  said  a  member  of  the  Committee  to 
Joe.  "I  left  because  there  was  no  enjoyment  in  slavery  for  colored  people." 
After  stating  how  the  slaves  were  treated  he  added,  "  I  was  working  all 
the  time  for  master  and  he  was  receiving  all  my  money  for  my  daily  labor." 
"What  business  did  your  master  follow?"  inquired  the  Committee.  "He 


390  THE    UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

was  a  carpenter  by  trade."  "  What  kind  of  a  looking  man  was  he?"  again 
inquired  the  Committee.  "  He  was  a  large,  stout  man,  don't  swear,  but  lies 
and  cheats."  Joe  admitted  that  he  had  been  treated  very  well  all  his  life 
with  the  exception  of  being  deprived  of  his  freedom.  For  eight  years  prior 
to  his  escape  he  had  been  hired  out,  a  part  of  the  time  as  porter  in  a  grocery 
store,  the  remainder  as  bar-tender  in  a  saloon.  At  the  time  of  his  escape  he 
was  worth  twenty-two  dollars  per  month  to  his  master.  Joe  had  to  do  over- 
work and  thus  procure  clothing  for  himself. 

When  a  small  boy  he  resolved,  that  he  never  would  work  all  his  days  as 
a  slave  for  the  white  people.  As  he  advanced  in  years  his  desire  for  free- 
dom increased.  An  offer  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  was  made  for  Joe,  so  he 
was  informed  a  short  time  before  he  escaped;  this  caused  him  to  move 
promptly  in  the  matter  of  carrying  out  his  designs  touching  liberty. 

His  parents  and  three  brothers,  slaves,  were  to  be  left ;  but  when  the 
decisive  hour  came  he  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  In  company  with 
William  Naylor  secreted  in  a  vessel,  he  was  brought  away  and  delivered  to 
the  Committee  for  aid  and  counsel,  which  he  received,  and  thus  ended  his 
bondage.  The  reward  offered  by  his  master,  Samuel  Ellis,  proved  of  no 
avail. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

WILLIAM  SCOTT.  William  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  well 
made,  though  not  very  heavy — stammered  considerably  when  speaking — 
wide  awake  and  sensible  nevertheless.  For  two  years  the  fear  of  being 
sold  had  not  been  out  of  his  mind.  To  meet  a  security  agreement,  which  had 
been  contracted  by  his  mistress — about  which  a  law-suit  had  been  pending 
for  two  years — was  what  he  feared  he  should  be  sold  for.  About  the  first 
of  May  he  found  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff.  On  being  taken  to 
Stafford  Court-House  Jail,  however,  the  sheriff  permitted  him  to  walk  a 
"little  ways."  It  occurred  to  William  that  then  was  his  only  chance  to 
strike  for  freedom  and  Canada,  at  all  hazards.  He  soon  decided  the  matter, 
and  the  sheriff  saw  no  more  of  him. 

Susan  Fox  was  the  name  of  the  person  he  was  compelled  to  call  mistress. 
She  was  described  as  a  "large,  portly  woman,  very  gross,  with  a  tolerably 
severe  temper,  at  times."  William's  mother  and  one  of  his  brothers  had 
been  sold  by  this  woman — an  outrage  to  be  forever  remembered.  His 
grandmother,  one  sister,  with  two  children,  and  a  cousin  with  five  children, 
all  attached  by  the  sheriff,  for  sale,  were  left  in  the  hands  of  his  mistress.  He 
was  married  the  previous  Christmas,  but  in  the  trying  hour  could  do  nothing 
for  his  wife,  but  leave  her  to  the  mercy  of  slave-holders.  The  name  of  the 
sheriff  that  he  outgeneralled  was  Walter  Cox.  William  was  valued  at  $1,000. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  &c.  391 

Perhaps,  after  all,  but  few  appreciated  the  sorrow  that  must  have  filled  the 
hearts  of  most  of  those  who  escaped.  Though  they  succeeded  in  gaining 
their  own  liberty  —  they  were  not  insensible  to  the  oppression  of  their 
friends  and  relatives  left  in  bondage.  On  reaching  Canada  and  tasting  the 
sweets  of  freedom,  the  thought  of  dear  friends  in  bondage  must  have  been 
acutely  painful. 

William  had  many  perils  to  encounter.  On  one  occasion  he  was  hotly 
chased,  but  proved  too  fleet-footed  for  his  pursuers.  At  another  time,  when 
straitened,  he  attempted  to  swim  a  river,  but  failed.  His  faith  remained 
strong,  nevertheless,  and  he  succeeded  in  reaching  the  Committee. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  etc.,  1857. 

GEORGE  CARROLL,  RANDOLPH  BRANSON,  JOHN  CLAGART,  AND  WILLIAM  ROYAN. 

These  four  journeyed  from  "  Egypt "  together — but  did  not  leave  the 
same  "  kind  protector." 

GEORGE  was  a  full  black,  ordinary  size,  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  a 
convert  to  the  doctrine  that  he  had  a  right  to  himself.  For  years  the  idea 
of  escape  had  been  daily  cherished.  Five  times  he  had  proposed  to  buy 
himself,  but  failed  to  get  the  consent  of  his  "  master,"  who  was  a  merchant, 
C.  C.  Hirara,  a  man  about  sixty  years  of  age,  and  a  member  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church.  His  property  in  slaves  consisted  of  two  men,  two  women, 
two  girls  and  a  boy. 

Three  of  George's  brothers  escaped  to  Canada  many  years  prior  to  his 
leaving — there  he  hoped  on  his  arrival  to  find  them  in  the  possession  of  good 
farms.  $1,300  walked  off  in  the  person  of  George. 

RANDOLPH,  physically,  was  a  superior  man.  He  was  thirty-one  years  of 
age  and  of  a  dark  chestnut  color.  Weary  with  bondage  he  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  had  served  a  master  long  enough  "  without  privileges." 
Against  his  master,  Richard  Reed,  he  had  no  hard  things  to  say,  however. 
He  was  not  a  "  crabbed,  cross  man" — had  but  "little  to  say,"  but  "didn't 
believe  in  freedom." 

Three  of  his  brothers  had  been  sold  South.  Left  his  father,  two  sisters 
and  one  brother.  Randolph  was  worth  probably  $1,700. 

JOHN  was  a  well-made  yellow  man,  twenty-two  years  of  age,  who  had 
counted  the  cost  of  slavery  thoroughly,  besides  having  experienced  the 
effects  of  it.  Accordingly  he  resolved  to  "  be  free  or  die,"  "  to  kill  or  be 
killed,  in  trying  to  reach  free  land  somewhere !" 

Having  "  always  been  hired  out  amongst  very  hard  white  people,"  he  was 
"  unhappy."  His  owner,  George  Coleraan,  lived  near  Fairfax,  Va.,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  but  in  his  ways  was  "  very  sly," 


392  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  "deadly  against  anything  like  freedom."  He  held  fifteen  of  his  fellow- 
men  in  chains. 

For  John's  hire  he  received  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  He 
was,  therefore,  ranked  with  first-class  "stock,"  valued  at  $1,500. 

WILLIAM  was  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  neat,  and  pleasing  in  his 
manners.  He  would  be  the  first  selected  in  a  crowd  by  a  gentleman  or  a 
lady,  who  might  want  a  very  neat-looking  man  to  attend  to  household  affairs. 
Though  he  considered  Captain  Cunningham,  his  master,  a  "  tolerable  fair 
man,"  he  was  not  content  to  be  robbed  of  his  liberty  and  earnings.  As  he 
felt  that  he  "  could  take  care  of  himself,"  he  decided  to  let  the  Captain 
have  the  same  chance — and  so  he  steered  his  course  straight  for  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  UNIONYILLE,  1857. 

ISRAEL  TODD,   AKD   BAZIL  ALDRIDGE. 

ISRAEL  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  yellow,  tall,  well  made  and  intelli- 
gent. He  fled  from  Frederick  county,  Md.  Through  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
Dr.  Greenberry  Sappington  and  his  family  had  been  living  at  ease.  The 
doctor  was  a  Catholic,  owning  only  one  other,  and  was  said  to  be  a  man  of 
"  right  disposition."  His  wife,  however,  was  "  so  mean  that  nobody  could 
stay  with  her."  Israel  was  prompted  to  escape  to  save  his  wife,  (had  lately 
been  married)  and  her  brother  from  being  sold  south.  His  detestation  of 
slavery  in  every  shape  was  very  decided.  He  was  a  valuable  man,  worth  to 
a  trader  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  perhaps. 

BAZIL  was  only  seventeen  years  of  age.  About  as  near  a  kin  to  the 
"  white  folks  "  as  to  the  colored  people,  and  about  as  strong  an  opponent  of 
slavery  as  any  "  Saxon  "  going  of  his  age.  He  was  a  brother-in-law  of 
Israel,  and  accompanied  him  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Bazil  was 
held  to  service  or  labor  by  Thornton  Pool,  a  store-keeper,  and  also  farmer, 
and  at  the  same  time  an  ardent  lover  of  the  "cretur,"  so  much  so  that  "he 
kept  about  half-drunk  all  the  time."  So  Bazil  affirmed.  The  good  spirit 
moved  two  of  Bazil's  brothers  to  escape  the  spring  before.  A  few  months 
afterwards  a  brother  and  sister  were  sold  south.  To  manage  the  matter 
smoothly,  previous  to  selling  them,  the  master  pretended  that  he  was  a  only 
going  to  hire  them  out  a  short  distance  from  home."  But  instead  of  doing 
so  he  sold  them  south.  Bazil  might  be  put  down  at  nine  hundred  dollars. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MAR  YLAND,  1857.  393 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857. 

OKDEE   LEE,   ASTD  EICHARD  J.   BOOCE. 

Both  of  these  passengers  came  from  Maryland.  ORDEE  was  about  thirty- 
five  years  of  age,  gingerbread  color,  well  made,  and  intelligent.  Being 
allowed  no  chances  to  make  anything  for  himself,  was  the  excuse  offered 
for  his  escape.  Though,  as  will  appear  presently,  other  causes  also  helped 
to  make  him  hate  his  oppression. 

The  man  who  had  daily  robbed  him,  and  compelled  him  to  call  him 
master,  was  a  notorious  "  gambler,"  by  the  name  of  Elijah  Thompson,  resid- 
ing in  Maryland.  u  By  his  bad  habits  he  had  run  through  with  his  property, 
though  in  society  he  stood  pretty  tolerably  high  amongst  some  people ;  then 
again  some  didn't  like  him,  he  was  a  mean  man,  all  for  himself.  He  was  a 
man  that  didn't  care  anything  about  his  servants,  except  to  get  work  out  of 
them.  When  he  came  where  the  servants  were  working,  he  would  snap  and 
bite  at  them  and  if  he  said  anything  at  all,  it  was  to  hurry  the  work  on." 

"  He  never  gave  me,"  said  Ordee,  "  a  half  a  dollar  in  his  life.  Didn't 
more  than  half  feed,  said  that  meat  and  fish  was  too  high  to  eat.  As  for 
clothing,  he  never  gave  me  a  new  hat  for  every  day,  nor  a  Sunday  rag  in  his 
life."  Of  his  mistress,  he  said,  "  She  was  stingy  and  close, — made  him  (his 
master)  worse  than  what  he  would  have  been."  Two  of  his  brothers  were 
sold  to  Georgia,  and  his  uncle  was  cheated  out  of  his  freedom.  Left  three 
brothers  and  two  sisters  in  chains.  Elijah  Thompson  had  at  least  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  less  to  sport  upon  by  this  bold  step  on  the  part  of  Ordee. 

RICHARD  was  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  well  grown,  and  a  very 
likely-looking  article,  of  a  chestnut  color,  with  more  than  common  intelli- 
gence for  a  slave. 

His  complaints  were  that  he  had  been  treated  "  bad,"  allowed  "no  privileges" 
to  make  anything,  allowed  "no  Sunday  clothing,"  &c.  So  he  left  the  portly- 
looking  Dr.  Hughes,  with  no  feeling  of  indebtedness  or  regret.  And  as  to 
his  "  cross  and  ill-natured "  mistress,  with  her  four  children,  they  might 
whistle  for  his  services  and  support.  His  master  had,  however,  some  eigh- 
teen or  twenty  others  to  rob  for  the  support  of  himself  and  family,  so  they 
were  in  no  great  danger  of  starving. 

"  Would  your  owner  be  apt  to  pursue  you  ?"  said  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee. "  I  don't  think  he  will.  He  was  after  two  uncles  of  mine,  one 
time,  saw  them,  and  talked  with  them,  but  was  made  to  run." 

Richard  left  behind  his  mother,  step-father,  two  sisters,  and  one  brother. 
As  a  slave,  he  would  have  been  considered  cheap  at  sixteen  hundred 
dollars.  He  was  a  fine  specimen. 


394  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  CAMBRIDGE,  1857. 

SILAS  LONG  and  SOLOMON  LIGHT.  Silas  and  Solomon  both  left  together 
from  Cambridge,  Md. 

SILAS  was  quite  black,  spare-built  and  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age. 
He  was  owned  by  Sheriff  Robert  Bell,  a  man  about  "sixty  years  of  age,  and 
had  his  name  up  to  be  the  hardest  man  in  the  county."  "  The  Sheriff's 
wife  was  about  pretty  much  such  a  woman  as  he  was  a  man — there  was  not 
a  pin's  point  of  difference  between  them."  The  fear  of  having  to  be  sold 
caused  this  Silas  to  seek  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Leaving  his  mother, 
one  brother  and  one  cousin,  and  providing  himself  with  a  Bowie-knife  and 
a  few  dollars  in  money,  he  resolved  to  reach  Canada,  "or  die  on  the  way." 
Of  course,  when  slaves  reached  this  desperate  point,  the  way  to  Canada  was 
generally  found. 

SOLOMON  was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  a  good-natured-looking 
"  article,"  who  also  left  Cambridge,  and  the  protection  of  a  certain  Willis 
Branick,  described  as  an  "unaccountable  mean  man."  "He  never  gave  me 
any  money  in  his  life,"  said  Sol.,  "  but  spent  it  pretty  freely  for  liquor."  "  He 
would  not  allow  enough  to  eat,  or  clothing  sufficient."  And  he  sold  Sol.'s 
brother  the  year  before  he  fled,  "  because  he  could  not  whip  him."  The 
fear  of  being  sold  prompted  Sol.  to  flee.  The  very  day  he  escaped  he  had 
a  serious  combat  with  two  of  his  master's  sons.  The  thumb  of  one  of  them 
being  "  badly  bit,"  and  the  other  used  roughly — the  ire  of  the  master  and 
sons  was  raised  to  a  very  high  degree — and  the  verdict  went  forth  that  "  Sol. 
should  be  sold  to-morrow."  Unhesitatingly,  he  started  for  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  and  Canada  —  and  his  efforts  were  not  in  vain.  Damages, 
$1,500. 


"THE  MOTHER  OF  TWELVE  CHILDREN." 

OLD  JANE  DAVIS — FLED  TO  ESCAPE  THE  AUCTION-BLOCK. 

The  appended  letter,  from  Thomas  Garrett,  will  serve  to  introduce  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  cases  that  it  was  our  privilege  to  report  or  assist  : 

WILMINGTON,  6  mo.,  9th,  1857. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND — WILLIAM  STILL  : — We  have  here  in  this  place,  at  Comegys  Mun- 
son's  an  old  colored  woman,  the  mother  of  twelve  children,  one  half  of  which  has  been 
sold  South.  She  has  been  so  ill  used,  that  she  was  compelled  to  leave  husband  and  chil- 
dren behind,  and  is  desirous  of  getting  to  a  brother  who  lives  at  Buffalo.  She  was  nearly 
naked.  She  called  at  my  house  on  7th  day  night,  but  being  from  home,  did  not  see 
her  till  last  evening.  I  have  procured  her  two  under  garments,  one  new ;  two  skirts,  one 


BENJAMIN  ROSS,  AND  HIS  WIFE  HARRIET.  395 

new  ;  a  good  frock  with  cape ;  one  of  my  wife's  bonnets  and  stockings,  and  gave  her  five 
dollars  in  gold,  which,  if  properly  used,  will  put  her  pretty  well  on  the  way.  I  also  gave 
her  a  letter  to  thee.  Since  I  gave  them  to  her  she  has  concluded  to  stay  where  she  ia  till 
7th  day  night,  when  Comegys  Munson  says  he  can  leave  his  work  and  will  go  with  her  to 
thy  house.  I  write  this  so  that  thee  may  be  prepared  for  them  ;  they  ought  to  arrive  be- 
tween 11  and  12  o'clock.  Perhaps  thee  may  find  some  fugitive  that  will  be  willing  to 
accompany  her.  With  desire  for  thy  welfare  and  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  I  remain  thy 
friend,  THOS.  GAKKETT. 

Jane  did  not  know  how  old  she  was.  She  was  probably  sixty  or  seventy. 
She  fled  to  keep  from  being  sold.  She  had  been  "  whipt  right  smart," 
poorly  fed  and  poorly  clothed,  by  a  certain  Roger  McZant,  of  the  New  Mar- 
ket District,  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.  His  wife  was  a  "  bad  woman 
too."  Just  before  escaping,  Jane  got  a  whisper  that  her"  master"  was  about 
to  sell  her ;  on  asking  him  if  the  rumor  was  true,  he  was  silent.  He  had 
been  asking  "one  hundred  dollars"  for  her. 

Remembering  that  four  of  her  children  had  been  snatched  away  from  her 
and  sold  South,  and  she  herself  was  threatened  with  the  same  fate,  she  was 
willing  to  suffer  hunger,  sleep  in  the  woods  for  nights  and  days,  wandering 
towards  Canada,  rather  than  trust  herself  any  longer  under  the  protection  of 
her  "  kind  "  owner.  Before  reaching  a  place  of  repose  she  was  three  weeks 
in  the  woods,  almost  wholly  without  nourishment. 

JANE,  doubtless,  represented  thousands  of  old  slave  mothers,  who,  after 
having  been  worn  out  under  the  yoke,  were  frequently  either  offered  for 
sale  for  a  trifle,  turned  off  to  die,  or  compelled  to  eke  out  their  existence  on 
the  most  stinted  allowance. 


BENJAMIN  ROSS,  AND  HIS  WIFE  HARRIET. 

FLED  FROM   CAROLINE   COUNTY,   EASTERN  SHORE   OF  MARYLAND,   JUNE,    1857. 

This  party  stated  that  Dr.  Anthony  Thompson  had  claimed  them  as  his 
property.  They  gave  the  Committee  a  pretty  full  report  of  how  they  had 
been  treated  in  slavery,  especially  under  the,  doctor.  A  few  of  the  interesting 
points  were  noted  as  follows :  The  doctor  owned  about  twenty  head  of  slaves 
when  they  left;  formerly  he  had  owned  a  much  larger  number,  but  circum- 
stances had  led  him  to  make  frequent  sales  during  the  few  years  previous  to 
their  escape,  by  which  the  stock  had  been  reduced.  As  well  as  having  been 
largely  interested  in  slaves,  he  had  at  the  same  time  been  largely  interested 
in  real  estate,  to  the  extent  of  a  dozen  farms  at  least.  But  in  consequence 
of  having  reached  out  too  far,  several  of  his  farms  had  slipped  out  of  his 
hands. 

Upon  the  whole,  Benjamin  pronounced  him  a  rough  man  towards  his 
slaves,  and  declared,  that  he  had  not  given  him  a  dollar  since  the  death  of 


396  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

his  (the  master's)  father,  which  had  been  at  least  twenty  years  prior  to  Ben- 
jamin's escape.  But  Ben.  did  not  stop  here,  he  went  on  to  speak  of  the  reli- 
gious character  of  his  master,  and  also  to  describe  him  physically ;  he  was  a 
Methodist  preacher,  and  had  been  "  pretending  to  preach  for  twenty  years." 
Then  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  their  children  had  been  sold  to  Georgia  by 
this  master  was  referred  to  with  much  feeling  by  Ben  and  his  wife ;  likewise 
the  fact  that  he  had  stinted  them  for  food  and  clothing,  and  led  them  a 
rough  life  generally,  which  left  them  no  room  to  believe  that  he  was  any- 
thing else  than  "  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing."  They  described  him  as  a 
"  spare-built  man,  bald  head,  wearing  a  wig." 

These  two  travelers  had  nearly  reached  their  three  score  years  and  ten 
under  the  yoke.  Nevertheless  they  seemed  delighted  at  the  idea  of  going 
to  a  free  country  to  enjoy  freedom,  if  only  for  a  short  time.  Moreover  some 
of  their  children  had  escaped  in  days  past,  and  these  they  hoped  to  find. 
Not  many  of  those  thus  advanced  in  years  ever  succeeded  in  getting  to 
Canada. 


AKRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1857. 

WILLIAM  JACKSON. 

WILLIAM  was  about  fifty  years  of  age,  of  usual  size,  of  good  address,  and 
intelligent.  He  was  born  the  property  of  a  slaveholder,  by  the  name  of 
Daniel  Minne,  residing  in  Alexandria  in  Virginia.  His  master  was  about 
eighty-four  years  of  age,  and  was  regarded  as  kind,  though  he  had  sold 
some  of  his  slaves  and  was  in  favor  of  slavery.  He  had  two  sons,  Robert 
and  Albert,  "  both  dissipated,  would  lay  about  the  tippling  taverns,  and  keep 
low  company,  so  much  so  that  they  were  not  calculated  to  do  any  business  for 
their  father."  William  had  to  be  a  kind  of  a  right  hand  man  to  his  master. 
The  sons  seeing  that  the  "  property  "  was  trusted  instead  of  themselves,  very 
naturally  hated  it,  so  the  young  men  resolved  that  at  the  death  of  their 
father,  William  should  be  sent  as  far  south  as  possible.  Knowing  that 
the  old  man  could  not  stand  it  much  longer,  William  saw  that  it  was  his 
policy  to  get  away  as  fast  as  he  could.  He  was  the  husband  of  a  free  wife, 
who  had  come  on  in  advance  of  him. 

For  thirty  years  William  had  been  foreman  on  his  old  master's  plantation, 
and  but  for  the  apprehension  caused  by  the  ill-will  of  his  prospective 
young  masters,  he  would  doubtless  have  remained  in  servitude  at  least  until 
the  death  of  the  old  man.  But  when  William  reflected,  and  saw  what  he 
had  been  deprived  of  all  his  life  by  being  held  in  bondage,  and  when  he 
began  to  breathe  free  air,  with  the  prospect  of  ending  his  days  on  free  land, 
he  rejoiced  that  his  eyes  had  been  opened  to  see  his  danger,  and  that  he 
had  been  moved  to  make  a  start  for  liberty. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELA  WARE,  1857.  397 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1857. 

JOHN   WRIGHT   AND   WIFE,   ELIZABETH   ANN,   AND   CHARLES   CONNOR. 

This  party  arrived  from  Sussex  county.  John  was  about  thirty  years  of 
age,  ordinary  size,  full  black  and  clear-headed.  In  physical  appearance  he 
would  have  readily  passed  for  a  superior  laborer.  The  keenness  of  his  eyes 
and  quickness  of  his  perception,  however,  would  doubtless  have  rendered 
him  an  object  of  suspicion  in  some  parts  of  the  South.  The  truth  was  that 
the  love  of  liberty  was  clearly  indicated  in  his  expressive  countenance. 
William  S.  Phillips,  a  farmer,  had  been  "  sucking  "  John's  blood,  and  keep- 
ing him  poor  and  ignorant  for  the  last  eight  years  at  least ;  before  that, 
Phillips'  father  had  defrauded  him  of  his  hire. 

Under  the  father  and  son  John  had  found  plenty  of  hard  work  and  bad 
usage,  severe  and  repeated  floggings  not  excepted.  Old  master  and  mistress 
and  young  master  and  mistress,  including  the  entire  family,  belonged  to 
what  was  known  as  the  "  Farmer  church,"  at  Portsville.  Outwardly  they 
were  good  Christians.  "  Occasionally,"  John  said,  "  the  old  man  would 
have  family  prayers,"  and  to  use  John's  own  words,  "  in  company  he  would 
try  to  moralize,  but  out  of  company  was  as  great  a  rowdy  as  ever  was."  In 
further  describing  his  old  master,  he  said  that  he  was  a  large  man,  with  a 
red  face  and  blunt  nose,  and  was  very  quick  and  fiery  in  his  temper ;  would 
drink  and  swear — and  even  his  wife,  with  all 'hands,  would  have  to  run 
when  he  was  "  raised." 

Of  his  young  master  he  said  :  "  He  was  quite  a  long-bodied,  thin-faced 
man,  weighing  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  In  temper  just  like 
his  father,  though  he  did  not  drink — that  is  all  the  good  quality  that  I 
can  recommend  in  him."  John  said  also  that  his  master,  on  one  occasion, 
in  a  most  terribly  angry  mood,  threatened  that  he  would  "  wade  up  to  his 
knees  in  his  (John's)  blood."  It  so  happened  that  John's  blood  was  up 
pretty  high  just  at  that  time;  he  gave  his  master  to  understand  that  he 
would  rather  go  South  (be  sold)  than  submit  to  the  scourging  which  was 
imminent.  John's  pluck  probably  had  the  effect  of  allaying  the  master's 
fire  ;  at  any  rate  the  storm  subsided  after  awhile,  and  until  the  day  that  he 
took  the  Underground  Rail  Road  car  the  servant  managed  to  put  up  with 
his  master.  As  John's  wife  was  on  the  eve  of  being  sold  he  was  prompted 
to  leave  some  time  sooner  than  he  otherwise  would  have  done. 


398  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

THE   WIFE'S   STATEMENT. 

She  was  thirty-two  years  of  age,  of  good  physical  proportions,  and  a 
promising-looking  person,  above  the  ordinary  class  of  slaves  belonging  to 
Delaware.  She  was  owned  by  Jane  Cooper,  who  lived  near  Laurel,  in  Sussex 
county.  She  had  been  more  accustomed  to  field  labor  than  house-work ; 
ploughing,  fencing,  driving  team,  grubbing,  cutting  wood,  etc.,  were  well 
understood  by  her.  During  "  feeding  times  "  she  had  to  assist  in  the  house. 
In  this  respect,  she  had  harder  times  than  the  men.  Her  mistress  was 
also  in  the  habit  of  hiring  Elizabeth  out  by  the  day  to  wash.  On  these 
occasions  she  was  required  to  rise  early  enough  to  milk  the  cows,  get  break- 
fast, and  feed  the  hogs  before  sunrise,  so  that  she  might  be  at  her  day's 
washing  in  good  time. 

It  is  plainly  to  be  seen,  that  ^lizabeth  had  not  met  with  the  "  ease  "  and 
kindness  which  many  claimed  for  the  slave.  Elizabeth  was  sensible  of  the 
wrongs  inflicted  by  her  Delaware  mistress,  and  painted  her  in  very  vivid 
colors.  Her  mistress  was  a  widow,  "quite  old,"  but  "very  frisky,"  and 
"  wore  a  wig  to  hide  her  gray  hairs."  At  the  death  of  her  husband,  the 
slaves  believed,  from  what  they  had  heard  their  master  say,  that  they  would 
be  freed,  each  at  the  age  of  thirty.  But  no  will  was  found,  which  caused 
Elizabeth,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  slaves,  to  distrust  the  mistress  more  than 
ever,  as  they  suspected  that  she  knew  something  of  its  disappearance. 

Her  mistress  belonged  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  would  have  "family 
prayers  only  when  the  minister  would  stop ;"  Elizabeth  thought  that  she 
took  greater  pains  to  please*  the  minister  than  her  Maker.  Elizabeth  had 
no  faith  in  such  religion. 

Both  Elizabeth  and  her  husband  were  members  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
Neither  had  ever  been  permitted  to  learn  to  read  or  write,  but  they  were 
naturally  very  smart.  John  left  his  mother  and  one  sister  in  bondage.  One 
of  his  brothers  fled  to  Canada  fifteen  years  before  their  escape.  His  name 
was  Abraham. 

CHARLES  CONNOR,  the  third  person  in  the  party,  was  twenty-seven 
years  of  age — fast  color,  and  a  tough-looking  "  article,"  who  would  have 
brought  twelve  hundred  dollars  or  more  in  the  hands  of  a  Baltimore 
trader.  The  man  from  whom  Charles  fled  was  known  by  the  name  of  John 
Chipman,  and  was  described  as  "a  fleshy  man,  with  rank  beard  and  quick 
temper,  very  hard — commonly  kept  full  of  liquor,  though  he  would  not  get 
so  drunk  that  he  could  not  go  about."  For  a  long  time  Charles  had  been 
the  main  dependence  on  his  master's  place,  as  he  only  owned  two  other 
slaves.  Charles  particularly  remarked,  that  no  weather  was  too  bad  for 
them  to  be  kept  at  work  in  the  field.  Charles  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the 
"  corn-field  hand,"  but  thought  that  he  could  take  care  of  himself  in  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  1857.  399 

ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  1857. 

OSCAR  D.   BALL,   AND   MONTGOMERY  GRAHAM. 

FOUR  HUNDEED  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  owner  in 
Alexandria,  Va.,  on  the  night  of  the  13th  inst.,  two  young  negro  men,  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  years  of  age.  MONTGOMERY  is  a  very  bright  mulatto, 
about  five  feet,  six  inches  in  height,  of  polite  manners,  and  smiles  much  when 
speaking  or  spoken  to.  OSCAR  is  of  a  tawny  complexion,  about  six  feet  high, 
sluggish  in  his  appearance  and  movements,  and  of  awkward  manners, 
ndred  dollars  each  will  be  paid  for  the  delivery  of  the  above  slaves  if  taken  in  a 
slave  state,  or  two  hundred  dollars  each  if  taken  in  a  free  state.  One  or  .more  slaves 
belonging  to  other  owners,  it  is  supposed,  went  in  their  company. 

Address  :        JOHN  T.  GORDON, 

Alexandria,  Va. 

Although  the  name  of  John  T.  Gordon  appears  signed  to  the  above  adver- 
tisement, he  was  not  the  owner  of  Montgomery  and  Oscar.  According  to 
their  own  testimony  they  belonged  to  a  maiden  lady,  by  the  name  of  Miss 
Elizabeth  Gordon,  who  probably  thought  that  the  business  of  advertising 
for  runaway  negroes  was  rather  beneath  her. 

While  both  these  passengers  manifested  great  satisfaction  in  leaving  their 
mistress  they  did  not  give  her  a  bad  name.  On  the  contrary  they  gave  her 
just  such  a  character  as  the  lady  might  have  been  pleased  with  in  the  main. 
They  described  her  thus  :  "  Mistress  was  a  spare  woman,  tolerably  tall,  and 
very  kind,  except  when  sick,  she  would  not  pay  much  attention  then.  She 
was  a  member  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church,  and  was  strict  in  her 
religion." 

Having  a  good  degree  of  faith  in  his  mistress,  Oscar  made  bold  one  day 
to  ask  her  how  much  she  would  take  for  him.  She  agreed  to  take  eight 
hundred  dollars.  Oscar  wishing  to  drive  a  pretty  close  bargain  offered  her 
seven  hundred  dollars,  hoping  that  she  would  view  the  matter  in  a  religious 
light,  and  would  come  down  one  hundred  dollars.  After  reflection  instead 
of  making  a  reduction,  she  raised  the  amount  to  one  thousand  dollars, 
which  Oscar  concluded  was  too  much  for  himself.  It  was  not,  however, 
as  much  as  he  was  worth  according  to  his  mistress'  estimate,  for  she  declared 
that  she  had  often  been  offered  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  him.  Miss  Gor- 
don raised  Oscar  from  a  child  and  had  treated  him  as  a  pet.  When  he  was 
a  little  "shaver"  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  she  made  it  a  practice  to  have 
him  sleep  with  her,  showing  that  she  had  no  prejudice. 

Being  rather  of  a  rare  type  of  slave-holders  she  is  entitled  to  special  credit. 
Montgomery  the  companion  of  Oscar  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  from 
the  white  folks.  In  speaking  of  his  mistress,  however,  he  did  not  express 
himself  in  terms  quite  so  complimentary  as  Oscar.  With  regard  to  giving 
"  passes,"  he  considered  her  narrow,  to  say  the  least.  But  he  was  in  such 
perfectly  good  humor  with  everybody,  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  his  neck  out  of  the  yoke,  that  he  evidently  had  no  desire 
to  say  hard  things  about  her. 


400  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Judging  from  his  story  he  had  been  for  a  long  time  desiring  his  fieedom, 
and  looking  diligently  for  the  Underground  Kail  Road,  but  he  had  had 
many  things  to  contend  with  when  looking  the  matter  of  escape  in  the  face. 
Arriving  in  Philadelphia,  and  fiuding  himself  breathing  free  air,  receiving 
aid  and  encouragement  in  a  manner  that  he  had  never  known  before,  he 
was  one  of  the  happiest  of  creatures, 

Oscar  left  his  wife  and  one  child,  one  brother  and  two  sisters.  Mont- 
gomery left  one  sister,  but  no  other  near  kin. 

Instead  of  going  to  Canada,  Oscar  and  his  comrade  pitched  their  tents  in 
Oswego,  N.  Y.,  where  they  changed  their  names,  and  instead  of  returning 
themselves  to  their  kind  mistress  they  were  wicked  enough  to  be  plotting 
as  to  how  some  of  their  friends  might  get  off  on  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  appended  letters  from  Oscar,  who  was 
thought  to  be  sluggish,  etc. 

OSWEGO,  Oct  25th,  1857. 

DEAE  SIR  : — I  take  this  opportunity  of  writing  you  these  few  lines  to  inform  you  that 
I  am  well  and  hope  these  few  lines  will  find  you  the  same  (and  your  ^family  you  must 
excuse  me  for  not  writing  to  you  before.  I  would  have  written  to  you  before  this  but  I 
put  away  the  card  you  gave  me  and  could  not  find  it  until  a  few  days  sins.  I  did  not  go 
to  Canada  for  I  got  work  in  Oswego,  but  times  are  very  dull  here  at  present.  I  have  been 
out  of  employ  about  five  weeks  I  would  like  to  go  to  Australia.  Do  you  know  of  any 
gentleman  that  is  going  there  or  any  other  place,  except  south  that  wants  a  servant  to  go 
there  with  him  to  wait  on  him  or  do  any  other  work,  I  have  a  brother  that  waruts  to  come 
north.  I  received  a  letter  from  him  a  few  days  ago.  Can  you  tell  me  of  any  plan  that  I 
can  fix  to  get  him  give  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Still  and  all  you  family.  Please  let  me  know 
if  you  hear  of  any  berth  of  that  kind.  Nothing  more  at  present  I  remain  your  obedient 
servant,  OSCAR  D.  BALL 

But  my  name  is  now  John  Delaney.  Direct  your  letter  to  John  Delaney  Oswego  N.  Y. 
care  of  R.  Oliphant. 

OSWEGO,  Nov.  21st,  1857. 

ME.  WILLIAM  STILL,  ESQ.  DEAR  SIR  : — Yonr  letter  of  the  19th  came  duly  to  hand  I 
am  glad  to  hear  that  the  Underground  Rail  Road  is  doing  so  well  I  know  those  three 
well  that  you  said  come  from  alex  I  broke  the  ice  and  it  seems  as  if  they  are  going  to  keep 
the  track  open,  but  I  had  to  stand  and  beg  of  those  two  that  started  with  me  to  come 
and  even  give  one  of  them  money  and  then  he  did  not  want  to  come.  I  had  a  letter  from 
my  brother  a  few  days  ago,  and  he  says  if  he  lives  and  nothing  happens  to  him  he  will 
make  a  start  for  the  north  and  there  is  many  others  there  that  would  start  now  but  they 
are  afraid  of  getting  frost  bitten,  there  was  two  left  alex  about  five  or  six  weeks  ago.  ther 
names  are  as  follows  Lawrence  Thornton  and  Townsend  Derrit.  have  they  been  to  phila- 
delphia  from  what  I  can  learn  they  will  leave  alex  in  mourning  next  spring  in  the  last 
letter  I  got  from  my  brother  he  named  a  good  many  that  wanted  to  come  when  he  did 
and  the  are  all  sound  men  and  can  be  trusted,  he  reads  and  writes  his  own  letters. 
William  Triplet  and  Thomas  Harper  passed  through  hear  last  summer  from  my  old  home 
which  way  did  those  three  that  you  spoke  of  go  times  are  very  dull  here  at  present  and  I 
can  get  nothing  to  do.  but  thank  God  have  a  good  boarding  house  and  will  be  sheltered 
from  the  weather  this  winter  give  my  respects  to  your  family  Montgomery  sends  his  also 
Nothing  more  at  presant  Yours  truly  JOHN  DELANEY. 


N.  W.  DEPKK. 


JACOB  C.  WHITE. 


CHARLES  WISE, 

TREASURER. 


KDWIN  H.  COATES. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  ACTING  COMMITTEE. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  UNIONVILLE,  1857.  401 


ARRIVAL  FROM  UNIONVILLE,  1857. 


CAROLINE   ALDRIDGE   AND   JOHN   WOOD. 


CAROLINE  was  a  stout,  light-complexioned,  healthy-looking  young  woman 
of  twenty-three  years  of  age.  She  fled  from  Thornton  Poole,  of  Unionville, 
Md.  She  gave  her  master  the  character  of  being  a  "  very  mean  man ; 
with  a  wife  meaner  still."  "  I  consider  them  mean  in  every  respect,"  said 
Caroline.  No  great  while  before  she  escaped,  one  of  her  brothers  and  a  sister 
had  been  sent  to  the  Southern  market.  Recently  she  had  been  apprized 
that  herself  and  a  younger  brother  would  have  to  go  the  same  dreadful 
road.  She  therefore  consulted  with  the  brother  and  a  particular  young 
friend,  to  whom  she  was  "  engaged,"  which  resulted  in  the  departure  of  all 
three  of  them.  Though  the  ordinary  steps  relative  to  marriage,  as  far  as 
slaves  were  allowed,  had  been  complied  with,  nevertheless  on  the  road  to 
Canada,  they  availed  themselves  of  the  more  perfect  way  of  having  the 
ceremony  performed,  and  went  on  their  way  rejoicing. 

Since  the  sale  of  Caroline's  brother  and  sister,  just  referred  to,  her  mother 
and  three  children  had  made  good  their  exit  to  Canada,  having  been 
evidently  prompted  by  said  sale.  Long  before  that  time,  however,  three 
other  brothers  fled  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  They  were  encouraged 
to  hope  to  meet  each  other  in  Canada. 

JOHN  WOOD.  John  was.  about  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  of  agreeable 
manners,  intelligent,  and  gave  evidence  of  a  strong  appreciation  of  liberty. 
Times  with  John  had  "  not  been  very  rough,"  until  within  the  last  year  of 
his  bondage.  By  the  removal  of  his  old  master  by  death,  a  change  for  the 
worse  followed.  The  executors  of  the  estate — one  of  whom  owed  him  an 
old  grudge — made  him  acquainted  with  the  fact,  that  amongst  certain  others, 
he  would  have  to  be  sold.  Judge  Birch  (one  of  the  executors),  "  itching  " 
to  see  him  "broke  in,"  "took  particular  pains"  to  speak  to  a  notorious 
tyrant  by  the  name  of  Boldin,  to  buy  him.  Accordingly  on  the  day  of  sale, 
Boldin  was  on  hand  and  the  successful  bidder  for  John.  Being  familiar  with 
the  customs  of  this  terrible  Boldin, — of  the  starving  fare  and  cruel  flogging 
usual  on  his  farm,  John  mustered  courage  to  declare  at  the  sale,  that  he 
" would  not  serve  him"  In  the  hearing  of  his  new  master,  he  said,  " before 
I  will  serve  him  I  will  CUT  my  throat!'1  The  master  smiled,  and  simply 
asked  for  a  rope ;  "  had  me  tied  and  delivered  into  the  hands  of  a  con- 
stable," to  be  sent  over  to  the  farm.  Before  reaching  his  destination,  John 
managed  to  untie  his  hands  and  feet  and  flee  to  the  woods.  For  three  days 
he  remained  secreted.  Once  or  twice  he  secretly  managed  to  get  an  interview 
with  his  mother  and  one  of  his  sisters,  by  whom  he  was  persuaded  to 
return  to  his  master.  Taking  their  advice,  he  commenced  service  under 
circumstances,  compared  with  which,  the  diet,  labor  and  comforts  of  an 
26 


402  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ordinary  penitentiary  would  have  been  luxurious.  The  chief  food  allowed 
the  slaves  on  the  plantation  consisted  of  the  pot  liquor  in  which  the  pork  was 
boiled,  with  Indian-meal  bread.  The  merest  glance  at  what  he  experienced 
during  his  brief  stay  on  the  plantation  must  suffice.  In  the  field  where  John, 
with  a  number  of  others  was  working,  stood  a  hill,  up  which  they  were 
repeatedly  obliged  to  ascend,  with  loads  on  their  backs,  and  the  overseer  at 
their  heels,  with  lash  in  hand,  occasionally  slashing  at  first  one  and  then 
another;  to  keep  up,  the  utmost  physical  endurance  was  taxed.  John, 
though  a  stout  young  man,  and  having  never  known  any  other  condition  than 
that  of  servitude,  nevertheless  found  himself  quite  unequal  to  the  present 
occasion.  "  I  was  surprised,"  said  he,  "  to  see  the  expertuess  with  which  all 
flew  up  the  hill."  "One  woman,  quite  LUSTY,  unjit  to  be  out  of  the  house, 
on  RUNNING  UP  THE  HILL,  fell ;  in  a  moment  she  was  up  again  with  her 
brush  on  her  back,  and  an  hour  afterwards  the  overseer  was  whipping  her." 
"  MY  turn  came."  "  What  is  the  reason  you  can't  get  up  the  hill  faster?" 
exclaimed  the  overseer,  at  the  same  time  he  struck  me  with  a  cowhide. 
"  I  told  him  I  would  not  stand  it."  "  Old  Uncle  George  Washington  never 
failed  to  get  a  whipping  every  day." 

So  after  serving  at  this  only  a  few  days,  John  made  his  last  solemn  vow 
to  be  free  or  die ;  and  off  he  started  for  Canada.  Though  he  had  to  con- 
tend with  countless  difficulties  he  at  last  made  the  desired  haven.  He 
hailed  from  one  of  the  lower  counties  of  Maryland. 

JOHN  was  not  contented  to  enjoy  the  boon  alone,  but  like  a  true  lover  of 
freedom  he  remembered  those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,  and  so  was 
scheming  to  make  a  hazardous  "  adventure  "  South,  on  the  express  errand 
of  delivering  his  "  family,"  as  the  subjoined  letter  will  show: 

GLANDFOKD,  August  15th,  1858. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  received  your  letter  and  was  glad  to  hear  that  your  wife  and  family  was 
all  well  and  I  hope  it  will  continue  so.  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  this  leaves  me  well. 
Also,  Mr.  Wm.  Still,  I  want  for  you  to  send  me  your  opinion  respecting  my  circumstan- 
ces. I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  make  an  adventure  after  my  family  and  I  want  to  get 
an  answer  from  you  and  then  I  shall  know  how  to  act  and  then  I  will  send  to  you  all 
particulars  respecting  my  starting  to  come  to  your  house.  Mr.  Still  I  should  be  glad  to 
know  whare  Abraham  Harris  is,  as  I  should  be  as  glad  to  see  him  as  well  as  any  of  my 
own  brothers.  His  wife  and  my  wife's  mother  is  sisters.  My  wife  belongs  to  Elson  Bur- 
del's  estate.  Abraham's  wife  belongs  to  Sam  Adams.  Mr.  Still  you  must  not  think  hard 
of  me  for  writing  you  these  few  lines  as  I  cannot  rest  until  I  release  my  dear  family.  I 
have  not  the  least  doubt  but  I  can  get  through  without  the  least  trouble. 
So  no  more  at  present  from  your  humble  servant, 

JOHN  B.  WOODS. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEW  ORLEANS,  1857.  403 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEW  ORLEANS,  185T. 

JAMES  CONNER,  SHOT  IN  DIFFERENT  PARTS  OF  THE  B.ODY. 

James  stated  to  the  Committee  that  he  was  about  forty-three  years  of 
age,  that  lie  was  born  a  slave  in  Nelson  county,  Ky.,  and  that  he  waa 
first  owned  by  a  widow  lady  by  the  name  of  Ruth  Head.  "  She  (mistress) 
was  like  a  mother  to  me,"  said  Jim.  "  I  was  about  sixteen  years  old  when 
she  died ;  the  estate  was  settled  and  I  was  sold  South  to  a  man  named 
Vincent  Turner,  a  planter,  and  about  the  worst  man,  I  expect,  that  ever 
the  sun  shined  on.  His  slaves  he  fairly  murdered ;  two  hundred  lashes  were 
merely  a  promise  for  him.  He  owned  about  three  hundred  slaves.  I  lived 
with  Turner  until  he  died.  After  his  death  I  still  lived  on  the  plantation 
with  his  widow,  Mrs.  Virginia  Turner."  About  twelve  years  ago  (prior  to 
Jim's  escape)  she  was  married  to  a  Mr.  Charles  Parlange,  ".a  poor  man,  though 
a  very  smart  man,  bad-hearted,  and  very  barbarous." 

'  Before  her  second  marriage  cotton  had  always  been  cultivated,  but  a  few 
years  later  sugar  had  taken  the  place  of  cotton,  and  had  become  the  principal 
thing  raised  in  that  part  of  the  country.  Under  the  change  sugar  was  raised 
and  the  slaves  were  made  to  experience  harder  times  than  ever ;  they  were 
allowed  to  have  only  from  three  to  three  and  a  half  pounds  of  pork  a  week, 
with  a  peck  of  meal ;  nothing  else  was  allowed.  They  commenced  work  in 
the  morning,  just  when  they  could  barely  see;  they  quit  work  in  the  even- 
ing when  they  could  not  see  to  work  longer. 

Mistress  was  a  large,  portly  woman,  good-looking,  and  pretty  well 
liked  by  her  slaves.  The  place  where  the  plantation  was  located  was  at 
Point  Copee,  on  Falls  River,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  New 
Orleans.  She  also  owned  property  and  about  twenty  slaves  in  the  city  of 
New  Orleans. 

"  I  lived  there  and  hired  my  time  for  awhile.  I  saw  some  hard  times  on 
the  plantation.  Many  a  time  I  have  seen  slaves  whipped  almost  to  death — 
well,  I  tell  you  I  have  seen  them  whipped  to  death.  A  slave  named  Sam 
was  whipped  to  death  tied  to  the  ground.  Joe,  another  slave,  was  whipped 
to  death  by  the  overseer :  running  away  was  the  crime. 

"  Four  times  I  was  shot.  Once,  before  I  would  be  taken,  all  hands,  young 
and  old  on  the  plantation  were  on  the  chase  after  me.  I  was  strongly  armed 
with  an  axe,  tomahawk,  and  butcher  knife.  I  expected  to  be  killed  on  the 
spot,  but  I  got  to  the  woods  and  stayed  two  days.  At  night  I  went  back 
to  the  plantation  and  got  something  to  eat.  While  going  back  to  the  woods 
I  was  shot  in  the  thigh,  legs,  back  and  head,  was  badly  wounded,  my  mind 
was  to  die  rather  than  be  taken.  I  ran  a  half  mile  after  I  was  shot,  but  was 
taken.  I  have  shot  in  me  now.  Feel  here  on  my  head,  feel  my  back,  feel 


404  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD.. 

buck  shot  in  my  thigh.  I  shall  carry  shot  in  me  to  my  grave.  I  have  been 
shot  four  different  times.  I  was  shot  twice  by  a  fellow- servant;  it  was  my 
master's  orders.  Another  time  by  the  overseer.  Shooting  was  no  uncom- 
mon thing  in  Louisiana.  At  one  time  I  was  allowed  to  raise  hogs.  I  had 
twenty-five  taken  from  me  without  being  allowed  the  first  copper. 

"  My  mistress  promised  me  at  another  time  forty  dollars  for  gathering 
honey,  but  when  I  went  to  her.  she  said,  by  and  by,  but  the  by  and  by  never 
came.  In  1853  my  freedom  was  promised;  for  five  years  before  this  time 
I  had  been  overseer;  during  four  years  of  this  time  a  visit  was  made  to 
France  by  my  owners,  but  on  their  return  my  freedom  was  not  given  me. 
My  mistress  thought  I  had  made  enough  money  to  buy  myself.  They  asked 
eleven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  me.  I  told  them  that  I  hadn't  the 
money.  Then  they  said  if  I  would  go  with  them  to  Virginia  after  a  num- 
ber of  slaves  they  wished  to  purchase,  and  would  be  a  good  boy,  they  would 
give  me  my  freedom  on  the  return  of  the  trip.  We  started  on  the  8th  of 
June,  1857.  I  made  fair  promises  wishing  to  travel,  and  they  placed  all 
confidence  in  me.  I  was  to  carry  the  slaves  back  from  Virginia. 

"  They  came  as  far  as  Baltimore,  and  they  began  to  talk  of  coming  farther 
North,  to  Philadelphia.  They  talked  very  good  to  me,  and  told  me  that  if 
they  brought  me  with  them  to  a  free  State  that  I  must  not  leave  them ; 
talked  a  good  deal  about  giving  me  my  freedom,  as  had  been  promised 
before  starting,  etc.  I  let  on  to  them  that  I  had  no  wish  to  go  North  ;  that 
Baltimore  was  as  far  North  as  I  wished  to  see,  and  that  I  had  rather  be 
going  home  than  going  North.  I  told  them  that  I  was  tired  of  this  coun- 
try. In  speaking  of  coming  North,  they  made  mention  of  the  Alleghany 
mountains.  I  told  them  that  I  would  like  to  see  that,  but  nothing  more. 
They  hated  the  North,  and  I  made  believe  that  I  did  too.  Mistress  said, 
that  if  I  behaved  myself  I  could  go  with  them  to  France,  when  they  went 
again,  after  they  returned  home — as  they  intended  to  go  again. 

"  So  they  decided  to  take  me  with  them  to  Philadelphia,  for  a  short  visit, 
before  going  into  Virginia  to  buy  up  their  drove  of  slaves  for  Louisiana. 
My  heart  leaped  for  joy  when  I  found  we  were  going  to  a  free  State ;  but  I 
did  not  let  my  owners  know  my  feelings. 

"  We  reached  Philadelphia  and  went  to  the  Girard  Hotel,  and  there  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  they  should  go  back  without  me.  I  saw  a  colored 
man  who  talked  with  me,  and  told  me  about  the  Committee.  He  brought 
me  to  the  anti-slavery  office,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

The  Committee  told  Jim  that  he  could  go  free  immediately,  without  say- 
ing a  word  to  anybody,  as  the  simple  fact  of  his  master's  bringing  him  into 
the  State  was  sufficient  to  establish  his  freedom  before  the  Courts.  At  the 
same  time  the  Committee  assured  him  if  he  were  willing  to  have  his  master 
arrested  and  brought  before  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  city  to  show  cause  why 
he  held  him  a  slave  in  Pennsylvania,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  that 


• 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEW  ORLEANS,  1857.  405 

he  should  lack  neither  friends  nor  money  to  aid  him  in  the  matter ;  and, 
moreover,  his  freedom  would  be  publicly  proclaimed. 

JIM  thought  well  of  both  ways,  but  preferred  not  to  meet  his  "  kind- 
hearted"  master  and  mistress  in  Court,  as  he  was  not  quite  sure  that  he 
would  have  the  courage  to  face  them  and  stand  by  his  charges. 

This  was  not  strange.  Indeed  not  only  slaves  cowed  before  the  eye  of 
slave-holders.  Did  not  even  Northern  men,  superior  in  education  and  wealth, 
fear  to  say  their  souls  were  their  own  in  the  same  presence  ? 

JIM,  therefore,  concluded  to  throw  himself  upon  the  protection  of  the 
Committee  and  take  an  Underground  Rail  Road  ticket,  and  thereby  spare 
himself  and  his  master  and  mistress  the  disagreeableness  of  meeting  under 
such  strange  circumstances.  The  Committee  arranged  matters  for  him  to 
the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned,  and  gave  him  a  passport  for  her  British 
majesty's  possession,  Canada, 

The  unvarnished  facts,  as  they  were  then  recorded  substantially  from  the 
lips  of  Jim,  and  as  they  are  here  reproduced,  comprise  only  a  very  meagre 
part  of  his  sadly  interesting  story.  At  the  time  Jim  left  his  master  and 
mistress  so  unceremoniously  in  Philadelphia,  some  excitement  existed  at  the 
attempt  of  his  master  to  recover  him  through  the  Police  of  Philadelphia, 
under  the  charge  that  he  (Jim)  had  been  stealing,  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
following  letter  which  appeared  in  the  "  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard :" 

ANOTHER  SLAVE   HUNT   IN   PHILADELPHIA. 

Philadelphia,  Monday,  July  27,  1857. 

Yesterday  afternoon  a  rumor  was  afloat  that  a  negro  man  named  Jim,  who 
had  accompanied  his  master  (Mr.  Charles  Parlange),  from  New  Orleans  to 
this  city,  had  left  his  master  for  the  purpose  of  tasting  the  sweets  of  freedom. 
It  was  alleged  by  Mr.  Parlange  that  the  said  "  Jim  "  had  taken  with  him 
two  tin  boxes,  one  of  which  contained  money.  Mr.  Parlange  went,  on  his 
way  to  New  York,  via  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad,  and  upon  his  arri- 
val at  the  Walnut  street  wharf,  with  two  ladies,  "  Jim  "  was  missing.  Mr. 
Parlange  immediately  made  application  to  a  Mr.  Wallace,  who  is  a  Police 
officer  stationed  at  the  Walnut  street  depot.  Mr.  Wallace  got  into  a  carriage 
with  Mr.  Parlange  and  the  two  ladies,  and,  as  Mr.  Wallace  stated,  drove 
back  to  the  Girard  House,  where  "  Jim  "  had  not  been  heard  of  since  he  had 
left  for  the  Walnut  street  wharf. 

A  story  was  then  set  afloat  to  the  effect,  that  a  negro  of  certain,  but  very 
particular  description  (such  as  a  Louisiana  nigger-driver  only  can  give),  had 
stolen  two  boxes  as  stated  above.  A  notice  signed  "  Clarke,"  was  received 
at  the  Police  Telegraph  Office  by  the  operator  (David  Wunderly)  containing 
a  full  description  of  Jim,  also  offering  a  reward  of  $100  for  his  capture. 
This  notice  was  telegraphed  to  all  the  wards  in  every  section.  This  morn- 
ing Mr.  Wunderly  found  fault  with  the  reporters  using  the  information,  and, 


406  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

in  presence  of  some  four  or  five  persons,  said  the  notice  signed  "  Clarke," 
was  a  private  paper,  and  no  reporter  had  a  right  to  look  at  it ;  at  the  same 
time  asserting,  that  if  he  knew  where  the  nigger  was  he  would  give  him  up, 
as  §100  did  not  come  along  every  day.  The  policeman,  Wallace,  expressed 
the  utmost  fear  lest  the  name  of  Mr.  Parlange  should  transpire,  and  stated, 
that  he  was  ail  intimate  friend  of  his.  It  does  not  seem  that  the  matter  was 
communicated  to  the  wards  by  any  official  authority  whatever,  and  who  the 
"  Clarke "  is,  whose  name  was  signed  to  the  notice,  has  not  yet  transpired. 
Some  of  the  papers  noticed  it  briefly  this  morning,  which  has  set  several  of 
the  officers  on  their  tips.  There  is  little  doubt,  that  "  Jim "  has  merely 
exercised  his  own  judgment  about  remaining  with  his  master  any  longer,  and 
took  this  opportunity  to  betake  himself  to  freedom.  It  is  assumed,  that  he 
was  to  precede  his  master  to  Walnut  street  wharf  with  the  baggage ;  but, 
singular  enough  to  say,  no  complaint  has  been  made  about  the  baggage  being 
missed,  simply  the  two  tin  boxes,  and  particularly  the  one  containing  money. 
This  is,  doubtless,  a  ruse  to  engage  the  services  of  the  Philadelphia  police  in 
the  interesting  game  of  nigger  hunting.  Mr.  Parlange,  if  he  is  sojourning 
in  your  city,  will  doubtless  be  glad  to  learn  that  the  matter  of  his  man 
"  Jim  "  and  the  two  tin  boxes  has  received  ample  publicity.  W.  H. 

Rev.  Hiram  Wilson,  the  Underground  Rail  Road  agent  at  St.  Catharines, 
C.  W.,  duly  announced  his  safe  arrival  as  follows: 

BUFFALO,  Aug.  12th,  1857. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND — WM.  STILL  : — I  take  the  liberty  to  inform  you,  that  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  a  man  of  sable  brand  at  my  house  in  St.  C.  yesterday,  by  name  of  James 
Connor,  lately  from  New  Orleans,  more  recently  from  the  city  of  Brotherly  love,  where  he 
took  French  leave  of  his  French  master.  He  desired  me  to  inform  you  of  his  safe  arrival 
in  the  glorious  land  of  Freedom,  and  to  send  his  kind  regards  to  you  and  to  Mr.  William- 
son ;  also  to  another  person,  (the  name  I  have  forgotten).  Poor  Malinda  Smith,  with 
her  two  little  girls  and  joung  babe  is  with  us  doing  well. 

Affectionately  yours,  HIRAM  WILSON. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

HARRISON   CART. 

The  passenger  bearing  this  name  who  applied  to  the  Committee  for 
assistance,  was  a  mulatto  of  medium  size,  with  a  prepossessing  countenance, 
and  a  very  smart  talker.  With  only  a  moderate  education  he  might  have 
raised  himself  to  the  "  top  round  of  the  ladder,"  as  a  representative  of  the 
down-trodden  slave.  Seeking,  as  usual,  to  learn  his  history,  the  subjoined 
questions  and  answers  were  the  result  of  the  interview : ' 

Q.  "  How  old  are  you  ?" 

A.  "Twenty-eight  years  of  age  this  coming  March." 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  407 

Q.  "To  whom  did  you  belong?" 

A.  "  Mrs.  Jane  E.  Ashley." 
,  Q.  "  What  kind  of  a  woman  was  she  ?" 

A.  "She  was  a  very  clever  woman;  never  said  anything  out  of  the  way." 

Q.  "  How  many  servants  had  she  ?" 

A.  "  She  had  no  other  servants." 

Q.  " Did  you  live  with  her?" 

A.  "No.  I  hired  my  time  for  twenty-two  dollars  a  month." 

Q.  "How  could  you  make  so  much  money?" 

A.  "  I  was  a  bricklayer  by  trade,  and  ranked  among  the  first  in  the  city." 

As  Harrison  talked  so  intelligently,  the  member  of  the  Committee  who 
was  examining  him,  was  anxious  to  know  how  he  came  to  be  so  knowing, 
the  fact  that  he  could  read  being  very  evident. 

Harrison  proceeded  to  explain  how  he  was  led  to  acquire  the  art  both 
of  reading  and  writing:  "Slaves  caught  out  of  an  evening  without  passes 
from  their  master  or  mistress,  were  invariably  arrested,  and  if  they  were 
unable  to  raise  money  to  buy  themselves  off,  they  were  taken  and  locked  up 
in  a  place  known  as  the  '  cage/  and  in  the  morning  the  owner  was  notified, 
and  after  paying  the  fine  the  unfortunate  prisoner  had  to  go  to  meet  his  fate 
at  the  hands  of  his  owner." 

Often  he  or  she  found  himself  or  herself  sentenced  to  take  thirty-nine  or 
more  lashes  before  atonement  could  be  made  for  the  violated  law,  and  the 
fine  sustained  by  the  enraged  owner. 

Harrison  having  strong  aversion  to  both  of  the  "  wholesome  regulations  " 
of  the  peculiar  institution  above  alluded  to,  saw  that  the  only  remedy  that 
he  could  avail  himself  of  was  to  learn  to  write  his  own  passes.  In  possess- 
ing himself  of  this  prize  he  knew  that  the  law  against  slaves  being  taught, 
would  have  to  be  broken,  nevertheless  he  was  so  anxious  to  succeed,  that 
he  was  determined  to  run  the  risk.  Consequently  he  grasped  the  boon  with 
but  very  little  difficulty  or  assistance.  Valuing  his  prize  highly,  he 
improved  more  and  more  until  he  could  write  his  own  passes  satisfactorily. 
The  "cage"  he  denounced  as  a  perfect  "hog  hole,"  and  added,  "it  was  more 
than  I  could  bear." 

He  also  spoke  with  equal  warmth  on  the  pass  custom,  "  the  idea  of  work- 
ing hard  all  day  and  then  being  obliged  to  have  a  pass,"  etc., — his  feelings 
sternly  revolted  against.  Yet  he  uttered  not  a  disrespectful  word  against 
the  individual  to  whom  he  belonged.  Once  he  had  been  sold,  but  for  what 
was  not  noted  on  the  record  book. 

His  mother  had  been  sold  several  times.  His  brother,  William  Henry 
Gary,  escaped  from  Washington,  D.  C.,  when  quite  a  youth.  What  became 
of  him  it  was  not  for  Harrison  to  tell,  but  he  supposed  that  he  had  made 
his  way  to  a  free  State,  or  Canada,  and  he  hoped  to  find  him.  He  had  no 
knowledge  of  any  other  relatives. 


408  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

In  further  conversation  with  him,  relative  to  his  being  a  single  man, 
he  said,  that  he  had  resolved  not  to  entangle  himself  with  a  family  until 
he  had  obtained  his  freedom. 

He  had  found  it  pretty  hard  to  meet  his  monthly  hire,  consequently  he 
was  on  the  look-out  to  better  his  condition  as  soon  as  a  favorable  opportu- 
nity might  offer.  Harrison's  mistress  had  a  son 'named  John  James  Ashley, 
who  was  then  a  minor.  On  arriving  at  majority,  according  to  the  will  of  this 
lad's  father,  he  was  to  have  possession  of  Harrison  as  his  portion.  Harri- 
son had  no  idea  of  having  to  work  for  his  support — he  thought  that,  if 
John  could  not  take  care  of  himself  when  he  grew  up  to  be  a  man,  there 
was  a  place  for  all  such  in  the  poor-house. 

Harrison  was  also  moved  by  another  consideration.  His  mistress'  sister 
had  been  trying  to  influence  the  mistress  to  sell  him ;  thus  considering  him- 
self in  danger,  he  made  up  his  mind  that  the  time  had  come  for  him  to 
change  his  habitation,  so  he  resolved  to  try  his  fortune  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1857. 

JOE  ELLIS. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  one  of  two  hundred  slaves,  owned  by 
Boiling  Ellis,  who  possessed  large  plantations  at  Cabin  Point,  Surrey  Co., 
Va.  Joe  pictured  his  master,  overseers,  and  general  treatment  of  slaves  in 
no  favorable  light. 

The  practice  of  punishing  slaves  by  putting  them  in  the  stocks  and  by 
flogging,  was  dwelt  upon  in  a  manner  that  left  no  room  to  doubt  but  that 
Joe  had  been  a  very  great  sufferer  under  his  master's  iron  rule.  As  he 
described  the  brutal  conduct  of  overseers  in  resorting  to  their  habitual  modes 
of  torturing  men,  women,  and  children,  it  was  too  painful  to  listen  to 
with  composure,  much  more  to  write  down. 

JOE  was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  full  black,  slender,  and  of 
average  intellect,  considering  the  class  which  he  represented.  On  four 
occasions  previous  to  the  final  one  he  had  made  fruitless  efforts  to  escape 
from  his  tormentors  in  consequence  of  brutal  treatment.  Although  he  at 
last  succeeded,  the  severe  trials  through  which  he  had  to  pass  in  escaping, 
came  very  near  costing  him  his  life.  The  effects  he  will  always  feel ; 
prostration  and  sickness  had  already  taken  hold  upon  him  in  a  serious 
degree. 

During  Joe's  sojourn  under  the  care  of  the  Committee,  time  would  not 
admit  of  the  writing  out  of  further  details  concerning  him. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND.  409 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

CHRISTOPHER    GREEN    AND  WIFE,    ANN    MARIA,  AND    SON    NATHAN. 

CHRISTOPHER  had  a  heavy  debt  charged  against  Clayton  Wright,  a  com- 
mission merchant,  of  Baltimore,  who  claimed  him  as  his  property,  and 
was  in  the  habit  of  hiring  him  out  to  farmers  in  the  country,  and  of  taking 
all  his  hire  except  a  single  dollar,  which  was  allotted. him  every  holiday. 

The  last  item  in  his  charge  against  Wright,  suggested  certain  questions : 
"How  have  you  been  used ?"  was  the  first  query.  "Sometimes  right  smart, 
and  then  again  bad  enough  for  it,"  said  Christopher.  Again  he  was  asked, 
"What  kind  of  a  man  was  your  master?"  "He  was  only  tolerable,  I  can't 
say  much  good  for  him.  I  got  tired  of  working  and  they  getting  my  labor 
and  I  getting  nothing  for  my  labor."  At  the  time  of  his  escape,  he  was 
employed  in  the  service  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Cook.  Christopher 
described  him  as  "  a  dissatisfied  man,  who  couldn't  be  pleased  at  nothing 
and  his  wife  was  like  him." 

This  passenger  was  quite  black,  medium  size,  and  in  point  of  intellect, 
about  on  a  par  with  ordinary  field  hands.  His  wife,  Ann,  in  point  of 
go-ahead-ativeness,  seemed  in  advance  of  him.  Indeed,  she  first  prompted 
her  husband  to  escape. 

ANN  bore  witness  against  one  James  Pipper,  a  farmer,  whom  she  had 
served  as  a  slave,  and  from  whom  she  fled,  saying  that  "  he  was  as  mean  a 
man  as  ever  walked — a  dark-complected  old  man,  with  gray  hair."  With 
great  emphasis  she  thus  continued  her  testimony  :  "  He  tried  to  work  me  to 
death,  and  treated  me  as  mean  as  he  could,  without  killing  me ;  he  done  so 
much  I  couldn't  tell  to  save  my  life.  I  wish  I  had  as  many  dollars  as  he 
has  whipped  me  with  sticks  and  other  things.  His  wife  will  do  tolerable." 
"  I  left  because  he  was  going  to  sell  me  and  my  son  to  Georgia ;  for  years 
he  had  been  threatening;  since  the  boys  ran  away,  last  spring,  he  was 
harder  than  ever.  One  was  my  brother,  Perry,  and  the  other  was  a  young 
man  by  the  name  of  Jim."  "  David,  my  master,  drank  all  he  could  get, 
poured  it  down,  and  when  drunk,  would  cuss,  and  tear,  and  rip,  and  beat. 
He  lives  near  the  nine  bridges,  in  Queen  Ann  county." 

ANN  was  certainly  a  forcible  narrator,  and  was  in  every  way  a  wide- 
awake woman,  about  thirty-seven  years  of  age.  Among  other  questions 
they  were  asked  if  they  could  read,  etc.  "Read,"  said  Ann.  "I  would  like 
to  see  anybody  (slave)  that  could  read  our  way  ;  to  see  you  with  a  book  in 
your  hand  they  would  almost  cut  your  throat." 

ANN  had  one  child  only,  a  son,  twenty  years  of  age,  who  came  in  com- 
pany with  his  parents.  This  son  belonged  to  the  said  Pipper  already 
described.  When  they  started  from  the  land  of  bondage  they  had  large 


410  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

hopes,  but  not  much  knowledge  of  the  way  ;  however,  they  managed  to  get 
safely  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  track,  and  by  perseverance  they 
reached  the  Committee  and  were  aided  in  the  usual  manner. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  GEORGETOWN  CROSS-ROADS,  1857. 

LEEDS  WEIGHT  AND  ABEAM  TILISON. 

For  three  years  Leeds  had  been  thirsting  for  his  liberty ;  his  heart  was 
fixed  on  that  one  object.  He  got  plenty  to  eat,  drink,  and  wear,  but  was 
nevertheless  dissatisfied. 

The  name  of  his  master  was  Rev.  John  Wesley  Pearson,  who  was  engaged 
in  school  teaching  and  preaching,  and  belonged  to  the  more  moderate  class 
of  slave-holders.  Once  when  a  boy  Leeds  had  been  sold,  but  being  very 
young,  he  did  not  think  much  about  the  matter. 

For  the  last  eight  or  ten  years  previous  to  his  escape  he  had  not  seen  his 
relatives,  his  father  (George  Wright)  having  fled  to  Canada,  and  the  remain- 
der of  the  family  lived  some  fifty  miles  distant,  beyond  the  possibility  of 
intercourse;  therefore,  as  he  had  no  strong  ties  to  break,  he  could  look 
to  the  time  of  leaving  the  land  of  bondage  without  regret. 

ABRAM,  the  companion  of  Leeds,  had  been  less  comfortably  situated. 
His  lot  in  Slavery  had  been  cast  under  Samuel  Jarman,  by  whom  he  had 
been  badly  treated. 

Abram  described  him  as  a  "  big,  tall,  old  man,  who  drank  and  was  a  real 
wicked  man ;  he  followed  farming ;  had  thirteen  children.  His  wife  was 
different ;  she  was  a  pretty  fine  woman,  but  the  children  were  all  bad ;  the 
young  masters  followed  playing  cards."  No  chance  at  all  had  been  allowed 
them  to  learn  to  read,  although  Abram  and  Leeds  both  coveted  this  know- 
ledge. As  they  felt  that  they  would  never  be  able  to  do  anything  for  their 
improvement  by  remaining,  they  decided  to  follow  the  example  of  Abram's 
father  and  others  and  go  to  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA. 

WILLIAM  TRIPLETT  AND  THOMAS  HAEPEK. 

RAN  AWAY  from  the  subscriber,  on  Saturday  night,  22d  instant,  WILLIAM 
TRIPLETT,  a  dark  mulatto,  with  whiskers  and  mustache,  23  to  26  years  of  age ; 
lately  had  a  burn  on  the  instep  of  his  right  foot,  but  perhaps  well  enough  to 
wear  a  boot  or  shoe.  He  took  with  him  very  excellent  clothing,  both  summer 
and  winter,  consisting  of  a  brown  suit  in  cloth,  summer  coats  striped,  check 
cap,  silk  hat,  &c.  $50  reward  will  be  paid  if  taken  within  thirty  miles  of  Alex- 
andria or  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  $150  and  necessary  expenses  if  taken  out 
of  the  State  and  secured  so  that  I  get  him  again.  He  is  the  property  of  Mrs.  A.  B.  Fair- 
fax, of  Alexandria,  and  is  likely  to  make  his  way  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  has  friends, 
named  Hamilton  and  Hopes,  now  living.  EOBT.  W.  WHEAT. 


A  RRIVAL  FR  OM  MAR  YLAND.  411 

WILLIAM,  answering  to  the  above  description,  arrived  safely  in  company 
with  Thomas  Harper,  about  six  days  after  the  date  of  their  departure  from 
the  house  of  bondage. 

Mrs.  A.  B.  Fairfax  was  the  loser  of  this  "  article."  William  spoke  rather 
favorably  of  her.  He  said  he  did  not  leave  because  he  was  treated  badly, 
but  simply  because  he  wanted  to  own  himself — to  be  free.  He  also"  said  that 
he  wanted  to  be  able  to  take  care  of  his  family  if  he  should  see  fit  to  marry. 

As  to  Slavery,  he  could  see  no  justice  in  the  system;  he  therefore  made 
up  his  mind  no  longer  to  yield  submission  thereto.  Being  a  smart  "  chattel," 
he  reasoned  well  on  the  question  of  Slavery,  and  showed  very  conclusively 
that  even  under  the  kindest  mistress  it  had  no  charms  for  him — that  at  best, 
it  was  robbery  and  an  outrage. 

THOMAS  HARPER,  his  comrade,  fled  from  John  Cowling,  who  also  lived 
near  Alexandria.  His  great  trouble  was,  that  he  had  a  wife  and  family,  but 
could  do  nothing  for  them.  He  thought  that  it  was  hard  to  see  them  in  want 
and  abused  when  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  aid  or  protect  them.  He  grew 
very  unhappy,  but  could  see  no  remedy  except  in  flight. 

Cowling,  his  master,  was  an  Englishman  by  birth,  and  followed  black- 
smithing  for  a  living.  He  was  a  man  in  humble  circumstances,  trying  to 
increase  his  small  fortune  by  slave-labor. 

He  allowed  Thomas  to  hire  himself  for  one  hundred  dollars  a  year,  which 
amount  he  was  required  to  raise,  sick  or  well.  He  did  not  complain,  how- 
ever, of  having  received  any  personal  abuse  from  his  blacksmith  master.  It 
was  the  system  which  was  daily  grinding  the  life  out  of  him,  that  caused  him 
to  suffer,  and  likewise  escape.  By  trade  Thomas  was  also  a  blacksmith. 
He  left  a  wife  and  three  children. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

HARRY    WISE. 

$100  REWARD. — Ran  away,  on  the  llth  inst.,  negro  man,  Harry  Wise. 
He  is  about  24  years  of  age,  and  5  feet  4  inches  high  ;  muscular,  with  broad 
shoulders,  and  black  or  deep  copper  color;  roundish,  smooth  face,  and  rather 
lively  expression.  He  came  from  Harford  county,  and  is  acquainted  about 
Belair  market,  Baltimore.  I  will  pay  $50  reward  for  him,  if  taken  in  this  or 
Prince  George's  county,  or  $100  if  arrested  elsewhere. 

ELLIOTT  BURWELL, 
a29-eo3t*  West  River,  Anne  Arundel  county. 

HARRY  reached  the  station  in  Philadelphia,  the  latter  part  of  August, 
1857.  His  excuse  for  leaving  and  seeking  a  habitation  in  Canada,  was  as 
follows : 

"  I  was  treated  monstrous  bad ;  my  master  was  a  very  cross,  crabbed  man, 
and  his  wife  was  as  cross  as  he  was.  The  day  I  left  they  had  to  tie  me  to 


412  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

beat  me,  what  about  I  could  not  tell ;  this  is  what  made  me  leave.  I  escaped 
right  out  of  his  hands  the  day  he  had  me ;  he  was  going  with  me  to  the 
barn  to  tie  me  across  a  hogshead,  but  I  broke  loose  from  him  and  ran.  He 
ran  and  got  the  gun  to  shoot  me,  but  I  soon  got  out  of  his  reach,  and  I 
have  not  seen  him  since." 

HARRY  might  never  have  found  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  but  for 
this  deadly  onslaught  upon  him  by  his  master.  His  mind  was  wrought  up 
to  a  very  high  state  of  earnestness,  and  he  was  deemed  a  very  fitting  subject 
for  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA. 

ABRAM  WOODERS. 

Although  slave-holders  had  spared  no  pains  to  keep  Abram  in  the  dark 
and  to  make  him  love  his  yoke,  he  proved  by  his  actions,  that  he  had  no 
faith  in  their  doctrines.  Nor  did  he  want  for  language  in  which  to  state 
the  reasons  for  his  actions.  He  was  just  in  the  prime  of  life,  thirty-five 
years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  common  size,  with  a  scar  over  the  left  eye,  and 
another  on  the  upper  lip. 

Like  many  others,  he  talked  in  a  simple,  earnest  manner,  and  in  answer  to 
queries  as  to  how  he  had  fared,  the  following  is  his  statement: 

"I  was  held  as  the  property  of  the  late  Taylor  Sewell,  but  when  I 
escaped  I  was  in  the  service  of  W.  C.  Williams,  a  commission  merchant. 
My  old  master  was  a  very  severe  man,  but  he  was  always  very  kind  to  me. 
He  had  a  great  many  more  colored  folks,  was  very  severe  amongst  them, 
would  get  mad  and  sell  right  away.  He  was  a  drinking  man,  dissipated 
and  a  gambler,  a  real  sportsman.  He  lived  on  Newell  Creek,  about  twelve 
miles  from  Norfolk.  For  the  last  eight  years  I  was  hired  to  W.  C. 
Williams,  for  $150  a  year — if  I  had  all  that  money,  it  might  do  me  some 
good.  I  left  because  I  wanted  to  enjoy  myself  some.  I  felt  if  I  staid  and 
got  old  no  one  would  care  for  me,  I  wouldn't  be  of  no  account  to  nobody." 

"But  are  not  the  old  slaves  well  cared  for  by  their  masters?"  a  member 
of  the  Committee  here  remarked.  "  Take  care  of  them !  no  !"  Abram 
replied  with  much  earnestness,  and  then  went  on  to  explain  how  such 
property  was  left  to  perish.  Said  Abram,  "  There  was  an  old  man  named 
Ike,  who  belonged  to  the  same  estate  that  I  did,  he  was  treated  like  a  dog ; 
after  they  could  get  no  more  work  out  of  him,  they  said,  'let  him  die,  he  is 
of  no  service;  there  is  no  use  of  getting  a  doctor  for  him.'  Accordingly 
there  could  be  no  other  fate  for  the  old  man  but  to  suffer  and  die  with 
creepers  in  his  legs." 

It  was  sickening  to  hear  him  narrate  instances  of  similar  suffering  in  the 
case  of  old  slaves.  Abram  left  two  sisters  and  one  brother  in  bondage. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  413 

ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

GEORGE   JOHNSON,   THOMAS   AND  ADAM   SMITH. 

REWARD. — Ran  away  from  Kalorama,  near  Washington  City,  D.  C., 
on  Saturday  night,  the  22d  of  August,  1857,  negro  man,  George  Johnson,  aged 
about  25  years.  Height  about  six  feet ;  of  dark  copper  color;  bushy  hair ;  erect 
in  stature  and  polite  in  his  address. 

I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  taken  in  a  free  State;  $100  if  taken  within 
the  District  of  Columbia,  or  $200  if  taken  in  Maryland.  In  either  case  he  must 
be  secured  so  that  I  get  him.  Miss  ELEANOR  J.  CONWAT,  Baltimore,  Md., 

or  OLIVER  DUFOUR,  Washington  City,  D.  C. 
sl-eod  2w. 

"Polite  in  his  address"  as  George  was,  he  left  his  mistress,  Eleanor 
J.  Conway,  without  bidding  her  good-bye,  or  asking  for  a  pass.  But  he 
did  not  leave  his  young  mistress  in  this  way  without  good  reasons  for  so 
doing. 

In  his  interview  with  the  Committee  about  five  days  after  his  departure 
from  his  old  home,  he  stated  his  grievances  as  follows:  "  I  was  born  the  slave 
of  a  Mr.  Conway,  of  Washington,  D.  C."  Under  this  personage  George 
admitted  that  he  had  experienced  slavery  in  rather  a  mild  form  until  death 
took  the  old  man  off,  which  event  occurred  when  George  was  quite  young. 
He  afterwards  served  the  widow  Conway  until  her  death,  and  lastly  he  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Miss  Eleanor  J.  Conway,  who  resided  in  Baltimore,  and 
derived  her  support  from  the  labor  of  slaves  whom  she  kept  hired  out  as  was 
George.  Of  the  dead,  George  did  not  utter  very  hard  things,  but  he  spoke 
of  his  young  mistress  as  having  a  "  very  mean  principle."  Said  George, 
"  She  has  sold  one  of  my  brothers  and  one  of  my  cousins  since  last  April,  and 
she  was  very  much  opposed  to  freedom." 

Judging  from  the  company  that  she  kept  she  might  before  a  great  while 
change  her  relations  in  life.  George  thought,  however  agreeable  to  her,  it 
might  not  be  to  him.  So  he  made  up  his  mind  that  his  chances  for  free- 
dom would  not  be  likely  to  grow  any  better  by  remaining.  In  the  neigh- 
borhood from  which  he  fled  he  left  his  father,  mother  and  two  sisters,  each 
having  different  owners.  Two  brothers  had  been  sol.d  South.  Whether 
they  ever  heard  what  had  become  of  the  runaway  George  is  not  known. 

THOMAS,  the  companion  of  George,  was  of  a  truly  remarkable  structure ; 
physically  and  mentally  he  belonged  to  the  highest  order  of  the  bond  class. 
His  place  of  chains  was  in  the  city  of  Washington,  and  the  name  of  the 
man  for  whom  he  had  been  compelled  to  do  unrequited  labor  was  William 
Rowe,  a  bricklayer,- and  a  (-  pretty  clever  fellow, — always  used  me  well,"  said 
Thomas.  "  Why  did  you  leave  then  ?"  asked  a  member  of  the  Committee. 
He  replied,  "  I  made  a  proposition  to  my  master  to  buy  myself  for  eight 
hundred  dollars,  but  he  refused,  and  wanted  a  thousand.  Then  I  made  up  my 
mind  that  I  would  make  less  do."  Thomas  had  been  hired  out  at  the  National 
Hotel  for  thirty  dollars  a  month. 


414  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Adam  was  well  described  in  the  following  advertisement  taken  from  the 
Baltimore  Sum 

$300  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  near  Beltsville,  Prince 
George's  county,  Md.,  on  Saturday  night,  the  22d  of  August,  1857,  Negro  Man, 
Adam  Smith,  aged  about  30.  Height  5  feet  4  or  5  inches;  black  bushy  hair, 
and  well  dressed.  He  has  a  mother  living  at  Mr.  Hamilton's,  on  Capitol  Hill, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

I  will  give  the  above  reward  if  taken  in  a  free  State  ;  $50  if  takentin  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  or  counties  of  Montgomery  and  Prince  George's,  or  $100  if 
taken  elsewhere  and  secured  so  that  I  get  him.  ISAAC  SCAGGS. 

a27-6t* 

With  his  fellow-passengers,  George  and  Thomas,  he  greatly  enjoyed  the 
hospitalities  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  in  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love, 
and  had  a  very  high  idea  of  Canada,  as  he  anticipated  becoming  a  British 
subject  at  an  early  day.  The  story  which  Adam  related  concerning  his 
master  and  his  reasons  for  escaping  ran  thus : 

"  My  master  was  a  very  easy  man,  but  would  work  you  hard  and  never 
allow  you  any  chance  night  or  day ;  he  was  a  farmer,  about  fifty,  stout,  full 
face,  a  real  country  ruffian-;  member  of  no  church,  a  great  drinker  and 
gambler;  will  sell  a  slave  as  quick  as  any  other  slave-holder.  He  had  a 
great  deal  of  cash,  but  did  not  rank  high  in  society.  His  wife  was  very 
severe ;  hated  a  colored  man  to  have  any  comfort  in  the  world.  They  had 
eight  adult  and  nine  young  slaves." 

ADAM  left  because  he  "didn't  like  the  treatment."  Twice  he  had  been 
placed  on  the  auction-block.  He  was  a  married  man  and  left  a  wife  and 
one  child. 


FOUR  ABLE-BODIED  " ARTICLES "  IN  ONE  ARRIVAL,  1857. 

EDWARD,   AND   JOSEPH   HAINES,    THOMAS   HARRIS,   AND   JAMES   SHELDON. 

"  This  certainly  is  a  likely-looking  party,"  are  the  first  words  which  greet 
the  eye,  on  turning  to  the  record,  under  which  their  brief  narratives  were 
entered  at  the  Philadelphia  station,  September  7th,  1857. 

EDWARD  was  about  forty-four  years  of  age,  of  unmixed  blood,  and  in 
point  of  natural  ability  he  would  rank  among  the  most  intelligent'  of  the 
oppressed  class.  Without  owing  thanks  to  any  body  he  could  read  and 
write  pretty  well,  having  learned  by  his  own  exertions. 

Tabby  and  Eliza  Fortlock,  sisters,  and  single  women,  had  been  deriving 
years  of  leisure,  comfort,  and  money  from  the  sweat  of  Edward's  brow. 
The  maiden  ladies  owned  about  eighteen  head  of  this  kind  of  property,  far 
more  than  they  understood  how  to  treat  justly  or  civilly.  They  bore  the 
name  of  being  very  hard  to  satisfy.  They  were  proverbially  "stingy." 
They  were  members  of  the  Christ  Episcopal  Church. 


FOUR  ABLE-BODIED  "ARTICLES"  IN  ONE  ARRIVAL,  1857.      415 

Edward,  however,  remembered  very  sensibly  that  his  own  brother  had  been 
sold  South  by  these  ladies ;  and  not  only  he,  but  others  also,  had  been  sent 
to  the  auction-block,  and  there  made  merchandise  of.  Edward,  therefore, 
had  no  faith  in  these  lambs  of  the  flock,  and  left  them  because  he  thought 
there  was  reason  in  all  things.  "  Yearly  my  task  had  been  increased  and 
made  heavier  and  heavier,  until  I  was  pressed  beyond  what  I  could  bear." 
Under  this  pressure  no  hope,  present  or  future,  could  be  discerned,  except 
by  escaping  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

JOSEPH  was  also  one  of  the  chattels  belonging  to  the  Misses  Port-lock. 
A  more  active  and  wide-awake  young  man  of  twenty  years  of  age,  could  not 
easily  be  found  among  the  enslaved ;  he  seemed  to  comprehend  Slavery  in 
all  its  bearings.  From  a  small  boy  he  had  been  hired  out,  making  money 
for  the  "  pious  ladies "  who  owned  him.  His  experience  under  these  pro- 
tectors had  been  similar  to  that  of  Edward  given  above.  Joseph  was  of  a 
light  brown  color,  (some  of  his  friends  may  be  able  to  decide  by  this  simple 
fact  whether  he  is  a  relative,  etc.). 

TOM,  a  full-faced,  good-natured-looking  young  man,  was  also  of  this 
party.  He  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  and  was  said  to  be  the 
slave  of  John  Hatten,  Esq.,  Cashier  of  the  Virginia  Bank  of  Portsmouth. 
Tom  admitted  that  he  was  treated  very  well  by  Mr.  Hatten  and  his  family, 
except  that  he  was  not  allowed  his  freedom  ;  besides  he  felt  a  little  tired  of 
having  to  pay  twelve  dollars  a  mouth  for  his  hire,  as  he  hired  his  time  of 
his  master.  Of  course  he  was  not  insensible  to  the  fact  also  that  he  was 
liable  to  be  sold  any  day. 

In  pondering  over  these  slight  drawbacks,  Tom  concluded  that  Slavery 
was  no  place  for  a  man  who  valued  his  freedom,  it  mattered  not  how  kind 
masters  or  mistresses  might  be.  Under  these  considerations  he  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  would  have  to  let  the  cashier  look  out  for  himself, 
and  he  would  do  the  same.  In  this  state  of  mind  he  joined  the  party  for 
Canada. 

JAMES  was  another  associate  passenger,  and  the  best-looking  "  article  "  in 
the  party;  few  slaves  showed  a  greater  degree  of  intelligence  and  shrewdness. 
He  had  acquired  the  art  of  reading  and  writing  very  well,  and  was  also  a 
very  ready  talker.  He  was  owned  by  Mrs.  Maria  Hansford  of  New  York. 
When  he  was  quite  small  he  remembered  seeing  his  mistress,  but  not  since. 
He  was  raised  with  her  sister,  who  resided  in  Norfolk,  the  place  of  James' 
servitude. 

James  confessed  that  he  had  been  treated  very  kindly,  and  had  been 
taught  to  read  by  members  of  the  family.  This  was  an  exceptional  case, 
worthy  of  especial  note. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  kindness  that  James  had  received,  he  hated 
Slavery,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  used 
his  intelligence  and  shrewdness  to  good  purpose  in  acting  as  an  Under- 


416    .  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ground  Rail  Road  agent  for  a  time.     James  was   a   young  man,  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  well  made,  and  of  a  yellow  complexion. 

Although  none  of  this  party  experienced  brutal  treatment  personally, 
they  had  seen  the  "  elephant "  quite  to  their  satisfaction  in  Norfolk  and 
vicinity. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ARLINGTON,  MD.  1857. 

JOHN  ALEXANDER    BUTLER,  WILLIAM    HENRY  HIPKINS,   JOHN  HENRY  MOORE  AND 

GEORGE   HILL. 

This  party  made,  at  first  sight,  a  favorable  impression ;  they  represented 
the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  slave  class  of  Arlington,  and  upon  investigation 
the  Committee  felt  assured  that  they  would  carry  with  them  to  Canada  in- 
dustry and  determination  such  as  would  tell  well  for  the  race. 

JOHN  ALEXANDER  BUTLER  was  about  twenty-nine*  years  of  age,  well 
made,  dark  color,  and  intelligent.  He  assured  the  Committee  that  he  had 
been  hampered  by  Slavery  from  his  birth,  and  that  in  consequence  thereof 
he  had  suffered  serious  hardships.  He  said  that  a  man  by  the  name  of 
"Win.  Ford,  belonging  to  the  Methodist  Church  at  Arlington,  had  de- 
frauded him  of  his  just  rights,  and  had  compelled  him  to  work  on  his  farm 
for  nothing ;  also  had  deprived  him  of  an  education,  and  had  kept  him  in 
poverty  and  ignorance  all  his  life. 

In  going  over  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  treated,  he  added  that 
not  only  was  his  master  a  hard  man,  but  that  his  wife  and  children  partook 
of  the  same  evil  spirit ;  "they  were  all  hard."  True,  they  had  but  three 
slaves  to  oppress,  but  these  they  spared  not. 

John  was  a  married  man,  and  spoke  affectionately  of  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, whom  he  had  to  leave  behind  at  Cross-Roads. 

WILLIAM  HENRY,  who  was  heart  and  soul  in  earnest  with  regard  to 
reaching  Canada,  and  was  one  of  this  party,  was  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
and  was  a  stout,  yellow  man  with  a  remarkably  large  head,  and  looked  as 
if  he  was  capable  of  enjoying  Canada  and  caring  for  himself. 

In  speaking  of  the  fettered  condition  from  which  he  had  escaped,  the  name 
of  Ephraim  Swart,  "  a  gambler  and  spree'r "  was  mentioned  as  the  indi- 
vidual who  had  wronged  him  of  his  liberty  most  grievously. 

Against  Swart  he  expressed  himself  with  much  manly  feeling,  and  judging 
from  his  manner  he  appeared  to  be  a  dangerous  customer  for  master  Swart 
to  encounter  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 

WILLIAM  complained  that  Swart  "  would  come  home  late  at  night  drunk, 
and  if  he  did  not  find  us  awake  he  would  not  attempt  to  wake  us,  but  would 
begin  cutting  and  slashing  with  a  cowhide.  He  treated  his  wife  very  bad 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ARLINGTON,  MD.,  1857.  417 

too ;  sometimes  when  she  would  stand  up  for  the  servants  he  would  knock 
her  down.  Many  times  at  midnight  she  would  have  to  leave  the  house  and 
go  to  her  mother's  for  safety ;  she  was  a  very  nice  woman,  but  he  was  the 
very  old  Satan  himself." 

While  William  Henry  was  debarred  from  learning  letters  under  his  brutal 
overseer,  he  nevertheless  learned  how  to  plan  ways  and  means  by  which  to 
escape  his  bondage.  He  left  his  old  mother  and  two  brothers  wholly  igno- 
rant of  his  movements. 

JOHN  HENRY  MOORE,  another  one  of  the  Arlington  party,  was  about 
twenty-four  years  of  age,  a  dark,  spare-built  man.  He  named  David 
Mitchell,  of  Havre-de-Grace,  as  the  individual  above  all  others  who  had 
kept  his  foot  on  his  neck.  Without  undertaking  to  give  John  Henry's 
description  of  Mitchell  in  full,  suffice  it  to  give  the  following  facts  : 
"  Mitchell  would  go  off  and  get  drunk,  and  come  home,  and  if  the  slaves 
had  not  as  much  work  done  as  he  had  tasked  them  with,  he  would  go  to 
beating  them  with  clubs  or  anything  he  could  get  in  his  hand.  He  was 
a  tall,  spare-built  man,  with  sandy  hair.  He  had  a  wife  and  family,  but 
his  wife  was  no.  better  than  he  was."  When  charges  or  statements  were  made 
by  fugitives  against  those  from  whom  they  escaped,  particular  pains  were 
taken  to  find  out  if  such  statements  could  be  verified;  if  the  explanation 
appeared  valid,  the  facts  as  given  were  entered  on  the  books. 

JOHN  HENRY  could  not  read,  but  greatly  desired  to  learn,  and  he  looked 
as  though  he  had  a  good  head  for  so  doing.  Before  he  left  there  had  been 
some  talk  of  selling  him  South.  This  rumor  had  a  marked  effect  upon 
John  Henry's  nervous  system  ;  it  also  expanded  his  idea  touching  traveling, 
the  Underground  Rail  Road,  etc.  As  he  had  brothers  and  sisters  who  had 
been  sold  to  Georgia  he  made  up  his  mind  that  his  master  was  not  to  be 
trusted  for  a  single  day;  he  was  therefore  one  of  the  most  willing-hearted 
passengers  in  the  party. 

GEORGE  HILL,  also  a  fellow-passenger,  was  about  twenty-four  years  of 
age,  quite  black,  medium  size,  and  of  fair,  natural  mother  wit.  In  looking 
back  upon  his  days  of  bondage,  his  mind  reverted  to  Dr.  Savington,  of  Har- 
ford  county,  as  the  person  who  owed  him  for  years  of  hard  and  unrequited 
toil,  and  at  the  same  time  was  his  so  called  owner. 

The  Doctor,  it  seemed,  had  failed  to  treat  George  well,  for  he  declared  that 
he  had  never  received  enough  to  eat  the  whole  time  that  he  was  with  him. 
"The  clothes  I  have  on  I  got  by  overwork  of  nights.  When  I  started  I 
hadn't  a  shoe  on  my  foot,  these  were  given  to  me.  He  was  an  old  man,  but 
a  very  wicked  man,  and  drank  very  hard." 

George  had  been  taught  field  work  pretty  thoroughly,  but  nothing  in  the 
way  of  reading  and  writing. 

George  explained  why  he  left  as  follows :  "  I  left  because  I  had  got  along 
with  him  as  well  as  I  could.  Last  Saturday  a  week  he  was  in  a  great  rage 
27 


418  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  drunk.  He  shot  at  me.  He  never  went  away  but  what  he  would  come 
home  drunk,  and  if  any  body  made  him  angry  out  from  home,  he  would 
come  home  and  take  his  spite  out  of  his  people." 

He  owned  three  grown  men,  two  women  and  six  children.     Thus  hating 
Slavery  heartily,  George  was  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  Canada. 


FIVE  PASSENGERS,  1857. 

ELIZA  JANE  JOHNSON,  HARRIET    STEWART,   AND    HER   DAUGHTER  MARY   ELIZA, 
WILLIAM   COLE,   AND   HANSON  HALL.  * 

ELIZA  JANE  was  a  tall,  dark,  young  woman,  about  twenty-three  years  of 
age,  and  had  been  held  to  service  by  a  widow  woman,  named  Sally  Spiser, 
who  was  "  anything  but  a  good  woman."  The  place  of  her  habitation  was 
in  Delaware,  between  Concord  and  Georgetown. 

Eliza  Jane's  excuse  for  leaving  was  this :  She  charged  her  mistress  with 
trying  to  work  her  to  death,  and  with  unkind  treatment  generally.  When 
times  became  so  hard  that  she  could  not  stand  her  old  mistress  "Sally"  any 
longer,  she  "  took  out." 

HARRIET  did  not  come  in  company  with  Eliza  Jane,  but  by  accident 
they  met  at  the  station  in  Philadelphia.  Harriet  and  daughter  came  from 
"Washington,  D.  C. 

Harriet  had  treasured  up  a  heavy  account  against  a  white  man  known  by 
the  name  of  William  A.  Linton,  whom  she  described  as  a  large,  red-faced 
man,  who  had  in  former  years  largely  invested  in  slave  property,  but  latterly 
he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  selling  off,  until  only  seven  remained,  and 
among  them  she  and  her  child  were  numbered ;  therefore,  she  regarded  him 
as  one  who  had  robbed  her  of  her  rights,  and  daily  threatened  her  with  sale. 

Harriet  was  a  very  likely-looking  woman,  twenty-nine  years  of  age, 
medium  size,  and  of  a  brown  color,  and  far  from  being  a  stupid  person, 
Her  daughter  also  was  a  smart,  and  interesting  little  girl  of  eight  years  of 
age,  and  seemed  much  pleased  to  be  getting  out  of  the  reach  of  slave-holders. 
The  mother  and  daughter,  however,  had  not  won  their  freedom  thus  far, 
without  great  suffering,  from  the  long  and  fatiguing  distance  which  they 
were  obliged  to  walk.  Sometimes  the  hardness  of  the  road  made  them 
feel  as  though  they  would  be  compelled  to  give  up  the  journey,  whether 
or  not ;  but  they  added  to  their  faith,  patience,  and  thus  finally  succeeded. 

Heavy  rewards  were  offered  through  advertisements  in  the  Baltimore 
Sun,  but  they  availed  naught.  The  Vigilance  Committee  received  them 
safely,  fully  cared  for  them,  and  safely  sent  them  through  to  the  land  of 
refuge.  Harriet's  daring  undertaking  obliged  her  to  leave  her  husband, 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HOWARD  CO.,  MD.,  1857.  419 

John  Stewart,  behind ;  also  one  sister,  a  slave  in  Georgetown.  One  brother 
had  been  sold  South.  Her  mother  she  had  laid  away  in  a  slave's  grave : 
b\it  her  father  she  hoped  to  find  in  Canada,  he  having  escaped  thither  when 
she  was  a  small  girl ;  at  least  it  was  supposed  that  he  had  gone  there. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HOWARD  CO.,  MD.,  1857. 

BILL  COLE  AND  HANSON. 


REWARD. — Ran  away  on  Saturday  night,  September  5th,  Bill  Cole, 
aged  about  37  years,  of  copper  complexion,  stout  built,  ordinary  height,  walks 
very  erect,  earnest  but  squint  look  when  spoken  to. 

Also,  Hanson,  copper  complexion,  well  made,  sickly  look,  medium  height, 
stoops  when  walking,  quick  when  spoken  to ;  aged  about  30  years. 

Three  hundred  dollars  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehension  and  delivery  of  Bill, 
if  caught  put  of  the  State,   and  two  hundred  if  in  the  State.     Two  hundred 
dollars  for  Hanson  if  out  of  the  State,  and  one  hundred  dollars  if  in  the  State. 

W.  BAKER,  DORSET, 
HAMMOND  DORSET, 
Savage  P.  0.,  Howard  county,  Md. 

Such  notoriety  as  was  given  them  by  the  above  advertisement,  did  not  in 
the  least  damage  Bill  and  Hanson  in  the  estimation  of  the  Committee.  It 
was  rather  pleasing  to  know  that  they  were  of  so  much  account  as  to  call 
forth  such  a  public  expression  from  the  Messrs.  Dorsey.  Besides  it  saved 
the  Committee  the  necessity  of  writing  out  a  description  of  them,  the  only 
fault  found  with  the  advertisement  being  in  reference  to  their  ages.  Bill, 
for  instance,  was  put  down  ten  years  younger  than  he  claimed  to  be.  Which 
was  correct,  Bill  or  his  master  ?  The  Committee  were  inclined  to  believe  Bill 
in  preference  to  his  master,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  seemed  to  account 
satisfactorily  for  his  master's  making  him  so  young :  he  (the  master)  could 
sell  him  for  much  more  at  thirty-seven  than  at  forty-seven.  Unscrupulous 
horse-jockies  and  traders  in  their  fellow-men  were  about  on  a  par  as  to  that 
kind  of  sharp  practice. 

HANSON,  instead  of  being  only  thirty,  declared  that  he  was  thirty-seven 
the  fifteenth  of  February.  These  errors  are  noticed  and  corrected  because 
it  is  barely  possible  that  Bill  and  Hanson  may  still  be  lost  to  their  relatives, 
who  may  be  inquiring  and  hunting  in  every  direction  for  them,  and  as 
many  others  may  turn  to  these  records  with  hope,  it  is,  therefore,  doubly 
important  that  these  descriptions  shall  be  as  far  as  possible,  correct,  especially 
as  regards  ages. 

HANSON  laughed  heartily  over  the  idea  that  he  looked  "sickly."  While 
on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  he  looked  very  far  from  sickly;  on  the 
contrary,  a  more  healthy,  fat,  and  stout-looking  piece  of  property  no  one 


420  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

need  wish  to  behold,  than  was  this  same  Hanson.  He  confessed,  however, 
that  for  some  time  previous  to  his  departure,  he  had  feigned  sickness, — told 
his  master  that  he  was  "  sick  all  over."  u  Ten  times  a  day  Hanson  said 
they  would  ask  him  how  he  was,  but  was  not  willing  to  make  his  task 
much  lighter."  The  following  description  was  given  of  his  master,  and  his 
reason  for  leaving  him : 

"  My  master  was  a  red-faced  farmer,  severe  temper,  would  curse,  and 
swear,  and  drink,  and  sell  his  slaves  whenever  he  felt  like  it.  My  mistress 
was  a  pretty  cross,  curious  kind  of  a  woman  too,  though  she  was  a  member 
of  the  Protestant  Church.  They  were  rich,  and  had  big  farms  and  a  good 
many  slaves.  They  didn't  allow  me  any  provisions  hardly  ;  I  had  a  wife, 
but  they  did  not  allow  me  to  go  see  her,  only  once  in  a  great  while." 

BILL  providentially  escaped  from  a  well-known  cripple,  whom  he  under- 
took to  describe  as  a  "  very  sneaking-looking  man,  medium  size,  smooth 
face  ;  a  wealthy  farmer,  who  owned  eighteen  or  twenty  head  of  slaves,  and 
was  Judge  of  the  Orphans'  Court."  "  He  sells  slaves  occasionally."  "  My 
mistress  was  a  very  large,  rough,  Irish-looking  woman,  with  a  very  bad  dis- 
position ;  it  appeared  like  as  if  she  hated  to  see  a  '  nigger/  and  she  was 
always  wanting  her  husband  to  have  some  one  whipped,  and  she  was  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  Church.  My  master  was  a  trustee  in  the  Episco- 
pal Church." 

In  consequence  of  the  tribulation  Bill  had  experienced  under  his  Chris- 
tian master  and  mistress,  he  had  been  led  to  disbelieve  in  the  Protestant 
faith  altogether,  and  declared  that  he  felt  persuaded  that  it  was  all  a  "  pre- 
tense," and  added  that  he  "  never  went  to  Church ;  no  place  was  provided  in 
church  for  ' niggers '  except  a  little  pen  for  the  coachmen  and  waiters." 

BILL  had  been  honored  with  the  post  of  "head  man  on  the  place,"  but  of 
this  office  he  was  not  proud. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  PRINCE  GEORGE'S  COUNTY,  MD. 

"JIM   BELLE." 

$100  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber  on  Saturday  Anight,  Negro 
Man  JIM  BELLE.  Jim  is  about  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  black  color,  about 
26  years  of  age  :  has  a  down  look  ;  speaks  slow  when  spoken  to ;  he  has  large, 
thick  lips,  and  a  mustache.  He  was  formerly  owned  by  Edward  Stansbury, 
late  of  Baltimore  county,  and  purchased  by  Edward  Worthington,  near  Reis- 
terstown,  in  Baltimore  county,  at  the  late  Stansbury's  sale,  who  sold  him  to 
B.  M.  and  W.  L.  Campbell,  of'Baltimore  city,  of  whom  I  purchased  Jim  on  the 
13th  of  June  last.  His  wife  lives  with  her  mother,  Ann  Robertson,  in  Corn  Alley,  between 
Lee  and  Hill  streets,  Baltimore  city,  where  he  has  other  relations,  and  where  he  is  making 
his  way.  I  will  give  the  above  reward,  no  matter  where  taken,  so  he  is  brought  home  or 
secured  in  jail  so  I  get  him  again.  ZACHAEIAH  BERRY,  of  W., 

j28-6t.  near  Upper  Marlboro',  Prince  George's  county,  Md. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RAPPAHANNOCK  COUNTY,  1857.  421 

Mr.  Zachariah  Berry,  who  manifested  so  much  interest  in  Jim,  may  be 
until  this  hour  in  ignorance  of  the  cause  of  his  running  off  without  asking 
leave,  etc.  Jim  stated,  that  he  was  once  sold  and  flogged  unmercifully 
simply  for  calling  his  master  "  Mr.,"  instead  of  master,  and  he  alleged  that 
this  was  the  secret  of  his  eyes  being  opened  and  his  mind  nerved  to  take 
advantage  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

While  it  may  not  now  do  Zachariah  Berry  much  good  to  learn  this  secret, 
it  may,  nevertheless,  be  of  some  interest  to  those  who  were  of  near  kin  to 
Jim  to  glean  even  so  small  a  ray  of  light. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RAPPAHANNOCK  COUNTY,  1857. 

PASCAL   QTJANTENCE. 

PASCAL  fled  from  Virginia,  and  accused  Bannon  and  Brady  of  doing 
violence  to  his  liberty.  He  had,  however,  been  in  their  clutches  only  a  short 
while  before  escaping,  but  that  short  while  seemed  almost  an  age,  as  he  was 
treated  so  meanly  by  them  compared  with  the  treatment  which  he  had 
experienced  under  his  former  master. 

According  to  Pascal's  story,  which  was  evidently  true,  his  previous  master 
was  his  own  father  (John  Quantence),  who  had  always  acknowledged  Pascal 
as  his  child,  whom  he  did  not  scruple  to  tell  people  he  should  set  free;  that 
he  did  not  intend  that  he  should  serve  anybody  else.  But,  while  out  riding 
one  day,  he  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  instantly  killed.  Naturally 
enough,  no  will  being  found,  his  effects  were  all  administered  upon  and 
Pascal  was  sold  with  the  farm.  Bannon  and  Brady  were  the  purchasers,  at 
least  of  Pascal.  In  their  power,  immediately  the  time  of  trouble  began  with 
Pascal,  and  so  continued  until  he  could  no  longer  endure  it.  "  Hoggish- 
ness,"  according  to  Pascal's  phraseology,  was  the  most  predominant  trait 
in  the  character  of  his  new  masters.  In  his  mournful  situation  and  grief 
he  looked  toward  Canada  and  started  with  courage  and  hope,  and  thus  suc- 
ceeded. Such  deliverances  always  afforded  very  great  joy  to  the  Com- 
mittee. 


422  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1857. 

HARRY   GRIMES,    GEOROE    TJP3HER,    AND   EDWARD   LEWIS. 

FEET   SLIT   FOR   RUNNING  AWAY,   FLOGGED,   STABBED,   STAYED   IN    THE    HOLLOW  OF 
A  BIG   POPLAR  TREE,   VISITED   BY   A  SNAKE,   ABODE  IN  A   CAVE. 

The  coming  of  the  passengers  here  noticed  was  announced  in  the  subjoined 
letter  from  Thomas  Garrett : 

WILMINGTON,  llth  Mo.  25th,  1857. 

RESPECTED  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  write  to  inform  thee,  that  Captain  Fountain 
has  arrived  this  evening  from  the  South  with  three  men,  one  of  which  is  nearly  naked, 
and  very  lousy.  He  has  been  in  the  swamps  of  Carolina  for  eighteen  months  past.  One 
of  the  others  has  been  some  time  out.  I  would  send  them  on  to-night,  but  will  have  to 
provide  two  of  them  with  some  clothes  before  they  can  be  sent  by  rail  road.  I  have  for- 
gotten the  number  of  thy  house.  As  most  likely  all  are  more  or  less  lousy,  having  been 
compelled  to  sleep  together,  I  thought  best  to  write  thee  so  that  thee  may  get  a  suitable 
place  to  take  them  to,  and  meet  them  at  Broad  and  Prime  streets  on  the  arrival  of  the 
cars,  about  11  o'clock  to-morrow  evening.  I  have  engaged  one  of  our  men  to  take  them 
to  his  house,  and  go  to  Philadelphia  with  them  to-morrow  evening.  Johnson  who  will 
accompany  them  is  a  man  in  whom  we  can  confide.  Please  send  me  the  number  of  thy 
house  when  thee  writes.  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

This  epistle  from  the  old  friend  of  the  fugitive,  Thomas  Garrett,  excited 
unusual  interest.  Preparation  was  immediately  made  to  give  the  fugitives 
a  kind  reception,  and  at  the  same  time  to  destroy  their  plagues,  root  and 
branch,  without  mercy. 

They  arrived  according  to  appointment.  The  cleansing  process  was 
carried  into  effect  most  thoroughly,  and  no  vermin  were  left  to  tell  the 
tale  of  suffering  they  had  caused.  Straightway  the  passengers  were  made 
comfortable  in  every  way,  and  the  spirit  of  freedom  seemed  to  be  burning 
like  "fire  shut  up  in  the  bones."  The  appearance  alone  of  these  men  indi- 
cated their  manhood,  and  wonderful  natural  ability.  The  examining  Com- 
mittee were  very  desirous  of  hearing  their  story  without  a  moment's  delay. 

As  Harry,  from  having  suffered  most,  was  the  hero  of  this  party,  and 
withal  was  an  intelligent  man,  he  was  first  called  upon  to  make  his  state- 
ment as  to  how  times  had  been  with  him  in  the  prison  house,  from  his 
youth  up.  He  was  about  forty-six  years  of  age,  according  to  his  reckoning, 
full  six  feet  high,  and  in  muscular  appearance  was  very  rugged,  and  in  his 
countenance  were  evident  marks  of  firmness.  He  said  that  he  was  born  a 
slave  in  North  Carolina,  and  had  been  sold  three  times.  He  was  first  sold 
when  a  child  three  years  of  age,  the  second  time  when  he  was  thirteen  years 
old,  and  the  third  and  last  time  he  was  sold  to  Jesse  Moore,  from  whom  he 
fled.  Prior  to  his'  coming  into  the  hands  of  Moore  he  had  not  experienced 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1857. 


423 


any  very  hard  usage,  at  least  nothing  more  severe  than  fell  to  the  common 
lot  of  slave-boys,  therefore  the  period  of  his  early  youth  was  deemed  of  too 
little  interest  to  record  in  detail.  In  fact  time  only  could  be  afforded  for 
noticing  very  briefly  some  of  the  more  remarkable  events  of  his  bondage. 
The  examining  Committee  confined  their  interrogations  to  his  last  task- 
master. , 

"  How  did  Moore  come  by  you?"  was  one  of  the  inquiries.  "  He  bought 
me,"  said  Harry,  "  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Taylor,  nine  or  ten  years  ago ; 
he  was  as  bad  as  he  could  be,  couldn't  be  any  worse  to  be  alive.  He  was 
about  fifty  years  of  age,  when  I  left  him,  a  right  red-looking  man,  big 
bellied  old  fellow,  weighs  about  two  hundred  and  forty  pounds.  He  drinks 
hard,  he  is  just  like  a  rattlesnake,  just  as  cross  and  crabbed  when  he  speaks, 
seems  like  he  could  go  through  you.  He  flogged  Richmond  for  not  plough- 
ing the  corn  good,  that  was  what  he  pretended  to  whip  him  for.  Richmond 
ran  away,  was  away  four  months,  as  nigh  as  I  can  guess,  then  they  cotched 
him,  then  struck  him  a  hundred  lashes,  and  then  they  split  both  feet  to  the 
bone,  and  split  both  his  insteps,  and  then  master  took  his  knife  and  stuck  it 
into  him  in  many  places  ;  after  he  done  him  that  way,  he  put  him  into  the 
barn  to  shucking  corn.  For  a  long  time  he  was  not  able  to  work;  when  he 
did  partly  recover,  he  was  set  to  work  again." 

We  ceased  to  record  anything  further  concerning  Richmond,  although 
not  a  fourth  part  of  what  Harry  narrated  was  put  upon  paper.  The 
account  was  too  sickening  and  the 
desire  to  hear  Harry's  account  of 
himself  too  great  to  admit  of  fur- 
ther delay ;  so  Harry  confined  him- 
self to  the  sufferings  and  adventures 
whieh  had  marked  his  own  life. 
Briefly  he  gave  the  following  facts : 
"  I  have  been  treated  bad.  One  day 
we  were  grubbing  and  master  said 
we  didn't  do  work  enough.  '  How 
came  there  was  no  more  work  done 
that  day?'  said  master  to  me.  I 
told  him  I  did  work.  In  a  more 
stormy  manner  he  'peated  the  ques- 
tion. I  then  spoke  up  and  said : 
*  Massa,  I  don't  know  what  to  say.' 
At  once  massa  plunged  his  knife  into 
my  neck  causing  me  to  stagger. 
Massa  was  drunk.  He  then  drove 
me  down  to  the  black  folk's  houses  (cabins  of  the  slaves).  He  then  got 
his  gun,  called  the  overseer,  and  told  him  to  get  some  ropes.  While  he 


424 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD, 


was  gone  I  said,  'Massa,  now  you  are  going  to  tie  me  up  and  cut  me 
all  to  pieces  for  nothing.  I  would  just  as  leave  you  would  take  your 
gun  and  shoot  me  down  as  to  tie  me  up  and  cut  me  all  to  pieces  for 
nothing.'  In  a  great  rage  he  said  'go.'  I  jumped,  and  he  put  up  his 
gun  and  snapped  both  barrels  at  me.  He  then  set  his  dogs  on  me,  but  as  I 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  making  much  of  them,  feeding  them,  &c., 
they  would  not  follow  me,  and  I  kept  on  straight  to  the  woods.  My 
master  and  the  overseer  cotched  the  horses  and  tried  to  run  me  down,  but 
as  the  dogs  would  not  follow  me  they  couldn't  make  nothing  of  it.  It  was 
the  last  of  August  a  year  ago.  The  devil  was  into  him,  and  he  flogged  and 
beat  four  of  the  slaves,  one  man  and  three  of  the  women,  and  said  if  he 
could  only  get  hold  of  me  he  wouldn't  strike  me,  '  nary-a-lick,'  but  would 
tie  me  to  a  tree  and  empty  both  barrels  into  me. 

In  the  woods  I  lived  on  nothing, 
you  may  say,  and  something  too.  I 
had  bread,  and  roasting  ears,  and 
'taters.  I  stayed  in  the  hoi  low  of  a  big 
poplar  tree  for  seven  months;  the 
other  part  of  the  time  I  stayed  in  a 
cave.  I  suffered  mighty  bad  with  the 
cold  and  for  something  to  eat.  Once  I 
got  me  some  charcoal  and  made  me 
a  fire  in  my  tree  to  warm  me,  and  it 
liked  to  killed  me,  so  I  had  to  take 
the  fire  out.  One  time  a  snake  come 
to  the  tree,  poked  its  head  in  the  hol- 
low and  was  coming  in,  and  I  took 
my  axe  and  chopped  him  in  two.-  It 
was  a  poplar  leaf  moccasin,  the  poison- 
est  kind  of  a  snake  we  have.  While 
in  the  woods  all  my  thoughts  was 
how  to  get  away  to  a  free  country." 

Subsequently,  in  going  back  over  his  past  history,  he  referred  to  the  fact, 
that  on  an  occasion  long  before  the  cave  and  tree  existence,  already  noticed, 
when  suffering  under  this  brutal  master,  he  sought  protection  in  the  woods 
and  abode  twenty-seven  months  in  a  cave,  before  he  surrendered  himself,  or 
was  captured.  His  offence,  in  this  instance,  was  simply  because  he  desired 
to  see  his  wife,  and  "stole"  away  from  his  master's  plantation  and  went  a 
distance  of  five  miles,  to  where  she  lived,  to  see  her.  For  this  grave  crime 
his  master  threatened  to  give  him  a  hundred  lashes,  and  to  shoot  him ; 
in  order  to  avoid  this  punishment,  he  escaped  to  the  woods,  etc.  The  lapse 
of  a  dozen  years  and  recent  struggles  for  an  existence,  made  him  think 
lightly  of  his  former  troubles  and  he  would,  doubtless,  have  failed  to  recall 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA,  1857. 


425 


his  earlier  conflicts  but  for  the  desire   manifested   by  the  Committee  to  get 
all  the  information  out  of  him  they  could. 


He  was  next  asked,  "Had  you  a  wife  and  family?"  "Yes,  sir," 
he  answered,  "  I  had  a  wife  and  eight  children,  belonged  to  the  widow 
Slade."  Harry  gave  the  names  of  his  wife  and  children  as  follows:  Y/ife, 
Susan,  and  children,  Oliver,  Sabey,  Washington,  Daniel,  Jonas,  Harriet, 
Moses  and  Rosetta,  the  last  named  he  had  never  seen.  "  Between  my  mis- 
tress and  my  master  there  was  not  much  difference." 

Of  his  comrades  time  admitted  of  writing  out  only  very  brief  sketches,  as 
follows : 

EDWARD   LEWIS. 

$100  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  on  the  7th  of  November, 
negro  slave,  EDGAR.  He  is  36  years  old,  6  feet  high,  of  dark  brown  complex- 
ion, very  high,  forehead,  is  a  little  bald,  and  is  inclined  to  stoop  in  the  shoulders. 
Edgar  says  he  was  raised  in  Norfolk  county,  has  worked  about  Norfolk  several 
years.  I  bought  him  at  the  Auction  house  of  Messrs.  Pulliam  &  Davis,  the 
20th  of  July,  1856.  The  bill  of  sale  was  signed  by  W.  Y.  Miliner  for  Jas.  A. 
Bilisoly,  administrator  of  G.  W.  Chambers,  dec'd.  He  told  one  of  my  negroes 
he  was  going  to  Norfolk  to  sell  some  plunder  he  had  there,  then  go  to  Richmond,  steal  his 
wife,  get  on  board  a  boat  about  Norfolk,  and  go  to  a  free  State.  He  can  read  and  write 
well,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  has  provided  himself  with  papers  of  some  kind.  He  may- 
have  purchased  the  papers  of  some  free  negro.  I  will  give  the  above  reward  of  One  Hun- 
dred Dollars  to  any  person  who  will  arrest  and  confine  him,  so  I  can  get  him. 

C.  H.  GAY. 
My  Post  office  is  Laurel,  N.  C.  no.  21. 

The  above  advertisement,  which  was  cut  from  a  Southern  paper,  brought 
light  in  regard  to  one  of  the  passengers  at  least.  It  was  not  often  that  a 
slave  was  so  fortunate  as  to  get  such  a  long  sketch  of  himself  in  a  news- 
paper. The  description  is  so  highly  complimentary,  that  we  simply  endorse 


426  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

it  as  it  stands.  The  sketch  as  taken  for  the  record  book  is  here  transcribed 
as  follows: 

"  Edward  reported  himself  from  Franklin  county,  N.  C.,  where,  accord- 
ing to  statement,  a  common  farmer  by  the  name  of  Carter  Gay  owned  him, 
under  whose  oppression  his  life  was  rendered  most  unhappy,  who  stinted 
him  daily  for  food  and  barely  allowed  him  clothing  enough  to  cover 
his  nakedness,  who  neither  showed  justice  nor  mercy  to  any  under  his 
control,  the  '  weaker  vessels '  not  excepted ;  therefore  Edward  was  con- 
vinced that  it  was  in  vain  to  hope  .for  comfort  under  such  a  master.  More- 
over, his  appetite  for  liquor,  combined  with  a  high  temper,  rendered  him  a 
being  hard  to  please,  but  easy  to  excite  to  a  terrible  degree.  Scarcely  had 
Edward  lived  two  years  with  this  man  (Gay)  when  he  felt  that  he  had  lived 
with  him  long  enough.  Two  years  previous  to  his  coming  into  the  hands 
of  Gay,  he  and  his  wife  were  both  sold ;  the  wife  one  day  and  he  the  next. 
She  brought  eleven  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  and  he  eight  hundred 
and  thirty-five  dollars ;  thus  they  were  sold  and  resold  as  a  matter  of  specu- 
lation, and  husband  and  wife  were  parted. 

After  the  fugitives  had  been  well  cared  for  by  the  Committee,  they  were 
forwarded  on  North ;  but  for  some  reason  they  were  led  to  stop  short  of 
Canada,  readily  finding  employment  and  going  to  work  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  How  they  were  received  and  in  what  way  they  were  situated, 
the  subjoined  letter  from  Edward  will  explain  : 

SKANEATELES,  Dec.  17, 1857. 

DEAR  SIR: — As  I  promised  to  let  you  hear  from  me  as  soon  as  I  found  a  home,  I  will 
now  fulfill  my  promise  to  you  and  say  that  I  am  alive  and  well  and  have  found  a  stopping 
place  for  the  winter. 

When  we  arrived  at  Syracuse  we  found  Mr.  Loguen  ready  to  receive  us,  and  as  times 
are  rather  hard  in  Canada  he  thought  best  for  us  not  to  go  there,  so  he  sent  us  about  twenty 
miles  west  of  Syracuse  to  Skaneateles,  where  George  Upshur  and  myself  soon  found  work. 
Henry  Grimes  is  at  work  in  Garden  about  eight  miles  from  this  place. 

If  you  should  chance  to  hear  any  of  my  friends  inquiring  for  me,  please  direct  them  to 
Skaneateles,  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y. 

If  you  can  inform  me  of  the  whereabouts  of  Miss  Alice  Jones  I  shall  be  very  much 
obliged  to  you,  until  I  can  pay  you  better.  I  forgot  to  ask  you  about  her  when  I  was  at 
your  house.  She  escaped  about  two  years  ago. 

Please  not  to  forget  to  inquire  of  my  wife,  Rachel  Land,  and  if  you  should  hear  of  her, 
let  me  know  immediately.  George  Upshur  and  myself  send  our  best  respects  to  you  and 
your  family.  Remember  us  to  Mrs.  Jackson  and  Miss  Julia.  I  hope  to  meet  you  all 
again,  if  not  on  earth  may  we  so  live  that  we  shall  meet  in  that  happy  land  where  tears 
and  partings  are  not  known. 

Let  me  hear  from  you  soon.    This  from  your  friend  and  well  wisher, 

EDWARD  LEWIS, 
formerly,  but  now  WILLIAM  BRADY. 


ALFRED  HOLLON,  GEORGE  AND  CHAS.  N.  RODGERS.          427 

GEORGE  UPSHER. — The  third  in  this  arrival  was  also  a  full  man. 
Slavery  had  robbed  him  shamefully  it  is  true;  nevertheless  he  was  a  man 
of  superior  natural  parts,  physically  and  intellectually.  Despite  the  efforts 
of  slave-holders  to  keep  him  in  the  dark,  he  could  read  and  write  a  little. 
His  escape  in  the  manner  that  he  did,  implied  a  direct  protest  against 
the  conduct  of  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Upsher,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  whom,  he 
alleged,  deprived  him  of  his  hire,  and  threatened  him  with  immediate  sale. 
He  had  lived  in  North  Carolina  with  the  doctor  about  two  years.  As  a 
slave,  his  general  treatment  had  been  favorable,  except  for  a  few  months 
prior  to  his  flight,  which  change  on  the  part  of  his  master  led  him  to  fear 
that  a  day  of  sale  was  nigh  at  hand.  In  fact  the  seventh  of  July  had  been 
agreed  upon  when  he  was  to  be  in  Richmond,  to  take  his  place  with  others 
in  the  market  on  sale  day;  his  hasty  and  resolute  move  for  freedom  originated 
from  this  circumstance.  He  was  well-known  in  Norfolk,  and  had  served 
almost  all  his  days  in  that  city.  These  passengers  averaged  about  six  feet, 
and  were  of  uncommonly  well-developed  physical  structure. 

The  pleasure  of  aiding  such  men  from  the  horrors  of  Carolina  Slavery 
was  great. 


ALFRED  HOLLON,   GEORGE  AND  CHARLES  N.   RODGERS. 

The  loss  of  this  party  likewise  falls  on  Maryland.  With  all  the  efforts 
exerted  by  slave-holders,  they  could  not  prevent  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  from  bringing  away  passengers. 

ALFRED  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  with  sharp  features,  dark  color, 
and  of  medium  size.  He  charged  one  Elijah  J.  Johnson,  a  commissioner  of 
Baltimore  Co.,  with  having  deprived  him  of  the  fruits  of  his  labor.  He 
had  looked  fully  into  his  master's  treatment  of  him,  and  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  wrong  in  every  respect,  for  one  man  to  make  another 
work  and  then  take  all  his  wages  from  him ;  thus  decided,  Alfred,  desiring 
liberty,  whereby  he  could  do  better  for  himself  felt  that  he  must  "took  out" 
and  make  his  way  to  Canada.  Nevertheless,  he  admitted  that  he  had  been 
"  treated  pretty  well "  compared  with  others.  True,  he  had  "  not  been  fed 
very  well ;"  Elijah,  his  master,  was  an  old  man  with  a  white  head,  tall  and 
stout,  and  the  owner  of  fifteen  head  of  slaves.  At  the  same  time,  a  member 
of  St.  John's  church. 

ALFRED  had  treasured  up  the  sad  remembrance  against  him  of  the  sale 
of  his  mother  from  him  when  a  little  boy,  only  three  years  old.  While  he 
was  then  too  young  to  have  retained  her  features  in  his  memory,  the  fact 
had  always  been  a  painful  one  to  reflect  upon. 


428       .  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

GEORGE  was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  stout,  long-faced,  and  of  dark  com- 
plexion. He  looked  as  though  he  might  have  eagerly  grasped  education  if 
the  opportunity  had  been  allowed  him.  He  too  belonged  to  Elijah  J.  John- 
son, against  whom  he  entertained  much  more  serious  objections  than  Alfred. 
Indeed,  George  did  not  hesitate  to  say  with  emphasis,  that  he  neither  liked 
his  old  master,  mistress,  nor  any  of  the  family.  Without  recording  his 
grievances  in  detail,  a  single  instance  will  suffice  of  the  kind  of  treatment 
to  which  he  objected,  and  which  afforded  the  pretext  for  his  becoming  a 
patron  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

It  was  this,  said  George:  "I  went  into  the  corn-field  and  got  some  corn. 
This  made  my  master  and  mistress  very  mad,  and  about  it  Dr.  Franklin 
Rodgers,  my  young  mistress'  husband,  struck  me  some  pretty  heavy  blows, 
and  knocked  me  with  his  fist,  etc."  Thus,  George's  blood  was  raised,  and 
he  at  once  felt  that  it  was  high  time  to  be  getting  away  from  such  patriarchs. 
It  was  only  necessary  to  form  a  strong  resolution  and  to  start  without  delay. 

There  were  two  others  who,  he  believed,  could  be  trusted,  so  he  made 
known  his  intentions  to  them,  and  finding  them  sound  on  the  question  of 
freedom  he  was  glad  of  their  company.  For  an  emergency,  he  provided 
himself  with  a  pair  of  pistols  and  a  formidable-looking  knife,  and  started, 
bent  on  reaching  Canada;  determined  at  least,  not  to  be  taken  back  to  bond- 
age alive.  Charles  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  a  very  dark -colored  indi- 
vidual, and  also  belonged  to  said  Johnson. 

CHARLES  was  well  acquainted  with  his  old  master  and  mistress,  and 
made  very  quick  work  of  giving  his  experience.  After  hearing  him,  from 
the  manner  in  which  he  expressed  himself,  no  one  could  doubt  his  earnest- 
ness and  veracity.  His  testimony  ran  substantially  thus: 

"  For  the  last  three  years  I  have  been  treated  very  hard.  In  the  presence 
of  the  servants,  old  Johnson  had  me  tied,  stripped,  and  with  his  own  hands, 
flogged  me  on  the  naked  back  shamefully.  The  old  mistress  was  cross  too." 
It  was  some  time  before  the  smarting  ceased,  but  it  was  not  long  ere  the 
suffering  produced  very  decided  aspirations  to  get  over  to  John  Bull's  Do- 
minions. He  resolved  to  go,  at  all  hazards.  In  order  that  he  might  not  be 
surprised  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  without  any  weapons  of  defense, 
determined  as  he  was  to  fight  rather  than  be  dragged  back,  he  provided  him- 
self with  a  heavy,  leaden  ball  and  a  razor.  They  met,  however,  with  no 
serious  difficulty,  save  from  hard  walking  and  extreme  hunger.  In  appear- 
ance, courage,  and  mother-wit,  this  party  was  of  much  promise. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE  COUNTY,  1857.  429 


AEKIVAL  FROM  KENT  COUNTY,  1857. 

SAMUEL  BENTON,   JOHN  ALEXANDER,   JAMES  HENRY,  AND  SAMUEL  TURNER. 

These  passengers  journeyed  together  from  the  land  of  whips  and 
chains. 

SAM  BENTON  was  about  twenty-six  years  of  age,  medium  size,  pretty 
dark  color,  and  possessed  a  fair  share  of  intelligence.  He  understood  very 
well  how  sadly  Slavery  had  wronged  him  by  keeping  him  in  ignorance  and 
poverty. 

He  stated  as  the  cause  of  his  flight  that  William  Campbell  had  oppressed 
him  and  kept  him  closely  at  hard  labor  without  paying  him,  and  at  the  same 
time  "  did  not  give  him  half  enough  to  eat,  and  no  clothing." 

JOHN  ALEXANDER  was  about  forty-four  years  of  age,  a  man  of  ordinary 
size,  quite  black,  and  a  good  specimen  of  a  regular  corn-field  hand. 

"  Why  did  you  leave,  John  ?"  said  a  member  of  the  Committee.  He 
coolly  replied  that  "Handy  (his  master  was  named  George  Handy)  got  hold 
of  me  twice,  and'I  promised  my  Lord  that  he  should  never  get  hold  of  me 
another  time." 

Of  course  it  was  the  severity  of  these  two  visitations  that  made  John  a 
thinker  and  an  actor  at  the  same  time.  The  evil  practices  of  the  master 
produced  the  fruits  of  liberty  in  John's  breast. 

JAMES  HENRY,  the  third  passenger,  was  about  thirty-two  years  of  age, 
and  quite  a  spirited-looking  "  article."  A  few  months  before  he  fled  he  had 
been  sold,  at  which  time  his  age  was  given  as  "  only  twenty."  He  had  suf- 
fered considerably  from  various  abuses ;  the  hope  of  Canada  however  tended 
to  make  him  joyful. 

The  system  of  oppression  from  which  these  travelers  fled  had  afforded 
them  no  privileges  in  the  way  of  learning  to  read.  All  that  they  had  ever 
known  of  civilization  was  what  they  perchance  picked  up  in  the  ordinary 
routine  of  the  field. 

Notice  of  the  fourth  passenger  unfortunately  is  missing. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE  COUNTY,  1857. 

ELIZABETH   WILLIAMS. 

9 

ELIZABETH  fled  in  company  with  her  brother  the  winter  previous  to  her 
arrival  at  the  Philadelphia  station.  Although  she  reached  free  land  the 
severe  struggle  cost  her  the  loss  of  all  her  toes.  Four  days  and  nights  out 
in  the  bitter  cold  weather  without  the  chance  of  a  fire  'left  them  a  prey  to 


430  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  frost,  which  made  sad  havoc  with  their  feet  especially — particularly 
Elizabeth's.  She  was  obliged  to  stop  on  the  way,  and  for  seven  months  she 
was  unable  to  walk. 

ELIZABETH  was  about  twenty  years  of  age,  chestnut  color,  and  of  con- 
siderable natural  intellect.  Although  she  suffered  so  severely  as  the  result 
of  her  resolution  to  throw  off  the  yoke,  she  had  no  regrets  at  leaving  the 
prison-house;  she  seemed  to  appreciate  freedom  all  the  more  in  consequence 
of  what  it  cost  her  to  obtain  the  prize. 

In  speaking  of  the  life  she  had  lived,  she  stated  that  her  mistress  was 
"  good  enough,"  but  her  "  master  was  a  very  bad  man."  His  name  was 
Samuel  Ward;  he  lived  in  Baltimore  county,  near  Wrightstown.  Elizabeth 
left  her  mother,  four  brothers  and  one  sister  under  the  yoke. 


MARY  COOPER  AND  MOSES  ARMSTEAD,  1857. 

MAEY  arrived  from  Delaware,  Moses  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  hap- 
pened to  meet  at  the  station  in  Philadelphia. 

MARY  was  twenty  years  of  age,  of  a  chestnut  color,  usual  size,  and  well 
disposed.  She  fled  from  Nathaniel  Herne,  an  alderman.  Mary  did  not 
find  fault  with  the  alderman,  but  she  could  not  possibly  get  along  with  his 
wife  ;  this  was  the  sole  cause  of  her  escape. 

MOSES  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  a  chestnut  color,  a  bright-looking 
young  man.  He  fled  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  having  been  owned  by  the 
estate  of  John  Halters.  Nothing  but  the  prevailing  love  of  liberty  in  the 
breast  of  Moses  moved  him  to  seek  his  freedom.  He  did  not  make  one 
complaint  of  bad  treatment. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEAR  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

JOHN  JOHNSON   AND   LAWRENCE   THORNTON. 

JOHN  escaped  from  near  Washington.  He  stated  that  he  was  owned  by 
an  engraver,  known  by  the  name  of  William  Stone,  and  added  that  himself 
and  seven  others  were  kept  working  on  the  farm  of  said  Stone  for  nothing. 
John  did  not,  however,  complain  of  having  a  hard  master  in  this  hard- 
named  personage,  (Stone) ;  for,  as  a  slave,  he  confessed  that  he  had  seen 
good  times.  Yet  he  was  not  satisfied ;  he  felt  that  he  had  a  right  to  his 
freedom,  and  that  he  could  not  possibly  be  contented  while  deprived  of  it, 
for  this  reason,  therefore,  he  dissolved  his  relationship  with  his  kind  master. 


PROPERTIES  OF  HON.  L.  McLANE  AND  WM.  KNIGHT,  Esq.        431 

John  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  smart,  possessed  good  manners, 
and  a  mulatto. 

LAWRENCE  was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  tall  and  slender,  of  dark 
complexion,  but  bright  intellectually.  With  Lawrence  times  had  been  pretty 
rough.  Dr.  Isaac  Winslow  of  Alexandria  was  accused  of  defrauding  Law- 
rence of  his  hire.  "  He  was  anything  else  but  a  gentleman,"  said  Law- 
rence. "  He  was  not  a  fair  man  no  way,  and  his  wife  was  worse  than  he 
was,  and  she  had  a  daughter  worse  than  herself." 

"  Last  Sunday  a  week  my  master  collared  me,  for  my  insolence  he  said, 
and  told  me  that  he  would  sell  me  right  off.  I  was  tied  and  put  up  stairs 
for  safe  keeping.  I  was  tied  for  about  eight  hours.  I  then  untied  myself, 
broke  out  of  prison,  and  made  for  the  Underground  Rail  Road  immediately." 

Lawrence  gave  a  most  interesting  account  of  his  life  of  bondage,  and  of 
the  doctor  and  his  family.  He  was  overjoyed  at  the  manner  in  which  he 
had  defeated  the  doctor,  and  so  was  the  Committee. 


HON.  L.  McLANE'S  PROPERTY,  SOON  AFTER  HIS  DEATH,  TRAVELS  via 
THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. — WILLIAM  KNIGHT,  ESQ.,  LOSES 

A  SUPERIOR  "  ARTICLE." 
JIM  SCOTT,  TOM   PENNINGTON,  SAM  SCOTT,  BILL,  SCOTT,  ABE  BACON,  AND  JACK  WELLS. 

An  unusual  degree  of  pleasure  was  felt  in  welcoming  this  party  of  young 
men,  not  because  they  were  any  better  than  others,  or  because  they  had 
suffered  more,  but  simply  because  they  were  found  to  possess  certain  know- 
ledge and  experience  of  slave  life,  as  it  existed  under  the  government  of  the 
chivalry ;  such  information  could  not  always  be  obtained  from  those  whose 
lot  had  been  cast  among  ordinary  slave-holders.  Consequently  the  Com- 
mittee interviewed  them  closely,  and  in  point  of  intellect  found  them  to  be 
above  the  average  run  of  slaves.  As  they  were  then  entered  on  the  record, 
so  in  like  manner  are  the  notes  made  of  them  transferred  to  these  pages. 

Jim  was  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  well  grown,  black,  and  of  pre- 
possessing appearance.  The  organ  of  hope  seemed  very  strong  in  him.  Jim 
had  been  numbered  with  the  live  stock  of  the  late  Hon.  L.  McLane,  who 
had  been  called  to  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship  about  two  months 
before  Jim  and  his  companions  "  took  out." 

As  to  general  usage,  he  made  no  particular  charge  against  his  distin- 
guished master ;  he  had,  however,  not  been  living  under  his  immediate 
patriarchal  government,  but  had  been  hired  out  to  a  farmer  by  the  name  of 
James  Dodson,  with  whom  he  experienced  life  "sometimes  hard  and  some- 


432  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

times  smooth,"  to  use  his  own  words.  The  reason  of  his  leaguing  with  his 
fellow-servants  to  abandon  the  old  prison  house,  was  traceable  to  the  rumor 
that  he  and  some  others  were  to  appear  on  the  stage,  or  rather  the  auction- 
block,  in  Baltimore,  the  coming  Spring. 

TOM,  another  member  of  the  McLane  institution,  was  about  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  of  unmixed  blood,  and  a  fair  specimen  of  a  well-trained  field- 
hand.  He  conceived  that  he  had  just  ground  to  bring  damages  against  the 
Hon.  L.  McLane  for  a  number  of  years  of  hard  service,  and  for  being  de- 
prived of  education.  He  had  been  compelled  to  toil  for  the  Honorable  gen- 
tleman, not  only  on  his  own  place,  but  on  the  farms  of  others.  At  the  time 
that  Tom  escaped,  he  was  hired  for  one  hundred  dollars  per  annum  (and  his 
clothes  found  him),  which  hire  McLane  had  withheld  from  him  contrary  to 
all  justice  and  fair  dealing;  but  as  Tom  was  satisfied,  that  he  could  get  no 
justice  through  the  Maryland  courts,  and  knew  that  an  old  and  intimate 
friend  of  his  master  had  already  proclaimed,  that  "  negroes  had  no  rights 
which  white  men  are  bound  to  respect ;"  also,  as  his  experience  tended  to 
confirm  him  in  the  belief,  that  the  idea  was  practically  carried  out  in  the 
courts  of  Maryland ;  he  thought,  that  it  would  be  useless  to  put  in  a  plea 
for  justice  in  Maryland.  He  was  not,  however,  without  a  feeling  of  some 
satisfaction,  that  his  old  master,  in  giving  an  account  of  his  stewardship  at 
the  Bar  of  the  Just  One,  would  be  made  to  understand  the  amount  of  his 
indebtedness  to  those  whom  he  had  oppressed.  With  this  impression,  and 
the  prospects  of  equal  rights  and  Canada,  under  her  British  Majesty's  pos- 
sessions, he  manifested  as  much  delight  as  if  he  was  traveling  with  a  half 
million  of  dollars  in  his  pocket. 

SAM,  another  likely-looking  member  of  this  party,  was  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  and  a  very  promising-looking  young  fugitive,  having  the  appearance 
of  being  able  to  take  education  without  difficulty.  He  had  fully  made  up 
his  mind,  that  slavery  was  never  intended  for  man,  and  that  he  would  never 
wear  himself  out  working  for  the  "  white  people  for  nothing."  He  wanted 
to  work  for  himself  and  enjoy  the  benefits  of  education,  etc. 

BILL,  SCOTT,  another  member  of  the  McLane  party,  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  "  fat  and  slick,"  and  fully  satisfied,  that  Canada  would  agree  with 
him  in  every  particular.  Not  a  word  did  he  utter  in  favor  of  Maryland,  but 
said  much  against  the  manner  in  which  slaves  were  treated,  how  he  had  felt 
about  the  matter,  etc. 

ABE  was  also  from  the  McLane  estate.  He  possessed  apparently  more 
general  intelligence  than  either  of  his  companions.  He  was  quite  bright- 
witted,  a  ready  talker,  and  with  his  prospects  he  was  much  satisfied. 
He  was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  black,  good-looking,  and  possessed  very 
good  manners.  He  represented,  that  his  distinguished  master  died,  leaving 
thirteen  head  of  slaves.  His  (Abe's)  father,  Tom's  mother  and  the  mother 
of  the  Scotts  were  freed  by  McLane.  Strong  hopes  were  entertained  that 


PROPERTIES  OF  HON.  L.  Me  LANE  AND  WM.  KNIGHT,  Esq.       433 

before  the  old  man's  death  he  would  make  provision  in  his  will  for  the  free- 
dom of  all  the  other  slaves ;  when  he  died,  the  contrary  was  found  to  be  the 
fact ;  they  were  still  left  in  chains.  The  immediate  heirs  consisted  of  six 
sons  and  five  daughters,  who  moved  in  the  first  circle,  were  "  very  wealthy 
and  aristocratic."  Abe  was  conversant  with  the  fact,  that  his  master,  the 
"  Hon.  L.  McLane,  was  once  Secretary  under  President  Jackson ;"  that  he 
had  been  "  sent  to  England  on  a  mission  for  the  Government,"  and  that  he 
had  "  served  two  terms  in  Congress."  Some  of  the  servants,  Abe  said,  were 
"  treated  pretty  well,  but  some  others  could  not  say  anything  in  the  master's 
favor."  Upon  the  whole,  however,  it  was  manifest  that  the  MoLane 
slaves  had  not  been  among  the  number  who  had  seen  severe  hardships. 
They  came  from  his  plantation  in  Cecil  county,  Maryland,  where  they  had 
been  reared. 

In  order  to  defend  themselves  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  they  were 
strongly  armed.  Sam  had  a  large  horse  pistol  and  a  butcher  knife ;  Jack 
had  a  revolver  ;  Abe  had  a  double-barrelled  pistol  and  a  large  knife  ;  Jim 
Had  a  single-barrelled  pistol  and  counted  on  "  blowing  a  man  down  if  any 
one  touched "  him.  Bill  also  had  a  single-barrelled  pistol,  and  when  he 
started  resolved  to  ''come  through  or  die." 

Although  this  party  was  of  the  class  said  to  be  well  fed,  well  clothed, 
and  not  over-worked,  yet  to  those  who  heard  them  declare  their  utter  de- 
testation of  slavery  and  their  determination  to  use  their  instruments  of 
death,  even  to  the  taking  of  life,  rather  than  again  be  subjected  to  the 
yoke,  it  was  evident  that  even  the  mildest  form  of  slavery  was  abhorrent. 
They  left  neither  old  nor  young  masters,  whom  they  desired  to  serve  any 
longer  or  look  up  to  for  care  and  support. 

JACK,  who  was  not  of  the  McLane  party,  but  who  came  with  them,  had 
been  kept  in  ignorance  with  regard  to  his  age.  He  was  apparently  middle- 
aged,  medium  size,  dark  color,  and  of  average  intelligence.  He  accused 
William  Knight,  a  farmer,  of  having  enslaved  him  contrary  to  his  will  or 
wishes,  and  averred  that  he  fled  from  him  because  he  used  him  badly 
and  kept  mean  overseers.  Jack  said  that  his  master  owned  six  farms  and 
kept  three  overseers  to  manage  them.  The  slaves  numbered  twenty-one 
head.  The  names  of  the  overseers  were  given  in  the  following  order : 
"Alfred  King,  Jimmy  Allen,  and  Thomas  Brockston."  In  speaking  of  their 
habits,  Jack  said,  that  they  were  "  very  smart  when  the  master  was  about, 
but  as  soon  as  he  was  gone  they  would  instantly  drop  back."  "  They  were 
all  mean,  but  the  old  boss  was  meaner  than  them  all,"  and  "the  overseers 
were  '  fraider '  of  him  than  what  I  was,"  said  Jack. 

His  master  (Mr.   Knight),  had  a  wife  and  seven  children,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  in  "  good  and  regular  standing."     He 
was  rich,  and,  with  his  family,  moved  in  good  society.     "  His  wife  was  too 
28 


434  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

stingy  to  live,  and  if  she  was  to  die,  she  would  die  holding  on  to  something," 
said  Jack.  Jack  had  once  had  a  wife  and  three  children,  but  as  they  belonged 
to  a  slave-holder  ("Jim  Price")  Jack's  rights  were  wholly  ignored,  and  he 
lost  them. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HARFORD  CO.,  1857. 

JOHN    MYERS. 

JOHN  fled  from  under  the  yoke  of  Dr.  Joshua  R.  Nelson.  Until  within 
two  years  of  "  Jack's  "  flight,  the  doctor  "  had  been  a  very  fine  man,"  with 
whom  Jack  found  no  fault.  But  suddenly  his  mode  of  treatment  changed  ; 
he  became  very  severe.  Nothing  that  Jack  could  do,  met  the  approval  of 
the  doctor.  Jack  was  constantly  looked  upon  with  suspicion. 

The  very  day  that  Jack  fled,  four  men  approached  him  (the  doctor  one  of 
them),  with  line  in  hand ;  that  sign  was  well  understood,  and  Jack  resolved 
that  they  should  not  get  within  tying  distance  of  him.  "  I  dodged  them," 
said  Jack.  Never  afterwards  was  Jack  seen  in  that  part  of  the  country,  at 
least  as  long  as  a  fetter  remained. 

The  day  that  he  "  dodged  "  he  also  took  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and 
although  ignorant  of  letters,  he  battled  his  way  out  of  Maryland,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  Pennsylvania  and  the  Committee.  He  was  obliged  to 
leave  four  children  behind — John,  Abraham,  Jane  and  Ellen. 

JACK'S  wife  had  been  freed  and  had  come  to  Philadelphia  two  years  in 
advance  of  him.  His  master  evidently  supposed  that  Jack  would  be  mean 
enough  to  wish  to  see  his  wife,  even  in  a  free  State,  and  that  no  slave,  with 
such  an  unnatural  desire,  could  be  tolerated  or  trusted,  that  the  sooner  such 
"articles"  were  turned  into  cash  the  better.  This  in  substance,  was  the  way 
Jack  accounted  for  the  sudden  change  which  had  come  over  his  master.  In 
defense  of  his  course,  Jack  referred  to  the  treatment  which  he  had  received 
while  in  servitude  under  his  old  master,  in  something  like  the  following 
words::  "  I  served  under  my  young  master's  father,  thirty-five  years,  and 
from  him  received  kind  treatment.  I  was  his  head  man  on  the  place,  and 
had  .everything  to  look  after/* 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1857. 

"WILLIAM  LEE,  SUSAN  JANE  BOILE  AND  AMARIAN   LUCRETIA  RISTER. 

Although  these  three  passengers  arrived  in  Philadelphia  at  the  same  time, 
they  did  not  come  from  Maryland  together. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA.,  1857.  435 

WILLIAM  LEE  found  himself  under  the  yoke  on  a  farm  in  the  possession 
of  Zechariah  Merica,  who,  Wm.  said,  was  a  "low  ignorant  man,  not  above  a 
common  wood-chopper,  and  owned  no  other  slave  property  than  William." 
Against  him,  however,  William  brought  no  accusation  of  any  very  severe 
treatment ;  on  the  contrary,  his  master  talked  sometimes  "  as  though  he 
wanted  to  be  good  and  get  religion,  but  said  he  could  not  while  he  was  try- 
ing to  be  rich."  Everything  looked  hopeless  in  William's  eyes,  so  far  as 
the  master's  riches  and  his  own  freedom  were  concerned.  He  concluded  that 
he  would  leave  him  the  "  bag  to  hold  alone."  William  therefore  laid  down 
"the  shovel  and  the  hoe,"  and,  without  saying  a  word  to  his  master,  he  took 
his  departure,  under  the  privacy  of  the  night,  for  Canada.  William  repre- 
sented the  white  and  colored  races  about  equally;  he  was  about  twenty-seven 
years  of  age,  and  looked  well  fitted  for  a  full  day's  work  on  a  farm. 

SUSAN  JANE  came  from  New  Market,  near  Georgetown  Cross-Roads, 
where  she  had  been  held  to  unrequited  labor  by  Hezekiah  Hasten,  a  farmer. 
Although  he  was  a  man  of  fair  pretensions,  and  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  he  knew  how  to  draw  the  cords  very  tightly,  with  regard  to  his 
slaves,  keeping  his  feet  on  their  necks,  to  their  sore  grievance.  Susan 
endured  his  bad  treatment  as  long  as  she  could,  then  left,  destitute  and  alone. 
Her  mother  and  father  were  at  the  time  living  in  Elkton,  Md.  Whether 
they  ever  heard  what  became  of  their  daughter  is  not  known. 

AMARIAN  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  a  person  of  light  color,  medium 
size,  with  a  prepossessing  countenance  and  smart;  she  could  read,  write,  and 
play  on  the  piano.  From  a  child,  Amarian  had  been  owned  by  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Key  Scott,  who  resided  near  Braceville,  but  at  the  time  of  her  flight 
she  was  living  at  Westminster,  in  the  family  of  a  man  named  •"  Boile,"  said 
to  be  the  clerk  of  the  court.  In  reference  to  treatment,  Amarian  said  :  "  I 
have  always  been  used  very  well ;  have  had  it  good  all  my  life,  etc."  This 
was  a  remarkable  case,  and,  at  first,  somewhat  staggered  the  faith  of  the 
Committee,  but  they  could  not  dispute  her  testimony,  consequently  they 
gave  her  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  She  spoke  of  having  a  mother  living 
in  Hagerstown,  by  the  name  of  Amarian  Ballad,  also  three  sisters  who 
were  slaves,  and  two  who  were  free ;  she  also  had  a  brother  in  chains  in 
Mississippi. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  YA.  1857. 

WILLIAM   CARNEY  AND  ANDREW  ALLEN. 

WILLIAM  was  about  fifty-one  years  of  age,  a  man  of  unmixed  blood. 
Physically  he  was  a  superior  man,  and  his  mental  abilities  were  quite  above 
the  average  of  his  class. 

He  belonged  to  the  estate  of  the  late  Mrs.  Sarah  Twyne,  who  bore  the 


436  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD.' 

reputation  of  being  a  lady  of  wealth,  and  owned  one  hundred  and  twelve 
slaves.  Most  of  her  slave  property  was  kept  on  her  plantation  not  far  from 
Old  Point  Comfort.  According  to  William's  testimony  "  of  times  Mrs.  Twyne 
would  meddle  too  freely  with  the  cup,  and  when  under  its  influence  she  was 
very  desperate,  and  acted  as  though  she  wanted  to  kill  some  of  the  slaves." 

After  the  evil  spirit  left  her  and  she  had  regained  her  wonted  composure, 
she  would  pretend  that  she  loved  her  "  negroes/'  and  would  make  a  great 
fuss  over  them.  Not  infrequently  she  would  have  very  serious  difficulty 
with  her  overseers.  Having  license  to  do  as  they  pleased,  they  would  of 
course  carry  their  cruelties  to  the  most  extreme  verge  of  punishment.  If  a 
slave  was  maimed  or  killed  under  their  correction,  it  was  no  loss  of  theirs. 
"  One  of  the  overseers  by  the  name  of  Bill  Anderson  once  shot  a  young 
slave  man  called  Luke  and  wounded  him  so  seriously  that  he  was  not 
expected  to  live."  u  At  another  time  one  of  the  overseers  beat  and  kicked 
a  slave  to  death."  This  barbarity  caused  the  mistress  to  be  very  much 
"  stirred  up,"  and  she  declared  that  she  would  not  have  any  more  white 
overseers;  condemned  them  for  everything,  and  decided  to  change  her  policy 
in  future  and  to  appoint  her  overseers  from  her  own  slaves,  setting  the 
property  to  watch  the  property.  This  system  was  organized  and  times  were 
somewhat  better. 

WILLIAM  had  been  hired  out  almost  his  entire  life.  For  the  last  twelve 
or  fifteen  years  he  had  been  accustomed  to  hire  his  time  for  one  hundred  and 
thirty  dollars  per  annum.  In  order  to  meet  this  demand  he  commonly  re- 
sorted to  oystering.  By  the  hardest  toil  he  managed  to  maintain  himself  and 
family  in  a  humble  way. 

For  the  last  twenty  years  (prior  to  his  escape)  the  slaves  had  constantly 
been  encouraged  by  their  mistress'  promises  to  believe  that  at  her  death  all 
would  be  free,  and  transported  to  Liberia,  where  they  would  enjoy  their 
liberty  and  be  happy  the  remainder  of  their  days. 

With  full  faith  in  her  promises  year  by  year  the  slaves  awaited  her  demise 
with  as  much  patience  as  possible,  and  often  prayed  that  her  time  might  be 
shortened  for  the  general  good  of  the  oppressed.  Fortunately,  as  the  slaves 
thought,  she  had  no  children  or  near  relatives  to  deprive  them  of  their  just 
and  promised  rights. 

In  November,  previous  to  William's  escape,  her  long  looked-for  dissolu- 
tion took  place.  Every  bondman  who  was  old  enough  to  realize  the  nature 
and  import  of  the  change  felt  a  great  anxiety  to  learn  what  the  will  of  their 
old  mistress  said,  whether  she  had  actually  freed  them  or  not.  Alas  !  when 
the  secret  was  disclosed,  it  was  ascertained  that  not  a  fetter  was  broken,  not 
a  bond  unloosed,  and  that  no  provision  whatever  had  been  made  looking 
towards  freedom.  In  this  sad  case,  the  slaves  could  imagine  no  other 
fate  than  soon  to  be  torn  asunder  and  scattered.  The  fact  was  soon  made 
known  that  the  High  Sheriff  had  administered  on  the  estate  of  the  late  mis- 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HOOPESVILLE.  437 

tress ;  it  was  therefore  obvious  enough  to  William  and  the  more  intelligent 
slaves  that  the  auction  block  was  near  at  hand. 

The  trader,  the  slave-pen,  the  auction-block,  the  come  gang,  the  rice  swamp, 
the  cotton  plantation,  bloodhounds,  and  cruel  overseers  loomed  up  before 
him,  as  they  had  never  done  before.  Without  stopping  to  consider  the 
danger,  he  immediately  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  make  a  struggle, 
cost  what  it  might.  He  knew  of  no  other  way  of  escape  than  the  Under- 
groun'd  Rail  Road.  He  was  shrewd  enough  to  find  an  agent,  who  gave  him 
private  instructions,  and  to  whom  he  indicated. a  desire  to  travel  North  on 
said  road.  On  examination  he  was  deemed  reliable,  and  a  mutual  under- 
standing was  entered  into  between  William  and  one  of  the  accommodating 
Captains  running  on  the  Richmond  and  Philadelphia  Line,  to  the  effect  that 
he,  William,  should  have  a  first  class  Underground  Rail  Road  berth,  so 
perfectly  private  that  even  the  law-officers  could  not  find  him. 

The  -first  ties  to  be  severed  were  those  which  bound  him  to  his  wife  and 
children,  and  next  to  the  Baptist  Church,  to  which  he  belonged.'  His 
family  were  slaves,  and  bore  the  following  names :  his  wife,  Nancy,  and 
children,  Simon  Henry,  William,  Sarah,  Mary  Ann,  Elizabeth,  Louis,  and 
Cornelius.  It  was  no  light  matter  to  bid  them  farewell  forever.  The  sepa- 
ration from  them  was  a  trial  such  as  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  mortals ; 
but  he  nerved  himself  for  the  undertaking,  and  when  the  hour  arrived  his 
strength  was  sufficient  for  the  occasion. 

Thus  in  company  with  Andrew  they  embarked  for  an  unknown  shore, 
their  entire  interests  entrusted  to  a  stranger  who  was  to  bring  them  through 
difficulties  and  dangers  seen  and  unseen. 

ANDREW  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  very  tall,  quite  black,  and 
bore  himself  manfully.  He  too  was  of  the  same  estate  that  William  be- 
longed to.  He  had  served  on  the  farm  as  a  common  farm  laborer.  He  had 
had  it  "  sometimes  rough  and  sometimes  smooth,"  to  use  his  own  language. 
The  fear  of  what  awaited  the  slaves  prompted  Andrew  to  escape.  He  too 
was  entangled  with  a  wife  and  one  child,  with  whom  he  parted  only  as  a 
friend  parts  with  a  companion  when  death  separates  them.  Catharine  ^as 
the  name  of  Andrew's  wife ;  and  Anna  Clarissa  the  name  of  his  child  left  in 
chains. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HOOPESVILLE,  MD.,  1857. 
JAMES  CAIN,  "GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON,"  AND  ANNA  PERRY. 

These  passengers  came  from  the  field  where  as  slaves  very  few  privileges 
had  been  afforded  them. 

JIM  was  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  a  dark  brown  skin  with  average 


438  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

intellect  for  one  in  his  condition.  He  had  toiled  under  John  Burnham,  in 
Dorchester  county,  from  whom  he  had  received  hard  treatment,  but  harder 
still  from  his  mistress.  He  averred  that  she  was  the  cause  of  matters  being 
so  hard  with  the  slaves  on  the  place.  Jim  contented  himself  under  his 
lot  as  well  as  he'  could  until  within  a  short  time  of  his  escape  when  he 
learned  that  measures  were  on  foot  to  sell  him.  The  fear  of  this  change 
brought  him  directly  to  meditate  upon  a  trip  to  Canada.  Being  a  married 
man  he  found  it  hard  to  leave  his  wife,  Mary,  but  as  she  was  also  a  slave, 
and  kept  in  the  employment  of  her  owners  at  some  distance  from  where  he 
lived,  he  decided  to  say  nothing  to  her  of  his  plans,  but  to  start  when  ready 
and  do  the  best  he  could  to  save  himself,  as  he  saw  no  chance  of  saving  her. 

"  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON."  When  the  above  "  article "  gave  the 
Committee  his  name  they  were  amused  and  thought  that  he  was  simply 
jesting,  having  done  a  smart  thing  in  conquering  his  master  by  escaping ; 
but  on  a  fuller  investigation  they  found  that  he  really  bore  the  name,  and 
meant  to  retain  it  in  Canada.  It  had  been  given  him  when  a  child, 
and  in  Slavery  he  had  been  familiarly  called  "Andy,"  but  since  he  had 
achieved  his  freedom  he  felt  bound  to  be  called  by  his  proper  name. 

General  Andrew  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  a  full  black,  and  a 
man  of  extraordinary  muscular  powers,  with  coarse  hard  features,  such  as 
showed  signs  that  it  would  not  be  safe* for  his  master  to  meddle  with  him 
when  the  General's  blood  was  up. 

He  spoke  freely  of  the  man  who  claimed  him  as  a  slave,  saying  that  his 
name  was  Shepherd  Houston,  of  Lewistowu,  Delaware,  and  that  he  owned 
seven  head  of  "  God's  poor,"  whom  he  compelled  to  labor  on  his  farm  with- 
out a  cent  of  pay,  a  day's  schooling,  or  an  hour's  freedom ;  furthermore,  that 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Ebenezer  Methodist  Church,  a  class-leader,  and  an 
exhorter,  and  in  outward  show  passed  for  a  good  Christian.  But  in  speaking 
of  his  practical  dealings  with  his  slaves,  General  said  that  he  worked  them 
hard,  stinted  them  shamefully  for  food,  and  kept  them  all  the  time  digging. 

Also  when  testifying  with  regard  to  the  "  weaker  vessel,"  under  whose 
treatment  he  had  suffered  much,  the  General  said  that  his  master's  wife  had 
a  meaner  disposition  than  he  had ;  she  pretended  to  belong  to  church  too, 
said  General,  but  it  was  nothing  but  deceit. 

This  severe  critic  could  not  read,  but  he  had  very  clear  views  on  the  ethics 
of  his  master  and  mistress,  agreeing  with  Scripture  concerning  whited 
sepulchres,  etc. 

The  question  of  Christian  slave-holders,  for  a  great  while,  seriously 
puzzled  the  wise  and  learned,  but  for  the  slave  it  was  one  of  the  easiest  of 
solution.  All  the  slaves  came  to  the  same  conclusion,  notwithstanding 
the  teaching  of  slave-holders  on  the  one  idea,  that  "  servants  should  obey 
their  masters,"  etc. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858.  439 

General  had  a  brother  in  Baltimore,  known  by  the  name  of  Josephus,  also 
two  sisters  Anna  and  Annie;  his  father  was  living  at  Cannon's  Ferry. 

ANNA  PERRY  was  the  intended  of  General.  She  was  about  nineteen 
years  of  age,  of  a  dark  brown  color,  and  came  from  the  same  neighborhood. 
According  to  law  Anna  was  entitled  to  her  freedom,  but  up  to  the  time  of 
her  escape  she  had  not  been  permitted  to  enjoy  the  fafor.  She  found  that 
if  she  would  be  free  she  would  have  to  run  for  it. 

JOHN  SMITH.  A  better  specimen  of  one  who  had  been  ill  treated,  and  in 
every  way  uncared  for,  could  not  be  easily  found.  In  speech,  manners, 
and  whole  appearance  he  was  extremely  rude.  He  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  in  color  was  of  a  very  dark  hue. 

That  John  had  received  only  the  poorest  kind  of  "  corn-field  fare  "  was 
clearly  evidenced  both  by  body  and  mind.  Master  George  H.  Morgan  was 
greatly  blamed  for  John's  deficiencies ;  it  was  on  his  farms,  under  mean 
overseers  that  John  had  been  crushed  and  kept  under  the  harrow. 

His  mother,  Mary  Smith,  he  stated,  his  master  had  sold  away  to  New 
Orleans,  some  two  years  before  his  escape.  The  sad  effect  that  this  cruel 
separation  had  upon  him  could  only  be  appreciated  by  hearing  him  talk  of 
it  in  his  own  untutored  tongue.  Being  himself  threatened  with  the  auction- 
block,  he  was  awakened  to  inquire  how  he  could  escape  the  danger,  and 
very  soon  learned  that  by  following  the  old  methods  which  had  been  used 
by  many  before  him,  resolution  and  perseverance,  he  might  gain  the  victory 
over  master  and  overseers.  As  green  as  he  seemed  he  had  succeeded  admi- 
rably in  his  undertaking. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858. 

GEORGE  RUSSELL  AND  JAMES    HENRY  THOMPSON". 

JAMES,  for  convenience'  sake,  was  supplied  with  two  other  names  (Milton 
Brown  and  John  Johnson),  not  knowing  exactly  how  many  he  would  need 
in  freedom  or  which  would  be  the  best  adapted  to  keep  his  whereabouts  the 
most  completely  veiled  from  his  master. 

GEORGE  reported  that  he  fled  from  Henry  Harris,  who  lived  near  Balti- 
more on  the  Peach  Orchard  Road,  and  that  he  had  lived  with  said  Harris 
all  his  life.  He  spoke  of  him  as  being  a  "  blustering  man,  who  never  liked 
the  slaves  to  make  anything  for  themselves."  George  bore  witness  that  the 
usage  which  he  had  received  had  been  hard;  evidently  his  intellect  had  been 
seriously  injured  by  what  he  had  suffered  under  his  task-master.  George 
was  of  a  very  dark  hue,  but  not  quite  up  to  medium  size. 

JAMES  HENRY  THOMPSON  did  not  accompany  George,  but  met  him  at 
the  station  in  Philadelphia.  He  contrasted  favorably  with  George,  being 


440  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

about  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  with  a  countenance  indicative  of  intelligence 
and  spirit.  He  was  of  a  chestnut  color  and  of  average  size.  He  charged 
one  Dennis  Mannard,  of  Johnsonville,  with  being  his  personal  enemy  as  an 
oppressor,  and  added  that  he  could  "  say  nothing  good  of  him."  He  could 
say,  however,  that  Mannard  was  bitterly  opposed  to  a  slave's  learning  how 
to  read,  would  not  listen  to  the  idea  of  giving  them  any  privileges,  and  tried 
to  impress  them  with  the  idea  that  they  needed  to  know  nothing  but  simply 
how  to  work  hard  for  the  benefit  of  their  masters  and  mistresses ;  in  fulfill- 
ing these  conditions  faithfully  the  end  for  which  they  had  been  designed 
would  be  accomplished  according  to  his  doctrine. 

Notwithstanding  so  much  pains  had  been  resorted  to  throughout  the 
South  to  impress  these  ideas  upon  the  slaves,  no  converts  were  made. 

JAMES  thought  that  the  doctrine  was  infamous,  and  that  it  was  dangerous 
to  live  with  such  a  man  as  his  master ;  that  freedom  was  as  much  his  right 
as  it  was  his  master's ;  and  so  he  resolved  to  leave  for  Canada  as  soon  as  he 
could  see  any  chance  for  escape. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  QUEEN  ANN  COUNTY,  1858. 

CATHARINE    JONES    AND    SON    HENRY,    ETNA    ELIZABETH    DAUPHTTS,    AND    GEORGE 

NELSON  WASHINGTON. 

TIjese  passengers,  although  interesting,  and  manifesting  a  strong  desire 
to  be  free,  had  no  remarkable  tales  of  personal  suffering  to  relate;  their 
lot  had  evidently  been  cast  among  the  more  humane  class  of  slave-holders, 
who  had  acted  towards  their  slaves  with  some  moderation. 

CATHARINE  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  pos- 
sessed a  fair  share  of  mother  wit,  and  was  fitted  to  make  a  favorable 
impression.  In  no  degree  whatever  did  she  think  well  of  slavery ;  she  had 
had,  as  she  thought,  sufficient  experience  under  Joshua  Duvall  (who  pro- 
fessed to  own  her)  to  judge  as  to  the  good  or  evil  of  the  system.  While  he 
was  by  no  means  considered  a  hard  man,  he  would  now  and  then  buy  and 
sell  a  slave.  She  had  no  fault  to  find  with  her  mistress. 

ETNA  was  about  twenty  years  of  age,  of  a  "  ginger-bread  "  color,  modest 
in  demeanor,  and  appeared  to  have  a  natural  capacity  for  learning.  She  was 
also  from  under  the  Duvall  yoke.  In  setting  forth  her  reasons  for  escaping 
she  asserted  that  she  was  tired  of  slavery  and  an  unbeliever  in  the  doctrine 
that  God  made  colored  people  simply  to  be  slaves  for  white  people ;  besides, 
she  had  a  strong  desire  to  "  see  her  friends  in  Canada." 

GEORGE  also  escaped  from  Duvall ;  happily  he  was  only  about  nineteen 
years  of  age,  not  too  old  to  acquire  some  education  and  do  well  by  himself. 
He  was  greatly  elated  at  the  prospect  of  freedom  in  Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  D UNWOOD  Y  CO UNTY,  1858.  441 

WILLIAM  HENRY  was  a  plump  little  fellow  only  two  years  of  age.  At 
the  old  price  (five  dollars  per  pound)  lie  was  worth  something,  fat  as  he 
was.  Being  in  the  hands  of  his  mother,  the  Committee  considered  him  a 
lucky  child. 


ARRIVAL  FROM   BALTIMORE. 

ELIJAH   BISHOP  AND  WILLIAM  WILLIAMSON. 

ELIJAH  represented  to  the  Committee  that  he  had  been  held  under  the 
enthrallment  of  a  common  "  gambler  and  drunkard/'  who  called  himself  by 
the  name  of  Campbell,  and  carried  on  his  sporting  operations  in  Baltimore. 

Under  this  gambler  Elijah  had  been  wronged  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-eight 
years,  when  he  resolved  to  escape.  Having  had  several  opportunities  of 
traveling  through  the  United  States  and  South  America  with  his  sporting 
master,  he  managed  to  pick  up  quite  an  amount  of  information.  For  the 
benefit  of  Elijah's  relatives,  if  any  should  have  occasion  to  look  for  par- 
ticulars concerning  this  lost  individual,  we  add,  that  he  was  a  spare-built 
man  of  a  dark  color. 

WILLIAM  WILLIAMSON  fled  from  Mrs.  Rebecca  Davidge,  of  Perryman- 
ville.  He  declared  that  he  had  been  used  badly — had  been  worked  hard 
and  had  been  fed  and  clothed  but  poorly.  Under  such  treatment  he  had 
reached  his  twenty-fourth  year.  Being  of  a  resolute  and  determined  mind, 
and  feeling  considerably  galled  by  the  burdens  heaped  upon  him,  he  re- 
solved that  he  would  take  his  chances  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
The  only  complaint  that  he  had  to  make  against  his  mistress  was,  that  she 
hired  him  to  a  man  named  Smith,  a  farmer,  and  a  slave-holder  of  the 
meanest  type,  in  William's  opinion.  For  many  a  day  William  will  hold 
her  responsible  for  abuses  he  received  from  him. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DUNWOODY  COUNTY,  1858. 

DARIUS   HARRIS. 

One  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  connected  with  the  travel  via  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  was,  that  passengers  traveling  thereon  were,  as  a  general 
thing,  young  and  of  determined  minds.  Darius,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was 
only  about  twenty-one  when  he  arrived.  It  could  be  seen  in  his  looks  that 
he  could  not  be  kept  in  the  prison-house  unless  constantly  behind  bars.  His 
large  head  and  its  formation  indicated  a  large  brain.  He  stated  that 
"  Thomas  H.  Hamliu,  a  hard  case,  living  near  Duuwoody,"  had  professed 


442  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

to  own  him.  Darius  alleged  that  this  same  Hamlin,  who  had  thus  stripped 
him  of  every  cent  of  his  earnings  was  doing  the  same  thing  by  sixty  others, 
whom  he  held  in  his  grasp. 

With  regard  to  "feeding  and  clothing"  Darius  set  Hamlin  down  as  "very 
hoggish ;"  he  also  stated  that  he  would  sell  slaves  whenever  he  could.  He 
(Darius),  had  been  hired  out  in  Petersburg  from  the  age  of  ten ;  for  the  last 
three  years  previous  to  his  escape  he  had  been  bringing  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  a  year  into  the  coffers  of  his  owners.  Darius  had  not  been 
ignorant  of  the  cruelties  of  the  slave  system  up  to  the  time  of  his  escape, 
for  the  fetters  had  been  galling  his  young  limbs  for  several  years ;  especially 
had  the  stringent  slave  laws  given  him  the  horrors.  Loathing  the  system  of 
slavery  with  his  whole  heart,  he  determined  to  peril  his  all  in  escaping  there- 
from ;  seeking  diligently,  he  had  found  means  by  which  he  could  carry  his 
designs  into  execution. 

In  the  way  of  general  treatment,  however,  Darius  said  that  bodily  he  had 
escaped  "  abuses  tolerably  well."  He  left  in  slavery  his  father  and  mother, 
four  brothers  and  one  sister.  He  arrived  by  one  of  the  Richmond  boats. 


AKRIVED  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  VA.,  1857. 

TOWNSEND   DERRIX. 

The  above-named  escaped  from  a  "Dutchman"  by  the  name  of  Gallipap- 
pick,  who  was  in  the  confectionery  business.  For  the  credit  of  our  German 
citizens,  it  may  be  said,  that  slave-holders  within  their  ranks  were  very  few. 
This  was  a  rare  case.  The  Committee  were  a  little  curious  to  know  how  the 
German  branch  of  civilization  conducted  when  given  unlimited  control  over 
human  beings. 

In  answering  the  requisite  questions,  and  in  making  his  statement,  Towns- 
end  gave  entire  satisfaction.  His  German  master  he  spoke  of  as  being  a 
tolerably  fair  man,  "  considering  his  origin."  At  least  he  (Townsend),  had 
not  suffered  much  from  him;  but  he  spoke  of  a  woman,  about  sixty,  who 
had  been  used  very  badly  under  this  Dutchman.  He  not  only  worked  her 
very  hard,  but,  at  the  same  time,  he  would  beat  her  over  the  head,  and 
that  in  the  most  savage  manner.  His  mistress  was  also  "  Dutch,"  a  "great 
swabby,  fat  woman,"  with  a  very  ill  disposition.  Master  and  mistress  were 
both  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  "  Mistress  drank,  that  was  the 
reason  she  was  so  disagreeable." 

Townsend  had  been  a  married  man  for  about  seven  months  only.  In  his 
effort  to  obtain  his  own  freedom  he  sought  diligently  to  deliver  his  young 
wife.  They  were  united  heart  and  hand  in  the  one  great  purpose  to  reach 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858.  443 

free  land,  but  unfortunately  the  pursuers  were  on  their  track  ;  the  wife  was 
captured  and  carried  back,  but  the  husband  escaped.  It  was  particularly 
with  a  view  of  saving  his  poor  wife  that  Townsend  was  induced  to  peril  his 
life,  for  she  (the  wife)  was  not  owned  by  the  same  party  who  owned  Towns- 
end,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  being  taken  by  her  owners  some  fifty  miles 
distant  into  the  country,  where  the  chances  for  intercourse  between  husband 
and  wife  would  no  longer  be  favorable.  Rather  than  submit  to  such  an 
outrage,  Townsend  and  his  wife  made  the  attempt  aforementioned. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858. 

EDWAED    CARROLL. 

EDWARD,  a  youthful  passenger  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  slow  of 
speech,  with  a  stammering  utterance,  and  apparently  crushed  in  spirits, 
claimed  succor  and  aid  of  the  Committee.  At  first  the  Committee  felt  a 
little  puzzled  to  understand,  how  one,  apparently  so  deficient,  could  succeed 
in  surmounting  the  usual  difficulties  consequent  upon  traveling,  via  the 
Underground  Rail  Road ;  but  in  conversing  with  him,  they  found  him  pos- 
sessed of  more  intelligence  than  they  had  supposed ;  indeed,  they  perceived 
that  he  could  read  and  write  a  little,  and  that  what  he  lacked  in  aptness  of 
speech,  he  supplied  as  a  thinker,  and  although  he  was  slow  he  was  sure. 
He  was  owned  by  a  man  named  John  Lewis,  who  also  owned  about 
seventy  head  of  slaves,  whom  he  kept  on  farms  near  the  mouth  of  the  Sassa- 
fras River,  in  Sussex  county. 

Lewis  had  not  only  held  Edward  in  bondage,  but  had  actually  sold  him, 
with  two  of  his  brothers,  only  the  Saturday  before  his  escape,  to  a  Georgia 
trader,  named  Durant,  who  was  to  start  south  with  them  on  the  subsequent 
Monday.  Moved  almost  to  desperation  at  their  master's  course  in  thus  sell- 
ing them,  the  three  brothers,  after  reflection,  determined  to  save  themselves 
if  possible,  and  without  any  definite  knowledge  of  the  journey,  they  turned 
their  eyes  towards  the  North  Star,  and  under  the  cover  of  night  they  started 
for  Pennsylvania,  not  knowing  whether  they  would  ever  see  the  goodly  land 
of  freedom.  After  wandering  for  about  two  weeks,  having  been  lost  often 
and  compelled  to  lie  out  in  all  weathers,  a  party  of  pursuers  suddenly  came 
upon  them.  Both  parties  were  armed;  the  fugitives  therefore  resolved  to 
give  their  enemies  battle,  before  surrendering.  Edward  felt  certain  that  one 
of  the  pursuers  received  a  cut  from  his  knife,  but  the  extent  of  the  injury 
was  unknown  to  him.  For  a  time  the  struggle  was  of  a  very  serious 
character ;  by  using  his  weapons  skillfully,  however,  Edward  managed  to 
keep  the  hand-cuff  off  of  himself,  but  was  at  this  point  separated  from  his 
two  brothers.  No  further  knowledge  of  them  did  he  possess ;  nevertheless, 


444  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

he  trusted  that  they  succeeded  in  fighting  their  way  through  to  freedom. 
How  any  were  successful  in  making  their  escape  under  such  discouraging 
circumstances  is  a  marvel. 

EDWARD  took  occasion  to  review  his  master's  conduct,  and  said  that  he 
"  could  not  recommend  him/'  as  he  would  "  drink  and  gamble,"  both  of 
which,  were  enough  to  condemn  him,  in  Edward's  estimation,  even  though 
he  were  passable  in  other  respects.  But  he  held  him  doubly  guilty  for  the 
way  that  he  acted  in  selling  him  and  his  brothers. 

So  privately  had  his  master  transacted  business  with  the  trader,  that  they 
were  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  being  hand-cuffed,  ere  they  knew  that  they 
were  sold.  Probably  no  outrage  will  be  remembered  with  feelings  of 
greater  bitterness,  than  this  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  master ;  yet,  when 
he  reflected  that  he  was  thereby  prompted  to  strike  for  freedom,  Edward 
was  disposed  to  rejoice  at  the  good  which  had  come  out  of  the  evil. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  PETERSBURG,  1858. 

JAMES  MASON. 

This  passenger  brought  rare  intelligence  respecting  the  manner  in  which 
he  had  been  treated  in  Slavery.  He  had  been  owned  by  a  lady  named  Judith 
Burton,  who  resided  in  Petersburg,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church. 
She  was  the  owner  of  five  other  slaves.  James  said  that  she  had  been  "  the 
same  as  a  mother  "  to  him ;  and  on  the  score  of  how  he  came  to  escape,  he 
said :  "  I  left  for  no  other  cause  than  simply  to  get  my  liberty."  This  was 
an  exceptional  case,  yet  he  had  too  much  sense  to  continue  in  such  a  life 
in  preference  to  freedom.  "When  he  fled  he  was  only  twenty-four  years  of 
age.  Had  he  remained,  therefore,  he  might  have  seen  hard  times  before  he 
reached  old  age ;  this  fact  he  had  well  considered,  as  he  was  an  intelligent 
young  man. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 


$300  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  on  the  26th  December, 
1857,  Negro  Man  ROBERT  CARR.  He  had  on  when  las-t  seen  on  West  River, 
a  close-bodied  blue  cloth  coat  with  brass  buttons,  drab  pantaloons,  and  a  low 
crown  and  very  narrow  brim  beaver  hat;  he  wore  a  small  goatee,  is  pleasant 
when  spoken  to,  and  very  polite  ;  about  five  feet  ten  inches  high ;  copper-colored. 
I  will  give  $125  if  taken  in  Anne  Arundel,  Prince  George's,  Calvert  or  Mont- 
gomery county,  $150  if  taken  in  the  city  of  Baltimore;  or  $300  if  taken  out  of 
the  State  and  secured  so  that  I  get  him  again. 

THOS.  J.  RICHARDSON, 
J13-W&  s3w  West  River,  Anne  Aruudel  county,  Maryland. 


ARRIVAL  OF  A  PARTY  OF  SIX,  1858.  445 

ROBERT  was  too  shrewd  to  be  entrapped  by  the  above  reward.  He  sat 
down  and  counted  the  cost  before  starting ;  then  with  his  knowledge  of  slave- 
holders when  traveling  he  was  cautious  enough  not  to  expose  himself  by  day 
or  night  where  he  was  liable  to  danger. 

He  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty,  and  despite  the  opposition  he  had  had 
to  encounter,  unaided  he  had  learned  to  read,  which  with  his  good  share  of 
native  intelligence,  he  found  of  service. 

Whilst  Robert  did  not  publish  his  mistress,  he  gave  a  plain  statement  of 
where  he  was  from,  and  why  he  was  found  in  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love  in 
the  dead  of  Winter  in  a  state  of  destitution.  He  charged  the  blame  upon  a 
woman,  whose  name  was  Richardson,  who,  he  said,  was  quite  a  "  fighter, 
and  was  never  satisfied,  except  when  quarreling  and  fighting  with  some  of 
the  slaves."  He  also  spoke  of  a  certain  T.  J.  Richardson,  a  farmer  and  a 
"very  driving  man  "who  was  in  the  habit  of  oppressing  poor  men  and 
women  by  compelling  them  to  work  in  his  tobacco,  corn,  and  wheat  fields 
without  requiting  them  for  their  labor.  Robert  felt  if  he  could  get  justice 
out  of  said  Richardson  he  would  be  the  gainer  to  the  amount  of  more  than 
a  thousand  dollars  in  money  besides  heavy  damages  for  having  cheated  him 
out  of  his  education. 

In  this  connection,  he  recalled  the  fact  of  Richardson'8  being  a  member 
of  the  church,  and  in  a  sarcastic  manner  added  that  his  "  religious  preten- 
sions might  pass  among  slave-holders,  but  that  it  would  do  him  no  good  when 
meeting  the  Judge  above."  Being  satisfied  that  he  would  there  meet  his 
deserts  Robert  took  a  degree  of  comfort  therefrom. 


ARRIVAL  OF  A  PARTY  OF  SIX,  1858. 

PLYMOUTH    CANNON,   HORATIO   WILKINSON,  LEMUEL  MITCHELL,   JOSIAH  MITCHELL, 
GEORGE   HENRY    BALLARD,   AND   JOHN   MITCHELL. 

Thomas  Garrett  announced  the  coming  of  this  party  in  the  subjoined 
letter : 

WILMINGTON,  2  MO.  5ra,  1858. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  have  information  of  6  able-bodied  men  that 
are  expected  here  to-morrow  morning ;  they  may,  to-inorrow  afternoon  or  evening,  take 
the  cars  at  Chester,  and  most  likely  reach  the  city  between  11  and  12  at  night ;  they  will 
be  accompanied  by  a  colored  man  that  has  lived  in  Philadelphia  and  is  free  ;  they  may 
think  it  safer  to  walk  to  the  city  than  to  go  in  the  cars,  but  for  fear  of  accident  it  may  be 
best  to  have  some  one  at  the  cars  to  look  out  for  them.  I  have  not  seen  them  yet,  and 
cannot  certainly  judge  what  will  be  best.  I  gave  a  man  3  dollars  to  bring  those  men  15 
miles  to-night,  and  I  have  been  two  miles  in  the  country  this  afternoon,  and  gave  a 
colored  man  2  dollars  to  get  provisions  to  feed  them.  Hoping  all  will  be  right,  I  remain 
thy  friend,  HUMANITAS. 


446  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Arriving  as  usual  in  due  time  these  fugitives  were  examined,  and  all 
found  to  be  extra  field  hands. 

PLYMOUTH  was  forty-two  years  of  age,  of  a  light  chestnut  color,  with 
keen  eyes,  and  a  good  countenance,  and  withal  possessed  of  shrewdness 
enough  to  lead  double  the  number  that  accompanied  him.  He  had  a 
strong  desire  to  learn  to  read,  but  there  was  no  possible  way  of  his  gaining 
the  light ;  this  he  felt  to  be  a  great  drawback. 

The  name  of  the  man  who  had  made  merchandise  of  Plymouth  was  Nat 
Horsey,  of  Horsey's  Cross  Roads.  The  most  striking  characteristic  in 
Horsey's  character,  according  to  Plymouth's  idea  was,  that  he  was  very 
"  hard  to  please,  did  not  know  when  a  slave  did  enough,  had  no  idea  that 
they  could  get  tired  or  that  they  needed  any  privileges."  He  was  the  owner 
of  six  slaves,  was  engaged  in  farming  and  mercantile  pursuits,  and  the  post- 
master of  the  borough  in  which  he  lived. 

"When  Plymouth  parted  with  his  wife  with  a  "  full  heart,"  he  bade  her 
good-night,  without  intimating  to  her  that  he  never  expected  to  see  her  again 
in  this  world ;  she  evidently  supposed  that  he  was  going  home  to  his  master's 
place  as  usual,  but  instead  he  was  leaving  his  companion  and  three  children 
to  wear  the  yoke  as  hitherto.  He  sympathized  with  them  deeply,  but  felt 
that  he  could  render  them  no  real  good  by  remaining ;  he  could  neither 
live  with  his  wife  nor  could  he  have  any  command  over  one  of  his  children. 
Slavery  demanded  all,  but  allowed  nothing. 

Notwithstanding,  Plymouth   admitted   that   he   had   been   treated   even 
more  favorably  than  most  slaves.     The  family  thus  bound  consisted  of  his 
.  wife  Jane,  and  four  children,  as  follows :  Dorsey,  "William   Francis,  Mary 
Ellen,  and  baby. 

HORATIO  was  a  little  in  advance  of  Plymouth  in  years,  being  forty-four 
years  of  age.  His  physical  outlines  gave  him  a  commanding  appearance  for 
one  who  had  worn  the  yoke  as  he  had  for  so  many  years.  He  was  of  a 
yellow  complexion,  and  very  tall. 

As  a  slave  laborer  he  had  been  sweating  and  toiling  to  enrich  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Thomas  J.  Hodgson,  a  farmer  on  a  large  scale,  and  owning 
about  a  dozen  slaves. 

HORATIO  gave  him  the  character  of  being  "  a  man  of  a  hidden  temper," 
and  after  the  election  of  Buchanan  he  considered  him  a  great  deal  worse 
than  ever.  HORATIO  told  of  a  visit  which  his  master  made  to  Canada,  and 
which,  on  his  return,  he  had  taken  much  pains  to  report  to  the  slaves  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  been  there  the  previous  summer,  and  saw  the  country  for 
himself,  adding  in  words  somewhat  as  follows :  "  Canada  is  the  meanest  part 
of  the  globe  that  I  ever  found  or  heard  of;" — did  not  see  but  one  black 
or  colored  person  in  Canada, — inquired  at  the  custom-house  to  know 
what  became  of  all  the  blacks  from  the  South,  and  was  told  that  they 
shipped  them  off  occasionally  and  sent  them  round  Cape  Horn  and  sold 


ARRIVAL  OF  A  PARTY  OF  SIX,  1858.  447 

them."  In  addition  to  this  report  he  said  that  "the  suffering  from  deep 
snows  and  starvation  was  fearful/'  all  of  which  Horatio  believed  "  to  be  a 
lie."  Of  course  he  concealed  this  opinion  from  his  master.  Many  such 
stories  were  sounded  in  the  ears  of  slaves  but  without  much  effect. 

LEMUEL,  John  and  Josiah  were  brothers.  Lemuel  was  thirty-five,  and 
might  be  called  a  jet-black.  He  was  uncommonly  stout,  with  a  head  indi- 
cative of  determination  of  purpose,  just  suited  to  an  Underground  Rail 
Road  passenger.  He  fled  from  James  R.  Lewis,  "  a  tall,  stout  man,  very 
wealthy  and  close."  Lemuel  said  that  he  fed  and  clothed  the  slaves  pretty 
well.  He  had  invested  to  the  extent  of  twelve  head.  No  money  or  pri- 
vileges were  allowed,  and  for  a  small  offence  the  threat  to  sell  was  made. 
It  was  Lemuel's  opinion  that  his  master's  wife  made  him  worse  than  he 
otherwise  would  have  been. 

JOHN  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  unmixed  blood,  and  of  a  quiet 
demeanour.  He  belonged  to  Miss  Catharine  Corn  well,  of  Viana.  John 
described  her  as  "  tolerable  good-looking,  but  real  bad."  His  sister  and  one 
other  slave  besides  himself  comprised  her  entire  stock  (of  slaves). 

According  to  John's  story,  his  mistress  was  in  the  habit  of  telling  her 
slaves  that  she  did  not  "  intend  that  any  of  them  should  be  free  if  she  could 
help  it;"  this  sentiment  was  uttered  so  "scornfully"  that  it  "insulted"  Jack 
very  much.  Indeed,  it  was  this  that  put  the  idea  of  Canada  into  his  mind. 
The  more  she  kept  the  idea  of  perpetual  Slavery  before  the  slaves,  the  more 
Jack  resolved  to  make  her  arrogance  cost  her  one  slave  at  least. 

Miss  Cornwell  was  not  only  a  warm  advocate  of  Slavery,  but  was  like- 
wise a  member  of  the  Methodist  church,  under  the  pastoral  charge  of  the 
Rev.  J.  C.  Gregg.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  minister  was  visiting  Miss 
C.,  the  subject  of  Slavery  was  introduced  in  John's  hearing.  The  reverend 
gentleman  took  the  ground  that  it  was  not  right  to  hold  slaves, — said  there 
were  none  in  Pennsylvania,  etc.  The  young  mistress  showed  little  or  no 
sign  of  thinking  otherwise  while  he  remained,  "  but,  after  he  was  gone,  she 
raved  and  went  on  in  a  great  way,  and  told  her  brother  if  he  (the  minister), 
ever  married  her,  he  would  have  to  come  out  of  his  notions  about  freedom." 
It  was  John's  opinion  that  the  subject  of  matrimony  was  then  under  con- 
sideration between  them.  For  himself,  he  was  highly  delighted  with  the 
minister's  "  notions  of  freedom,"  as  he  had  heard  so  many  high  notions  of 
Slavery. 

In  reference  to  the  labor  usage  under  the  young  mistress,  John  said  that 
they  had  been  "worked  very  hard,  and  especially  last,  and  the  present  year." 
"Last  year,"  he  stated,  "they  had  hardly  any  meat,  but  were  fed  chiefly  on 
herring.  Seeing  that  it  was  going  to  be  the  same  thing  this  year  too,  I 
thought  that  if  I  could  make  my  escape  to  Canada,  I  would  do  it."  He 
had  strong  parental  and  kindred  ties  to  break,  but  resolved  to  break  them 
rather  than  remain  under  Miss  Cornwell. 


448  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD 

JOSIAH  was  twenty-three.  A  more  promising-looking  subject  to  represent 
the  fugitives  in  Canada,  was  not  readily  to  be  found.  His  appearance 
indicated  that  he  was  a  young  man  of  extra  physical  powers,  at  least,  one 
not  likely  to  turn  his  face  agajn  towards  Egypt. 

JOSIAH'S  gain  was  the  loss  of  Thomas  J.  Hodgson  (above  alluded  to). 
For  full  three  years  this  desire  and  determination  to  be  free  had  been  in 
Josiah's  heart.  The  denial  of  his  manhood  nerved  him  to  seek  for  refuge 
in  a  foreign  clime. 

GEORGE,  the  last  named  in  this  party,  gave  his  age  as  twenty-six.  In 
appearance  he  was  not  behind  any  of  his  comrades.  He  fled  from  a  farmer, 
(the  late  William  Jackson),  who  owned,  it  was  said,  "  sixteen  head."  He 
had  recently  died,  leaving  all  his  slaves  in  bondage.  Seeing  that  the  settle- 
ment of  the  estate  might  necessitate  the  sale  of  some  of  the  slaves,  George 
thought  that  he  had  better  not  wait  for  the  division  of  the  property  or  any- 
thing else,  but  push  ahead  with  the  first  train  for  Canada.  Slavery,  as  he 
viewed  it,  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  downright  robbery.  He  left  his 
mother,  one  sister,  and  other  near  kin.  After  George  went  to  Canada,  his 
heart  yearned  tenderly  after  his  mother  and  sister,  and,  as  the  following 
letter  will  show,  he  was  prepared  to  make  commendable  exertions  in  their 
behalf: 

ST.  CATHARINES,  JULY  19th,  1858. 

DEAR  SIR  : — With  pleasure  I  now  inform  you  that  I  am  well,  and  hope  this  may  find 
you  and  yours  the  same  also.  I  hope  kind  sir  you  will  please  to  see  Mr.  Paul  Hammon, 
to  know  when  he  will  try  to  get  my  Mother  and  Sister  I  wish  him  to  send  me  word  when 
he  will  go  so  I  may  meet  him  in  Philadelphia. 

And  I  will  Endevor  to  meet  him  there  With  some  money  to  assist  him  in  getting  them. 
Let  me  know  when  you  start  for  them  so  I  may  be  able  to  meet  you  there,  please  after 
this  letter  passes  from  you  sir,  give  it  to  John  Camper  tell  him  to  give  it  to  his  Mother, 
so  that  ray  Mother  can  get  it,  be  careful  and  not  let  no  white  man  get  hold  of  it.  I  am 
now  living  with  my  cousin  Leven  Parker,  near  Saint  Catharines,  $10  a  month.  No  more 
at  present,  from  your  friend,  GEORGE  BALLARD. 

The  inquiry  may  arise,  as  to  how  such  passengers  managed  to  get  through 
Maryland  and  Delaware.  But  it  cannot  be  expected  that  the  manner  in 
which  each  arrival  traveled  should  be  particularly  described.  It  might 
not  be  prudent  even  now,  to  give  the  names  of  persons  still  living  in  the 
South,  who  assisted  their  fellow-men  in  the  dark  days  of  Slavery.  In 
order,  however,  that  some  idea  may  be  gathered  as  to  the  workings  of  one 
branch  of  the  road  in  Delaware  (with  names  suppressed)  we  insert  the  fol- 
lowing original  letter  for  what  it  may  be  worth. 

CAMDEN,  June  13,  1858. 

MR.  STILL  :— I  writ  to  inform  you  that  we  stand  in  need  of  help  if  ever  we  wonted 
help  it  is  in  theas  day,  we  have  Bin  trying  to  rais  money  to  By  a  hors  but  there  is  so  few 
here  that  we  can  trust  our  selves  with  for  fear  that  they  may  serve  us  as  torn  otwell 
served  them  when  he  got  them  in  dover  Jail.  But  he  is  dun  for  ever,  i  wont  to  no  if 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858.  449 

your  friends  can  help  us,  we  have  a  Road  that  more  than  100  past  over  in  1857.  it  is 
one  we  made  for  them,  7  in  march  after  the  lions  had  them  there  is  no  better  in  the  State, 
we  are  7  miles  from  Delaware  Bay.  you  may  understand  what  i  mean.  I  wrote  last 
december  to  the  anti  Slavery  Society  for  James  Mot  and  others  concerning  of  purchasing 
a  horse  for  this  Bisnes  if  your  friends  can  help  us  the  work  must  stil  go  on  for  ther  is 
much  frait  pases  over  this  Road,  But  ther  has  Ben  but  3  conductors  for  sum  time,  you 
may  no  that  there  is  but  few  men,  sum  talks  all  dos  nothing,  there  is  horses  owned  by 
Collard  peopel  but  not  for  this  purpose.  We  wont  one  for  to  go  when  called  for,  one  of 
our  best  men  wa,s  nigh  Cut  By  keeping  of  them  too  long,  By  not  having  means  to  convay 
them  tha  must  Be  convad  if  they  pass  over  this  Road  safe  tha  go  through  in  2  nights  to 
Wilmington,  for  i  went  there  with  28  in  one  gang  last  November,  tha  had  to  ride  for  when 
thea  com  to  us  we  go  15  miles,  it  is  hard  Road  to  travel  i  had  sum  conversation  with  mr. 
Evens  and  wos  down  here  on  a  visit,  pleas  try  what  you  can  do  for  us  this  is  the  place 
we  need  help,  12  mile  i  live  from  mason  and  Dixson  Line.  I  wod  have  come  but  cant 
have  time,  as  yet  there  has  been  some  fuss  about  a  boy  ho  lived  near  Camden,  he  has 
gone  away,  he  ses  me  and  rny  brother  nose  about  it  but  he  dont. 

There  is  but  4  slaves  near  us,  never  spoke  to  one  of  them  but  wonce  she  never  gos  out 
pleas  to  tri  and  help,  you  can  do  much  if  you  will  it  will  be  the  meana  of  saving  ourselves 
and  others.  Ancer  this  letter. 

Pleas  to  writ  let  me  no  if  you  can  do  anything  for  us..   I  still  remain  your  friend. 


ARRIVAL  F.ROM  RICHMOND,  1858. 

EBENEZER  ALLISON. 

"Eb"was  a  bright  mulatto,  handsome,  well-made,  and  barely  twenty 
years  of  age.  He  reported  that  he  fled  from  Mr.  John  Tilghman  Fos- 
ter, a  farmer,  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Richmond.  His  master,  Ebene- 
zer  unhesitatingly  declared,  was  a  first-rate  man.  "  I  had  no  right  to  leave 
him  in  the  world,  but  I  loved  freedom  better  than  Slavery."  After 
fully  setting  forth  the  kind  treatment  he  had  been  accustomed  to  receive 
under  his  master,  a  member  of  the  Committee  desired  to  know  of  him  if 
he  could  read,  to  which  he  answered  that  he  could,  but  he  admitted  that 
what  knowledge  he  had  obtained  in  this  direction  was  the  result  of  efforts 
made  stealthily,  not  through  any  license  afforded  by  his  master.  John 
Tilghman  Foster  held  deeds  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  head  of  slaves, 
and  was  a  man  of  influence. 

Ebenezer  had  served  his  time  in  the  barber's  shop.  On  escaping  he  for- 
sook his  parents,  and  eight  brothers  and  sisters.  As  he  was  so  intelligent, 
the  Committee  believed  he  would  make  his  mark  in  life  some  time. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858. 

JOHN  THOMPSON   CARR,   ANN  MOUNTAIN  AND  CHILD,   AND  WILLIAM  BOWLER. 

JOHN  was  a  sturdy-looking  chattel,  but  possessed  far  less  intelligence 
than  the  generality  of  passengers.     He  was  not  too  old,  however,  to  im- 
prove.    The  fact  that  he  had  spirit  enough  to  resent  the  harsh  treatment 
29 


450  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

of  one  Albert  Lewis,  a  small  farmer,  who  claimed  to  own  him,  showed  that 
he  was  by  no  means  a  hopeless  case.  With  all  his  apparent  stupidity  he 
knew  enough  to  give  his  master  the  name  of  a  "  free  whiskey  drinker,"  like- 
wise of  "  beating  and  fighting  the  slaves."  It  was  on  this  account  that  John 
was  compelled  to  escape. 

ANN  MOUNTAIN  arrived  from  Delaware  with  her  child  about  the  same 
time  that  John  did,  but  not  in  company  with  him ;  they  met  at  the  station 
in  Philadelphia.  That  Slavery  had  crippled  her  in  every  respect  was  very 
discernible;  this  poor  woman  had  suffered  from  cuffing,  etc.,  until  she 
could  no  longer  endure  her  oppression.  Taking  her  child  in  her  arms, 
she  sought  refuge  beyond  the  borders  of  slave  territory.  Ann  was  about 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  her  child  not  quite  a  year  old.  They  were  consi- 
dered entitled  to  much  pity. 

WILLIAM  was  forty-one  years  of  age,  dark,  ordinary  size,  and  intelligent. 
He  fled  from  Richmond,  where  he  had  been  held  by  Alexander  Royster,  the 
owner  of  fifteen  slaves,  and  a  tobacco  merchant.  William  said  that  his  mas- 
ter was  a  man  of  very  savage  temper,  short,  and  crabbed.  As  to  his  social 
relations, William  said  that  he  was  "  a  member  of  nothing  now  but  a  liquor 
barrel." 

Knowing  that  his  master  and  mistress  labored  under  the  delusion  that  he 
was  silly  enough  to  look  up  to  them  as  kind-hearted  slave-holders,  to  whom 
he  should  feel  himself  indebted  for  everything,  William  thought  that  they 
would  be  sadly  puzzled  to  conjecture  what  had  become  of  him.  He  was  sure 
that  they  would  be  slow  to  believe  that  he  had  gone  to  Canada.  Until 
•within  the  last  five  years  he  had  enjoyed  many  privileges  as  a  slave,  but  he 
had  since  found  it  not  so  easy  to  submit  to  the  requirements  of  Slavery. 
He  left  his  wife,  Nancy,  and  two  children. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE,  1858. 

KOBERTA  TAYLOB. 

The  subject  'of  this  sketch  was  a  young  mulatto  woman,  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  who  fled  from  the  City  of  Baltimore.  Both  before  and  after 
her  escape  Roberta  appeared  to  appreciate  her  situation  most  fully.  Her 
language  concerning  freedom  had  in  it  the  ring  of  common  sense,  as  had  her 
remarks  touching  her  slave  life. 

In  making  her  grievances  known  to  the  Committee  she  charged  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  McCoy  with  having  done  great  violence  to  her  freedom  and  degrading 
her  womanhood  by  holding  her  in  bonds  contrary  to  her  wishes.  Of  Mr. 
McCoy,  however,  she  spoke  less  severely  than  she  did  of  his  "  better  half." 
Indeed  she  spoke  of  some  kind  traits  in  his  character,  but  said  that  his  wife 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HIGHTSTOWN,  1858.  451 

was  one  of  "  the  torn  down,  devilish  dispositions,  all  the  time  quarreling 
and  fighting,  and  would  swear  like  an  old  sailor."  It  was  in  consequence 
of  these  evil  propensities  that  her  ladyship  was  intolerable  to  Roberta. 
Without  being  indebted  to  her  owners  for  any  privileges,  she  had  managed 
.to  learn  to  read  a  little,  which  knowledge  she  valued  highly  and  meant  to 
improve  in  Canada. 

Roberta  professed  to  be  a  Christian,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Bethel 
Methodist  Church.  Her  servitude,  until  within  four  years  of  her  escape, 
had  been  passed  in  Virginia,  under  Mrs.  McCoy's  father,  when  to  accom- 
modate the  daughter  she  was  transferred  to  Baltimore.  Of  her  parentage  or 
relatives  no  note  was  made  on  the  book.  It  was  sad  to  see  such  persons 
destitute  and  homeless,  compelled  to  seek  refuge  among  strangers,  not  daring 
to  ask  the  slightest  favor,  sympathy  or  prayer  to  aid  her,  Christian  as  she 
was,  from  any  Christian  of  Baltimore,  wearing  a  fair  skin. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HIGHTSTOWN,  1858. 

ROBERT  THOMPSON   (A  PREACHER). 

Slavery  exempted  from  the  yoke  no  man  with  a  colored  skin  no  matter 
what  his  faith,  talent,  genius,  or  worth  might  be.  The  person  of  Christ  in 
a  black  skin  would  scarcely  have  caused  it  to  relinquish  its  tyrannical 
grasp;  neither  God  nor  man  was  regarded  by  men  who  dealt  in  the  bodies 
and  souls  of  their  fellow-men.  Robert  stated  to  the  Committee  that  he  fled 
from  "  John  R.  Laten,  a  very  harsh  kind  of  a  farmer,  who  drank  right 
smart,"  that  on  the  morning  he  "  took  out,"  while  innocent  of  having  com- 
mitted any  crime,  suddenly  in  a  desperate  fit  of  passion,  his  master  took  him 
"  by  the  collar,"  at  the  same  time  calling  loudly  to  "  John  "  for  "  ropes." 
This  alarming  assault  on  the  part  of  his  master  made  the  preacher  feel  as 
though  his  Satanic  majesty  had  possession  of  him.  In  such  a  crisis  he  evi- 
dently felt  that  preaching  would  do  no  good ;  he  was,  however,  constrained 
to  make  an  effort.  To  use  his  own  words,  he  said :  "  I  gave  a  sudden  jerk 
and  started  off  on  a  trot,  leaving  my  master  calling,  'stop!  stop!'  but  I 
kept  on  running,  and  was  soon  out  of  sight." 

The  more  he  thought  over  the  brutal  conduct  of  his  master  the  more  de- 
cided he  became  never  to  serve  him  more,  and  straightway  he  resolved  to  try 
to  reach  Canada.  Being  in  the  prime  of  his  life  (thirty-nine  years  of  age) 
and  having  the  essential  qualifications  for  traveling  over  the  Underground 
Rail  Road,  he  was  just  the  man  to  endure  the  trials  consequent  upon  such 
an  undertaking. 

Said  Robert :  "  I  always  thought  slavery  hard,  a  very  dissipated  life  to 
live.  I  always  thought  we  colored  people  ought  to  work  for  ourselves  and 


452  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

wives  and  children  like  other  people.  The  Committee  saw  that  Robert's 
views  were  in  every  word  sound  doctrine,  and  for  further  light  asked  him 
some  questions  respecting  the  treatment  he  had  received  at  the  hands  of  his 
'mistress,  not  knowing  but  that  he  had  received  kindness  from  the  "  weaker 
vessel,"  while  enduring  suffering  under  his  master ;  but  Robert  assured  them 
in  answer  to  this  inquiry  that  his  mistress  was  a  very  "ill,  dissipated 
woman,"  and  "  was  not  calculated  to  sympathize  with  a  poor  slave."  Robert 
was  next  interviewed  with  regard  to  religious  matters,  when  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  he  bore  the  name  of  being  a  "  local  preacher  of  the  gospel  of  the 
Bethel  Methodist  denomination."  Thus  in  leaving  slavery  he  had  to  for- 
sake his  wife  and  three  children,  kinfolks  and  church,  which  arduous  task 
but  for  the  brutal  conduct  of  the  master  he  might  have  labored  in  vain  for 
strength  to  perform. 

As  he  looked  calmly  back  upon  the  past,  and  saw  how  he  and  the 
rest  of  the  slaves  had  been  deprived  of  their  just  rights  he  could  hardly 
realize  how  Providence  could  suffer  slave-holders  to  do  as  they  had  been 
doing  in  trampling  upon  the  poor  and  helpless  slaves.  Yet  he  had  strong 
faith  that  the  Almighty  would  punish  slave-holders  severely  for  their 
wickedness. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

ALFBED   8.   THORNTON. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  a  young  man  about  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  of  dark  color,  but  bright  intellectually.  Alfred  found  no  fault  with 
the  ordinary  treatment  received  at  the  hands  of  his  master ;  he  had  evi- 
dently been  on  unusually  intimate  terms  with  him.  Nor  was  any  fault  found 
with  his  mistress,  so  far  as  her  treatment  of  him  was  concerned  ;  thus,  compa- 
ratively, he  was  "  happy  and  contented,"  little  dreaming  of  trader  or  a 
change  of  owners.  One  day,  to  his  utter  surprise,  he  saw  a  trader  with  a 
constable  approaching  him.  As  they  drew  nearer  and  nearer  he  began  to 
grow  nervous.  What  further  took  place  will  be  given,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
in  Alfred's  own  words  as  follows : 

"William  Noland  (a  constable),  and  the  trader  was  making  right  up  to  me 
almost  on  my  heels,  and  grabbed  at  me,  they  were  so  near.  I  flew,  I  took 
off  my  hat  and  run,  took  off  my  jacket  and  run  harder,  took  off  my  vest 
and  doubled  my  pace,  the  constable  and  the  trader  both  on  the  chase  hot 
foot.  The  trader  fired  two  barrels  of  his  revolver  after  me,  and  cried  out 
as  loud  as  he  could  call,  G-d  d-n,  etc.,  but  I  never  stopped  running,  but 
run  for  my  master.  Coming  up  to  him,  I  cried  out,  Lord,  master,  have 
you  sold  me  ?  '  Yes,'  was  his  answer.  '  To  the  trader/  I  said.  '  Yes/  he 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858. 


453 


answered.      '  Why  couldn't 

you  sold  me  to  some  of  the 

neighbors  ?'  I  said.  '  I  don't 

know,'    he   said,    in   a  dry 

way.  With  my  arms  around 

my  master's  neck,  I  begged 

and  prayed  him  to  tell  me 

why  he  had  sold  me.     The 

trader    and    constable    was 

again  pretty  near.     I  let  go 

my  master  and  took  to  my 

heels   to   save   me.     I   run 

about   a   mile   off  and  run 

into  a  mill  dam  up  to  my 

head  in  water.     I  kept  my 

head  just  above  and  hid  the 

rest  part   of  my  body  for 

more   than   two   hours.      I 

had  not  made  up  my  mind 

to  escape  until  I   had  got 

into  the  water.     I  run  only 

to  have  little  more  time  to 

breathe  before  going  to  Georgia  or  New  Orleans ;  but  I  pretty  soon  made 

up  my  mind  in  the  water  to  try  and  get  to  a  free  State,  and  go  to  Canada 

and  make  the  trial  anyhow,  but  I  didn't  know  which  way  to  travel." 

Such  great  changes  in  Alfred's  prospects  having  been  wrought  in  so 
short  a  while,  together  with  such  a  fearful  looking-for  of  a  fate  in  the  far 
South  more  horrid  than  death,  suddenly,  as  by  a  miracle,  he  turns  his 
face  in  the  direction  of  the  North.  But  the  North  star,  as  it  were,  hid 
its  face  from  him.  For  a  week  he  was  trying  to  reach  free  soil,  the  rain 
scarcely  ceasing  for  an  hour.  The  entire  journey  was  extremely  discoura- 
ging,-and  many  steps  had  to  be  taken  in  vain,  hungry  and  weary.  But 
having  the  faith  of  those  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures,  who  wandered  about 
in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth,  being  destitute,  afflicted  and  tormented,  he 
endured  to  the  end  and  arrived  safely  to  the  Committee. 

He  left  his  father  and  mother,  both  slaves,  living  near  Middleburg,  in  Vir- 
ginia, not  far  from  where  he  said  his  master  lived,  who  went  by  the  name  of 
C.  E.  Shinn,  and  followed  farming.  His  master  and  mistress  were  said  to 
be  members  of  the  "South  Baptist  Church,"  and  both  had  borne  good 
characters  until  within  a  year  or  so  previous  to  Alfred's  departure.  Since 
then  a  very  serious  disagreement  had  taken  place  between  them,  resulting 
in  their  separation,  a  heavy  lawsuit,  and  consequently  large  outlays.  It 
was  this  domestic  trouble,  in  Alfred's  opinion,  that  rendered  his  sale 


454  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

indispensable.  Of  the  merits  of  the  grave  charges  made  by  his  master 
against  his  mistress,  Alfred  professed  to  have  formed  no  opinion ;  he  knew, 
however,  that  his  master  blamed  a  school-master,  by  the  name  of  Conway, 
for  the  sad  state  of  things  in  his  household.  Time  would  fail  to  tell  of  the 
abundant  joy  Alfred  derived  from  the  fact,  that  his.  "  heels  "  had  saved  him 
from  a  Southern  market.  Equally  difficult  would  it  be  to  express  the  in- 
terest felt  by  the  Committee  in  this  passenger  and  his  wonderful  hair-breadth 
escape. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BELLEAIR. 

JT7LIUS   SMITH,   WIFE    MARY,  AND    BOY    JAMES,  HENRY  AND    EDWARD   SMITH,  AND 

JACK    CHRISTY. 

While  this  party  was  very  respectable  in  regard  to  numbers  and  en- 
listed much  sympathy,  still  they  had  no  wounds  or  bruises  to  exhibit,  or 
very  hard  reports  to  make  relative  to  their  bondage.  The  treatment  that 
had  been  meted  out  to  them  was  about  as  tolerant  as  Slavery  could  well 
afford ;  and  the  physical  condition  of  the  passengers  bore  evidence  that  they 
had  been  used  to  something  better  than  herring  and  corn  cake  for  a  diet. 

JULIUS,  who  was  successful  enough  to  bring  his  wife  and  boy  with  him, 
was  a  wonderful  specimen  of  muscular  proportions.  Although  a  young  man, 
of  but  twenty-five,  he  weighed  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds ;  he  was 
tall  and  well-formed  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  soles  of  his  feet. 
Nor  was  he  all  muscle  by  a  great  deal ;  he  was  well  balanced  as  to  mother 
wit  and  shrewdness. 

In  looking  back  into  the  pit  from  whence  he  had  been  delivered  he  could 
tell  a  very  interesting  story  of  what  he  had  experienced,  from  which  it  was 
evident  that  he  had  not  been  an  idle  observer  of  what  had  passed  relative  to 
the  Peculiar  Institution ;  especially  was  it  very  certain  that  he  had  never 
seen  anything  lovely  or  of  good  report  belonging  to  the  system.  So  far  as 
his  personal  relations  were  concerned,  he  acknowledged  that  a  man  named 
Mr.  Robert  Hollan,  had  assumed  to  impose  himself  upon  him  as  master,  and 
that  this  same  man  had  also  wrongfully  claimed  all  his  time,  denied  him  all 
common  and  special  privileges;  besides  he  had  deprived  him  of  an  educa- 
tion, etc.,  which  looked  badly  enough  before  he  left  Maryland,  but  in  the 
light  of  freedom,  and  from  a  free  State  stand-point,  the  idea  that  "  man's 
inhumanity  to  man  "  should  assume  such  gigantic  proportions  as  to  cause 
him  to  seize  his  fellow-man  and  hold  him  in  perpetual  bondage,  was  mar- 
vellous in  the  extreme. 

JULIUS  had  been  kept  in  the  dark  in  Maryland,  but  on  free  soil,  the  light 
rushed  in  upon  his  astonished  vision  to  a  degree  almost  bewildering.  That 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858.  455 

his  master  was  a  man  of  "means  and  pretty  high  standing" — Julius 
thought  was  not  much  to  his  credit  since  they  were  obtained  from  unpaid 
labor.  In  his  review  allusion  was  made  not  only  to  his  master,  but  also  to 
his  mistress,  in  which  he  said  that  she  was  "  a  quarrelsome  and  crabbed 
woman,  middling  stout."  In  order  to  show  a  reason  why  he  left  as  he  did,  he 
stated  that  "there  had  been  a  fuss  two  or  three  times"  previous  to  the  escape, 
and  it  had  been  rumored  "  that  somebody  would  have  to  be  sold  soon." 
This  was  what  did  the  mischief  so  far  as  the  "running  away"  was  concerned. 
Julius'  color  was  nearly  jet  black,  and  his  speech  was  very  good  considering 
his  lack  of  book  learning ;  his  bearing  was  entirely  self-possessed  and  com- 
mendable. 

His  wrife  and  boy  shared  fully  in  his  affections,  and  seemed  well  pleased 
to  have  their  faces  turned  Canada-ward.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  more 
of  them  here. 

HENRY  was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age,  of  an  active  turn,  brown 
skin,  and  had  given  the  question  of  freedom  his  most  serious  attention,  as 
his  actions  proved.  While  he  could  neither  read  nor  write,  he  could  think. 
From  the  manner  in  which  he  expressed  himself,  with  regard  to  Robert 
Hollan,  no  man  in  the  whole  range  of  his  recollections  will  be  longer 
remembered  than  he ;  his  enthralment  while  under  Hollan  will  hardly  ever 
be  forgotten.  Any  being  who  had  been  thus  deprived  of  his  rights,  could 
hardly  fail  to  command  sympathy;  in  cases  like  this,  however,  the  sight  and 
language  of  such  an  one  was  extremely  impressive. 

Of  this  party,  Edward,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  called  forth  much  sympathy ; 
he  too  was  claimed  by  Hollan.  He  was  of  a  good  physical  make-up,  and 
seemed  to  value  highly  the  great  end  he  had  in  view,  namely,  a  residence  in 
Canada. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858. 

JOHN  WESLEY  COMBASH,  JACOB  TAYLOR,  AND  THOMAS  EDWARD  SKINNER. 

The  revelations  made  by  these  passengers  were  painful  to  listen  to,  and 
would  not  have  been  credited  if  any  room  had  existed  for  doubt. 

JOHN  WESLEY  was  thirty-two  years  of  age,  of  a  lively  turn,  pleasant 
countenance,  dark  color,  and  ordinary  size.  In  unburdening  his  mind 
to  the  Committee  the  all-absorbing  theme  related  to  the  manner  in  which 
he  had  been  treated  as  a  slave,  and  the  character  of  those  who  had 
oppressed  him.  He  stated  that  he  had  been  the  victim  of  a  man  or  party, 
named  Johnson,  in  whose  family  John  had  been  a  witness  to  some  of  the 
most  high-handed  phases  of  barbarism ;  said  he,  "  these  Johnsons  were  noto- 
rious for  abusing  their  servants.  A  few  years  back  one  of  their  slaves,  a 


456  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

t 

coachman,  was  kept  on  the  coach  box  one  cold  night  when  they  were  out  at 
a  ball  until  he  became  almost  frozen  to  death,  in  fact  he  did  die  in  the 
infirmary  from  the  effects  of  the  frost  about  one  week  afterwards." 

Another  case  was  that  of  a  slave  woman  in  a  very  delicate  state,  who  was 
one  day  knocked  down  stairs  by  Mrs.  Johnson  herself,  and  in  a  few  weeks 
after,  the  poor  woman  died  from  the  effects  of  the  injury  thus  received. 
The  doctor  who  attended  the  injured  creature  in  this  case  was  simply  told 
that  she  slipped  and  fell  down  stairs  as  she  was  coming  down.  Colored 
witnesses  had  no  right  to  testify,  and  the  doctor  was  mute,  consequently  the 
guilty  escaped  wholly  unpunished."  "  Another  case,"  said  John  Wesley, 
"  was  a  little  girl,  half-grown,  who  was  washing  windows  up  stairs  one  day, 
and  unluckily  fell  asleep  in  the  window,  and  in  this  position  was  found  by 
her  mistress ;  in  a  rage  the  mistress  hit  her  a  heavy  slap,  knocked  her  out 
of  the  window,  and  she  fell  to  the  pavement,  and  died  in  a  few  hours  from 
the  effects  thereof.  The  mistress  professed  to  know  nothing  about  it,  simply 
said,  '  she  went  to  sleep  and  fell  out  herself.'  As  usual  nothing  was  done  in 
the  way  of  punishment." 

These  were  specimens  of  the  inner  workings  of  the  peculiar  institution. 
John,  however,  had  not  only  observed  Slavery  from  a  domestic  stand-point, 
he  had  also  watched  master  and  mistress  abroad  as  visitors  and  guests  in 
other  people's  houses,  noticed  not  only  how  they  treated  white  people,  but  also 
how  they  treated  black  people.  "  These  Johnsons  thought  that  they  were 
first-rate  to  their  servants.  When  visiting  among  their  friends  they  were 
usually  very  polite,  would  bow  and  scrape  more  than  a  little,  even  to  colored 
people,  knowing  that  their  names  were  in  bad  odor,  on  account  of  their 
cruelty,  for  they  had  been  in  the  papers  twice  about  how  they  abused  their 
colored  people." 

As  to  advertising  him,  John  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  they  would  be 
ashamed  to  do  it  from  the  fact  that  they  had  already  rendered  themselves 
more  notorious  than  they  had  bargained  for,  on  account  of  their  cruelty 
towards  their  slaves;  they  were  wealthy,  and  courted  the  good  opinion  of 
society.  Besides  they  were  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  John 
thought  that  they  were  very  willing  that  people  should  believe  that  they 
were  great  saints.  On  the  score  of  feeding  and  clothing  John  gave  them 
credit,  saying  that  "the  clothing  was  good  enough,  they  liked  to  see  the 
house  servants  dressed;"  he  spoke  too  of  the  eating  as  being  all  right,  but 
added,  that  "  very  often  time  was  not  allowed  them  to  finish  their  meals." 
Respecting  work,  John  bore  witness  that  they  were  very  sharp. 

With  John's  intelligence,  large  observation,  good  memory,  and  excellent 
natural  abilities,  with  the  amount  of  detail  that  he  possessed,  nothing  more 
would  have  been  needed  for  a  thrilling  book  than  the  facts  and  incidents 
of  slave  life,  as  he  had  been  conversant  with  it  under  the  Johnsons  in 
Maryland. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858.  457 

As  the  other  two  companions  of  John  Wesley  were  advertised  in  the  Bal- 
timore Sun,  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  light  thus  publicly  afforded : 

$  200  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  living  on  the  York  Turn- 
pike, eight  miles  from  Baltimore  city,  on  Sunday,  April  llth,  my  negro  man, 
JACOB,  aged  20  years  ;  5  feet  10  inches  high  ;  chestnut  color ;  spare  made  ;  good 
features.  I  will  give  $50  reward  if  taken  m  Baltimore  city  or  county,  and  $200 
if  taken  out  of  the  State  and  secured  in  jail  so  that  1  get  him  again. 
a!3-3t*||  WM.  J.  B.  PARLETT. 

"  JACOB,"  answering  to  the  description  in  Mr.  Wm.  J.  B.  Parlett's  adver- 
tisement, gave  his  views  of  the  man  who  had  enslaved  him.  His  state- 
ment is  here  transferred  from  the  record  book :  "  My  master,"  said  Jacob, 
"  was  a  farmer,  a  very  rough  man,  hard  to  satisfy.  I  never  knew  of  but 
one  man  who  could  ever  please  him.  He  worked  me  very  hard ;  he  wanted 
to  be  beating  me*  all  the  time."  This  was  a  luxury  which  Jacob  had  no 
appetite  for,  consequently  he  could  not  resist  signifying  his  unwillingness 
to  yield,  although  resistance  had  to  be  made  at  some  personal  risk,  as  his 
master  had  "  no  more  regard  for  a  colored  man  than  he  had  for  a  stone 
under  his  feet."  With  him  the  following  expression  was  common  :  "  The 
niggers  are  not  worth  a  d-n."  Nor  was  his  wife  any  better,  in  Jacob's 
opinion.  "She  was  a  cross  woman,  and  as  much  of  a  boss  as  he  was." 
"She  would  take  a  club  and  with  both  hands  would  whack  away  as  long 
as  you  would  stand  it."  "She  was  a  large,  homely  woman;  they  were 
common  white  people,  with  no  reputation  in  the  community."  Substantially 
this  was  Jacob's  unvarnished  description  of  his  master  and  mistress. 

As  to  his  age,  and  also  the  name  of  his  master,  Jacob's  statement 
varied  somewhat  from  the  advertisement.  For  instance,  Jacob  Taylor  was 
noticed  on  the  record  book  as  being  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  the  name 
of  his  master  was  entered  as  "  William  Pollit  •"  but  as  Jacob  had  never 
been  allowed  to  learn  to  read,  he  might  have  failed  in  giving  a  correct  pro- 
nunciation of  the  name. 

When  asked  what  first  prompted  him  to  seek  his  freedom,  he  replied, 
"  Oh  my  senses  !  I  always  had  it  in  my  mind  to  leave,  but  I  was  ' jubns ', 
(dubious  ?)  of  starting.  I  didn't  know  the  way  to  come.  I  was  afraid  of 
being  overtaken  on  the  way."  He  fled  from  near  Baltimore,  where  he  left 
brothers  and  other  relatives  in  chains. 

$  20  JxEWARD. — Ran  away  at  the  same  time  and  in  company  with  the  above 
negro  man,  a  bright  mulatto  boy  named  THOMAS  SKINNER,  about  18  years 
old,  5  feet  8  inches  high  and  tolerable  stout  made  ;  he  only  has  a  term  of  years  to 
serve.     I  will  pay  $20  reward  if  delivered  to  me  or  lodged  in  jail  so  I  can  get 
him  again.  GEO.  H.  CARMAN, 

a!3-3t*||.  Towsontown,  Baltimore  county,  Md. 

About  the  same  time  that  this  advertisement  came  to  hand  a  certain  young 
aspirant  for  Canada  was  entered  on  the  Underground  Bail  Road  Book  thus: 


458  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  THOMAS  EDWARD  SKINNER,  a  bright  mulatto,  age  eighteen  years,  well 
formed,  good-looking,  and  wide  awake ;  says,  that  he  fled  from  one  G.  H. 
Carman,  Esq.,  head  Clerk  of  the  County  Court."  He  bore  voluntary  testi- 
mony to  Carman  in  the  following  words:  "He  was  a  very  good  man  ;  he 
fed  and  clothed  well  and  gave  some  money  too  occasionally."  Yet  Thomas 
had  no  idea  of  remaining  in  Slavery  under  any  circumstances.  He  hated 
everything  like  Slavery,  and  as  young  as  he  was,  he  had  already  made 
five  attempts  to  escape.  On  this  occasion,  with  older  and  wiser  heads,  he 
succeeded. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEW  MARKET,  1358. 

ELIJAH  SHAW. 

This  "  article  "  reported  himself  as  having  been  deprived  of  his  liberty  by 
Dr.  Ephraim  Bell,  of  Baltimore  County,  Maryland.  He  had  no  fault  to 
find  with  the  doctor,  however ;  on  the  contrary,  he  spoke  of  him  as  a  "  very 
clever  and  nice  man,  as  much  so  as  anybody  need  to  live  with ;"  but  of  his 
wife  he  could  not  speak  so  favorably ;  indeed,  he  described  her  as  a  most 
tyrannical  woman.  Said  Elijah,  "  she  would  make  a  practice  of  rapping  the 
broomstick  around  the  heads  of  either  men,  women,  or  children  when  she 
got  raised,  which  was  pretty  often.  But  she  never  rapped  me,  for  I  wouldn't 
stand  it ;  I  shouldn't  fared  any  better  than  the  rest  if  I  hadn't  been  resolute. 
I  declared  over  and  over  again  to  her  that  I  would  scald  her  with  the  tea 
kettle  if  she  ever  took  the  broomstick  to  me,  and  I  meant  it.  She  took  good 
care  to  keep  the  broomstick  from  about  my  head.  She  was  as  mischievous 
and  stingy  as  she  could  live ;  wouldn't  give  enough  to  eat  or  wear.  These 
facts  and  many  more  were  elicited  from  Elijah,  when  in  a  calm  state  of  mind 
and  when  feeling  much  elated  with  the  idea  that  his  efforts  in  casting  off  the 
yoke  were  met  with  favor  by  the  Committee,  and  that  the  accommodations 
and  privileges  on  the  road  were  so  much  greater  than  he  had  ever  dreamed 
of.  Such  luck  on  the  road  was  indeed  a  matter  of  wonder  and  delight  to 
passengers  generally.  They  were  delighted  to  find  that  the  Committee 
received  them  and  forwarded  them  on  "  without  money  and  without  price." 
Elijah  was  capable  of  realizing  the  worth  of  such  friendship.  He  was  a 
'young  man  twenty-three  years  of  age,  spare  made,  yellow  complexion,  of 
quick  motion  and  decidedly  collected  in  his  bearing.  In  short,  he  was  a 
man  well  adapted  to  make  a  good  British  subject. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858.  459 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

MARY  FRANCES  KELVIN,   ELIZA  HENDERSON,  AND  NANCY  GRANTHAM. 

MARY  FRANCES  hailed  from  Norfolk ;  she  had  been  in  servitude  under 
Mrs.  Chapman,  a  widow  lady,  against  whom  she  had  no  complaint  to  make  ; 
indeed,  she  testified  that  her  mistress  was  very  kind,  although  fully  allied  to 
slavery.  She  said  that  she  left,  not  on  account  of  bad  treatment,  but 
simply  because  she  wanted  her  freedom.  Her  calling  as  a  slave  had  been 
that  of  a  dress-maker  and  house  servant.  Mary  Frances  was  about  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  of  mixed  blood,  refined  in  her  manners  and  somewhat 
cultivated. 

ELIZA  HENDERSON,  who  happened  at  the  station  at  the  same  time  that 
Frances  was  on  hand,  escaped  from  Richmond.  She  was  twenty-eight  years 
of  age,  medium  size,  quite  dark  color,  and  of  pleasant  countenance.  Eliza 
alleged  that  one  William  Waverton  had  been  wronging  her  by  keeping  her 
down-trodden  and  withholding  her  hire.  Also,  that  this  same  "Waverton 
had,  on  a  late  occasion,  brought  his  heavy  fist  violently  against  her  "jaws," 
which  visitation,  however  "kindly"  intended  by  her  chivalrous  master, 
produced  such  an  unfavorable  impression  on  the  mind  of  Eliza  that  she  at 
once  determined  not  to  yield  submission  to  him  a  day  longer  than  she  could 
find  an  Underground. Rail  Road  conductor  who  would«take  her  North. 

The  blow  that  she  had  thus  received  made  her  almost  frantic ;  she  had 
however  thought  seriously  on  the  question  of  her  rights  before  this  outrage. 

In  Waverton's  household  Eliza  had  become  a  fixture  as  it  were,  especially 
with  regard  to  his  children ;  she  had  won  their  affections  completely,  and  she 
was  under  the  impression  that  in  some  instances  their  influence  had  saved 
her  from  severe  punishment ;  and  for  them  she  manifested  kindly  feelings. 
In  speaking  of  her  mistress  she  said  that  she  was  "  only  tolerable." 

It  would  be  useless  to  attempt  a  description  of  the  great  satisfaction  and 
delight  evinced  by  Eliza  on  reaching  the  Committee  in  Philadelphia. 

NANCY  GRANTHAM  also  fled  from  near  Richmond,  and  was  fortunate  in 
that  she  escaped  from  the  prison-house  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  She  pos- 
sessed a  countenance  peculiarly  mild,  and  was  good-looking  and  interesting, 
and  although  evidently  a  slave  her  father  belonged  strictly  to  the  white 
man's  party,  for  she  was  fully  half  white.  She  was  moved  to  escape  simply 
to  shun  her  master's  evil  designs ;  his  brutal  purposes  were  only  frustrated 
by  the  utmost  resolution.  This  chivalric  gentleman  was  a  husband,  the 
father  of  nine  children,  and  the  owner  of  three  hundred  slaves.  He  be- 
longed to  a  family  bearing  the  name  of  Christian,  and  Avas  said  to  be  an 
M.  D.  "  He  was  an  old  man,  but  very  cruel  to  all  his  slaves."  It  was  said 
that  Nancy's  sister  was  the  object  of  his  lust,  but  she  resisted,  and  the  re- 
sult was  that  she  was  sold  to  New  Orleans.  The  auction-block  was  not  the 


460  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

only  punishment  she  was  called  upon  to  endure  for  her  fidelity  to  her 
womanhood,  for  resistance  to  her  master,  but  before  being  sold  she  was 
cruelly  scourged. 

NANCY'S  sorrows  first  commenced  in  Alabama.  Five  years  previous  to 
her  escape  she  was  brought  from  a  cotton  plantation  in  Alabama,  where 
she  had  been  accustomed  to  toil  in  the  cotton-field.  In  comparing  and  con- 
trasting the  usages  of  slave-holders  in  the  two  States  in  which  she  had 
served,  she  said  she  had  "  seen  more  flogging  under  old  Christian  "  than  she 
had  been  accustomed  to  see  in  Alabama ;  yet  she  concluded,  that  she  could 
hardly  tell  which  State  was  the  worst;  her  cup  had  been  full  and  very  bitter 
in  both  States. 

Nancy  said,  "  the  very  day  before  I  escaped,  I  was  required  to  go  to  his 
(her  master's)  bed-chamber  to  keep  the  flies  'off  of  him  as  he  lay  sick,  or 
pretended  to  be  so.  Notwithstanding,  in  talking  with  me,  he  said  that  he 
was  coming  to  my  pallet  that  night,  and  with  an  oath  he  declared  if  I  made 
a  noise  he  would  cut  my  throat.  I  told  him  I  would  not  be  there.  Accord- 
ingly he  did  go  to  my  room,  but  I  had  gone  for  shelter  to  another  room.  At 
this  his  wrath  waxed  terrible.  Next  morning  I  was  called  to  account  for 
getting  out  of  his  way,  and  I  was  beaten  awfully."  This  outrage  moved 
Nancy  to  a  death-struggle  for  her  freedom,  and  she  succeeded  by  dressing 
herself  in  male  attire. 

After  her  harrowing  story  was  told  with  so  much  earnestness  and  intel- 
ligence, she  was  asked  as  to  the  treatment  she  had  received  at  the  hand  of 
Mrs.  Christian  (her  mistress).  In  relation  to  her,  Nancy  said,  "  Mrs.  Chris- 
tian was  afraid  of  him  (master) ;  if  it  hadn't  been  for  that  I  think  she 
would  have  been  clever;  but  I  was  often  threatened  by  her,  and  once  she 
undertook  to  beat  me,  but  I  could  not  stand  it.  I  had  to  resist,  and  she  got 
the  worst  of  it  that  time." 

All  that  may  now  be  added,  is,  that  the  number  of  young  slave  girls 
shamefully  exposed  to  the  base  lusts  of  their  masters,  as  Nancy  was — truly 
was  legion.  Nancy  was  but  one  of  the  number  who  resisted  influences 
apparently  overpowering.  All  honor  is  due  her  name  and  memory  ! 

She  was  brought  away  secreted  on  a  boat,  but  the  record  is  silent  as  to 
which  one  of  the  two  or  three  Underground  Rail  Koad  captains  (who  at 
that  time  occasionally  brought  passengers),  helped  her  to  escape.  It  was 
hard  to  be  definite  concerning  minor  matters  while  absorbed  in  the  painful 
reflections  that  her  tale  of  suffering  had  naturally  awakened.  If  one  had 
arisen  from  the  dead  the  horrors  of  Slavery  could  scarcely  have  been  more 
vividly  pictured !  But  in  the  multitude  of  travelers  coming  under  the 
notice  of  the  Committee,  Nancy's  story  was  soon  forgotten,  and  new  and 
marvellous  narratives  were  told  of  others  who  had  shared  the  same  bitter 
cup,  who  had  escaped  from  the  same  hell  of  Slavery,  who  had  panted  for 
the  same  freedom  and  won  the  same  prize. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858.  461 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858. 

ORLANDO   J.    HUNT. 

When  ORLANDO  escaped  from  Richmond  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
business  was  not  very  brisk.  A  disaster  on  the  road,  resulting  in  the  cap- 
ture of  one  or  two  captains,  tended  to  damp  the  ardor  of  some  who  wanted 
to  come,  as  well  as  that  of  sympathizers.  The  road  was  not  idle,  however. 
Orlando's  coming  was  hailed  with  great  satisfaction.  He  was  twenty-nine 
years  of  age,  full  black,  possessed  considerable  intelligence,  and  was  fluent 
in  speech ;  fully  qualified  to  give  clear  statements  as  to  the  condition  of 
Slavery  in  Richmond,  etc.  While  the  Committee  listened  to  his  narrations 
wkh  much  interest,  they  only  took  note  of  how  he  had  fared,  and  the  cha- 
racter of  the  master  he  was  compelled  to  serve.  On  these  points  the  sub- 
stance of  his  narrations  may  be  found  annexed : 

"  I  was  owned  by  High  Holser,  a  hide  sorter,  a  man  said  to  be  rich,  a 
good  Catholic,  though  very  disagreeable ;  he  was  not  cruel,  but  was  very 
driving  and  abusive  in  his  language  towards  colored  people.  I  have  been 
held  in  bondage  about  eighteen  years  by  Holser,  but  have  failed,  so  far,  to 
find  any  good  traits  in  his  character.  I  purchased  my  mother  for  one 
hundred  dollars,  when  she  was  old  and  past  labor,  too  old  to  earn  her  hire 
and  find  herself;  but  she  was  taken  away  by  death,  before  I  had  finished 
paying  for  her ;  twenty-five  dollars  only  remained  to  be  paid  to  finish  the 
agreement.  Owing  to  her  unexpected  death,  I  got  rid  of  that  much,  which 
was  of  some  consequence,  as  I  was  a  slave  myself,  and  had  hard  work  to 
raise  the  money  to  purchase  her." 

Thus,  finding  the  usages  of  Slavery  so  cruel  and  outlandish,  he  resolved 
to  leave  "  old  Virginny  "  and  "  took  out,"  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
He  appeared  to  be  of  a  religious  turn  of  mind,  and  felt  that  he  had  "a  call 
to  preach." 

After  his  arrival  in  Canada,  the  following  letter  was  received  from  him : 

ST.  CATHARINES,  C.  W.,  May  6th,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — WM.  STILL  : — Mr.  Orlando  J.  Hunt,  who  has  just  arrived  here 
from  Richmond,  Va.,  desires  me  to  address  to  you  a  line  in  his  behalf.  Mr.  Hunt  is 
expecting  his  clothing  to  come  from  Richmond  to  your  care,  and  if  you  have  received 
them,  he  desires  you  to  forward  them  immediately  to  St.  Catharines,  in  my  care,  in  the 
safest  and  most  expeditious  way  in  your  power.  Mr.  Hunt  is  much  pleased  with  this 
land  of  freedom,  and  I  hope  he  may  do  well  for  himself  and  much  good  to  others.  He 
preached  here  in  the  Baptist  church,  last  evening. 

He  sends  his  kind  regards  and  sincere  thanks  to  you  and  your  family,  and  such  friends 
as  have  favored  him  on  his  way.  Very  respectfully  yours, 

HIRAM  WILSON,  for  ORLANDO  HUNT. 


462  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA.,  1858. 

WILLIAM    MACKEY. 

WILLIAM  made  no  complaint  against  his  master  of  a  serious  nature 
touching  himself.  True,  he  said  his  "  master  was  a  frolicker,  and  fond  of 
drink,"  but  he  was  not  particularly  unkind  to  him.  His  name  was  Tunis ; 
he  was  a  military  man,  and  young ;  consequently  William  had  not  been  in 
his  hands  long.  Prior  to  his  being  owned  by  the  young  master,  he  had 
lived  with  old  mistress  Tunis.  Concerning  her  the  following  is  one  of 
William's  statements : 

"  My  sister  about  the  first  of  this  month,  three  weeks  after  her  confine- 
ment, had  word  sent  to  her  by  her  mistress,  Mrs.  Tunis,  that  she  thought  it 
was  time  for  her  to  come  out  and  go  to  work,  as  she  had  been  laying  by 
long  enough."  In  reply  to  this  message,  William  said  that  "  his  sister  sent 
word  to  her  mistress,  that  she  was  not  well  enough,  and  begged  that  her 
mistress  would  please  send  her  some  tea  and  sugar,  until  she  got  well  enough 
to  go  to  work.  The  mistress'  answer  was  to  the  effect  that  she  did  not 
intend  to  give  her  anything  until  she  went  to  work,  and  at  the  same  time 
she  sent  word  to  her,  that  she  had  better  take  her  baby  down  to  the  back  of 
the  garden  and  throw  it  away,  adding  '  I  will  sell  her,  etc.' " 

It  was  owing  to  the  cruelty  of  Mrs.  Tunis  that  William  was  moved  to 
flee.  According  to  his  statement,  which  looked  reasonable  and  appeared 
truthful,  he  had  been  willed  free  by  his  master,  who  died  at  the  time  that 
the  plague  was  raging  in  Norfolk.  At  the  same  time  his  mistress  also  had 
the  fever,  and  was  dreadfully  frightened,  but  recovered.  Not  long  after  this 
event  it  was  William's  belief  that  the  will  was  made  away  with  through 
the  agency  of  a  lawyer,  and  in  consequence  thereof  the  slaves  were  retained 
in  bondage. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NEAR  BALTIMORE,  1858. 

HENET   TUCKER. 

HENRY  fled  from  Baltimore  county ;  disagreement  between  him  and  his 
so-called  master  was  the  cause  of  his  flight.  Elias  Sneveley,  a  farmer,  known 
on  the  Arabella  Creek  Place  as  a  "  hard  swearer,"  an  "  old  bachelor,"  and  a 
common  tormentor  of  all  around  him,  was  the  name  of  the  man  that  Harry 
said  he  fled  from.  Not  willing  to  be  run  over  at  the  pleasure  of  Sneveley, 
on  two  occasions  just  before  his  escape  serious  encounters  had  arisen  between 
master  and  slave. 

HENRY  being  spirited  and  hungering  for  freedom,  while  his  master  was 
old  and  hardened  in  his  habits,  very  grave  results  had  well  nigh  happened ; 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  1858.  463 

it  was  evident,  therefore,  in  Harry's  opinion  that  the  sooner  he  took  his 
departure  for  Canada  the  better.  His  father's  example  was  ever  present  to 
encourage  him,  for  he  had  escaped  when  Henry  was  a  little  boy ;  (his  name 
was  Benjamin  Tucker).  A  still  greater  incentive,  however,  moved  him, 
which  was  that  his  mother  had  been  sold  South  five  years  prior  to  his  escape, 
since  which  time  he  had  heard  of  her  but  once,  and  that  vaguely. 

Although  education  was  denied  him,  Henry  had  too  much  natural  ability 
to  content  himself  under  the  heel  of  Slavery.  He  saw  and  understood  the 
extent  of  the  wrongs  under  which  he  suffered,  and  resolved  not  to  abide  in 
such  a  condition,  if,  by  struggling  and  perseverance,  he  could  avoid  it.  In 
his  resolute  attempt  he  succeeded  without  any  very  severe  suffering.  He 
was  not  large,  rather  below  the  ordinary  size,  of  a  brown  color,  and  very 
plucky. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

PETER   NELSON.      (RESEMBLED  AN  IRISHMAN.) 

The  coming  of  this  strange-looking  individual  caused  much  surprise, 
representing,  as  he  did,  if  not  a  full-blooded  Irishman,  a  man  of  Irish 
descent.  He  was  sufficiently  fair  to  pass  for  white  anywhere,  with  his  hat 
on — with  it  off,  his  hair  would  have  betrayed  him;  it  was  light,  but  quite 
woolly.  Nor  was  he  likely  to  be  called  handsome;  he  was  interesting, 
nevertheless.  It  was  evident,  that  the  "  white  man's  party  "  had  damaged 
him  seriously.  He  represented  that  he  had  been  in  the  bonds  of  one  James 
Ford,  of  Stafford  county,  Virginia,  and  that  this  "  Ford  was  a  right  tough 
old  fellow,  who  owned  about  two  dozen  head."  "  How  does  he  treat  them  ?'> 
he  was  asked.  "He  don't  treat  them  well  no. way,"  replied  the  passenger. 
"  Why  did  you  leave  ?"  was  the  next  question.  "  Because  of  his  fighting^ 
knocking  and  carrying  on  so,"  was  the  prompt  answer.  The  Committee 
fully  interviewed  him,  and  perceived  that  he  had  really  worn  the  fetters  of 
Slavery,  and  that  he  was  justified  in  breaking  his  bonds  and  fleeing  for 
refuge  to  Canada,  and  was  entitled  to  aid  and  sympathy.  Peter  was  about 
twenty-four  years  of  age.  He  left  nine  brothers  and  sisters  in  bondage. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  1858. 

MARY  JONES  AND  SUSAN  BELL. 

These  "  weaker  vessels  "  came  from  the  seat  of  government.  Mary  con- 
fessed that  she  had  been  held  to  service  as  the  property  of  Mrs.  Henry  Hard- 
ing, who  resided  at  Rockville,  some  miles  out  of  Washington.  Both  Mr. 


464  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  Mrs  Harding  she  considered  "  bad  enough,"  but  added,  "  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  young  set  I  could  get  along  with  them ;  they  can't  be  pleased." 
Yet  Mary  had  not  fared  half  so  hard  under  the  Hardings  as  many  slaves 
had  under  their  claimants.  Intellectually,  she  was  quite  above  the  average ; 
she  was  tall,  and  her  appearance  was  such  as  to  awaken  sympathy.  Through 
the  permission  of  her  claimant  she  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hiring  her  time 
for  three  dollars  per  month  and  find  herself;  she  was  also  allowed  to  live 
in  Washington.  Such  privileges,  with  wages  at  so  low  a  rate,  were  thought 
to  be  extra,  and  could  only  be  obtained  in  exceptional  cases. 

"  In  nine  years,"  said  Mary,  "  I  have  not  even  as  much  as  received  an 
apron  from  them,"  (her  owners).  The  meanness  of  the  system  under  which 
she  had  been  required  to  live,  hourly  appeared  clearer  and  clearer  to  her,  as 
she  was  brought  into  contact  with  sympathizing  spirits  such  as  she  had 
never  known  before. 

SUSAN,  who  was  in  Mary's  charge,  was  an  invalid  child  of  four  years  of 
age,  who  never  walked,  and  whose  mother  had  escaped  to  Canada  about 
three  years  before  under  circumstances  which  obliged  her  to  leave  this  child, 
then  only  a  year  old. 

Susan  had  been  a  great  sufferer,  and  so  had  her  mother,  wjio  had  been  a 
long  time  anxiously  looking  and  praying  for  her  coining,  as  she  had  left  her 
in  charge  of  friends  who  were  to  take  care  of  her  until  the  way  might  open 
for  her  safe  delivery  to  her  mother.  Many  letters,  fitted  to  awaken  very 
deep  feelings  came  from  the  mother  about  this  child.  It  was  a  satisfaction 
to  the  Committee  to  feel  that  they  could  be  the  medium  in  aiding  in  the 
reunion  of  mother  and  child. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

WILLIAM  CARPENTER. 

Escaped  from  the  Father  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law — Senator  Mason. 

It  was  highly  pleasing  to  have  a  visit  from  a  "  chattel "  belonging  to  the 
leading  advocate  of  the  infamous  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  He  was  hurriedly 
interviewed  for  the  sake  of  reliable  information. 

That  William  possessed  a  fair  knowledge  of  slave  life  under  the  Senator 
there  was  no  room  to  doubt,  although  incidents  of  extreme  cruelty  might  not 
have  been  so  common  on  Mason's  place  as  on  some  others.  While  the  verbal 
interchange  of  views  was  quite  full,  the  hour  for  the  starting  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  train  arrived  too  soon  to  admit  of  a  full  report  for  the 
record  book.  From  the  original  record,  however,  the  following  statement  is 
taken  as  made  by  William,  and  believed  to  be  strictly  true.  We  give  it  as 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  OLD  DOMINION.  465 

it  stands  on  the  old  Underground  Rail  Road  book :  "  I  belonged  to  Senator 
Mason.  The  Senator  was  down  on  colored  people.  He  owned  about  eighty 
head — was  very  rich  and  a  big  man,  rich  enough  to  lose  all  of  them.  He 
kept  terrible  overseers ;  they  would  beat  you  with  a  stick  the  same  as  a  dog. 
The  overseers  were  poor  white  trash ;  he  would  give  them  about  sixty  dollars 
a  year." 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  its  Father  are  both  numbered  with  the 
"  Lost  Cause/'  and  the  "  Year  of  Jubilee  has  come." 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  OLD  DOMINION. 

NINE    VERY    FINE    "ARTICLES."       LEW    JONES,    OSCAR    PAYNE,    MOSE    WOOD,    DAVE 
DIGGS,   JACK,   HEN,  AND  BILL  DADE,   AND  JOE   BALL. 

The  coming  of  this  interesting  party  was  as  gratifying,  as  their  departure 
must  have  been  disagreeable  to  those  who  had  been  enjoying  the  fruits  of 
their  unpaid  labor.  Stockholders  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  con- 
ductors, etc.,  about  this  time  were  well  pleased  with  the  wonderful  success 
of  the  road,  especially  as  business  was  daily  increasing. 

Upon  inquiry  of  these  passengers  individually,  the  following  results  were 
obtained  : 

LEWIS  was  about  fifty-two  years  of  age,  a  man  of  superior  stature,  six  feet 
high,  with  prominent  features,  and  about  one  third  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in 
his  veins.  The  apparent  solidity  of  the  man  both  with  respect  to  body  and 
mind  was  calculated  to  inspire  the  idea  that  he  would  be  a  first-rate  man  to 
manage  a  farm  in  Canada. 

Of  his  bondage  and  escape  the  following  statement  was  obtained  from 
him :  "  I  was  owned  by  a  man  named  Thomas  Sydan,  a  Catholic,  and  a 
farmer.  He  was  not  a  very  hard  man,  but  was  very  much  opposed  to  black 
folks  having  their  liberty.  He  owned  six  young  slaves  not  grown  up.  It 
was  owing  to  Sydan's  mother's  estate  that  I  came  into  his  hands;  before  her 
death  I  had  hoped  to  be  free  for  a  long  time  as  soon  as  she  died.  My  old 
mistress'  name  was  Nancy  Sydan;  she  was  lame  for  twenty  years,  and 
couldn't  walk  a  step  without  crutches,  and  I  was  her  main  support.  I  was 
foreman  on  the  farm ;  sometimes  no  body  but  me  would  work,  and  I  was 
looked  up  to  for  support.  A  good  deal  of  the  time  I  would  have  to  attend 
to  her.  If  she  was  going  to  ride,  I  would  have  to  pick  her  up  in  my  arms 
and  put  her  in  the  carriage,  and  many  times  I  would  have  to  lift  her  in  her 
sick  room.  No  body  couldn't  wait  upon  her  but  me.  She  had  a  husband, 
and  he  had  a  master,  and  that  was  rum;  he  drank  very  hard,  he  killed  him- 
self drinking.  He  was  poor  support.  When  he  died,  fifteen  years  ago,  he 
left  three  sons,  Thomas,  James,  and  Stephen,  they  were  all  together  then, 
30 


466  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

only  common  livers.  After  his  death  about  six  years  mistress  died.  I  felt 
sure  then  I  would  be  free,  but  was  very  badly  disappointed.  I  went  to  my 
young  masters  and  asked  them  about  my  freedom  ;  they  laughed  at  me  and 
said,  no  such  thought  had  entered  their  heads,  that  I  was  to  be  free.  The 
neighbors  said  it  was  a  shame  that  thqy  should  keep  me  out  of  iny  freedom, 
after  I  had  been  the  making  of  the  tamily,  and  had  behaved  myself  so 
faithful.  One  gentleman  asked  master  John  what  he  would  take  for  me, 
and  offered  a  thousand  dollars;  that  was  three  months  before  I  ran  away,  and 
massa  John  said  a  thousand  dollars  wouldn't  buy  one  leg.  I  hadn't  any- 
thing to  hope  for  from  them.  I  served  them  all  my  life,  and  they  didn't 
thank  me  for  it.  A  short  time  before  I  come  away  my  aunt  died,  all  the 
kin  I  had,  and  they  wouldn't  let  me  go  to  the  funeral.  They  said  '  the 
time  couldn't  be  spared.'"  This  .was  the  last  straw  on  the  camel's  back. 

In  Lewis'  grief  and  disappointment  he  decided  that  he  would  run  away 
the  first  chance  that  he  could  get,  and  seek  a  home  in  Canada.  He  held 
counsel  with  others  in  whom  he  could  confide,  and  they  fixed  on  a  time  to 
start,  and  resolved  that  they  would  suffer  anything  else  but  Slavery.  Lewis 
was  delighted  that  he  had  managed  so  cunningly  to  leave  master  Tom  and 
mistress  Margaret,  and  their  six  children  to  work  for  their  own  living.  He 
had  an  idea  that  they  would  want  Lew  for  many  things ;  the  only  regret 
he  felt  was  that  he  had  served  them  so  long,  that  they  had  received  his  sub- 
stance and  strength  for  half  a  century.  Fortunately  Lewis'  wife  escaped 
three  days  in  advance  of  him,  in  accordance  with  a  mutual  understanding. 
They  had  no  children.  The  suffering  on  the  road  cost  Lewis  a  little  less 
than  death,  but  the  joy  of  success  came  soon  to  chase  away  the  effects  of 
the  pain  and  hardship  which  had  been  endured. 

OSCAR,  the  next  passenger,  was  advertised  as  follows  : 

$200  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  service  of  the  Eev.  J.  P.  McGuire, 
Episcopal  High  School,  Fairfax  countv.Va.,  on  Saturday,  10th  inst.,  Negro  Man, 
Oscar  Payne,  aged  30  years,  5  feet  4  inches  in  height,  square  built,  mulatto 
color,  thick,  bushy  suit  of  hair,  round,  full  face,  and  when  spoken  to  has  a 
pleasant  manner — clothes  not  recollected. 

I  will  give  $200  for  his  recovery  if  taken  out  of  the  State,  or  $150  if  taken  in 
the  State,  and  secured  that  I  can  get  him. 

T.  D.  FENDALL.       jyl7-6t. 

Such  announcements  never  frightened  the  Underground  Rail  Road  Com- 
mittee ;  indeed,  the  Committee  rather  preferred  seeing  the  names  of  their 
passengers  in  the  papers,  as,  in  that  case,  they  could  all  the  more  cautiously 
provide  against  Messrs.  slave-hunters.  Oscar  was  a  "  prime,  first-class  arti- 
cle," worth  $1800.  The  above  description  of  him  is  endorsed.  His  story 
ran  thus : 

"  I  have  served  under  Miss  Mary  Dade,  of  Alexandria— Miss  Bade  was 
a  very  clever  mistress ,  she  hired  me  out.  When  I  left  I  was  hired  at  the 
Episcopal  school— High  School  of  Virginia.  With  me  times  had  been  very 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  OLD  DOMINION.  467 

well.  No  privilege  was  allowed  me  to  study  books.  I  cannot  say  that  I 
left  for  any  other  cause  than  to  get  my  freedom,  as  I  believe  I  have  beeu 
used  as  well  as  any  slave  in  the  District.  I  left  no  relatives  but  two  cousins; 
my  two  brothers  ran  away,  Brooks  and  Lawrence,  but  where  they  went  I 
can't  tell,  but  would  be  pleased  to  know.  Three  brothers  and  one  sister 
have  been  sold  South,  can't  tell  where  they  are."  Such  was  Oscar's  brief 
narrative  ;  that  he  was  truthful  there  was  no  room  to  doubt. 

The  next  passenger  was  MOSES  or  "Mose,"  who  looked  as  though  he  had 
been  exceedingly  well-cared  for,  being  plump,  fat,  and  extra-smart.  He 
declared  that  General  Briscoe,  of  Georgetown,  D.  C.,  had  been  defrauding 
him  out  of  thirteen  dollars  per  month,  this  being  the  amount  for  which  he 
was  hired,  and,  instead  of  being  allowed  to  draw  it  for  himself,  the  general 
pocketed  it.  For  this  "  kind  treatment "  he  summed  up  what  seemed  to 
be  a  true  bill  for  ten  years  against  the  general.  But  he  made  another 
charge  of  a  still  graver  character :  he  said  that  the  general  professed  to  own 
him.  But  as  he  (Moses)  was  thoroughly  tired,  and  believed  that  Slavery 
was  no  more  justifiable  than  murder,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  and  join 
the  union  party  for  Canada.  He  stated  that  the  general  owned  a  large 
number  of  slaves,  which  he  hired  out  principally.  Moses  had  no  special 
fault  to  find  with  his  master,  except  such  as  have  been  alluded  to,  but  as 
to  mistress  Briscoe,  he  said,  that  she  was  pretty  rough.  Moses  left  four 
sisters  in  bondage. 

DAVID,  the  next  member  of  this  freedom-loving  band,  was  an  intelligent 
man ;  his  manners  and  movements  were  decidedly  prepossessing.  He  was 
about  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  dark,  tall,  and  rather  of  a  slender  stature, 
possessing  very  large  hopes.  He  charged  Dr.  Josiah  Harding  of  Rockville, 
Montgomery  county,  with  having  enslaved  him  contrary  to  his  wish  or  will. 

As  a  slave,  David  had  been  required  at  one  time  to  work  on  a  farm,  and 
at  another  time  to  drive  carriage,  of  course,  without  pay.  Again  he  had 
been  bound  as  a  waiter  on  the  no  pay  system,  and  again  he  had  been  called 
into  the  kitchen  to  cook,  all  for  the  benefit  of  the  Doctor — the  hire  going 
into  the  Dr.'s  pocket.  This  business  David  protested  against  in  secret, 
but  when  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  his  protestations  were  "  over  and 
above  board." 

Of  the  Doctor,  David  said,  that  "  he  was  clever,  but  a  Catholic ;"  he  also 
said,  that  he  thought  his  wife  was  "  tolerable  clever,"  although  he  had  never 
been  placed  under  her  where  he  would  have  had  an  opportunity  of  learning 
her  bad  traits  if  she  had  any. 

The  Doctor  had  generously  bargained  with  David,  that  he  could  have 
himself  by  paying$1000;  he  had  likewise  figured  up  how  the  money  might 
be  paid,  and  intimated  what  a  nice  thing  it  would  be  for  "  Dave  "  to  wake 
up  some  morning  and  find  himself  his  own  man.  This  was  how  it  was  to  be 
accomplished :  Dave  was  to  pay  eighty-five  dollars  annually,  and  in  about 


468  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

twelve  years  he  would  have  the  thousand,  and  a  little  over,  all  made  up. 
On  this  principle  and  suggestion  Dave  had  been  digging  faithfully  and  hard, 
and  with  the  aid  of  friends  he  had  nearly  succeeded.  Just  when  he  was  within 
sight  of  the  grand  prize,  and  just  as  the  last  payment  was  about  to  be  made, 
to  Dave's  utter  surprise  the  Doctor  got  very  angry  one  day  about  some 
trifling  matter  (all  pretension)  and  in  his  pretended  rage  he  said  there  were 
too  many  "  free  niggers  "  going  about,  and  he  thought  that  Dave  would  do 
better  as  a  slave,  etc. 

After  that,  'all  the  satisfaction  that  he  was  able  to  get  out  of  the  Doctor, 
was  simply  to  the  effect,  that  he  had  hired  him  to  Mr.  Morrison  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  After  his  "  lying  and  cheating  "  in  this 
way,  David  resolved  that  he  would  take  his  chances  on  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  Not  a  spark  of  faith  did  he  have  in  the  Doctor.  For  a  time, 
however,  before  the  opportunity  to  escape  offered,  he  went  to  Mr.  Morrison 
as  a  waiter,  where  it  was  his,  province  to  wait  on  six  of  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  In  the  meantime  his  party  matured 
arrangements  for  their  trip,  so  Dave  "  took  out "  and  left  the  Judges  without 
a  waiter.  The  more  he  reflected  over  the  nature  of  the  wrongs  he  had 
suffered  under,  the  less  he  thought  of  the  Doctor. 

JOE,  who  also  came  with  this  band,  was  half  Anglo-Saxon ;  an  able-bodied 
mail,  thirty-four  yetrs  of  age.  He  said,  that  "  Miss  Elizabeth  Gordon,  a 
white  woman  living  in  Alexandria,"  claimed  him.  He  did  not  find  much 
fault  with  her.  She  permitted  him  to  hire  his  time,  find  his  own  clothing, 
etc.,  by  which  regulation  Joe  got  along  smoothly.  Nevertheless  he  declared, 
that  he  was  tired  of  wearing  the  yoke,  and  felt  constrained  to  throw  it  off  as 
soon  as  possible.  Miss  Gordon  was  getting  old,  and  Joe  noticed  that  the 
young  tribe  of  nephews  and  nieces  was  multiplying  in  large  numbers.  This 
he  regarded  as  a  very  bad  sign  ;  he  therefore,  gave  the  matter  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  his  serious  attention,  and  it  was  not  long  ere  he  was  fully 
persuaded  that  it  would  be  wisdom  for  him  to  tarry  no  longer  in  the  prison- 
house.  Joe  had  a  wife  and  four  children,  which  were  as  heavy  weights  to 
hold  him  in  'Virginia,  but  the  spirit  of  liberty  prevailed.  Joe,  also,  left  two 
sisters,  one  free,  the  other  a  slave.  His  wife  belonged  to  the  widow  Irwin. 
She  had  assured  her  slaves,  that  she  had  "provided  for  them  in  her  will," 
and  that  at  her  death  all  would  be  freed.  They  were  daily  living  on  the 
faith  thus  created,  and  obviously  thought  the  sooner  the  Lord  relieved  the  old 
mistress  of  her  earthly  troubles  the  better. 

Although  Joe  left  his  wife  and  children,  he  did  not  forget  them,  but  had 
strong  faith  they  would  be  reunited.  >  After  going  to  Canada,  he  addressed 
several  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Committee  concerning  his  family,  and 
as  will  be  seen  by  the  following,  he  looked  with  ardent  hopes  for  their 
arrival : 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  OLD  DOMINION.  469 

TORONTO,  Nov.  7th,  1857. 

DEAE  ME.  STILL  : — As  I  must  again  send  you  a  letter  fealing  myself  oblidge  to  you  for 
all  you  have  done  and  your  kindness.  Dear  Sir  my  wife  will  be  on  to  Philadelphia  on  the 
8th  7th,  and  I  would  you  to  look  out  for  her  and  get  her  an  ticket  and  send  her  to  me 
Toronto.  Her  name  are  May  Ball  with  five  children.  Please  send  her  as  soon  as  you  can. 

Youra  very' truly,  JOSEPH  BALL. 

Will  you  please  to  telegrape  to  me,  JMo.  31  Dummer  st. 

JAKE,  another  member  of  the  company  of  nine,  was  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  of  dark  hue,  round-made,  keen  eyes,  and  apparently  a  man  of  superior 
intelligence.  Unfortunately  his  lot  had  been  of  such  a  nature  that  no 
helping  opportunity  had  been  afforded  for  the  cultivation  of  his  mind. 

He  condemned  in  very  strong  terms  a  man  by  the  name  of  Benjamin  B. 
Chambers,  who  lived  near  Elkton,  but  did  not  there  require  the  services 
of  Jake,  hiring  Jake  out  just  as  he  would  have  hired  a  horse,  and  likewise 
keeping  his  pay.  Jake  thought  that  if  justice  could  have  been  awarded  him, 
Chambers  would  either  have  had  to  restore  that  of  which  he  had  wronged 
him,  or  expiate  the  wrong  in  prison. 

Jake,  however,  stood  more  in  awe  of  a  young  master,  who  was  soon  likely 
to  come  into  power,  than  he  did  of  the  old  master.  This  son  had  already 
given  Jake  to  understand  that  once  in  his  hands  it  "  wouldn't  be  long  before 
he  would  have  him  jingling  in  his  p'ocket,"  signifying,  that  he  would  sell 
him  as  soon  as  his  father  was  gone. 

The  manner  of  the  son  stirred  Jake's  very  blood  to  boiling  heat  it 
seemed.  His  suffering,  and  the  suffering  of  his  fellow-bondsmen  had  never 
before  appeared  so  hard.  The  idea  that  he  must  work,  and  be  sold  at  the 
pleasure  of  another,  made  him  decide  to  "  pull  up  stakes,"  and  seek  refuge 
elsewhere.  Such  a  spirit  as  he  possessed  could  not  rest  in  servitude. 

MARY  ANN,  the  wife  of  Jake,  who  accompanied  him,  was  a  pleasant- look- 
ing bride.  She  said  that  she  was  owned  by  "  Elias  Rhoads,  a  fanner,  and  a 
pretty  fair  kind  of  a  man."  She  had  been  treated  very  well. 

JOHN  AND  HENRY  DADE,  ages  twenty  and  twenty-five  years,  were  from 
Washington.  They  belonged  to  the  class  of  well-cared  for  slaves ;  at  least 
they  said  that  their  mistress  had  not  dealt  severely  with  them,  and  they 
never  would  have  consented  to  pass  through  the  severe  sufferings  encountered 
on  their  journey,  but  for  the  strong  desire  they  had  to  be  free.  From 
Canada  John  wrote  back  as  follows  : 

ST.  CATHAKINES,  Canada. 

MR.  STILL,  SIE  : — I  ar  rivd  on  Friday  evenen  bot  I  had  rite  smart  treble  for  my  mony 
gave  out  at  the  tridge  and  I  had  to  fot  et  to  St.  Catherin  tho  I  went  rite  to  worke  at  the 
willard  house  for  8  doTor  month  bargend  for  to  stae  all  the  wentor  bot  I  havent  eny  clouse 
nor  money  please  send  my  tronke  if  et  has  come.  Derate  et  to  St.  Catharines  to  the 
willard  house  to  John  Dade  and  if  et  ant  come  plice  rite  for  et  soon  as  posable  deract  your 
letter  to  Rosenen  Dade  Washington  send  your  deraction  please  tend  to  this  rite  a  way  for 
I  haf  made  a^good  start  I  think  that  I  can  gate  a  longe  en  this  plase.  If  my  brother  as 


470 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


well  send  him  on  for  I  haf  a  plase  for  him  ef  he  ant  well  please  dont  send  him  for  this  as 
no  plase  for  a  sik  possan.  The  way  I  got  this  plase  I  went  to  soe  a  fran  of  myen  from 
Washington.  Dan  al  well  and  he  gave  me  werke.  Pleas  ancer  this  as  soon  as  you  gat  et 
you  must  excues  this  bad  ritingfor  my  chance  wars  hot  small  to  line  this  mouch, 

JOHN  H.  DADE. 

If  yon  haf  to  send  for  my  tronke  to  Washington  send  the  name  of  John  Trowharte.    Sir 
please  rite  as  soon  as  you  gat  this  for  et  as  enporten.  JOHN  H.  DADE. 


AKBIVAL  FKOM  DELAWARE,  1858. 

GEORGE   LAWS   AND  COMRADE— TIED    AND  HOISTED  WITH    BLOCK  AND    TACKLE,   TO 

BE  COWHIDED. 

GEORGE  represented  the  ordinary  young  slave  men  of  Delaware.  He 
was  of  unmixed  blood,  medium  size  and  of  humble  appearance.  He  was 
destitute  of  the  knowledge  of  spelling,  to  say  nothing  of  reading.  Slavery 
had  stamped  him  unmistakably  for  life.  To  be  scantily  fed  and  clothed, 
and  compelled  to  work  without  hire,  George  did  not  admire,  but  had  to  sub- 
mit without  murmuring ;  indeed,  he  knew  that  his  so-called  master,  whose 
name  was  Denny,  would  not  be  likely  to  hear  complaints  from  a  slave ;  he 
therefore  dragged  his  chain  and  yielded  to  his  daily  task. 

One  day,  while  hauling  dirt  with 
a  fractious  horse,  the  animal  mani- 
fested an  unwillingness  to  perform 
his  duty  satisfactorily.  At  this  pro- 
cedure the  master  charged  George 
with  provoking  the  beast  to  do  wick- 
edly, and  in  a  rage  he  collared  George 
and  bade  him  accompany  him  "up 
stairs"  (of  the  soap  house).  Not 
daring  to  resist,  George  went  along 
with  him.  Ropes  being  tied  around 
both  his  wrists,  the  block  and  tackle 
were  fastened  thereto,  and  George 
soon  found  himself  hoisted  on  tip-toe 
with  his  feet  almost  clear  of  the  floor. 
The  "kind-hearted  master"  then 
tore  all  the  poor  fellow's  old  shirt 
off  his  back,  and  addressed  him 
thus :  "  You  son  of  a  b — h,  I  will 
give  you  pouting  around  me;  stay 
there  till  I  go  up  town  for  my  cow- 
hide." 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1838.  471 

George  begged  piteously,  but  in  vain.  The  fracas  caused  some  excitement, 
and  it  so  happened  that  a  show  was  to  be  exhibited  that  day  in  the  town, 
which,  as  is  usual  in  the  country,  brought  a  great  many  people  from  a  dis- 
tance; so,  to  his  surprise,  when  the  master  returned  with  his  cowhide,  he 
found  that  a  large  number  of  curiosity-seekers  had  been  attracted  to  the 
soap  house  to  see  Mr.  Denny  perform  with  his  cowhide  on  George's  back, 
as  he  was  stretched  up  by  his  hands.  Many  had  evidently  made  up  their 
minds  that  it  would  be  more  amusing  to  see  the  cowhiding  than  the  circus. 

The  spectators  numbered  about  three  hundred.  This  was  a  larger  number 
than  Mr.  Deuny  had  been  accustomed  to  perform  before,  consequently  he 
was  seized  with  embarrassment ;  looking  confused  he  left  the  soap  house  and 
went  to  his  office,  to  await  the  dispersion  of  the  crowd. 

The  throng  finally  retired,  and  left  George  hanging  in  mortal  agony. 
Human  nature  here  made  a  death-struggle ;  the  cords  which  bound  his  wrists 
were  unloosed,  and  George  was  then  prepared  to  strike  for  freedom  at  the 
mouth  of  the  cannon  or  point  of  the  bayonet.  How  Denny  regarded  the 
matter  when  he  found  that  George  had  not  only  cheated  him  out  of  the 
anticipated  delight  of  cowhiding  him,  but  had  also  cheated  him  out  of  him- 
self is  left  for  the  imagination  to  picture. 

George  fled  from  Kent ;  he  was  accompanied  by  a  comrade  whose  name 
inadvertently  was  not  recorded ;  he,  however,  was  described  as  a  dark,  round, 
and  full-faced,  stout-built  man,  with  bow  legs,  and  bore  the  appearance  of 
having  been  used  hard  and  kept  down,  and  in  ignorance,  &c.  Hard  usage 
constrained  him  to  flee  from  his  sore  oppression. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858. 

JOHN  WEEMS,  ALIAS  JACK  HERRING. 

Although  Jack  was  but  twenty-three  years  of  age,  he  had  tasted  the  bitter 
cup  of  Slavery  pretty  thoroughly  under  Kendall  B.  Herring,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  in  Jack's  opinion  a  "mere  pretender, 
and  a  man  of  a  very  bad  disposition."  Jack  thought  that  he  had  worked 
full  long  enough  for  this  Herring  for  nothing.  When  a  boy  twelve  years 
of  age,  his  mother  was  sold  South ;  from  that  day,  until  the  hour  that  he 
fled  he  had  not  heard  a  word  from  her.  In  making  up  his  mind  to  leave 
Slavery,  the  outrage  inflicted  upon  his  mother  only  tended  to  increase 
his  resolution. 

In  speaking  of  his  mistress,  he  said  that  "she  was  a  right  fine  woman." 
Notwithstanding  all  his  sufferings  in  the  Kendall  family,  he  seemed  willing 
to  do  justice  to  his  master  and  mistress  individually.  He  left  one  sister  free 
and  one  brother  in  the  hands  of  Herring.  Jack  was  described  as  a  man  of 
dark  color,  stout,  and  well-made. 


472  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1858. 

EUTH   HARPER,   GEORGE  ROBINSON,   PRISCILLA   GARDENER,  AND   JOSHUA 
JOHN  ANDERSON. 

RUTHIE'S  course  in  seeking  her  freedom  left  John  McPherson  a  woman 
less  to  work  for  him,  and  to  whip,  sell,  or  degrade  at  his  pleasure.  It  is  due 
to  candor,  however,  to  say  that  she  admitted  that  she  had  not  been  used  very 
roughly  by  Mr.  McPherson.  Ruth  was  rather  a  nice-looking  young  woman, 
tall,  and  polite  in  her  manners.  She  came  from  Frederick,  Maryland. 

GEORGE  ROBINSON  stated  that  he  came  from  a  place  about  one  and  a  half 
miles  from  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  one  mile  from  Old  town,  and  five  miles 
from  Elkton,  and  was  owned  by  Samuel  Smith,  a  farmer,  who  was  "  pretty 
cross  and  an  ill  man."  George's  excuse  for  withdrawing  his  valuable 
services  from  Mr.  Smith  at  the  time  that  he  did,  was  attributable  to  the  fact, 
that  he  entertained  fears  that  they  were  about  to  sell  him.  Having  cautious- 
ness largely  developed  he  determined  to  reach  Canada  and  keep  out  of 
danger.  George  was  only  twenty-one,  passable-looking  in  appearance,  and 
of  a  brown  color,  and  when  speaking,  stammered  considerably. 

PRISCILLA  GARDENER  fled  from  the  widow  Hilliard.  Her  master  departed 
to  his  long  home  not  a  great  while  before  she  left.  Priscilla  was  a  young 
woman  of  about  thirty  years  of  age,  ordinary  size,  and  of  a  ginger-bread 
color ;  modest  in  demeanor.  She  first  commenced  her  bondage  in  Rich- 
mond, under  the  late  Benjamin  Hilliard,  of  whom  she  said  that  he  was  "  a 
very  bad  man,  who  could  never  be  pleased  by  a  servant,"  and  was 
constantly  addicted  to  fighting  not  only  with  others,  but  also  with  herself. 
So  cruelly  had  Priscilla  been  treated,  that  when  he  died  she  did  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  she  was  glad.  Soon  after  this  event,  sick  of  Slavery  and 
unwilling  to  serve  the  widow  any  longer,  she  determined  to  escape,  and  suc- 
ceeded. 

JOSHUA'  JOHN  ANDERSON  fled  from  a  farmer  who  was  said  to  be  a  poor 
man,  by  the  name  of  Skelton  Price,  residing  in  Baltimore  county,  near 
a  little  village  called  Alexandria,  on  the  Harford  county  turn-pike  road. 
Price,  not  able  to  own  a  farm  and  slaves  too,  rented  one,  and  was  trying  to 
"  get  up  in  the  world."  Price  had  a  wife  and  family,  but  in  the  way  of 
treatment,  Joshua  did  not  say  anything  very  hard  against  him.  As  his 
excuse  for  leaving  them,  he  said,  coolly,  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that 
he  could  get  along  better  in  freedom  than  he  could  in  Slavery,  and  that  no 
man  had  a  right  to  his  labor  without  paying  him  for  it.  He  left  his  mother 
and  also  three  brothers  and  two  sisters  owned  by  Price.  Joshua  was 
about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  of  a  coa"rse  make,  and  a  dark  hue  ;  he  had 
evidently  held  but  little  intercourse  with  any  class,  save  such  as  he  found 
in  the  corn-field  and  barn-yard. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA  AND  DELA  WARE.          473 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORTH  CAROLINA  AND  DELAWARE. 

"  DICK  BEESLY,"   MURRAY  YOUNG  AND  CHARLES  ANDREW   BOLDEN. 

Physically,  Dick  was  hardly  up  to  the  ordinary  stature  of  slaves,  but 
mentally  he  had  the  advantage  of  the  masses;  he  was  too  sharp  to  be  kept 
in  Slavery.  His  hue  was  perfect,  no  sign  of  white  about  him,  if  that  were 
any  advantage. 

From  Dick's  story,  it  appeared  that  he  had  seen  hard  times  in  North 
Carolina,  under  a  man  he  designated  by  the  name  of  Richard  Smallwood. 
He  was  a  farmer,  living  near  "VVheldon.  One  of  the  faults  that  he  found 
with  Smallwood  was,  that  he  was  a  "tough,  drinking  man" — he  also 
charged  him  with  holding  "  two  hundred  and  sixty  slaves  in  bonds,"  the 
most  of  whom  he  came  in  possession  of  through  his  wife.  "  She,"  Dick 
thought  "  was  pretty  fair."  He  said  that  no  slave  had  any  reason  to  look 
for  any  other  than  hard  times  under  his  master,  according  to  what  he  had 
seen  and  known  since  he  had  been  in  the  "  institution,"  and  he  fancied  that 
his  chances  for  observation  had  been  equally  as  good  as  the  great  majority 
of  slaves.  Young  as  he  was,  Dick  had  been  sold  three  times  already,  and 
didn't  know  how  much  oftener  he  might  have  to  submit  to  the  same  fate  if 
he  remained ;  so,  in  order  to  avoid  further  trouble,  he  applied  his  entire  skill 
to  the  grand  idea  of  making  his  way  to  Canada. 

Manfully  did  he  wrestle  with  difficulty  after  difficulty,  until  he  finally 
happily  triumphed  and  reached  Philadelphia  in  a  good  condition — that  is, 
he  was  not  sick,  but  he  was  without  money — home — education  or  friends, 
except  as  he  found  them  among  strangers.  He  was  hopeful,  neverthe- 
less. 

MURRAY  YOUNG  was  also  of  the  unmixed-blood  class,  and  only  twenty- 
one  years  of  age.  The  spirit  of  liberty  in  him  was  pretty  largely  developed. 
He  entertained  naught  against  Dr.  Lober,  of  Newcastle,  but  rather  against 
the  Doctor's  wife.  He  said  that  he  could  get  along  pretty  well  with  the 
Doctor,  but,  he  could  not  get  along  with  Mrs.  Lober.  But  the  very  idea 
of  Slavery  was  enough  for  him.  He  did  not  mean  to  work  for  any  body 
for  nothing. 

ANDREW  BOLDEN  was  still  younger  than  Charles  Murray,  being  only 
eighteen  years  of  age,  but  he  was  very  well  grown,  and  on  the  auction-block 
he  would,  doubtless,  have  brought  a  large  price.  He  fled  from  Newark. 
His  story  contained  nothing  of  marked  importance. 


474  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

JOHN    JANNEY,  TALBOT    JOHNSON,   SAM   GROSS,   PETER  GROSS,   JAMES    HENRY  JACK- 
SON, AND  SAM  SMITH. 

$1.000  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  August  14th,  two  negro 
men,  viz : 

BILL  HUTTON, 

aged  48  or  50  years,  dark  brown,  round  face,  5  feet  7  or  8  inches  high,  rather 
stout,  has  a  waddling  walk,  and  small  bald  spot  on  the  top  of  his  head. 

TALBOT  JOHNSON, 

aged  about  35,  is  black,  spare,  and  lean-visaged,  about  5  feet  10  inches  high,  has  lost  some 
of  his  front  teeth,  leans  forward  as  he  walks. 

If  taken  in  a  slave  State  I  will  give  $200  each  for  their  recovery.  For  their  recovery 
from  a  free  State  I  will  give  one-half  their  value.  B.  D.  BOND,  Port  Republic,  Md. 

RAN  AWAY  at  the  same  time  and  in  company,  negro  man 

SAM  GROSS, 

aged  about  33,  is  5  feet  8  or  9  inches  high,  black  color,  rather  bad  teeth.  For  his  recovery, 
if  taken  in  a  slave  State,  I  will  give  $200.  For  his  recovery  from  a  free  State,  I  will  give 
half  his  value.  GEO.  IRELAND,  Port  Republic,  Md. 

RAN  AWAY  at  the  same  time  and  in  company,  two  negro  men,  viz : 

PETER  GROSS, 

aged  33,  is  light-brown  color,  5  feet  9  or  10  inches  high,  has  a  small  scar  over  his  right 
eyebrow,  usually  wears  a  goatee,  has  a  pleasant  countenance. 

JOHN  JANNEY.  aged  22,  light-brown  color,  5  feet  6  or  seven  inches  high,  broad 
across  the  shoulders,  has  one  of  his  front  upper  teeth  broken,  has  a  scar  upon  one  of  his 
great  toes  from  the  cut  of  an  axe.  For  their  recovery,  if  taken  in  a  slave  State,  I  will 
give  $200  each.  For  their  recovery  from  a  free  State  I  will  give  half  their  value. 

JOS.  GRIFFISS.St.  Leonards,  Calvert  county,  Md. 
Refer  to  N.  E.  BERRY,  No.  63  Pratt  street,  Baltimore. 

So  far  as  Messrs.  Bond,  Ireland,  and  Griffiss  may  be  concerned  (if  they 
are  still  living),  they  may  not  care  to  have  the  reward  kept  in  view,  or  to  hear 
anything  about  the  "  ungrateful "  fellows.  It  may  be  different,  however, 
with  other  parties  concerned.  This  company,  some  of  whom  bore  names 
agreeing  with  those  in  the  above  advertisement,  are  found  described  in  the 
record  book  as  follows  : 

"Sept.  10th,  1858.  JOHN  JANNEY  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  peculiar  in- 
stitution; color  brown,  well-formed,  self-possessed  and  intelligent.  He  says 
that  he  fled  from  master  Joseph  Griffiss  of  Culbert  county,  Maryland  ;  that 
he  has  been  used  to  "  tight  work,"  "  allowed  no  chances,"  and  but  "  half 
fed."  His  reason  for  leaving  was  partly  "  hard  treatment,"  and  partly 
because  he  could  "  get  along  better  in  freedom  than  in  slavery."  He  found 
fault  with  his  master  for  not  permitting  him  to  "  learn  to  read,"  etc.  He 
referred  to  his  master  as  a  man  of  "fifty  years  of  age,  with  a  wife  and 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND  475 

three  children."  John  said  that  "she  was  a  large,  portly  woman,  with  an 
evil  disposition,  always  wanted  to  be  quarreling  and  fighting,  and  was 
stingy."  He  said,  however,  that  his  "master's  children,  Ann  Rebecca, 
Dorcas,  and  Joe  were  not  allowed  to  meddle  with  the  slaves  on  the  farm." 
Thirty  head  of  slaves  belonged  on  the  place. 

PETER  GROSS  says  that  he  too  was  owned  by  Joseph  Griffiss.  Peter  is, 
he  thinks,  thirty-nine  years  of  age, — tall,  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  and  in 
intellect  mediocre.  He  left  his  wife  and  five  children  behind.  He  could 
not  bring  them  with  him,  therefore  he  did  not  tell  them  that  he  was  about 
to  leave.  He  was  much  dissatisfied  with  Slavery  and  felt  that  he  had  been 
badly  dealt  with,  and  that  he  could  do  better  for  himself  in  Canada. 

TALBOT  JOHNSON,  is  thirty-five  years  of  age,  quite  dark,  and  substan- 
tially built.  He  says  that  he  has  been  treated  very  badly,  and  that  Duke 
Bond  was  the  name  of  the  "tyrant"  who  held  him.  He  pictured  his 
master  as  "a  lean-faced  man — not  stout — of  thirty-eight  or  thirty-nine  years 
of  age,  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church."  "He  had  a  wife  and  two 
children ;  his  last  wife  was  right  pleasant — he  was  a  farmer,  and  was  rich, 
had  sold  slaves,  and  was  severe  when  he  flogged."  Talbot  had  been 
promised  a  terrible  beating  on  the  return  of  his  master  from  the  Springs, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  recruit  his  health,  "  as  he  was  poorly."  This  was  the 
sole  cause  of  Talbot's  flight. 

SAM  GROSS  is  about  forty,  a  man  of  apparent  vigor  physically,  and  wide 
awake  mentally.  He  confesses  that  he  fled  from  George  Island,  near  Port 
Republic,  Md.  He  thought  that  times  with  him  had  been  bad  enough 
all  his  life,  and  he  would  try  to  get  away  where  he  could  do  better.  In 
referring  to  his  master  and  mistress,  he  says  that  "  they  are  both  Episcopa- 
lians, hard  to  please,  and  had  as  bad  dispositions  as  could  be, — would  try  to 
knock  the  slaves  in  the  head  sometimes."  This  spirit  Sam  condemned  in 
strong  terms,  and  averred  that  it  was  on  account  of  such  treatment  that  he 
was  moved  to  seek  out  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Sam  left  his  wife, 
Mary  Ann,  and  four  children,  all  under  bonds.  His  children,  he  said,  were 
treated  horribly.  They  were  owned  by  Joseph  Griffiss  spoken  of  above. 

JAMES  HENRY  JACKSON  is  seventeen  years  of  age ;  he  testifies  that  he  fled 
from  Frederica,  Delaware,  where  he  had  been  owned  by  Joseph  Brown. 
Jim  does  not  make  any  serious  complaint  against  his  master,  except  that  he 
had  him  in  the  market  for  sale.  To  avert  this  fate,  Jim  was  moved  to  flee. 
His  mother,  Ann  Jackson,  lived  nine  miles  from  Milford,  and  was  owned  by 
Jim  Loflin,  and  lived  on  his  place.  Of  the  going  of  her  son  she  had  no 
knowledge. 

These  narratives  have  been  copied  from  the  book  as  they  were  hastily 
recorded  at  the  time.  During  their  sojourn  at  the  station,  the  subjoined 
letter  came  to  hand  from  Thomas  Garrett,  which  may  have  caused  anxiety 
and  haste : 


476  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

WILMINGTON,  9th  mo.  6th,  1858. 

ESTEEMED  FRIENDS,  J.  M.  McKiM  AND  WM.  STILL  :— I  have  a  mixture  of  good  and 
bad  news  for  you.  Good  in  having  passed  five  of  God's  poor  safely  to  Jersey,  and  Chester 
county,  last  week;  and  this  day  sent  on  four  more,  that  have  caused  me  much  anxiety. 
They  were  within  twenty  miles  of  here  on  sixth  day  last,  and  by  agreement  I  had  a  man 
out  all  seventh  day  night  watching  for  them,  to  pilot  them  safely,  as  1,000  dollars  reward 
was  offered  for  four  of  the  five;  and  I  went  several  miles  yesterday  in  the  country  to  try 
to  learn  what  had  become  of  them,  but  could  not  hear  of  them.  A  man  of  tried  integrity 
just  called  to  say  that  they  arrived  at  his  house  last  night,  about  midnight,  and  1  employed 
him  to  pilot  them  to  a  place  of  safety  in  Pennsylvania,  to-night,  after  which  I  trust  they  will 
be  out  of  reach  of  their  pursuers.  Now  for  the  bad  news.  That  old  scoundrel,  who  applied 
to  me  some  three  weeks  since,  pretending  that  he  wished  roe  to  assist  him  in  getting  his 
seven  slaves  into  a  free  state,  to  avoid  the  sheriff,  and  which  I  agreed  to  do,  if  he  would 
bring  them  here ;  but  positively  refused  to  send  for  them.  Ten  days  since  I  received 
another  letter  fcom  him,  saying  that  the  sheriff  had  been  there,  and  taken  away  two  of  the 
children,  which  he  wished  me  'to  raise  money  to  purchase  and  set  free,  and  then  closed  by 
saying  that  his  other  slaves,  a  man,  his  wife,  and  three  children  had  left  the  same  evening 
and  he  had  no  doubt  I  would  find  them  at  a  colored  man's  house,  he  named,  here,  and 
wished  me  to  ascertain  at  once  and  let  him  know.  I  at  once  was  convinced  he  wished  to 
know  so  as  to  have  them  arrested  and  taken  back.  I  found  the  man  had  arrived ;  but  the 
woman  and  children  had  given  out,  and  he  left  them  with  a  colored  family  in  Cecil.  I 
wrote  him  word  the  family  had  not  got  here,  but  said  nothing  of  the  man  being  here.  On 
seventh  day  evening  I  saw  a  colored  woman  from  the  neighborhood ;  she  told  me  that 
the  owner  and  sheriff  were  out  hunting  five  days  for  them  before  they  found  them,  and 
says  there  is  not  a  greater  hypocrite  in  that  part  of  the  world.  I  wrote  him  a  letter  yes- 
terday letting  him  know  just  what  I  thought  of  him.  Your  Friend,  Tnos.  GARRETX. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

BIRTH-DAY  PRESENT  FROM  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

WILMINGTON,  8th  mo.  21st,  1858. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL: — This  is  my  69th  birth-day,  and  I  do  not  know 
any  better  way  to  celebrate  it  in  a  way  to  accord  with  my  feelings,  than  to  send  to  thee 
two  fugitives,  man  and  wife;  the  man  has  been  here  a  week  waiting  for  his  wife,  who  is 
expected  in  time  to  leave  at  9  this  evening  in  the  cars  for  thy  house  with  a  pilot,  who  knows 
where  thee  lives,  but  I  cannot  help  but  feel  some  anxiety  about  the  woman,  as  there  is 
great  commotion  just  now  in  the  neighborhood  where  she  resides.  There  were  4  slaves 
betrayed  near  the  Maryland  line  by  a  colored  man  named  Jesse  Perry  a  few  nights  since. 
One  of  them  made  a  confidant  of  him,  and  he  agreed  to  pilot  them  on  their  way,  and  had 
several  white  men  secreted  to  take  them  as  soon  as  they  got  in  his  house ;  he  is  the  scoun- 
drel that  was  to  have  charge  of  the  7  I  wrote  you  about  two  weeks  since  ;  their  master 
was  to  take  or  send  them  there,  and  he  wanted  me  to  send  for  them.  I  have  since  been 
confirmed  it  was  a  trap  set  to  catch  one  of  our  colored  men  and  me  likewise,  but  it  was  no 
go.  I  suspected  him  from  the  first,  but  afterwards  was  fully  confirmed  in  my  suspicions. 
We  have  found  the  two  Rust  boys,  John  and  Elsey  Bradley,  who  the  villain  of  a  Rust 
took  out  of  jail  and  sold  to  a  trader  of  the  name  of  Morris,  who  sold  them  to  a  trader 
•who  took  them  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  where  they  were  sold  at  public  sale  two  days  be- 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA.  477 

fore  we  found  them,  for  $2600,  but  fortunately  the  man  had  not  paid  for  them  ;  our  Attor- 
ney had  them  by  habeas  corpus  before  a  Judge,  who  detained  them  till  we  can  prove  their 
idenlity  and  freedom;  they  are  to  have  a  hearing  on  2d  day  next,  when  we  hope  to  have 
a  person  on  there  to  prove  them.  In  haste,  thine,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

Unfortunately  all  the  notice  that  the  record  contains  of  the  two  passengers 
referred  to,  is  in  the  following  words :  "  Two  cases  not  written  out  for  want 
of  time." 

The  "boys"  alluded  to  as  having  been  "found"  &c.,  were  free-born,  but 
had  been  kidnapped  and  carried  south  and  sold. 

Three  days  after  the  above  letter,  the  watchful  Garrett  furnished  further 
light  touching  the  hair-breadth  escape  of  the  two  that  he  had  written  about, 
and  at  the  same  time  gave  an  interesting  account  of  the  efforts  which  were 
made  to  save  the  poor  kidnapped  boys,  &c. 

SECOND   LETTER   FROM  THOMAS   GARRETT. 

WILMINGTON,  8th  mo.  25th,  1858. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL  : — Thine  was  received  yesterday.  Those  two  I 
wrote  about  to  be  with  thee  last  7th  day  evening,  I  presume  thee  has  seen  before  this. 
A.  Allen  had  charge  of  them ;  he  had  them  kept  out  of  sight  at  the  depot  here  till  the 
cars  should  be  ready  to  start,  in  charge  of  a  friend,  while  he  kept  a  lookout  and  got  a 
ticket.  When  the  Delaware  cars  arrived,  who  should  step  out  but  the  master  of  both  man 
and  woman,  (as  they  had  belonged  to  different  persons) ;  they  knew  him,  and  he  knew 
them.  He  left  in  a  different  direction  from  where  they  were  secreted,  and  got  round  to 
them  and  hurried  them  off  to  a  place  of  safety,  as  he  was  afraid  to  take  them  home  for 
fear  they  would  search  the  house.  On  1st  day  morning  the  boat  ran  to  Chester  to  take 
our  colored  people  to  the  camp  at  Media;  he  had  them  -disguised,  .and  got  them  in  the 
crowd  and  went  with  them ;  when  he  got  to  Media,  he  placed  them  in  care  of  a  colored 
man,  who  promised  to  hand  them  over  to  thee  on  2d  day  last ;  we  expect  3  more  next 
7th  day  night,  but  how  we  shall  dispose  of  them  we  have  not  yet  determined  ;  it  will  de- 
pend on  circumstances.  Judge  Layton  has  been  on  with  a  friend  to  Richmond,  Virginia, 
and  fully  identified  the  two  Bradley  boys  that  were  kidnapped  by  Clem  Rust.  He  has 
the  assurance  of  the  Judge  there  that  they  will  be  tried  and  their  case  decided  by  Dela- 
ware Laws,  by  which  they  must  be  declared  free  and  returned  here.  We  hope  to  be  able 
to  bring  such  proof  against  both  Rust  and  the  man  he  sold  them  to,  who  took  them  out 
of  the  State,  to  teach  them  a  lesson  they  will  remember.  Thy  friend, 

THOS.  GAREETT. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA,  1858. 

REBECCA   JACKSON  AND   DAUGHTER,   AND   ROBERT  SHORTER. 

The  road  to  "Washington  was  doing  about  this  time  a  marvellously  large 
business.  "William  Penn"  and  other  friends  in  Washington  were  most 
vigilant,  and  knew  where  to  find  passengers  who  were  daily  thirsting  for 
deliverance. 

REBECCA  JACKSON  was  a  woman  of  about  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  of  a 
yellow  color,  and  of  bright  intellect,  prepossessing  in  her  manners.  She 


478  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

had  pined  in  bondage  in  Georgetown  tinder  Mrs.  Margaret  Dick,  a  lady 
of  wealth  and  far  advanced  in  life,  a  firm  believer  in  slavery  and  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  of  which  she  was  a  member. 

Rebecca  had  been  her  chief  attendant,  knew  all  her  whims  and  ways  to 
perfection.  According  to  Rebecca's  idea,  "  she  was  a  peevish,  fretful,  ill- 
natured,  but  kind-hearted  creature."  Being  very  tired  of  her  old  mistress 
and  heartily  sick  of  bondage,  and  withal  desiring  to  save  her  daughter,  she 
ascertained  the  doings  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road, — was  told  about 
Canada,  &c.  She  therefore  resolved  to  make  a  bold  adventure.  Mrs.  Dick 
had  resided  a  long  time  in  Georgetown,  but  owned  three  large  plantations 
in  the  country,  over  which  she  kept  three  overseers  to  look  after  the  slaves. 
Rebecca  had  a  free  husband,  but  she  was  not  free  to  serve  him,  as  she  had 
to  be  digging  day  and  night  for  the  "  white  people."  Robert,  a  son  of  the 
mistress,  lived  with  his  mother.  While  Rebecca  regarded  him  as  "  a  man 
with  a  very  evil  disposition,"  she  nevertheless  believed  that  he  had  "  sense 
enough  to  see  that  the  present  generation  of  slaves  would  not  bear  so  much 
as  slaves  had  been  made  to  bear  the  generation  past." 


ARRIVAL  FROM  HONEY  BROOK  TOWNSHIP,  1858. 

FRANK   CAMPBELL. 

FRANK  was  a  man  of  blunt  features,  rather  stout,  almost  jet  black,  and 
about  medium  height  and  weight.  He  was  not  certain  about  his  age, 
rather  thought  that  he  was  between  thirty  and  forty  years.  He  had  been 
deprived  of  learning  to  read  or  write,  but  with  hard  treatment  he  had 
been  made  fully  acquainted  under  a  man  named  Henry  Campbell,  who 
called  himself  Frank's  master,  and  without  his  consent  managed  to  profit 
by  his  daily  sweat  and  toil.  This  Campbell  was  a  farmer,  and  was  said  to 
be  the  owner  of  about  one  hundred  head  of  slaves,  besides  having  large 
investments  in  other  directions.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  sell  slaves  if  he 
could  get  his  price.  Every  now  and  then  one  and  another  would  find  it 
his  turn  to  be  sold.  Frank  resolved  to  try  and  get  out  of  danger  before 
times  were  worse.  So  he  struck  out  resolutely  for  freedom  and  succeeded. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,  VA.,  1858. 

RICHARD  BAYNE,   CARTER  BOWLING  AND  BENJAMIN  TAYLOR. 

RICHARD  stated  that  a  man  named  "  Rudolph  Massey,  a  merchant  tailor, 
hard  rum  drinker,  card  player,  etc."  claimed  to  own  him,  and  had  held 
him,  up  to  the  time  of  his  escape,  as  with  bands  of  brass. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  ALEXANDRIA,   VA.,  1858.'  479 

Richard  said,  "  I  was  hired  out  for  ten  dollars  a  month,  but  I  never  suf- 
fered like  many — didn't  leave  because  I  have  been  abused,  but  simply  to 
keep  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  some  heirs  that  I  had  been  willed  to." 
In  case  of  a  division,  Richard  did  not  see  how  he  could  be  divided  without 
being  converted  into  money.  Now,  as  he  could  have  no  fore-knowledge  as 
to  the  place  or  person  into  whose  hands  he  might  be  consigned  by  the  auc- 
tioneer, he  concluded  that  he  could  not  venture  to  risk  himself  in  the  hands 
of  the  young  heirs.  Richard  began  to  consider  what  Slavery  was,  and 
his  eyes  beheld  chains,  whips,  hand-cuffs,  auction-blocks,  separations  and 
countless  sufferings  that  had  partially  been  overlooked  before ;  he  felt  the 
injustice  of  having  to  toil  hard  to  support  a  drunkard  and  gambler.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-three  Richard  concluded  to  "lay  down  the  shovel  and  the 
hoe,''  and  look  out  for  himself.  His  mother  was  owned  by  Massey,  but  his 
father  belonged  to  the  "superior  race"  or  claimed  so  to  do,  and  if  anything 
could  be  proved  by  appearances  it  was  evident  that  he  was  the  son  of  a 
white  man.  Richard  was  endowed  with  a  good  share  of  intelligence.  He 
not  only  left  his  mother  but  also  one  sister  to  clank  their  chains  together. 

CARTER,  who  accompanied  Richard,  had  just  reached  his  majority.  He 
stated  that  he  escaped  from  a  "  maiden  lady  "  living  in  Alexandria,  known 
by  the  name  of  Miss  Maria  Fitehhugh,  the  owner  of  twenty-five  slaves. 
Opposed  to  Slavery  as  he  was,  he  nevertheless  found  no  fault  with  his 
mistress,  but  on  the  contrary,  said  that  she  was  a  very  respectable  lady,  and 
a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  She  often  spoke  of  freeing  her 
servants  when  she  died  ;  such  talk  was  too  uncertain  for  Carter,  to  pin  his 
faith  to,  and  he  resolved  not  to  wait.  Such  slave-holders  generally  lived  a 
great  while,  and  when  they  did  die,  they  many  times  failed  to  keep  their 
promises.  He  concluded  to  heed  the  voice  of  reason,  and  at  once  leave 
the  house  of  bondage.  His  mother,  father,  five  brothers  and  six  sisters 
all  owned  by  Miss  Fitehhugh,  formed  a  strong  tie  to  keep  him  from  going; 
he  "conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,"  but  made  a  determined  stroke 
for  freedom. 

BENJAMIN,  the  third  in  this  company,  was  only  twenty  years  of  age, 
but  a  better-looking  specimen  for  the  auction-block  could  hardly  be  found. 
He  fled  from  the  Meed  estate;  his  mistress  had  recently  died  leaving 
her  affairs,  including  the  disposal  of  the  slaves,  to  be  settled  at  an 
early  date.  He  spoke  of  his  mistress  as  "  a  very  clever  lady  to  her  ser- 
vants," but  since  her  death  he  harl  realized  the  danger  that  he  was  in  of 
being  run  off  south  with  a  coffle  gang.  He  explained  the  course  frequently 
resorted  to  by  slave-holders  under  similar  circumstances  thus:  "frequently 
slaves  would  be  snatched  up,  hand  cuffed  and  hurried  off  south  on  the  night 
train  \vithout  an  hour's  notice."  Fearing  that  this  might  be  his  fate,  he 
deemed  it  prudent  to  take  a  northern  train  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
without  giving  any  notice. 


480  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

He  left  no  parents  living,  but  six  brothers  and  four  sisters,  all  slaves  with 
the  exception  of  one  brother  who  had  bought  himself.  In  order  to  defend 
themselves  if  molested  on  the  road,  the  boys  had  provided  themselves  with 
pistols  and  dirks,  and  declared  that  they  were  fully  bent  on  using  them 
rather  than  be  carried  back  to  slavery. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  THE  SEAT  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

HANSON  WILLIAMS,   NACE    SHAW,  GUSTA    YOUNG,   AND    DANIEL  M'NORTON  SMITH. 

$200  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  (Levi  Pumphrey,)  two 
NEGRO  MEN— one,  named  "  Hanson,"  about  forty  years  old,  with  one  eye 
out,  about  5  feet  4  inches  in  height,  full,  bushy  hair  and  whiskers  and  copper 
color.  "  Gusta "  is  about  21  years  of  22  years  of  age,  smooth  face  and  thick 
lips,  and  stoops  in  his  walk  ;  black  color,  about  5  feet  5  or  6  inches  in  height ; 
took  away  sundry  articles  of  clothing. 

I  will  give  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  of  them,  if  secured  in   jail  so  that  I 
can  get  them.  LEV!  PUMPHREY, 

s!4-6t,  Washington  City,  D.  C. 

These  four  fugitives  were  full  of  enthusiasm  for  Canada,  although  by  no 
means  among  the  worst  abused  of  their  class. 

Hanson  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  with  apparently  a  good  degree  of 
intellect,  and  of  staid  principles. 

In  the  above  advertisement  clipped  from  the  Baltimore  Sun,  he  is  more 
fully  described  by  Mr.  Levi  Pumphrey  ;  it  can  now  be  taken  for  what  it  is 
worth.  But,  as  Hanson  left  home  suddenly  without  apprising  his  owner,  or 
any  of  his  owner's  intimate  white  friends,  of  the  circumstances  which  led 
him  to  thus  leave,  his  testimony  and  explanation,  Although  late,  may  not  be 
wholly  uninteresting  to  Mr.  Levi  Pumphrey  and  others  who  took  an  interest 
in  the  missing  "  Hanson."  "  How  have  you  had  it  in  slavery  ?"  he  was 
asked.  "  I  have  had  it  pretty  rough,"  answered  Hanson.  "  Who  held  you 
in  bondage,  and  how  have  you  been  treated?"  "I  was  owned  by  Levi 
Pumphrey,  an  old  man  with  one  eye,  a  perfect  savage ;  he  allowed  no 
privileges  of  any  kind,  Sunday  or  Monday." 

GUSTA,  who  was  also  described  in  Pumphrey's  advertisement,  was  a  rug- 
ged-looking Specimen,  and  his  statement  tended  to  strengthen  Hanson's  in 
every  particular.  It  was  owing  to  the  bad  treatment  of  Pumphrey,  that 
Gusta  left  in  the  manner  that  he  did. 

After  deciding  to  take  his  departure  for  Canada,  he  provided  himself 
with  a  Colt's  revolver,  and  resolved  that  if  any  man  should  attempt  to  put 
his  hand  on  him  while  he  was  on  the  "King's  highway,"  he  would  shoot 
him  down,  not  excepting  his  old  master. 


CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  SKIFF.  481 

$150  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  living  near  Upper  Marl- 
boro', Prince  George's  county,  Md.,  on  the  llth  day  of  September,  1858,  a 
negro  man,  "Nace,"  who  calls  himself  "  Nace  Shaw  ;"  is  forty-five  years  of  age, 
about  five  feet  8  or  9  inches  high,  of  a  copper  color,  full  suit  of  hair,  except  a 
bald  place  upon  the  top  of  his  head.  He  has  a  mother  living  in  Washington 
city,  on  Soutn  B  street,  No.  212  Island. 

I  will  pay  the  above  reward  no  matter  where  taken,  if  secured  in  jail  so  that 
I  get  him  again.  .       SARAH  ANN  TALBURTT. 

s!5-eotf. 

NACE,  advertised  by  Miss  Sarah  Ann  Talburtt,  was  a  remarkably  good- 
natured  looking  piece  of  merchandise.  He  gave  a  very  interesting  account 
of  his  so  called  mistress,  how  he  came  to  leave  her,  etc.  Said  Nace:  "My 
mistress  was  an  old  maid,  and  lived  on  a  farm.  I  was  her  foreman  on  the 
farm.  She  lived  near  Marlborough  Forest,  in  Prince  George's  county,  Md., 
about  twelve  miles  from  Washington ;  she  was  a  member  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  She  fed  well,  and  quarrelled  a  caution,  from  Monday  morning  till 
Saturday  night,  not  only  with  the  slaves,  but  among  the  inmates  of  the  big 
house.  My  mistress  had  three  sisters,  all  old  maids  living  with  her,  and  a 
niece  besides ;  their  names  were  Rebecca,  Rachel,  Caroline,  and  Sarah  Ann, 
and  a  more  disagreeable  family  of  old  maids  could  not  be  found  in  a  year's 
time.  To  arise  in  the  morning  before  my  mistress,  Sarah  Ann,  was  impos- 
sible." Then,  without  making  it  appear  that  he  or  other  of  the  slaves  had 
been  badly  treated  under  Miss  Talburtt,  he  entered  upon  the  cause  of  escape, 
and  said  ;  "  I  left  simply  because  I  wanted  a  chance  for  my  life ;  I  wanted 
to  die  a  free  man  if  it  pleased  God  to  have  it  so."  His  wife  and  a  grown-up 
son  he  was  obliged  to  leave,  as  no  opportunity  offered  to  bring  them  away 
with  him. 

DAN  was  also  of  this  party.  He  was  well  tinctured  with  Anglo-Saxon 
blood.  His  bondage  had  been  in  Alexandria,  with  a  mill-wright,  known 
by  the  name  of  James  Garnett.  Dan  had  not  been  in  Garnett's  hands  a 
great  while.  Mr.  Garnett's  ways  and  manners  were  not  altogether  pleasing 
to  him;  besides,  Dan  stated  that  he  was  trying  to  sell  him,  and  he  made 
up  his  mind  that  at  an  early  opportunity,  he  would  avail  himself  of  a  ticket 
for  Canada,  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He  left  his  mother  and  bro- 
thers all  scattered. 


CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  SKIFF. 

WILLIAM  THOMAS  COPE,  JOHN  BOICE  GEEY,   HENHY  BOICE  AND  ISAAC  WHITE. 

These  young  bondmen,  whilst  writhing  under  the  tortures  heaped 
upon  them,  resolved,  at  the  cost  of  life,  to  make  a  desperate  trial  for  free 
land;  to  rid  themselves  of  their  fetters,  at  whatever  peril  they  might 
have  to  encounter.  The  land  route  presented  less  encouragement  than  by 
water  ;  they  knew  but  little,  however,  concerning  either  way.  After  much 
31 


482 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


anxious  reflection,  they  finally  decided  to  make  their  Underground  Rail 
Road  exit  by  water.  Having  lived  all  their  lives  not  far  from  the  bay, 
they  had  some  knowledge  of  small  boats,  skiffs  in  particular,  but  of  course 
they  were  not  the  possessors  of  one.  Feeling  that  there  was  no  time  to  lose, 
they  concluded  to  borrow  a  skiff,  though  they  should  never  return  it.  So 
one  Saturday  evening,  toward  the  latter  part  of  January,  the  four  young 
slaves  stood  on  the  beach  near  Lewes,  Delaware,  and  cast  their  longing 
eyes  in  the  direction  of  the  Jersey  shore.  A  fierce  gale  was  blowing,  and 
the  waves  were  running  fearfully  high ;  not  daunted,  however,  but  as  one 
man  they  resolved  to  take  their  lives  in  their  hands  and  make  the  bold 
adventure. 


With  simple  faith  they  entered  the  skiff;  two  of  them  took  the  oars,  man- 
fully to  face  uncertain  dangers  from  the  waves.  But  they  remained  steadfast, 
oft  as  they  felt  that  they  were  making  the  last  stroke  with  their  oars,  on  the 
verge  of  being  overwhelmed  with  the  waves.  At  every  new  stage  of 
danger  they  summoned  courage  by  remembering  that  they  were  escaping 
for  their  lives. 

Late  on  Sunday  afternoon,  the  following  day,  they  reached  their  much 
desired  haven,  the  Jersey  shore.  The  relief  and  joy  were  unspeakably 
great,  yet  they  were  strangers  in  a  strange  land.  They  knew  not  which  way 
to  steer.  True,  they  knew  that  New  Jersey  bore  the  name  of  being  a  Free 
State;  but  they  had  reason  to  fear  that  they  were  in  danger.  In  this 
dilemma  they  were  discovered  by  the  captain  of  an  oyster  boat  whose 
sense  of  humanity  was  so  strongly  appealed  to  by  their  appearance  that  he 
engaged  to  pilot  them  to  Philadelphia.  The  following  account  of  them  was 
recorded : 

WILLIAM  THOMAS  was  a  yellow  man,  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and 
possessing  a  vigorous  constitution.  He  accused  Shepherd  P.  Houston  of 
having  restrained  him  of  his  liberty,  and  testified  that  said  Houston  was  a 
very  bad  man.  His  vocation  was  that  of  a  farmer,  on  a  small  scale ;  as  a 
slave-holder  he  was  numbered  with  the  "  small  fry."  Both  master  and 


CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  SKIFF.  483 

mistress  were  members  of  the  Methodist  Church.  According  to  William 
Thomas'  testimony  his  mistress  as  well  as  his  master  was  very  hard  on  the 
slaves  in  various  ways,  especially  in  the  matter  of  food  and  clothing.  It 
would  require  a  great  deal  of  hard  preaching  to  convince  him  that  such 
Christianity  was  other  than  spurious. 

JOHN  stated  that  David  Henry  Houston,  a  farmer,  took  it  upon  himself 
to  exercise  authority  over  him.  Said  John,  "  If  you  didn't  do  the  work 
right,  he  got  contrary,  and  wouldn't  give  you  anything  to  eat  for  a  whole 
day  at  a  time ;  he  said  a  l  nigger  and  a  mule  hadn't  any  feeling.' "  He  de- 
scribed his  stature  and  circumstances  somewhat  thus:  "Houston  is  a 
very  small  man  ;  for  some  time  his  affairs  had  been  in  a  bad  way  ;  he  had 
been  broke,  some  say  he  had  bad  luck  for  killing  my  brother.  My  brother 
was  sick,  but  master  said  he  wasn't  sick,  and  he  took  a  chunk,  and  beat 
on  him,  and  he  died  a  few  days  after."  John  firmly  believed  that  his 
brother  had  been  the  victim  of  a  monstrous  outrage,  and  that  he  too  was 
liable  to  the  same  treatment. 

John  was  only  nineteen  years  of  age,  spare  built,  chestnut  color,  and 
represented  the  rising  mind  of  the  slaves  of  the  South. 

HENRY  was  what  might  be  termed  a  very  smart  young  man,  considering 
that  he  had  been  deprived  of  a  knowledge  of  reading.  He  was  a  brother  of 
John,  and  said  that  he  also  had  been  wrongfully  enslaved  by  David  Hous- 
ton, alluded  to  above.  He  fully  corroborated  the  statement  of  his  brother, 
and  declared,  moreover,  that  his  sister  had  not  long  since  been  sold  South, 
and  that  he  had  heard  enough  to  fully  convince  him  that  he  and  his  brother 
were  to  be  put  up  for  sale  soon. 

Of  their  mistress  John  said  that  she  was  a  "  pretty  easy  kind  of  a  woman, 
only  she  didn't  want  to  allow  enough  to  eat,  and  wouldn't  mend  any  clothes 
for  us." 

ISAAC  was  twenty-two,  quite  black,  and  belonged  to  the  "  rising  "  young 
slaves  of  Delaware.  He  stated  that  he  had  been  owned  by  a  "  blacksmith, 
a  very  hard  man,  by  the  name  of  Thomas  Carper."  Isaac  was  disgusted 
with  his  master's  ignorance,  and  criticised  him,  in  his  crude  way,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent.  Isaac  had  learned  blacksmithing  under  Carper.  Both 
master  and  mistress  were  Methodists.  Isaac  said  that  he  "  could  not  recom- 
mend his  mistress,  as  she  was  given  to  bad  practices,"  so  much  so  that  he 
could  hardly  endure  her.  He  also  charged  the  blacksmith  with  being 
addicted  to  bad  habits.  Sometimes  Isaac  would  be  called  upon  to  receive 
correction  from  his  master,  which  would  generally  be  dealt  out  with  a 
"chunk  of  wood  "  over  his  "no  feeling"  head.  On  a  late  occasion,  when 
Isaac  was  being  chunked  beyond  measure,  he  resisted,  but  the  persistent  black- 
smith did  not  yield  until  he  had  so  far  disabled  Isaac  that  he  was  rendered 
helpless  for  the  next  two  weeks.  While  in  this  state  he  pledged  himself 
to  freedom  and  Canada,  and  resolved  to  win  the  prize  by  crossing  the  Bay.  t 


484  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

While  these  young  passengers  possessed  brains  and  bravery  of  a  rare 
order,  at  the  same  time  they  brought  with  them  an  unusual  amount  of 
the  soil  of  Delaware;  their  persons  and  old  worn-out  clothing  being  full  of 
it.  Their  appearance  called  loudly  for  immediate  cleansing.  A  room — free 
water — free  soap,  and  such  other  assistance  as  was  necessary  was  tendered 
them  in  order  to  render  the  work  as  thorough  as  possible.  This  healthy 
process  over,  clean  and  comfortable  clothing  were  furnished,  and  the  change 
in  their  appearance  was  so  marked,  that  they  might  have  passed  as  strangers, 
if  not  in  the  immediate  corn-fields  of  their  masters,  certainly  among  many 
of  their  old  acquaintances,  unless  subjected  to  the  most  careful  inspection. 
Raised  in  the  country  and  on  farms,  their  masters  and  mistresses  had 
never  dreamed  of  encouraging  them  to  conform  to  habits  of  cleanliness; 
washing  their  persons  and  changing  their  garments  were  not  common  occur- 
rences. The  coarse  garment  once  on  would  be  clung  to  without  change  as 
long  as  it  would  hold  together.  The  filthy  cabins  allotted  for  their  habita- 
tions were  in  themselves  incentives  to  personal  uncleanliness.  In  some 
districts  this  was  more  apparent  than  in  others.  From  some  portions  of 
Maryland  and  Delaware,  in  particular,  passengers  brought  lamentable 
evidence  of  a  want  of  knowledge  and  improvement  in  this  direction. 
But  the  master,  not  the  slave,  was  blameworthy.  The  master,  as  has 
been  intimated,  found  but  one  suit  for  working  (and  sometimes  none  for 
Sunday),  consequently  if  Tom  was  set  to  ditching  one  day  and  became 
muddy  and  dirty,  and  the  next  day  he  was  required  to  haul  manure, 
his  ditching  suit  had  to  be  used,  and  if  the  next  day  he  was  called  into  the 
harvest-field,  he  was  still  obliged  to  wear  his  barn-yard  suit,  and  so  on  to 
the  end.  Frequently  have  such  passengers  been  thoroughly  cleansed  for  the 
first  time  in  their  lives  at  the  Philadelphia  station.  Some  needed  prac- 
tical lessons  before  they  understood  the  thoroughness  necessary  to  cleansing. 
Before  undertaking  the  operation,  therefore,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
made  to  feel  the  benefit  to  be  derived  therefrom,  they  would  need  to  have 
the  matter  brought  home  to  them  in  a  very  gentle  way,  lest  they  might  feign 
to  fear  taking  cold,  not  having  been  used  to  it,  etc. 

It  was  customary  to  say  to  them :  "  We  want  to  give  you  some  clean 
clothing,  but  you  need  washing  before  putting  them  on.  It  will  make  you 
feel  like  a  new  man  to  have  the  dirt  of  slavery  all  washed  off.  Nothing 
that  could  be  done  for  you  would  make  you  feel  better  after  the  fatigue 
of  travel  than  a  thorough  bath.  Probably  you  have  not  been  allowed 
the  opportunity  of  taking  a  good  bath,  and  so  have  not  enjoyed  one 
since  your  mother  bathed  you.  Don't  be  afraid  of  the  water  or  soap — the 
harder  you  rub  yourself  the  better  you  will  feel.  Shall  we  not  wash  your 
back  and  neck  for  you?  We  want  you  to  look  well  while  traveling  on  the 
Underground  Rail  Road,  and  not  forget  from  this  time  forth  to  try  to  take 
care  of  yourself,"  &c.,  &c.  By  this  course  the  reluctance  where  it  existed 


ARRIVAL  FROM  KENT  COUNTY,  MD.,  1858.  485 

would  be  overcome  and  the  proposition  would  be  readily  acceded  to,  if  the 
water  was  not  too  cool ;  on  the  other  hand,  if  cool,  a  slight  shudder  might 
be  visible,  sufficient  to  raise  a  hearty  laugh.  Yet,  when  through,  the  candi- 
date always  expressed  a  hearty  sense  of  satisfaction,  and  was  truly  thankful 
for  this  attention. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  KENT  COUNTY,  MD.,  1858. 

ASBURY  IRWIN,   EPHRAIM   ENNIS,   AND   LYDIA  ANN  JOHNS. 

The  party  whose  narratives  are  here  given  brought  grave  charges  against 
a  backsliding  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends — a  renegade  Quaker. 

Doubtless  rare  instances  may  be  found  where  men  of  the  Quaker  persua- 
sion, emigrating  from  free  and  settling  in  slave  States  and  among  slave- 
holders, have  deserted  their  freedom-loving  principle  and  led  captive  by  the 
force  of  bad  examples,  have  linked  hands  with  the  oppressor  against  the 
oppressed.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  this  is  the  only  case  that  may  turn 
up  in  these  records  to  the  disgrace  of  this  body  of  Christians  in  whom  dwelt 
in  such  a  signal  degree  large  sympathy  for  the  slave  and  the  fleeing  bondman. 
Many  fugitives  were  indebted  to  Friends  who  aided  them  in  a  quiet  way, 
not  allowing  their  left  hand  to  know  what  tkeir  right  hand  did,  and  the 
result  was  that  Underground  Rail  Road  operations  were  always  pretty  safe 
and  prosperous  where  the  line  of  travel  led  through  "  Quaker  settlements." 
We  can  speak  with  great  confidence  on  this  point  especially  with  regard  to 
Pennsylvania,  where  a  goodly  number  might  be  named,  if  necessary,  whose 
hearts,  houses,  horses,  and  money  were  always  found  ready  and  willing  to 
assist  the  fugitive  from  the  prison-house.  It  is  with  no  little  regret  that  we 
feel  that  truth  requires  us  to  connect  the  so-called  owner  of  Asbury, 
Ephraim,  and  Lydia  with  the  Quakers. 

ASBURY  was  first  examined,  and  his  story  ran  substantially  thus :  "  I  run 
away  because  I  was  used  bad ;  three  years  ago  I  was  knocked  dead  with  an 
axe  by  my  master ;  the  blood  run  out  of  my  head  as  if  it  had  been  poured 
out  of  a  tumbler ;  you  can  see  the  mark  plain  enough — look  here,"  (with  his 
finger  on  the  spot).  I  left  Millington,  at  the  head  of  Chester  in  Kent 
County,  Maryland,  where  I  had  been  held  by  a  farmer  who  called  himself 
Michael  Newbold.  He  was  originally  from  Mount  Holly,  New  Jersey, 
but  had  been  living  in  Maryland  over  twenty  years.  He  was  called  a 
Hickory  Quaker,  and  he  had  a  real  Quaker  for  a  wife.  Before  he  was  in 
Maryland  five  years  he  bought  slaves,  became  a  regular  slave-holder,  got  to 
drinking  and  racing  horses,  and  was  very  bad — treated  all  hands  bad,  his 
wife  too,  so  that  she  had  to  leave  him  and  go  to  Philadelphia  to  her  kins- 
folks. It  was  because  he  was  so  bad  we  all  had  to  leave,"  &c. 


486  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

While  Asbury's  story  appeared  truthful  and  simple,  a  portion  of  it  was  too 
shocking  to  morality  and  damaging  to  humanity  to  be  inserted  in  these  pages. 

Asbury  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  a  man  of  dark  hue,  size  and  height 
about  mediocrity,  and  mental  ability  quite  above  the  average. 

EPHRAIM  was  a  fellow-servant  and  companion  of  Asbury.  He  was  a 
man  of  superior  physical  strength,  and  from  all  outward  appearance,  he  pos- 
sessed qualities  susceptible  of  ready  improvement.  He  not  only  spoke  of 
Newbold  in  terms  of  strong  condemnation  but  of  slave-holders  and  slavery 
everywhere.  The  lessons  he  had  learned  gave  him  ample  opportunity  to 
speak  from  experience  and  from  what  he  had  observed  in  the  daily  practices 
of  slave-holders;  consequently,  with  his  ordinary  gifts,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  utter  his  earnest  feelings  without  making  a  deep  impression. 

LYDIA  also  fled  from  Michael  Newbold.  She  was  a  young  married 
woman,  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  of  a  chestnut  color  and  a  pleasant 
countenance.  Her  flight  for  liberty  cost  her  her  husband,  as  she  was  obliged 
to  leave  him  behind.  What  understanding  was  entered  into  between  them 
prior  to  her  departure  we  failed  to  note  at  the  time.  It  was  very  clear  that 
she  had  decided  never  to  wear  the  yoke  again. 


AKKIVAL  FROM  WASHINGTON,  1858. 

JOSEPHINE   ROBINSON. 

Many  reasons  were  given  by  Josephine  for  leaving  the  sunny  South.  She 
had  a  mistress,  but  was  not  satisfied  with  her — hadn't  a  particle  of  love  for 
her ;  "  she  was  all  the  time  fussing  and  scolding,  and  never  could  be  satis- 
fied." She  was  very  well  off,  and  owned  thirteen  or  fourteen  head  of  slaves. 
She  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  was  stingy  and  very  mean 
towards  her  slaves.  Josephine  having  lived  with  her  all  her  life,  professed 
to  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  her  ways  and  manners,  and  seemed  dis- 
posed to  speak  truthfully  of  her.  The  name  of  her  mistress  was  Eliza  Ham- 
bleton,  and  she  lived  in  Washington.  Josephine  had  fully  thought  over  the 
matter  of  her  rights,  so  much  so,  that  she  was  prompted  to  escape.  So  hard 
did  she  feel  her  lot  to  be,  that  she  was  compelled  to  resign  her  children, 
uncle  and  aunt  to  the  cruel  mercy  of  slavery.  What  became  of  the  little 
ones,  David,  Ogden  and  Isaiah,  is  a  mystery. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  CECIL  COUNTY,  1858. 

ROBERT  JOHNS  AND  HIS  WIFE  "  SUE  ANN." 

Fortunately,  in  this  instance,  man  and  wife  succeeded  in  making  their  way 
out  of  Slavery  together.   Robert  was  a  man  of  small  stature,  and  the  farthest 


ARRIVAL  FROM  GEORGETOWN,  D.  C.,  1858.  487 

shade  from  white.  In  appearance  and  intellect  he  represented  the  ordinary 
Maryland  slave,  raised  on  a  farm,  surrounded  with  no  refining  influences 
or  sympathy.  He  stated  that  a  man  by  the  name  of  William  Cassey  had 
claimed  the  right  to  his  labor,  and  that  he  had  been  kept  in  bondage  on 
his  farm. 

For  a  year  or  more  before  setting  out  for  freedom,  Robert  had  watched  his 
master  pretty  closely,  and  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  he  was  "  a  monstrous 
blustery  kind  of  a  man ;  one  of  the  old  time  fellows,  very  hard  and  rash — not 
fit  to  own  a  dog."  He  owned  twelve  slaves ;  Robert  resolved  that  he  would 
make  one  less  in  a  short  while.  He  laid  the  matter  before  his  wife,  "  Sue," 
who  was  said  to  be  the  property  of  Susan  Flinthrew,  wife  of  John  Flin- 
th re w,  of  Cecil  county,  Maryland.  "Sue"  having  suffered  severely,  first 
from  one  and  then  another,  sometimes  from  floggings,  and  at  other  times 
from  hunger,  and  again  from  not  being  half  clothed  in  cold  weather,  was  pre- 
pared to  consider  any  scheme  that  looked  in  the  direction  of  speedy 
deliverance.  The  way  that  they  were  to  travel,  and  the  various  points  of 
danger  to  be  passed  on  the  road  were  fully  considered ;  but  Robert  and 
Sue  were  united  and  agreed  that  they  could  not  fare  much  worse  than  they 
had  fared,  should  they  be  captured  and  carried  back.  In  this  state  of  mind, 
as  in  the  case  of  thousands  of  others,  they  set  out  for  a  free  State,  and  in. 
due  time  reached  Pennsylvania  and  the  Vigilance  Committee,  to  whom  they 
made  known  the  facts  here  recorded,  and  received  aid  and  comfort  in  return. 

SUE  was  a  young  woman  of  twenty-three,  of  a  brown  coldr,  and  some- 
what under  medium  size. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  GEORGETOWN,  D.  C.,  1858. 

PERRY  CLEXTOX,   JIM  BANKS  AND  CHARLES  NOLE. 

This  party  found  no  very  serious  obstacles  in  their  travels,  as  their  plans 
were  well  arranged,  and  as  they  had  at  least  natural  ability  sufficient  for 
ordinary  emergencies. 

PERRY  reported  that  he  left  "a  man  by  the  name  of  John  M.  Williams, 
of  Georgetown,  D.  C.,  who  was  in  the  wood  business,  and  kept  a  wharf." 
As  to  treatment,  he  said  that  he  had  not  been  used  very  hard,  but  had 
been  worked  hard  and  allowed  but  few  privileges.  The  paltry  sum  of 
twenty-five  cents  a  week,  was  all  that  was  allowed  him  out  of  his  hire. 
With  a  wife  and  one  child  this  might  seem  a  small  sum,  but  in  reality  it 
was  a  liberal  outlay  compared  with  what  many  slaves  were  allowed.  Perry 
being  a  ready-witted  article,  thought  that  it  was  hardly  fair  that  Mr.  Wil- 
liams should  live  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  instead  of  his  own;  he  was  a 
large,  portly  man,  and  able  to  work  for  himself  in  Perry's  opinion.  For 


488  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

a  length  <3f  time,  the  notion  of  leaving  and  going  to  Canada  was  uppermost 
in  his  heart;  probably  he  would  have  acted  with  more  promptness  but 
for  the  fact  that  his  wife  and  child  rested  with  great  weight  on  his  mind. 
Finally  the  pressure  became  so  great  that  he  felt  that  he  must  leave  at  all 
hazards,  forsaking  wife  and  child,  master  and  chains.  He  was  a  young 
man,  of  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  shade,  ordinary  build, 
and  full  of  grit.  His  wife  was  named  Amelia ;  whether  she  ever  afterwards 
heard  from  her  husband  is  a  question. 

JIM,  who  accompanied  Perry,  brought  the  shoe-making  art  with  him. 
He  had  been  held  a  slave  under  John  J.  Richards,  although  he  was 
quite  as  much  a  white  man  as  he  was  black.  He  was  a  mulatto,  twenty- 
nine  years  of  age,  well-made,  and  bore  a  grum  countenance,  but  a  brave  and 
manly  will  to  keep  up  his  courage  on  the  way.  He  said  that  he  had 
been  used  very  well,  had  no  fault  to  find  with  John  J.  Richards,  who  was 
possibly  a  near  relative  of  his.  He  forsook  his  mother,  four  brothers  and 
three  sisters  with  no  hope  of  ever  seeing  them  again. 

CHARLES  bore  strong  testimony  in  favor  of  his  master,  Blooker  W. 
Hansborough,  a  farmer,  a  first-rate  man  to  his  servants,  said  Charles.  "I 
was  used  very  well,  can't  complain."  "Why  did  you  not  remain  then?" 
asked  a  member  of  the  Committee.  "  I  left,"  answered  C.,  "  because  I  was 
not  allowed  to  live  with  my  wife.  She  with  our  six  children,  lived  a  long 
distance  from  my  master's  place,  and  he  would  not  hire  me  out  where  I 
could  live  near  my  wife,  so  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  try  and  do 
better.  I  could  see  no  enjoyment  that  way."  As  the  secret  of  his  master's 
treatment  is  here  brought  to  light,  it  is  very  evident  that  Charles,  in  speak- 
ing so  highly  in  his  favor,  failed  to  take  a  just  view  of  him,  as  no  man 
could  really  be  first-rate  to  his  servants,  who  would  not  allow  a  man  to  live 
with  his  wife  and  children,  and  who  would  persist  in  taking  from  another 
what  he  had  no  right  to  take.  Nevertheless,  as  Charles  thought  his  master 
"  first-rate,"  he  shall  have  the  benefit  of  the  opinion,  but  it  was  suspected 
that  Charles  was  not  disposed  to  find  fault  with  his  kin,  as  it  was  very  likely 
that  the  old  master  claimed  some  of  the  white  blood  in  his  veins. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  SUSSEX  COUNTY,  1858. 

JACOB  BLOCKSON,   GEORGE  ALLIGOOD,  JIM  ALLIGOOD,    AND  GEORGE  LEWIS. 

The  coming  of  Jacob  and  his  companions  was  welcomed  in  the  usual  way. 
The  marks  of  Slavery  upon  them  were  evident ;  however  they  were  sub- 
jected to  the  usual  critical  examination,  which  they  bore  with  composure, 
and  without  the  least  damage.  The  following  notes  in  the  main  were  re- 
corded from  their  statements : 


ARRIVAL  FROM  SUSSEX  COUNTY,  1858.  439 

JACOB  was  a  stout  and  healthy-looking  man,  about  twenty-seven  years  of 
age,  with  a  countenance  indicative  of  having  no  sympathy  with  Slavery. 
Being  invited  to  tell  his  own  story,  describe  his  master,  etc.,  he  unhesitatingly 
relieved  himself  somewhat  after  this  manner ;  "  I  escaped  from  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Jesse  W.  Paten ;  he  was  a  man  of  no  business,  except  drinking 
whiskey,  and  farming.  He  was  a  light  complected  man,  tall  large,  and  full- 
faced,  with  a  large  nose.  He  was  a  widower.  He  belonged  to  no  society 
of  any  kind.  He  lived  near  Seaford,  in  Sussex  county,  Delaware." 

"  I  left  because  I  didn't  want  to  stay  with  him  any  longer.  My  master 
was  about  to  be  sold  out  this  Fall,  and  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  did  not 
want  to  be  sold  like  a  horse,  the  way  they  generally  sold  darkies  then ;  so 
when  I  started  I  resolved  to  die  sooner  than  I  would  be  taken  back ;  this 
was  my  intention  all  the  while. 

"I  left  my  wife,  and  one  child;  the  wife's  name  was  Lear,  and  the  child 
was  called  Alexander.  I  want  to  get  them  on  soon  too.  I  made  some  ar- 
rangements for  their  coming  if  I  got  off  safe  to  Canada." 

GEORGE  was  next  called  upon  to  give  his  statement  concerning  where  he 
was  from,  etc.  I  "  scaped "  from  Sussex  too,  from  a  man  by  the  name  of 
George  M.  Davis,  a  large  man,  dark -complected,  and  about  fifty  years  of 
age;  he  belonged  to  the  old  side  Methodist  Church,  was  a  man  with  a 
family,  and  followed  farming,  or  had  farming  done  by  me  and  others. 
Besides  he  was  a  justice  of  the  peace.  I  always  believed  that  the  Master 
above  had  no  wish  for  me  to  be  held  in  bondage  all  my  days;  but  I  thought 
if  I  made  up  my  mind  to  stay  in  Slavery,  and  not  to  make  a  desperate  trial 
for  my  freedom,  I  would  never  have  any  better  times.  I  had  heard  that 
my  old  mistress  had  willed  me  to  her  children,  and  children's  children.  I 
thought  at  this  rate  there  was  no  use  of  holding  on  any  longer  for  the  good 
time  to  come,  so  here  I  said,  I  am  going,  if  I  die  a  trying.  I  got  me  a 
dagger,  and  made  up  my  mind  if  they  attempted  to  take  me  on  the  road,  I 
would  have  one  man.  As  for  my  part,  I  have  not  had  it  so  slavish  as  many, 
but  I  have  never  had  any  privileges  to  learn  to  read,  or  to  go  about  any- 
where. Now  and  then  they  let  me  go  to  church.  My  master  belonged  to 
church,  and  so  did  I. 

For  a  young  man,  being  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  who  had  been  kept 
from  the  light  of  freedom,  as  much  as  he  had,  his  story  was  thought  to  be 
exceedingly  well  told  throughout. 

JAMES,  a  brother  of  George,  said :  "  I  came  from  Horse's  Cross-Roads, 
not  far  from  where  my  brother  George  came  from.  William  Gray,  rail  road 
ticket  agent  at  Bridgewater,  professed  to  own  me.  He  was  a  tolerable  sized 
man,  with  very  large  whiskers,  and  dark  hair ;  he  was  rather  a  steady  kind 
of  a  man,  he  had  a  wife,  but  no  child.  The  reason  I  left,  I  thought  I  had 
served  Slavery  long  enough,  as  I  had  been  treated  none  the  best.  I  did  not 
believe  in  working  my  life  out  just  to  support  some  body  else.  My  master 


490  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

had  as  many  hands  and  feet  as  I  have,  and  is  as  able  to  work  for  his  bread 
as  I  am  •  and  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  wouldn't  stay  to  be  a  slave 
under  him  any  longer,  but  that  I  would  go  to  Canada,  and  be  my  own 

master." 

James  left  his  poor  wife,  and  three  children,  slaves  perhaps  for  life.  The 
wife's  name  was  Esther  Ann,  the  children  were  called  Mary,  Henry,  and 
Harriet.  All  belonged  to  Jesse  Laten. 

GEORGE  LEWIS  had  more  years  than  any  of  his  companions,  being  about 
forty  years  of  age.  He  had  been  kept  in  as  low  a  state  of  ignorance  as 
the  ingenuity  of  a  slave-holder  of  Delaware  could  keep  one  possessed  of 
as  much  mother-wit  as  he  was,  for  he  was  not  quite  so  ignorant  as  the 
interests  of  the  system  required.  His  physical  make  and  mental  capacity 
were  good.  He  was  decidedly  averse  to  the  peculiar  institution  in  every 
particular.  He  stated,  that  a  man  named  Samuel  Laws  had  held  him  in 
bondage — that  this  "  Laws  \vas  a  man  of  no  business— just  sat  about  the 
house  and  went  about  from  store  to  store  and  sat ;  that  he  was  an  old  man, 
pretty  grey,  very  long  hair.  He  was  a  member  of  a  church  in  the 
neighborhood,  which  was  called  Radical."  Of  this  church  and  its  members 

O  * 

he  could  give  but  little  account,  either  of  their  peculiarities  or  creed ;  he 
said,  however,  that  they  worshipped  a  good  deal  like  the  Methodists,  and 
allowed  their  members  to  swear  heartily  for  slavery. 

"Something  told"  George  that  he  had  worked  long  enough  as  a  slave,  and 
that  he  should  be  man  enough  to  take  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and  go 
off  to  a  free  country.  Accordingly  George  set  out.  When  he  arrived  at 
the  station  he  was  so  highly  delighted  with  his  success  and  the  prospect 
before  him,  that  he  felt  very  sorry  that  he  hadn't  started  ten  years  sooner. 
He  said  that  he  would  have  done  so,  but  he  was  afraid,  as  slave-holders  were 
always  making  the  slaves  believe  that  if  they  should  ever  escape  they  would 
catch  them  and  bring  them  back  and  sell  them  down  South,  certain  ;  that 
they  always  did  catch  every  one  who  ran  off,  but  never  brought  them  home, 
but  sold  them  right  off  where  they  could  never  run  away  any  more,  or  get 
to  see  their  relatives  again.  This  threat,  George  said,  was  continually  rung 
in  the  ears  of  the  slaves,  and  with  the  more  timid  it  was  very  effective. 

JACOB  BLOCKSON,  after  reaching  Canada,  true  to  the  pledge  that  he  made 
to  his  bosom  companion,  wrote  back  as  follows  : 

SAINT  CATHABINES.  Cannda  West,  Dec.  26th,  1858. 

DEAR  WIFE  : — I  now  infom  you  I  am  in  Canada  and  am  well  and  hope  you  are  the 
same,  and  would  wish  you  to  be  here  next  august,  you  come  to  suspension  bridge  and 
from  there  to  St.  Catharines,  write  and  let  me  know.  I  am  doing  well  working  for  a 
Butcher  this  winter,  and  will  get  good  wages  in  the  spring  I  now  get  $2,50  a  week. 

I  Jacob  Blockson,  George  Lewis,  George  Alligood  and  James  Alligood  are  all  in  St. 
Catharines,  and  met  George  Ross  from  Lewis  Wright's,  Jim  Blockson  is  in  Canada  West, 
and  Jim  Delany,  Plunnoth  Connon.  I  expect  you  my  wife  Lea  Ann  Blockson,  my  son 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS  IN  1859.  491 

Alexander  &  Lewis  and  Ames  will  all  be  here  and  Isabella  also,  if  you  cant  bring  all 
bring  Alexander  surely,  write  when  you  will  come  and  I  will  meet  you  in  Albany.  Love 
to  you  all,  from  your  loving  Husband,  JACOB  BLOCKSON. 

fare  through  $12,30  to  here. 

MR.  STILL  :  SIR  : — you  will  please  Envelope  this  and  send  it  to  John  Sheppard  Bridge- 
ville  P  office  in  Sussex  county  Delaware,  seal  it  in  black  and  oblige  me,  write  to  her  to 
come  to  you. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  IN  1859. 

SARAH  ANN  MILLS,  Boonsborough ;  CAROLINE  GASSWAY,  Mt.  Airy; 
LEVIN  HOLDEN,  Laurel;  WILLIAM  JAMES  CONNER,  with  his  wife, 
child,  and  four  brothers ;  JAMES  LAZARUS,  Delaware ;  RICHARD 
WILLIAMS,  Richmond,  Virginia;  SYDNEY  HOPKINS  and  HENRY 
WHEELER,  Havre  de  Grace. 

SARAH  MILLS  set  out  for  freedom  long  before  she  reached  womanhood  ; 
being  about  sixteen  years  of  age.  She  stated  that  she  had  been  very  cruelly 
treated,  that  she  was  owned  by  a  man  named  Joseph  O'Neil,  "  a  tax  col- 
lector and  a  very  bad  man."  Under  said  O'Neil  she  had  been  required  to 
chop  wood,  curry  horses,  work  in  the  field  like  a  man,  and  all  one  winter 
she  had  been  compelled  to  go  barefooted.  Three  weeks  before  Sarah  fled, 
her  mistress  was  called  away  by  death  ;  nevertheless  Sarah  could  not  forget 
how  badly  she  had  been  treated  by  her  while  living.  According  to  Sarah's 
testimony  the  mistress  was  no  better  than  her  husband.  Sarah  came  from 
Boonsborough,  near  Hagerstown,  Md.,  leaving  her  mother  and  other  rela- 
tives in  that  neighborhood. 

It  was  gratifying  to  know  that  such  bond-women  so  early  got  beyond  the 
control  of  slave-holders ;  yet  girls  of  her  age  from  having  had  no  pains  taken 
for  their  improvement,  appealed  loudly  for  more  than  common  sympathy 
and  humanity,  but  rarely  ever  found  it;  on  the  contrary,  their  paths  were 
beset  with  great  danger. 

CAROLINE  GASSWAY,  after  being  held  to  service  by  Summersett  Walters, 
until  she  had  reached  her  twenty-seventh  year,  was  forced,  by  hard  treat- 
ment and  the  love  of  freedom,  to  make  an  effort  for  deliverance.  Her 
appearance  at  once  indicated,  although  she  was  just  out  of  the  prison-house, 
that  she  possessed  more  than  an  ordinary  share  of  courage,  and  that  she 
had  had  a  keen  insight  into  the  system  under  which  she  had  been  oppressed. 
She  was  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  well-formed,  with  a  large  and  high  fore- 
head, indicative  of  intellect.  She  had  much  to  say  of  the  ways  and  practices 
of  slave-holders ;  of  the  wrongs  of  the  system.  She  dwelt  especially  upon 
her  own  situation  as  a  slave,  and. the  character  of  her  master;  she  told  not 
only  of  his  ill  treatment  of  her,  but  described  his  physical  appearance  as 
well.  "He  was  a  spare-made  man,  with  a  red  head  and  quick  temper:  he 


492  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

would  go  off  in  a  flurry  like  a  flash  of  powder,  and  would  behave  shamefully 
towards  the  slaves  when  in  these  fits  of  passion."  His  wife,  however, 
Caroline  confessed  was  of  a  different  temper,  and  was  a  pretty  good 
kind  of  a  woman.  If  he  had  been  anything  like  his  wife  in  disposition, 
most  likely  Caroline  would  have  remained  in  bondage.  Fortunately,  Caro- 
line was  a  single  woman.  She  left  her  mother. 

LEVIN  HOLDEN,  having  been  sold  only  a  few  weeks  prior  to  his  escape, 
was  so  affected  by  the  change  which  awaited  him,  that  he  was  irresistibly  led 
to  seek  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  .Previous  to  being  sold  he  was  under 
a  master  by  the  name  of  Jonathan  Bailey,  who  followed  farming  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Laurel,  Delaware,  and,  as  a  master,  was  considered  a  moderate 
man — was  also  well  to  do  in  the  world ;  but  the  new  master  he  could  not 
endure,  as  he  had  already  let  the  secret  out  that  Levin  was  to  be  sent  South. 
Levin  had  a  perfect  horror  of  a  more  Southern  latitude;  he  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  would  try  his  luck  for  Canada.  Levin  was  a  man  of  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  smart,  dark  color,  and  of  a  good  size  for  all  sorts  of 
work. 

WILLIAM  JAMES  CONNER,  his  wife,  child,  and  four  brothers  came  next. 
The  brothers  were  hale-looking  fellows,  and  would  have  commanded  high 
prices  in-  any  market  South  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line.  It  was  said,  that 
they  were  the  property  of  Kendall  Major  Lewis,  who  lived  near  Laurel, 
Delaware.  It  was  known,  however,  that  he  never  had  any  deed  from  the 
Almighty,  but  oppressed  them  without  any  just  right  so  to  do ;  they  were 
perfectly  justifiable  in  leaving  Kendall  Major  Lewis,  and  all  his  sympa- 
thizers, to  take  care  of  themselves  as  best  they  could. 

No  very  serious  charges  were  made  against  Lewis,  but  on  the  contrary 
they  said,  that  he  had  been  looked  upon  as  a  "  moderate  slave-holder ;"  they 
also  said,  that  "  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
for  fifty  years,  and  stood  high  in  that  body."  Furthermore  they  stated,  that 
he  sold  slaves  occasionally.  Eight  had  been  sold  by  him  some  time  before 
this  party  escaped  (two  of  them  to  Georgia) ;  besides  William  James  had 
been  sold  and  barely  found  opportunity  to  escape.  Wm.  James,  Major  Lewis, 
Dennis  Betts,  Peter,  and  Lazarus,  with  the  wife  and  child  of  the  former, 
not  only  found  themselves  stripped  from  day  to  day  of  their  hard  earnings, 
but  fearful  forebodings  of  the  auction-block  were  ever  uppermost  in  their 
minds.  While  they  spoke  of  Lewis  as  "  moderate,"  etc.,  they  all  said  that 
he  allowed  no  privileges  to  his  slaves. 

RICHARD  WILLIAMS  gave  a  full  account  of  himself,  but  only  a  meagre 
report  was  recorded.  He  said  that  he  came  from  Richmond,  and  left  be- 
cause he  was  on  the  point  of  being  sold  by  John  A.  Smith,  who  owned  him. 
He  gave  Smith  credit  for  being  a  tolerable  fair  kind  of  a  slave-holder,  but 
added,  that  "  his  wife  was  a  notoriously  hard  woman  ;"  she  had  made  a  very 
deep  impression  on  Richard's  mind  by  her  treatment  of  him.  In  finding 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859.  493 

himself  on  free  ground,  however,  with  cheering  prospects  ahead,  he  did  not 
stop  to  brood  over  the  ills  that  he  had  suffered,  but  rejoiced  heartily.  He 
left  his  wife,  Julia,  who  was  free. 

SYDNEY  HOPKINS  and  HENRY  WHEELER.  These  young  men  made  their 
way  out  of  Slavery  together.  While  Sydney  lives  he  will  forever  regard 
Jacob  Hoag,  of  Havre-de-Grace,  as  the  person  who  cheated  him  out  of 
himself,  and  prevented  him  from  becoming  enlightened  and  educated. 

HENRY,  his  companion,  was  also  from  Havre  De  Grace.  He  had  had 
trouble  with  a  man  by  the  name  of  Amos  Barnes,  or  in  other  words  Barnes 
claimed  to  own  him,  just  as  he  owned  a  horse  or  a  mule,  and  daily  con- 
trolled him  in  about  the  same  manner  that  he  would  manage  the  animals 
above  alluded  to.  Henry  could  find  no  justification  for  such  treatment. 
He  suffered  greatly  under  the  said  Barnes,  and  finally  his  eyes  were  open 
to  see  that  there  was  an  Underground  Rail  Uoad  for  the  benefit  of  all  such 
slavery-sick  souls  as  himself.  So  he  got  a  ticket  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
came  through  without  accident,  leaving  Amos  Barnes  to  do  the  best  he 
could  for  a  living.  This  candidate  for  Canada  was  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  and  a  likely-looking  boy. 

JOSEPH  HENRY  HILL.  The  spirit  of  freedom  in  this  passenger  was 
truly  the  "  one  idea  "  notion.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  his  purpose  to  free 
himself  by  escaping  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  was  successfully  carried 
into  effect,  although  not  without  difficulty.  Joseph  was  a  fair  specimen  of 
a  man  physically  and  mentally,  could  read  and  write,  and  thereby  keep  the 
run  of  matters  of  interest  on  the  Slavery  question. 

James  Thomas,  Jr.,  a  tobacco  merchant,  in  Richmond,  had  Joe  down  in 
his  ledger  as  a  marketable  piece  of  property,  or  a  handy  machine  to  save 
labor,  and  make  money.  To  Joe's  great  joy  he  heard  the  sound  of  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  bell  in  Richmond, — had  a  satisfactory  interview 
with  the  conductor, — received  a  favorable  response,  and  was  soon  a  traveler 
on  his  way  to  Canada.  He  left  his  mother,  a  free  woman,  and  two  sisters 
in  chains.  He  had  been  sold  twice,  but  he  never  meant  to  be  sold  again. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859. 

CORNELIUS  HENRY  JOHNSON.      FACE  CANADA-WARD  FOR  YEARS. 

Quite  an  agreeable  interview  took  place  between  Cornelius  and  the  Com- 
mittee. He  gave  his  experience  of  Slavery  pretty  fully,  and  the  Committee 
enlightened  him  as  to  the  workings  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  the 
value  of  freedom,  and  the  safety  of  Canada  as  a  refuge. 

Cornelius  was  a  single  man,  thirty-six  years  of  age,  full  black,  medium 
size,  and  intelligent.  He  stated  that  he  had  had  his  face  set  toward  Canada 


494  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

for  a  long  while.  Three  times  he  had  made  an  effort  to  get  out  of  the  prison- 
house.  "  Within  the  last  four  or  five  years,  times  have  gone  pretty  hard 
with  me.  My  mistress,  Mrs.  Mary  F.  Price,  had  lately  put  me  in  charge  of 
her  brother,  Samuel  M.  Bailey,  a  tobacco  merchant  of  Richmond.  Both 
believed  in  nothing  as  they  did  in  Slavery ;  they  would  sooner  see  a  black 
man  dead  than  free.  They  were  about  second  class  in  society.  He  and 
his  sister  own  well  on  to  one  hundred  head,  though  within  the  last  few 
years  he  has  been  thinning  off  the  number  by  sale.  I  was  allowed  one 
dollar  a  week  for  my  board ;  one  dollar  is  the  usual  allowance  for  slaves  in 
my  situation.  On  Christmas  week  he  allowed  me  no  board  money,  but 
made  me  a  present  of  seventy-five  cents;  my  mistress  added  twenty-five 
cents,  whicl?  was  the  extent  of  their  liberality.  I  was  well  cared  for.  When 
the  slaves  got  sick  he  doctored  them  himself,  he  was  too  stingy  to  employ  a 
physician.  If  they  did  not  get  well  as  soon  as  he  thought  they  should, 
he  would  order  them  to  their  work,  and  if  they  did  not  go  he  would  beat 
them.  My  cousin  was  badly  beat  last  year  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  and 
he  was  right  sick.  Mr.  Bailey  was  a  member  of  St.  James'  church,  on  Fifth 
street,  and  my  mistress  was  a  communicant  of  the  First  Baptist  church 
on  Broad  Street.  She  let  on  to  be  very  good." 

"  I  am  one  of  a  family  of  sixteen ;  my  mother  and  eleven  sisters  and 
brothers  are  now  living ;  some  have  been  sold  to  Alabama,  and  some  to 
Tennessee,  the  rest  are  held  in  Richmond.  My  mother  is  now  old,  but  is 
still  in  the  service  of  Bailey.  He  promised  to  take  care  of  her  in  her  old 
age,  and  not  compel  her  to  labor,  so  she  is  only  required  to  cook  and  wash 
for  a  dozen  slaves.  This  they  consider  a  great  favor  to  the  old  '  grand- 
mother.' It  was  only  a  year  ago  he  cursed  her  and  threatened  her  with  a 
flogging.  I  left  for  nothing  else  but  because  I  was  dissatisfied  with  Slavery. 
The  threats  of  my  master  caused  me  to  reflect  on  the  North  and  South.  I 
had  an  idea  that  I  was  not  to  die  in  Slavery.  I  believed  that  God  would 
assist  me  if  I  would  try.  I  then  made  up  my  mind  to  put  my  case  in  the 
hands  of  God,  and  start  for  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  I  bade  good-bye 
to  the  old  tobacco  factory  on  Seventh  street,  and  the  First  African  Baptist 
church  on  Broad  street  (where  he  belonged),  where  I  had  so  often  heard  the 
minister  preach  ' servants  obey  your  masters;'  also  to  the  slave  pens,  chain- 
gangs,  and  a  cruel  master  and  mistress,  all  of  which  I  hoped  to  leave 
forever.  But  to  bid  good-bye  to  my  old  mother  in  chains,  was  no  easy  job, 
and  if  my  desire  for  freedom  had  not  been  as  strong  as  my  desire  for  life 
itself,  I  could  never  have  stood  it;  but  I  felt  that  I  could  do  her  no  good  ; 
could  not  help  her  if  I  staid.  As  I  was  often  threatened  by  my  master, 
with  the  auction-block,  I  felt  I  must  give  up  all  and  escape  for  my  life." 

Such  was  substantially  the  story  of  Cornelius  Henry  Johnson.  He 
talked  for  an  hour  as  one  inspired,  and  as  none  but  fugitive  slaves  could 
talk. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858. 


495 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1858. 

THEOPHILUS  COLLINS,   ANDREW  JACKSON  BOYCE,   HANDY  BURTON  AND    ROBERT 

JACKSON. 

A  DESPERATE,   BLOODY  STRUGGLE — GUN,   KNIFE  AND  FIRE  SHOVEL,   USED   BY  AN 

INFURIATED    MASTER. 

Judged  from  their  outward  appearance,  as  well  as  from  the  fact  that  they 
were  from  the  neighboring  State  of  Delaware,  no  extraordinary  revelations 
were  looked  for  from  the  above-named  party.  It  was  found,  however,  that 
one  of  their  number,  at  least,  had  a  sad  tale  of  outrage  and  cruelty  to 
relate.  The  facts  stated  are  as  follows  : 

THEOPHILUS  is  twenty-four  years  of  age,  dark,  height  and  stature  hardly 
medium,  with  faculties  only  about  average  compared  with  ordinary  fugitives 
from  Delaware  and  Maryland.  His  appearance  is  in  no  way  remarkable. 
His  bearing  is  subdued  and  modest;  yet  he  is  not  lacking  in  earnestness. 
Says  Theophilus,  "  I  was  in  servitude  under  a  man  named  Houston,  near 
Lewes,  Delaware ;  he  was  a  very  mean  ,man,  he  didn't  allow  you  enough  to 
eat,  nor  enough  clothes  to  wear.  He  never  allowed  a  drop  of  tea,  or  coffee, 
or  sugar,  and  if  you  didn't  eat  your  breakfast  before  day  he  wouldn't 
allow  you  any,  but  would  drive  you  out  without  any.  He  had  a  wife ;  she 
was  mean,  too,  meaner  than  he  was.  Four  years  ago  last  Fall  my  master 
cut  my  entrails  out  for  going,  to  meeting  at  Daniel  Wesley's  church  one 
Sabbath  night.  Before  day,  Monday  morning,  he  called  me  up  to  whip 
me;  called  me  into  his  dining-room,  locked  the  doors,  then  ordered 
me  to  pull  off  my  shirt.  I  told  him  no,  sir,  I  wouldn't;  right  away 
he  went  and  got  the  cowhide,  and  gave  me  about  twenty  over  my  head 
with  the  butt.  He  tore  my  shirt  off,  after  I  would  not  pull  it  off;  he 


ordered  me  to  cross  my  hands.     I  didn't  do  that.     After  I  wouldn't  do  that 


496  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

he  went  and  got  his  gun  and  broke  the  breech  of  that  over  my  head.  He  then 
seized  up  the  fire-tongs  and  struck  ine  over  the  head  ever  so  often.  The 
next  thing  he  took  was  the  parlor  shovel  and  he  beat  on  me  with  that  till  he 
broke  the  handle  ;  then  he  took  the  blade  and  stove  it  at  my  head  with  all 
his  might.  I  told  him  that  I  was  bound  to  come  out  of  that  room.  He 
run  up  to  the  door  and  drawed  his  knife  and  told  me  if  I  ventured  to  the 
door  he  would  stab  me.  J  never  made  it  any  better  or  worse,  but  aimed 
straight  for  the  door ;  but  before  I  reached  it  he  stabbed  me,  drawing  the 
knife  (a  common  pocket  knife)  as  hard  as  he  could  rip  across  my  stomach ; 
right  away  he  began  stabbing  me  about  my  head/'  (marks  were  plainly  to 
be  seen).  After  a  desperate  struggle,  Theophilus  succeeded  in  getting  out  of 
the  building. 

"  I  started,"  said  he,  "  at  once  for  Georgetown,  carrying  a  part  of  my 
entrails  in  my  hands  for  the  whole  journey,  sixteen  miles.  I  went  to  my 
young  masters,  and  they  took  me  to  an  old  colored  woman,  called  Judah 
Smith,  and  for  five  days  and  nights  I  was  under  treatment  of  Dr.  Henry 
Moore,  Dr.  Charles  Henry  Richards,  and  Dr.  William  Newall ;  all  these 
attended  me.  I  was  not  expected  to  live  for  a  long  time,  but  the  Doctors 
cured  me  at  last." 

ANDREW  reported  that  he  fled  from  Dr.  David  Houston.  "  I  left  because 
of  my  master's  meanness  to  me;  he  was  a  very  mean  man  to  his  servants," 
said  Andrew,  "  and  I  got  so  tired  of  him  I  couldn't  stand  him  any  longer." 
Andrew  was  about  twenty-six  years  of  age,  ordinary  size ;  color,  brown, 
and  was  entitled  to  his  freedom,  but  knew  not  how  to  secure  it  by  law,  so 
resorted  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road  method. 

HANDY,  another  of  this  party,  said  that  he  left  because  the  man  who 
claimed  to  be  his  master  "was  so  hard."  The  man  by  whom  he  had  been 
wronged  was  known  where  he  came  from  by  the  name  of  Shepherd  Bur- 
ton, and  was  in  the  farming  business.  "  He  was  a  churchman,"  said  Handy, 
"  but  he  never  allowed  me  to  go  to  church  a  half  dozen  times  in  my  life." 

ROBERT  belonged  to  Mrs.  Mary  Hickman,  at  least  she  had  him  in  her 
possession  and  reaped  the  benefit  of  his  hire  and  enjoyed  the  leisure  and  ease 
thereof  while  he  toiled.  For  some  time  prior  to  his  leaving,  this  had  been 
a  thorn  in  his  side,  hard  to  bear;  so  when  an  opening  presented  itself  by 
which  he  thought  he  could  better  his  condition,  he  was  ready  to  try  the 
experiment.  He,  however,  felt  that,  while  she  would  not  have  him  to  look 
to  for  support,  she  would  not  be  without  sympathy,  as  she  was  a  member 
of  the  Episcopal  Church ;  besides  she  was  an  old-looking  woman  and  might 
not  need  his  help  a  great  while  longer. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859.  497 

ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859. 

STEPNEY  BROWN. 

Stepney  was  an  extraordinary  man,  his  countenance  indicating  great 
goodness  of  heart,  and  his  gratitude  to  his  heavenly  Father  for  his  deliver- 
ance proved  that  he  was  fully  aware  of  the  Source  whence  his  help  had 
come.  Being  a  man  of  excellent  natural  gifts,  as  well  as  of  religious  fer- 
vor and  devotion  to  a  remarkable  degree,  he  seemed  admirably  fitted  to  re- 
present the  slave  in  chains,  looking  up  to  God  with  an  eye  of  faith,  and 
again  the  fugitive  in  Canada  triumphant  and  rejoicing  with  joy  unspeakable 
over  his  deliverance,  yet  not  forgetting  those  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them. 
The  beauty  of  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  good  Father  above  could  scarcely 
have  shone  with  a  brighter  lustre  than  was  seen  in  this  simple-hearted 
believer. 

STEPNEY  was  thirty -four  years  of  age,  tall,  slender,  and  of  a  dark  hue. 
He  readily  confessed  that  he  fled  from  Mrs.  Julia  A.  Mitchell,  of  Rich- 
mond; and  testified  that  she  was  decidedly  stingy  and  unkind,  although 
a  member  of  St.  Paul's  church.  Still  he  was  wholly  free  from  acrimony,  and 
even  in  recounting  his  sufferings  was  filled  with  charity  towards  his  op- 
pressors. He  said,  "I  was  moved  to  leave  because  I  believed  that  I  had  a 
right  to  be  a  free  man." 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Second  Baptist  church,  and  entertained  strong 
faith  that  certain  infirmities,  which  had  followed  him  through  life  up  to 
within  seven  years  of  the  time  of  his  escape,  had  all  been  removed  through 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  He  had  been  an  eye-witness  to  many  outrages  in- 
flicted on  his  fellow-men.  But  he  spoke  more  of  the  sufferings  of  others 
than  his  own. 

His  stay  was  brief,  but  interesting.  After  his  arrival  in  Canada  he 
turned  his  attention  to  industrial  pursuits,  and  cherished  his  loved  idea 
that  the  Lord  was  very  good  to  him.  Occasionally  he  would  write  to  express 
his  gratitude  to  God  and  man,  and  to  inquire  about  friends  in  different 
localities,  especially  those  in  bonds. 

The  following  letters  are  specimens,  and  speak  for  themselves : 

CLIFTON  HOUSE,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  August  the  27. 

DEAR  BROTHER  : — It  is  with  pleasure  i  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  write  a  few  lines  to  in- 
form you  that  i  am  well  hopeping  these  few  lines  may  fine  you  the  same  i  am  longing  to 
hear  from  you  and  your  family  i  wish  you  would  say  to  Julis  Anderson  that  he  must  realy 
excuse  me  for  not  writing  but  i  am  in  hopes  that  he  is  doing  well,  i  have  not  heard  no 
news  from  Virgina.  plese  to  send  me  all  the  news  say  to  Mrs.  Hunt  an  you  also  forever 
pray  for  me  knowing  that  God  is  so  good  to  us.  i  have  not  seen  brother  John  Dungy  for 
5  months,  but  we  have  corresponded  together  but  he  is  doing  well  in  Brandford.  i  am 
now  at  the  falls  an  have  been  on  here  some  time  an  i  shall  with  the  help  of  the  lord  locate 
myself  somewhere  this  winter  an  go  to  school  excuse  me  for  not  annser  vour  letter  sooner 
32 


498  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

knowing  that  i  cannot  write  well  you  please  to  send  me  one  of  the  earliest  papers  send  me 
word  if  any  of  our  friends  have  been  passing  through  i  know  that  you  are  very  busy  but 
ask  your  little  daughter  if  she  will  annser  this  letter  for  you  i  often  feel  that  i  cannot  turn 
god  thanks  enough  for  his  blessings  that  he  has  bestoueth  upon  me.  Say  to  brother  suel 
that  he  must  not  forget  what  god  has  consighn  to  his  hand,  to  do  that  he  must  pray  in 
his  closet  that  god  might  teach  him.  say  to  mr.  Anderson  that  i  hope  he  have  retrad  an 
has  seeked  the  lord  an  found  him  precious  to  his  own  soul  for  he  must  do  it  in  this  world 
for  he  cannot  do  it  in  the  world  to  come,  i  often  think  about  the  morning  that  i  left  your 
house  it  was  such  a  sad  feeling  but  still  i  have  a  nope  in  crist  do  you  think  it  is  safe  in 
boston  my  love  to  all  i  remain  your  brother,  STEPNEY  BROWN. 

BRANTFORD,  March  3d,  1860. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  now  take  the  pleasure  of  writing  to  you  a  few  lines 
write  soon  hoping  to  find  you  enjoying  perfect  health,  as  I  am  the  same. 

My  joy  within  is  so  great  that  I  cannot  find  words  to  express  it.  When  I  met  with 
my  friend  brother  Dungy  who  stopped  at  your  house  on  his  way  to  Canada  after  having 
a  long  chase  after  me  from  Toronto  to  Hamilton  he  at  last  found  me  in  the  town  of  Brant- 
ford  Canada  West  and  ought  we  not  to  return  Almighty  God  thanks  for  delivering  us 
from  the  many  dangers  and  trials  that  beset  our  path  in  this  wicked  world  we  live  in. 

I  have  long  been  wanting  to  write  to  you  but  I  entirely  forgot  the  number  of  your 
house  Mr.  Dungy  luckily  happened  to  have  your  directions  with  him. 

Religion  is  good  when  we  live  right  may  God  help  you  to  pray  often  to  him  that  he 
might  receive  you  at  the  hour  of  your  final  departure.  Yours  most  respectfully. 

STEPNEY  BROWN,  per  Jas.  A.  Walk. 

P.  S.  Write  as  soon  as  possible  for  I  wish  very  much  to  hear  from  you.  I  understand 
that  Mrs,  Hunt  has  been  to  Richmond,  Va.  be  so  kind  as  to  ask  her  if  she  heard  anything 
about  that  money.  Give  my  love  to  all  inquiring  friends  and  to  your  family  especially. 
I  now  thank  God  that  I  have  not  lost  a  day  in  sickness  since  I  came  to  Canada. 

Kiss  the  baby  for  me.  I  know  you  are  busy  but  I  hope  you  will  have  time  to  write  a 
few  lines  to  me  to  let  me  know  how  you  and  your  family  are  getting  on.  No  more  at 
present,  but  I  am  yours  very  truly,  STEPNEY  BROWN,  pe,r  Jas.  A.  Walkinshaw. 

BRANTFORD,  Oct.  25,  '60 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  take  the  pleasure  of  dropping  you  a  few  lines,  I  am  yet  residing  in 
Brantford  and  I  have  been  to  work  all  this  summer  at  the  falls  and  I  have  got  along  re- 
markably well,  surely  God  is  good  to  those  that  put  their  trust  in  him  I  suppose  you 
have  been  wondering  what  has  become  of  me  but  I  am  in  the  lands  of  living  and  long  to 
hear  from  you  and  your  family.  I  would  have  wrote  sooner,  but  the  times  has  been  such 
in  the  states  I  have  not  but  little  news  to  send  you  and  I'm  going  to  school  again  this 
winter  and  will  you  be  pleased  to  send  me  word  what  has  become  of  Julius  Anderson  and 
the  rest -of  my  friends  and  tell  him  I  would  write  to  him  if  I  knew  where  to  direct  the 
letter,  please  send  me  word  whether  any  body  has  been  along  lately  that  knows  me.  I 
know  that  you  are  busy  but  you  must  take  time  and  answer  this  letter  as  I  am  anxious 
to  hear  from  you,  but  nevertheless  we  must  not  forget  our  maker,  so  we  cannot  pray  too 
much  to  our  lord  so  I  hope  that  mr.  Anderson  has  found  peace  with  God  for  me  myself 
really  appreciate  that  hope  that  I  have  in  Christ,  for  I  often  find  myself  in  my  slumber 
with  yon  and  I  hope  we  will  meet  some  day.  Mr.  Dungy  sends  his  love  to  you  I  suppose 
you  are  aware  that  he  is  married,  he  is  luckier  than  I  am  or  I  must  get  a  little  foothold 
before  I  do  marry  if  I  ever  do.  I  am  in  a  very  comfortable  room  all  fixed  for  the  winter 
and  we  have  had  one  snow.  May  the  lord  be  with  you  and  all  you  and  all  your  house- 
hold. I  remain  forever  your  brother  in  Christ,  STEPNEY  BROWN. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859.  499 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859. 

JIM  KELL,   CHARLES    HEATH,   WILLIAM  CARLISLE,   CHARLES  RINGGOLD,  THOMAS 
MAXWELL,   AND  SAMUEL    SMITH. 

On  the  evening  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  while  all  was  hilarity  and  rejoicing 
the  above  named  very  interesting  fugitives  arrived  from  the  troubled  dis- 
trict, the  Eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  where  so  many  conventions  had  been 
held  the  previous  year  to  prevent  escapes ;  where  the  Rev.  Samuel  Green 
had  been  convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  ten  years  for  having  a 
copy  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  in  his  humble  home  ;  where  so  many  parties,  on 
escaping,  had  the  good  sense  and  courage  to  secure  their  flight  by  bringing 
their  masters'  horses  and  carriages  a  good  way  on  their  perilous  journey. 

SAM  had  been  tied  up  and  beat  many  times  severely.  WILLIAM  had  been 
stripped  naked,  and  frequently  and  cruelly  cowhided.  THOMAS  had  been 
clubbed  over  h;s  head  more  times  than  a  few.  JIM  had  been  whipped  with 
clubs  and  switches  times  without  number.  Charles  had  had  five  men  on 
him  at  one  time,  with  cowhides,  his  master  in  the  lead. 

CHARLES  HEATH  had  had  his  head  cut  shockingly,  with  a  club,  in  the 
hands  of  his  master;  this  well  cared-for  individual  in  referring  to  his  kind 
master,  said :  "  I  can  give  his  character  right  along,  he  was  a  perfect  devil. 
The  night  we  left,  he  had  a  woman  tied  up — God  knows  what  he  clone. 
He  was  always  blustering,  you  could  never  do  enough  for  him  no  how. 
First  thing  in  the  morning  and  last  thing  at  night,  you  would  hear  him 
cussing — he  would  cuss  in  bed.  He  was  a  large  farmer,  all  the  time  drunk. 
He  had  a  good  deal  of  money  but  not  much  character.  He  was  a  savage, 
bluff,  red  face-looking  concern."  Thus,  in  the  most  earnest,  as  well  as  in  an 
intelligent  manner, 'Charles  described  the  man  (Aquila  Cain),  who  had 
hitherto  held  him  under  the  yoke. 

JAMES  left  his  mother,  Nancy  Kell,  two  brothers,  Robert  and  Henry, 
and  two  sisters,  Mary  and  Annie ;  all  living  in  the  neighborhood  whence 
he  fled.  Besides  these,  he  had  eight  brothers  and  sisters  living  in  Baltimore 
and  elsewhere,  under  the  yoke.  He  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  a  jet 
color,  but  of  a  manly  turn.  He  fled  from  Thomas  Murphy,  a  farmer,  and 
regular  slave-holder.  Charles  Heath  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  medium 
size,  full  black,  a  very  keen-looking  individual. 

WILLIAM  was  also  of  unmixed  blood,  shrewd  and  wide-awake  for  his 
years, — had  been  ground  down  under  the  heel  of  Aquila  Cain.  He  left 
his  mother  and  two  sisters. 

CHARLES  RINGGOLD  was  eighteen  years  of  age ;  no  white  blood  showed 
itself  in  the  least  in  this  individual.  He  fled  from  Dr.  Jacob  Preston,  a 
member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  a  practical  farmer  with  twenty  head 
of  slaves.  "  He  was  not  so  bad,  but  his  wife  was  said  to  be  a  '  stinger.' }> 
Charles  left  his  mother  and  father  behind,  also  four  sisters. 


500  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

THOMAS  was  of  pure  blood,  with  a  very  cheerful,  healthy-looking  counte- 
nance,— twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  was  to  "  come  free  "  at  twenty-five, 
but  he  had  too  much  good  sense  to  rely  upon  the  promises  of  slave-holders 
in  matters  of  this  kind.  He  too  belonged  to  Cain  who,  he  said,  was  con- 
stantly talking  about  selling,  etc.  He  left  his  father  and  mother. 

After  being  furnished  with  food,  clothing,  and  free  tickets,  they  were 
forwarded  on  in  triumph  and  full  of  hope. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS,  1859. 

JOHN  EDWARD  LEE,  JOHN  HILLIS,  CHARLES  ROSS,  JAMES  RYAN,  WILLIAM  JOHNSTON, 
EDWARD  WOOD,  CORNELIUS  FULLER  AND  HIS  WIFE  HARRIET,  JOHN  PINKET, 
ANSAL  CANNON,  AND  JAMES  BROWN. 


came  from  Maryland,  and  brought  with  him  a  good  degree  of 
pluck.  He  satisfied  the  Committee  that  he  fully  believed  in  freedom,  and 
had  proved  his  faith  by  his  works,  as  he  came  in  contact  with*  pursuers, 
M'hom  he  put  to  flight  by  the  use  of  an  ugly-looking  knife,  which  he 
plunged  into  one  of  them,  producing  quite  a  panic;  the  result  was  that  he 
was  left  to  pursue  his  Underground  Rail  Road  journey  without  further 
molestation.  There  was  nothing  in  John's  appearance  which  would  lead 
one  to  suppose  that  he  was  a  blood-thirsty  or  bad  man,  although  a  man 
of  uncommon  muscular  powers;  six  feet  high,  and  quite  black,  with  resolu- 
tion stamped  on  his  countenance.  But  when  he  explained  how  he  was 
enslaved  by  a  man  named  John  B.  Slade,  of  Harford  Co.,  and  how,  in  some 
way  or  other,  he  became  entitled  to  his  freedom,  and  just  as  the  time  arrived 
for  the  consummation  of  his  long  prayed-for  boon,  said  Slade  was  about 
to  sell  him,  —  after  this  provocation,  it  was  clear  enough  to  perceive  how 
John  came  to  use  his  knife. 

JOHN  HILLIS  was  a  tiller  of  the  ground  under  a  widow  lady  (Mrs.  Louisa 
Le  Count),  of  the  New  Market  District,  Maryland.  He  signified  to  the 
mistress,  that  he  loved  to  follow  the  water,  and  that  he  would  be  just  as  safe 
on  water  as  on  land,  and  that  he  was  discontented.  The  widow  heard  John's 
plausible  story,  and  saw  nothing  amiss  in  it,  so  she  consented  that  he  should 
work  on  a  schooner.  The  name  of  the  craft  was  "Majestic."  The  hopeful 
John  endeavored  to  do  his  utmost  to  please,  and  was  doubly  happy  when  he 
learned  that  the  "Majestic"  was  to  make  a  trip  to  Philadelphia.  On  arriving 
John's  eyes  were  opened  to  see  that  he  owed  Mrs.  Le  Count  nothing,  but  that 
she  was  largely  indebted  to  him  for  years  of  unrequited  toil  ;  he  could  not, 
therefore,  consent  to  go  back  to  her.  He  was  troubled  to  think  of  his  poor 
wife  and  children,  whom  he  had  left  in  the  hands  of  Mrs.  Harriet  Dean, 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  New  Market  ;  but  it  was  easier  for  him  to 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859.  501 

imagine  plans  by  which  he  could  get  them  off  than  to  incur  the  hazard 
of  going  back  to  Maryland ;  therefore  he  remained  in  freedom. 

CHARLES  Ross  was  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  he  was  free-born,  but  that 
he  had  been  illegally  held  in  Slavery,  as  were  all  his  brothers  and  sisters,  by 
a  man  named  Rodgers,  a  farmer,  living  near  Greensborough,  in  Caroline 
county,  Md.  Very  good  reasons  were  given  by  Charles  for  the  charge  which 
he  made  against  Rodgers,  and  it  went  far  towards  establishing  the  fact,  that 
"  colored  men  had  no  rights  which  white  men  were  bound  to  respect,"  in 
Maryland.  Although  he  was  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  he  had  fully 
weighed  the  matter  of  his  freedom,  and  appeared  firmly  set  against 
Slavery. 

WILLIAM  JOHNSON  was  owned  by  a  man  named  John  Bosley,  a  farmer, 
living  near  Gun  Powder  Neck,  Maryland.  One  morning  he,  unexpectedly 
to  William,  gave  him  a  terrible  cowhiding,  which,  contrary  to  the  master's 
designs,  made  him  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine  of  immediate  abolition,  and 
he  thought,  that  from  that  hour  he  must  do  something  against  the  system—- 
if nothing  more  than  to  go  to  Canada.  This  determination  was  so  strong, 
that  in  a  few  weeks  afterwards  he  found  himself  on  the  Underground  Rail 
Road.  He  left  one  brother  and  one  sister ;  his  mother  was  dead,  and  of  his 
father's  whereabouts  he  knew  nothing.  William  was  nineteen  years  of  age, 
brown  color,  smart  and  good-looking. 

EDWARD  WOOD  was  a  "chattel "  from  Drummerstown,  Accomac  county, 
Virginia,  where  he  had  been  owned  by  a  farmer,  calling  himself  James 
White;  a  man  who  "drank  hard  and  was  very  crabbed,"  and  before  Edward 
left  owned  eleven  head  of  slaves.  Edward  left  a  wife  and  three  children, 
but  the  strong  desire  to  be  free,  which  had  been  a  ruling  passion  of  his 
being  from  early  boyhood,  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  stay,  although 
the  ties  were  very  hard  to  break.  Slavery  was  crushing  him  hourly,  and 
he  felt  that  he  could  not  submit  any  longer. 

CORNELIUS  FULLER,  and  his  wife,  HARRIET,  escaped  together  from  Kent 
county,  Maryland.  They  belonged  to  separate  masters;  Cornelius,  it  was 
said,  belonged  to  the  Diden  Estate;  his  wife  to  Judge  Chambers,  whose 
Honor  lived  in  Chestertown.  "  He  is  no  man  for  freedom,  bless  you,"  said 
Harriet.  "  He  owned  more  slaves  than  any  other  man  in  that  part  of  the 
country;  he  sells  sometimes,  and  he  hired  out  £  great  many;  would  hire 
them  to  any  kind  of  a  master,  if  he  half  killed  you."  Cornelius  and 
Harriet  were  obliged  to  leave  their  daughter  Kitty,  who  was  thirteen  years 
of  age. 

JOHN  PINKET  and  Ansal  Cannon  took  the  Underground  Rail  Road  cars 
at  New  Market,  Dorchester  county,  Maryland. 

JOHN  was  a  tall  young  man,  of  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  of  an  active 
turn  of  mind  and  of  a  fine  black  color.  He  was  the  property  of  Mary 
Brown,  a  widow,  firmly  grounded  in  the  love  of  Slavery ;  believing 


502  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

that  a  slave  had  no  business  to  get  tired  or  desire  his  freedom.  She 
sold  one  of  John's  sisters  to  Georgia,  and  before  John  fled,  had  still  in  her 
possession  nine  head  of  slaves.  She  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church 
at  East  New  Market.  From  certain  movements  which  looked  very  suspi- 
cious in  John's  eyes,  he  had  been  allotted  to  the  Southern  Market,  he  there- 
fore resolved  to  look  out  for  a  habitation  in  Canada.  He  had  a  first-rate 
corn-field  education,  but  no  book  learning.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  escape, 
John  had  shunned  entangling  himself  with  a  wife. 

ANSAL,  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  well-colored,  and  seemed  like  a  good- 
natured  and  well-behaved  article.  He  escaped  from  Kitty  Cannon,  another 
widow,  who  owned  nine  chattels.  "  Sometimes  she  treated  her  slaves  pretty 
well,"  was  the  testimony  of  Ansal.  He  ran  away  because  he  did  not  get 
pay  for  his  services.  In  thus  being  deprived  of  his  hire,  he  concluded  that 
he  had  no  business  to  stay  if  he  could  get  away. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859. 

JAMES  BROWN. 

A  more  giant-like  looking  passenger  than  the  above  named  individual 
had  rarely  ever  passed  over  the  road.  He  was  six  feet  three  inches  high,  and 
in  every  respect,  a  man  of  bone,  sinew  and  muscle.  For  one  who  had  en- 
joyed only  a  field  hand's  privileges  for  improvement,  he  was  not  to  be  despised. 

JIM  owed  service  to  Henry  Jones ;  at  least  he  admitted  that  said  Jones 
claimed  him,  and  had  hired  him  out  to  himself  for  seven  dollars  per  month. 
While  this  amount  seemed  light,  it  was  much  heavier  than  Jim  felt  willing 
to  meet  solely  for  his  master's  benefit.  After  giving  some  heed  to  the 
voice  of  freedom  within,  he  considered  that  it  behooved  him  to  try  and 
make  his  way  to  some  place  where  men  were  not  guilty  of  wronging  their 
neighbors  out  of  their  just  hire.  Having  heard  of  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  running  to  Canada,  he  concluded  to  take  a  trip  and  see  the  country, 
for  himself;  so  he  arranged  his  affairs  with  this  end  in  view,  and  left  Henry 
Jones  with  one  less  to  work  for  him  for  nothing.  The  place  that  he  fled 
from  was  called  North  Point,  Baltimore  county.  The  number  of  fellow- 
slaves  left  in  the  hands  of  liis  old  master,  was  fifteen. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DELAWARE,  1859. 

EDWARD,   JOHN,   AND  CHARLES   HALL. 

The  above  named  individuals  were  brothers  from  Delaware.  They  were 
young ;  the  eldest  being  about  twenty,  the  youngest  not  far  from  seventeen 
years  of  age. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1859.  503 

EDWARD  was  serving  on  a  farm,  under  a  man  named  Booth.  Perceiving 
that  Booth  was  "running  through  his  property"  very  fast  by  hard  drink- 
ing, Edward's  better  judgment  admonished  him  that  his  so-called  master 
would  one  day  have  need  of  more  rum  money,  and  that  he  might  not  be  too 
good  to  offer  him  in  the  market  for  what  he  would  bring.  Charles  resolved 
that  when  his  brothers  crossed  the  line  dividing  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania, 
he  would  not  be  far  behind. 

The  mother  of  these  boys  was  freed  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  and  lived 
in  Wilmington,  Delaware.  It  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  their  mother  had 
been  freed  that  they  entertained  the  vague  notion  that  they  too  might  be 
freed;  but  it  was  a  well  established  fact  that  thousands  lived  and  died  in 
such  a  hope  without  ever  realizing  their  expectations.  The  boys,  more 
shrewd  and  wide  awake  than  many  others,  did  not  hearken  to  such  "  stuff." 
The  two  younger  heard  the  views  of  the  elder  brother,  and  expressed  a 
willingness  to  follow  him.  Edward,  becoming  satisfied  that  what  they 
meant  to  do  must  be  done  quickly,  took  the  lead,  and  off  they  started  for 
a  free  State. 

JOHN  was  owned  by  one  James  B.  Rodgers,  a  farmer,  and  "  a  most  every 
kind  of  man,"  as  John  expressed  himself ;  in  fact  John  thought  that  his 
owner  was  such  a  strange,  wicked,  and  cross  character  that  he  couldn't  tell 
himself  what  he  was.  Seeing  that  slaves  were  treated  no  better  than  dogs 
and  hogs,  John  thought  that  he  was  none  too  young  to  be  taking  steps  to 
get  away. 

CHARLES  was  held  by  James  Rodgers,  Sr.,  under  whom  he  said  that  he 
had  served  nine  years  with  faint  prospects  of  some  time  becoming  free,  but 
when,  was  doubtful. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1859. 

JAMES  TAYLOB,   ALBERT  GROSSj  AND  JOHN  GBINAOE. 

To  see  mere  lads,  not  twenty-one  years  of  age,  smart  enough  to  outwit 
the  very  shrewdest  and  wisest  slave-holders  of  Virginia  was  very  gratifying. 
The  young  men  composing  this  arrival  were  of  this  keen-sighted  order. 

JAMES  was  only  a  little  turned  of  twenty,  of  a  yellow  complexion,  and  in- 
telligent. A  trader,  by  the  name  of  George  Ailer,  professed  to  own  James. 
lie  said  that  he  had  been  used  tolerable  well,  not  so  bad  as  many  had  been 
used.  James  was  learning  the  carpenter  trade ;  but  he  was  anxious  to 
obtain  his  freedom,  and  finding  his  two  companions  true  on  the  main  ques- 
tion, in  conjunction  with  them  he  contrived  a  plan  of  escape,  and  'took  out.' 
His  father  and  mother,  Harrison  and  Jane  Taylor,  were  left  at  Fredericks- 
burg  to  mourn  the  absence  of  their  son. 

ALBERT   was  in   his  twentieth  year,  the   picture  of  good   health,  not 


504  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

homely  by  any  means,  although  not  of  a  fashionable  color.  He  was  under 
the  patriarchal  protection  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  William  Price,  who  carried 
on  farming  in  Cecil  county,  Maryland.  Albert  testified  that  he  was  a 
bad  man. 

JOHN  GRINAGE  was  only  twenty,  a  sprightly,  active  young  man,  of  a 
brown  color.  He  came  from  Middle  Neck,  Cecil  county,  where  he  had 
served  under  William  Flintham,  a  farmer. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND  (1859) 

AND  OTHER  PLACES. 

JAMES  ANDY  WILKINS,  and  wife  LUCINDA,  with  their  little  boy,  CHARLES, 
CHARLES  HENRY  GROSS,  A  WOMAN  with  her  TWO  CHILDREN — one  in 
her  arms — JOHN  BROWN,  JOHN  ROACH,  and  wife  LAMBY,  and  HENRY 
SMALLWOOD. 

The  above-named  passengers  did  not  all  come  from  the  same  place,  or 
exactly  at  the  same  time ;  but  for  the  sake  of  convenience  they  are  thus 
embraced  under  a  general  head. 

JAMES  ANDY  WILKINS  "  gave  the  slip  "  to  a  farmer,  by  the  name  of 
George  Biddle,  who  lived  one  mile  from  Cecil,  Cecil  county,  Mary- 
land. While  he  hated  Slavery,  he  took  a  favorable  view  of  his  master  in 
some  respects  at  least,  as  he  said  that  he  was  a  "  moderate  man  in  talk  ; " 
but  "sly  in  action."  His  master  provided  him  with  two  pairs  of  panta- 
loons in  the  summer,  and  one  in  the  winter,  also  a  winter  jacket,  no  vest, 
no  cap,  or  hat.  James  thought  the  sum  total  for  the  entire  year's  clothing 
would  not  amount  to  mote  than  ten  dollars.  Sunday  clothing  he  was  com- 
pelled to  procure  for  himself  by  working  of  nights;  he  made  axe  handles, 
mats,  etc.,  of  evenings,  and  caught  musk  rats  on  Sunday,  and  availed  him- 
self of  their  hides  to  procure  means  for  his  most  pressing  wants.  Besides 
these  liberal  privileges  his  master  was  in  the  habit  of  allowing  him  two 
whole  days  every  harvest,  and  at  Christmas  from  twenty-five  cents  to  as 
high  as  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents,  were  lavished  upon  him. 

His  master  was  a  bachelor,  a  man  of  considerable  means,  and  "  kept  toler- 
able good  company,"  and  only  owned  two  other  slaves,  Rachel  Ann  Dumb- 
son  and  John  Price. 

LUCINDA,  the  companion  of  James,  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  good- 
looking,  well-formed  and  of  a  brown  color.  She  spoke  of  a  man  named 
George  Ford  as  her  owner.  He,  however,  was  said  to  be  of  the  "  mode- 
rate class "  of  slave-holders ;  Lucinda  being  the  only  slave  property  he 
possessed,  and  she  came  to  him  through  his  wife  (who  was  a  Methodist). 
The  master  was  an  outsider,  so  far  as  the  Church  was  concerned.  Once 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS  FR OM  MAR  YLAND,  1859.  505 

in  a  great  while  Lucinda  was  allowed  to  go  to  church,  when  she  could 
be  spared  from  her  daily  routine  of  cooking,  washing,  etc.  Twice  a  week 
she  was  permitted  the  special  favor  of  seeing  her  husband.  These  simple 
privations  not  being  of  a  grave  character,  no  serious  fault  was  found  with 
them ;  yet  Lucinda  was  not  without  a  strong  ground  of  complaint.  Not 
long  before  escaping,  she  had  been  threatened  with  the  auction-block;  this 
fate  she  felt  bound  to  avert,  if  possible,  and  the  way  she  aimed  to  do  it  was 
by  escaping  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Charley,  a  bright  little  fellow 
only  three  years  of  age,  was  "  contented  and  happy  "  enough.  Lucinda  left 
her  father,  Moses  Edgar  Wright,  and  two  brothers,  both  slaves.  One 
belonged  to  "  Francis  Crookshauks,"  and  the  other  to  Capt.  Jim  Mitchell. 
Her  mother,  who  was  known  by  the  name  of  Betsy  Wright,  escaped  when 
she  (Lucinda)  was  seven  years  of  age.  Of  her  whereabouts  nothing  further 
had  ever  been  heard.  Lucinda  entertained  strong  hopes  that  she  might  find 
her  in  Canada. 

CHARLES  HENRY  GROSS  began  life  in  Maryland,  and  was  made  to  bear 
the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day  in  Baltimore,  under  Henry  Slaughter,  pro- 
prietor of  the  Ariel  Steamer.  Owing  to  hard  treatment,  Charles  was  in- 
duced to  fly  to  Canada  for  refuge. 

A  woman  with  two  children,  one  in  her  arms,  and  the  other  two  years  of 
age  (names,  etc.,  not  recorded),  came  from  the  District  of  Columbia.  Mother 
and  children,  appealed  loudly  for  sympathy. 

JOHN  BROWN,  being  at  the  beck  of  a  man  filling  the  situation  of  a  com- 
mon clerk  (in  the  shoe  store  of  McGrunders),  became  dissatisfied.  Asking 
himself  what  right  Benjamin  Thorn  (his  professed  master)  had  to  his  hire, 
he  was  led  to  see  the  injustice  of  his  master,  and  made  up  his  mind, 
that  he  would  leave  by  the  first  train,  if  he  could  get  a  genuine  ticket  via 
the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He  found  an  agent  and  soon  had  matters  all 
fixed.  He  left  his  father,  mother  and  seven  sisters  and  one  brother,  all 
slaves.  John  was  a  man  small  of  stature,  dark,  with  homely  features,  but 
he  was  very  determined  to  get  away  from  oppression. 

JOHN  and  LAMBY  ROACH  had  been  eating  bitter  bread  under  bondage 
near  Seaford.  John  was  the  so-called  property  of  Joshua  O'Bear,  "a  frac- 
tious, hard-swearing  man,  and  when  mad  would  hit  one  of  his  slaves  with 
anything  he  could  get  in  his  hands."  John  and  his  companion  made  the 
long  journey  on  foot.  The  former  had  been  trained  to  farm  labor  and  the 
common  drudgery  of  slave  life.  Being  a  man  of  thirty^hree  years  of  age, 
with  more  than  ordinary  abilities,  he  had  given  the  matter  of  his  bondage 
considerable  thought,  and  seeing  that  his  master  "  got  worse  the  older  he 
got,"  together  with  the  fact,  that  his  wife  had  recently  been  sold,  he  was 
strongly  stirred  to  make  an  effort  for  Canada.  While  it  was  a  fact,  that 
his  wife  had  already  been  sold,  as  above  stated,  the  change  of  ownership  was 
not  to  take  place  for  some  mouths,  consequently  John  "  took  out  in  a  hurry." 


506  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

His  wife  was  the  property  of  Dr.  Shipley,  of  Seaford,  who  had  occasion  to 
raise  some  money  for  which  he  gave  security  in  the  shape  of  this  wife 
and  mother.  Horsey  was  the  name  of  the  gentleman  from  whom  it  was  said 
that  he  obtained  the  favor ;  so  when  the  time  was  up  for  the  payment  to  be 
made,  the  Dr.  was  not  prepared.  Horsey,  therefore,  claimed  the  collateral 
(the  wife)  and  thus  she  had  to  meet  the  issue,  or  make  a  timely  escape  to 
Canada  with  her  husband.  No  way  but  walking  was  open  to  them.  De- 
ciding to  come  this  way,  they  prosecuted  their  journey  with  uncommon 
perseverance  and  success.  Both  were  comforted  by  strong  faith  in  God, 
and  believed  that  He  would  enable  them  to  hold  out  on  the  road  until  they 
should  reach  friends. 

HENRY  SMALLWOOD  saw  that  he  was  working  every  day  for  nothing,  arid 
thought  that  he  would  do  better.  He  described  his  master  (Washington 
Bonafont)  as  a  sort  of  a  rowdy,  who  drank  pretty  hard,  leaving  a  very  unfa- 
vorable impression  on  Henry's  mind,  as  he  felt  almost  sure  such  conduct 
would  lead  to  a  sale  at  no  distant  day.  So  he  was  cautious  enough  to  "  take 
the  hint  in  time."  Henry  left  in  company  with  nine  others;  but  after  being 
two  days  on  the  journey  they  were  routed  and  separated  by  their  pursuers. 
At  this  point  Henry  lost  all  trace  of  the  rest.  He  heard  afterwards  that  two 
of  them  had  been  captured,  but  received  no  further  tidings  of  the  others. 
Henry  was  a  fine  representative  for  Canada;  a  tall,  dark,  and  manly-looking 
individual,  thirty-six  years  of  age.  He  left  his  father  and  mother  behind. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859. 

HENRY   JONES   AND  TURNER   FOSTER. 

HENRY  was  left  free  by  the  will  of  his  mistress  (Elizabeth  Mann),  but 
the  heirs  were  making  desperate  efforts  to  overturn  this  instrument.  Of 
this,  there  was  so  much  danger  with  a  Richmond  court,  that  Henry  feared 
that  the  chances  were  against  him ;  that  the  court  was  not  honest  enough 
to  do  him  justice.  Being  a  man  of  marked  native  foresight,  he  con- 
cluded that  the  less  he  talked  about  freedom  and  the  more  he  acted  the 
sooner  he  would  be  out  of  his  difficulties.  He  was  called  upon,  however,  to 
settle  certain  minor  matters,  before  he  could  see  his  way  clear  to  move  in  the 
direction  of  Canada ;  for  instance,  he  had  a  wife  on  his  mind  to  dispose  of 
in  some  way,  but  how  he  could  not  tell.  Again,  he  was  not  in  the  secret 
of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  movement ;  he  knew  that  many  got  off, 
but  how  they  managed  it  he  was  ignorant.  If  he  could  settle  these  two 
points  satisfactorily,  he  thought  that  he  would  be  willing  to  endure  any 
sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  his  freedom.  He  found  an  agent  of  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road,  and  after  surmounting  various  difficulties,  this  point  was 


ARRIVAL  FR OM  MAR  YLAND.  507 

settled.  As  good  luck  would  have  it,  his  wife,  who  was  a  free  woman, 
although  she  heard  the  secret  with  great  sorrow,  had  the  good  sense  to 
regard  his  step  for  the  best,  and  thus  he  was  free  to  contend  with  all  other 
dangers  on  the  way. 

He  encountered  the  usual  suifering,  and  on  his  arrival  experienced  the 
wonted  pleasure.  He  was  a  man  of  forty -one  years  of  age,  spare  made,  with 
straight  hair,  and  Indian  complexion,  with  the  Indian's  aversion  to  Slavery. 

TURNER,  who  was  a  fellow-passenger  with  Henry,  arrived  also  from 
Richmond.  He  was  about  twenty-one,  a  bright,  smart,  prepossessing  young 
man.  He  fled  from  A.  A.  Mosen,  a  lawyer,  represented  to  be  one  of  the 
first  in  the  city,  and  a  firm  believer  in  Slavery.  Turner  differed  widely 
with  his  master  with  reference  to  this  question,  although,  for  prudential 
reasons,  he  chose  not  to  give  his  opinion  to  said  Mosen. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

TWO  YOUNG  MOTHERS,  EACH  WITH  BABES  IN  THEIR  ARMS — ANNA  ELIZABETH  YOUNG 
AND  SARAH  JANE   BELL — WHIPPED   TILL   THE   BLOOD   FLOWED. 

The  appearance  of  these  young  mothers  at  first  produced  a  sudden 
degree  of  pleasure,  but  their  story  of  suffering  quite  as  suddenly  caused  the 
most  painful  reflections.  It  was  hardly  possible  to  listen  to  their  tales  of 
outrage  and  wrong  with  composure.  'Both  came  from  Kent  county,  Mary- 
land, and  reported  that  they  fled  from  a  man  by  the  name  of  Massey;  a 
man  of  low  stature,  light-complexioned,  with  dark  hair,  dark  eyes,  and  very 
quick  temper ;  given  to  hard  swearing  as  a  common  practice;  also,  that  the 
said  Massey  had  a  wife,  who  was  a  very  tall  woman,  with  1)1  ue  eyes,  chest- 
nut-colored hair,  and  a  very  bad  temper ;  that,  conjointly,  Massey  and  his 
wife  were  in  the  habit  of  meting  out  cruel  punishment  to  their  slaves, 
•without  regard  to  age  or  sex,  and  that  they  themselves,  (Anna  Elizabeth 
and  Sarah  Jane),  had  received  repeated  scourgings  at  the  hands  of  their 
master.  Anna  and  Sarah  were  respectively  twenty-four  and  twenty-five 
years  of  age ;  Anna  was  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  while  Sarah  was  two  shades 
lighter ;  both  had  good  manners,  and  a  fair  share  of  intelligence,  which 
afforded  a  hopeful  future  for  them  in  freedom.  Each  had  a  babe  in 
her  arms. 

SARAH  had  been  a  married  woman  for  three  years ;  her  child,  a  boy,  was 
eight  months  old,  and  was  named  Garrett  Bell.  Elizabeth's  child  was  a 
girl,  nineteen  months  old,  and  named  Sarah  Catharine  Young.  Elizabeth 
had  never  been  married.  They  had  lived  with  Massey  five  years  up  to 
the  last  March  prior  to  their-  escape,  having  been  bought  out  of  the  Balti- 


508  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

more  slave-pen,  with  the  understanding  that  they  were  to  be  free  at  the 
expiration  of  five  years'  service  under  him.  The  five  years  had  more  than 
expired,  but  no  hope  or  sign  of  freedom  appeared.  On  the  other  hand, 
Massey  was  talking  loudly  of  selling  them  again.  Threats  and  fears  were  so 
horrifying  to  them,  that  they  could  not  stand  it ;  this  was  what  prompted 
them  to  flee.  "  As  often  as  six  or  seven  times,"  said  Elizabeth,  "  I  have 
been  whipped  by  master,  once  with  the  carriage  whip,  and  at  other  times 
with  a  raw  hide  trace.  The  last  flogging  I  received  from  him,  was  about 
four  weeks  before  last  Christmas  ;  he  then  tied  me  up  to  a  locust  tree  stand- 
ing before  the  door,  and  whipped  me  to  his  satisfaction." 

SA.RAH  had  fared  no  better  than  Elizabeth,  according  to  her  testimony. 
"Three  times,"  said  she,  "I  have  been  tied  up;  the  last  time  was  in  plant- 
ing corn-time,  this  year.  My  clothing  was  all  stripped  off  above  my  waist, 
and  then  he  whipped  me  till  the  blood  ran  down  to  my  heels."  Her  back 
was  lacerated  all  over.  She  had  been  ploughing  with  two  horses,  and  un- 
fortunately had  lost  a  hook  out  of  her  plough  ;  this,  she  declared  was  the 
head  and  front  of  her  offending,  nothing  more.  Thus,  after  all  their 
suffering,  utterly  penniless,  they  reached  the  Committee,  and  were  in  every 
respect,  in  a  situation  to  call  for  the  deepest  commiseration.  They  were 
helped  and  were  thankful. 


AERIVAL  FROM    MARYLAND,  VIRGINIA,  AND  THE  DIS- 
TRICT OF  COLUMBIA. 

JOHN  WESLEY  SMITH,   ROBERT  MURRAY,  SUSAN    STEWART,  AND    JOSEPHINE  SMITH. 

Daniel  Hubert  was  fattening  on  John  Wesley's  earnings  contrary  to  his, 
John's,  idea  of  right.  For  a  long  time  John  failed  to  see  the  remedy, 
but  as  he  grew  older  and  wiser  the  scales  fell  from  his  eyes  and  he  per- 
ceived that  the  Underground  Rail  Road  ran  near  his  master's  place,  Cam*- 
bridge,  Md.,  and  by  a  very  little  effort  and  a  large  degree  of  courage  and 
perseverance  he  might  manage  to  get  out  of  Maryland  and  on  to  Canada, 
where  slave-holders  had  no  more  rights  than  other  people.  These  reflections 
came  seriously  into  John's  mind  at  about  the  age  of  twenty-six;  being  about 
this  time  threatened  with  the  auction-block  he  bade  slavery  good-night, 
jumped  into  the  Underground  Rail  Road  car  and  off  he  hurried  for  Penn- 
sylvania. His  mother,  Betsy,  one  brother,  and  one  sister  were  left  in  the 
hands  of  Hubert.  John  Wesley  could  pray  for  them  and  wish  them  well, 
but  nothing  more. 

ROBERT  MURRAY  became  troubled  in  mind  about  his  freedom  while 
living  in  London  county,  Virginia,  under  the  heel  of  Eliza  Brooks,  a  widow 
woman,  who  used  him  bad,  according  to  his-  testimony.  He  had  been 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND  AND  VIRGINIA.        509 

"  knocked  about  a  good  deal."  A  short  while  before  he  fled,  he  stated  that 
he  had  been  beat  brutally,  so  much  so  that  the  idea  of  escape  was  beat  into 
him.  He  had  never  before  felt  as  if  he  dared  hope  to  try  to  get  out  of 
bondage,  but  since  then  his  mind  had  undergone  such  a  sudden  and  power- 
ful change,  he  began  to  feel  that  nothing  could  hold  him  in  Virginia ;  the 
place  became  hateful  to  him.  He  looked  upon  a  slave-holder  as  a  kind  of  a 
living,  walking,  talking  "Satan,  going  about  as  a  roaring  lion  seeking  whom 
he  may  destroy."  He  left  his  wife,  with  one  child ;  her  name  was  Nancy 
Jane,  and  the  name  of  the  offspring  was  Elizabeth.  As  Robert  had  pos- 
sessed but  rare  privileges  to  visit  his  wife,  he  felt  it  less  a  trial  to  leave 
than  if  it  had  been  otherwise.  William  Seedam  owned  the  wife  and  child. 

SUSAN  STEWART  and  JOSEPHINE  SMITH  fled  together  from  the  District  of 
Columbia.  Running  away  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  favorite  idea  with 
Susan,  as  she  had  suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  different  masters.  The 
main  cause  of  her  flight  was  to  keep  from  being  sold  again;  for  she  had  been 
recently  threatened  by  Henry  Harley,  who  "followed  droving,"  and  not 
being  rich,  at  any  time  when  he  might  be  in  want  of  money  she  felt  that 
she  might  have  to  go.  When  a  girl  only  twelve  years  of  age,  her  young 
mind  strongly  revolted  against  being  a  slave,  and  at  that  youthful  period 
she  tried  her  fortune  at  running  away.  While  she  was  never  caught  by 
her  owners,  she  had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  another  slave- 
holder no  better  than  her  old  master,  indeed  she  thought  that  she  found 
it  even  worse  under  him,  so  far  as  severe  floggings  were  concerned.  Susan 
was  of  a  bright  brown  color,  medium  size,  quick  and  active  intellectually 
and  physically,  and  although  she  had  suffered  much  from  Slavery,  as  she 
was  not  far  advanced  in  years,  she  might  still  do  something  for  herself. 
She  left  no  near  kin  that  she  was  aware  of. 

JOSEPHINE  fled  from  Miss  Anna  Maria  Warren,  who  had  previously  been 
deranged  from  the  effects  of  paralysis.  Josephine  regarded  this  period  of 
her  mistress'  sickness  as  her  opportunity  for  planning  to  get  away  before  her 
mistress  came  to  her  senses. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND  AND  VIRGINIA. 

HENRY  FIELDS,  CHARLES   RINGGOLD,   WILLIAM    RINGGOLD,  ISAAC  NEWTON  AND 

JOSEPH  THOMAS. 

["Five  other  cases  were  attended  to  by  Dillwyn  Parish  and  J.  C. 
White" — other  than  this  no  note  was  made  of  them.] 

HENRY  FIELDS  took  the  benefit  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  at  the 
age  of  eighteen.  He  fled  from  the  neighborhood  of  Port  Deposit  while 
being  "  broke  in  "  by  a  man  named  Washington  Glasby,  who  was  wicked 


510  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

enough  to  claim  him  as  his  property,  and  was  also  about  to  sell  him.  This 
chattel  was  of  a  light  yellow  complexion,  hearty-looking  and  wide  awake. 

CHARLES  RINGGOLD  took  offence  at  being  whipped  like  a  dog,  and  the 
prospect  of  being  sold  further  South ;  consequently  in  a  high  state  of  mental 
dread  of  the  peculiar  institution,  he  concluded  that  freedom  was  worth 
suffering  for,  and  although  he  was  as  yet  under  twenty  years  of  age,  he  de- 
termined not  to  remain  in  Perry  man  vi  lie,  Maryland,  to  wear  the  chains  of 
Slavery  for  the  especial  benefit  of  his  slave-holding  master  (whose  name  was 
inadvertently  omitted). 

WILLIAM  RINGGOLD  fled  from  Henry  Wallace,  of  Baltimore.  A  part  of 
the  time  William  said  he  "  had  had  it  pretty  rough,  and  a  part  of  the  time 
kinder  smooth,"  but  never  had  had  matters  to  his  satisfaction.  Just  before 
deciding  to  make  an  adventure  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  his  owner 
had  been  talking  of  selling  him.  Under  the  apprehension  that  this  threat 
would  prove  no  joke,  Henry  began  to  study  what  he  had  better  do  to  be 
saved  from  the  jaws  of  hungry  negro  traders.  It  was  not  long  before  he 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  best  strike  out  upon  a  venture  in  a 
Northern  direction,  and  do  the  best  he  could  to  get  as  far  away  as  possible 
from  the  impending  danger  threatened  by  Mr.  Wallace.  After  a  long  and 
weary  travel  on  foot  by  night,  he  found  himself  at  Columbia,  where  friends 
of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  assisted  him  on  to  Philadelphia.  Here  his 
necessary  wants  were  met,  and  directions  given  him  how  to  reach  the  land 
of  refuge,  where  he  would  be  out  of  the  way  of  all  slave-holders  and  slave- 
traders.  Six  of  his  brothers  had  been  sold ;  his  mother  was  still  in  bon- 
dage in  Baltimore. 

ISAAC  NEWTON  hailed  from  Richmond,  Virginia.  He  professed  to  be 
only  thirty  years  of  age,  but  he  seemed  to  be  much  older.  While  he  had 
had  an  easy  time  in  slavery,  he  preferred  that  his  master  should  work  for 
himself,  as  he  felt  that  it  was  his  bounden  duty  to  look  after  number  one ; 
so  he  did  not  hesitate  .about  leaving  his  situation  vacant  for  any  one  who 
might  desire  it,  whether  white  or  black,  but  made  a  successful  "  took  out." 

JOSEPH  THOMAS  was  doing  the  work  of  a  so-called  master  in  Prince 
George's  county,  Maryland.  For  some  cause  or  other  the  alarm  of  the 
auction-block  was  sounded  in  his  ears,  which  at  first  distracted  him  greatly ; 
upon  sober  reflection  it  worked  greatly  to  his  advantage.  It  set  him  to 
thinking  seriously  on  the  subject  of  immediate  emancipation,  and  what  a 
miserable  hard  lot  of  it  he  should  have  through  life  if  he  did  not  "pick  up" 
courage  and  resolution  to  get  beyond  the  terror  of  slave-holders  ;  so  under 
these  reflections  he  found  his  nerves  gathering  strength,  his  fears  leaving 
him,  and  he  was  ready  to  venture  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He 
came  through  without  any  serious  difficulty.  He  left  his  father  and  mother, 
Shadrach  and  Lucinda  Thomas. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  TAPPS'  NECK,  MD.,  1859.  51 1 

ARRIVAL  FROM  SEAFORD,  1859. 

ROBERT   BELL   AND  TWO   OTHERS. 

ROBERT  came  from  Seaford,  where  he  had  served  under  Charles  Wright, 
a  farmer,  of  considerable  means,  and  the  owner  of  a  number  of  slaves,  over 
whom  he  was  accustomed  to  rule  with  much  rigor. 

Although  Robert's  master  had  a  wife  and  five  children,  the  love  which 
Robert  bore  them  was  too  weak  to  hold  him ;  and  well  adapted  as  the 
system  of  Slavery  might  be  to  render  him  happy  in  the  service  of  young 
and  old  masters,  it  was  insufficient  for  him.  Robert  found  no  rest  under 
Mr.  Wright ;  no  privileges,  scantily  clad,  poor  food,  and  a  heavy  yoke,  was 
the  policy  of  this  "superior."  Robert  testified,  that  for  the  last  five  years, 
matters  had  been  growing  worse  and  worse;  that  times  had  never  been  so 
bad  before.  Of  nights,  under  the  new  regime,  the  slaves  were  locked  up 
and  not  allowed  to  go  anywhere ;  flogging,  selling,  etc.,  were  of  every-day 
occurrence  throughout  the  neighborhood.  Finally,  Robert  became  sick  of 
such  treatment,  and  he  found  that  the  spirit  of  Canada  and  freedom  was 
uppermost  in  his  heart.  Slavery  grew  blacker  and  blacker,  until  he  re- 
solved to  "  pull  up  stakes "  upon  a  venture.  The  motion  was  right,  and 
succeeded. 

Two  other  passengers  were  at  the  station  at  the  same  time,  but  they  had 
to  be  forwarded  without  being  otherwise  noticed  on  the  book. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  TAPPS'  NECK,  MD.,  1859. 

LEWIS  WILSON,  JOHN  WATERS,  ALFRED  EDWARDS  AND  WILLIAM  QUINN. 

LEWIS'  grey  hairs  signified  that  he  had  been  for  many  years  plodding 
under  the  yoke.  He  was  about  fifty  years  of  age,  well  set,  not  tall,  but  he 
had  about  him  the  marks  of  a  substantial  laborer.  He  had  been  brought 
up  on  a  farm  under  H.  Lynch,  whom  Lewis  described  as  "  a  mean  man 
when  drunk,  and  very  severe  on  his  slaves."  The  number  that  he  ruled 
over  as  his  property,  was  about  twenty.  Said  Lewis,  about  two  years 
ago,  he  shot  a  free  man,  and  the  man  died  about  two  hours  afterwards;  for 
this  offence  he  was  not  even  imprisoned.  Lynch  also  tried  to  cut  the 
throat  of  John  Waters,  and  succeeded  in  making  a  frightful  gash  on  his 
left  shoulder  (mark  shown),  which  mark  he  will  carry  with  him  to  the 
grave ;  for  this  he  was  not  even  sued.  Lewis  left  five  children  in  bondage, 
Horace,  John,  Georgiana,  Louisa  and  Louis,  Jr.,  owned  by  Bazil  and  John 
Benson. 


512 


THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


JOHN  was  forty  years  of  age,  dark,  medium  size,  and  another  of 
Lynch's  "articles."  He  left  his  wife  Anna,  bat  no  children;  it  was  hard  to 
leave  her,  but  he  felt  that  it  would  be  still  harder  to  live  and  die  under  the 
usage  that  he  had  experienced  on  Lynch's  farm. 

ALFRED  was  twenty-two  years  of  age ;  he  was  of  a  full  dark  color,  and 
quite  smart.  He  fled  from  John  Bryant,  a  farmer.  Whether  he  deserved 
it  or  not,  Alfred  gave  him  a  bad  character,  at  least,  with  regard  to  the  treat- 
ment of  his  slaves.  He  left  his  father  and  mother,  six  brothers  and  sisters. 
Traveling  under  doubts  and  fears  with  the  thought  of  leaving  a  large  family 
of  his  nearest  and  dearest  friends,  was  far  from  being  a  pleasant  undertaking 
with  Alfred,  yet  he  bore  up  under  the  trial  and  arrived  in  peace. 

"  WILLIAM  is  twenty-two,  black,  tall,  intelligent,  and  active,"  are  the 
words  of  the  record. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859. 

ANN  MARIA  JACKSON  AND  HEK  SEVEN  CHILDREN — MARY  ANN,  WILLIAM  HENRY, 
FRANCES  SABRINA,  WILHELMINA,  JOHN  EDWIN,  EBENEZER  THOMAS,  AND  WIL- 
LIAM ALBERT. 


The  coming  of  the  above  named  was  duly  announced  by  Thomas 
Garrett : 

WILMINGTON,  llth  mo.,  21st,  1858. 

DEAR  FRIENDS— -McKiM  AND  STILL  : — I  write  to  inform  you  that  on  the  16th  of  this 
month,  we  passed  on  four  able  bodied  men  to  Pennsylvania,  and  they  were  followed  last 
night  by  a  woman  and  her  six  children,  from  three  or  four  years  of  age,  up  to  sixteen  years  ; 
I  believe  the  whole  belonged  to  the  same  estate,  and  they  were  to  have  been  sold  at  public 
sale,  1  was  informed  yesterday,  but  preferred  seeking  their  own  master;  we  had  some 
trouble  in  getting  those  last  safe  along,  as  they  could  not  travel  far  on  foot,  and  could  not 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1859.  513 

safely  cross  any  of  the  bridges  on  the  canal,  either  on  foot  or  in  carriage.  A  man  left  here 
two  days  since,  with  carriage,  to  meet  them  this  side  of  the  canal,  but  owing  to  spies  they 
did  not  reach  him  till  10  o'clock  last  night ;  this  morning  he  returned,  having  seen  them 
about  one  or  two  o'clock  this  morning  in  a  second  carriage,  on  the  border  of  Chester 
county,  where  I  think  they  are  all  safe,  if  they  can  be  kept  from  Philadelphia.  If  you 
see  them  they  can  tell  their  own  tales,  as  I  have  seen  one  of  them.  May  He,  who  feeds 
the  ravens,  care  for  them.  Yours, 

THOS.  GARRETT. 

The  fire  of  freedom  obviously  burned  with  no  ordinary  fervor  in  the 
breast  of  this  slave  mother,  or  she  never  would  have  ventured  with  the 
burden  of  seven  children,  to  escape  from  the  hell  of  Slavery. 

ANN  MARIA,  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  good-looking,  pleasant  coun- 
tenance, and  of  a  chestnut  color,  height  medium,  and  intellect  above  the 
average.  Her  bearing  was  humble,  as  might  have  been  expected,  from  the 
fact  that  she  emerged  from  the  lowest  depths  of  Delaware  Slavery.  During 
the  Fall  prior  to  her  escape,  she  lost  her  husband  under  most  trying 
circumstances :  he  died  in  the  poor-house,  a  raving  maniac.  Two  of  his 
children  had  been  taken  from  their  mother  by  her  owner,  as  was  usual  with 
slave-holders,  which  preyed  so  severely  on  the  poor  father's  mind  that  it 
drove  him  into  a  state  of  hopeless  insanity.  He  was  a  "  free  man "  in 
the  eye  of  Delaware  laws,  yet  he  was  not  allowed  to  exercise  the  least  autho- 
rity over  his  children. 

Prior  to  the  time  that  the  two  children  were  taken  from  their  mother, 
she  had  been  allowed  to  live  with  her  husband  and  children,  independently 
of  her  master,  by  supporting  herself  and  them  with  the  white-wash  brush, 
wash-tub,  etc.  For  this  privilege  the  mother  doubtless  worked  with  double 
energy,  and  the  master,  in  all  probability,  was  largely  the  gainer,  as  the 
children  were  no  expense  to  him  in  their  infancy ;  but  when  they  began  to 
be  old  enough  to  hire  out,  or  bring  high  prices  in  the  market,  he  snatched 
away  two  of  the  finest  articles,  and  the  powerless  father  was  immediately 
rendered  a  fit  subject  for  the  mad-house ;  but  the  brave  hearted  mother 
looked  up  to  God,  resolved  to  wait  patiently  until  in  a  good  Providence 
the  way  might  open  to  escape  with  her  remaining  children  to  Canada. 

Year  in  and  year  out  she  had  suffered  to  provide  food  and  raiment  for 
her  little  ones.  Many  times  in  going  out  to  do  days'  work  she  would  be 
compelled  to  leave  her  children,  not  knowing  whether  during  her  absence 
they  would  fall  victims  to  fire,  or  be  carried  off  by  the  master.  But  she 
possessed  a  well  tried  faith,  which  in  her  flight  kept  her  from  despondency. 
Under  her  former  lot  she  scarcely  murmured,  but  declared  that  she  had 
never  been  at  ease  in  Slavery  a  day  after  the  birth  of  her  first-born.  The 
desire  to  go  to  some  part  of  the  world  where  she  could  have  the  control  and 
comfort  of  her  children,  had  always  been  a  prevailing  idea  with  her.  "  It 
almost  broke  my  heart,"  she  said,  "  when  he  came  and  took  my  children 
away  as  soon  as  they  were  big  enough  to  hand  me  a  drink  of  water.  My 
33 


514  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

husband  was  always  very  kind  to  me,  and  I  had  often  wanted  him  to  run 
away  with  me  and  the  children,  but  I  could  not  get  him  in  the  notion  • 
he  did  not  feel  that  he  could,  and  so  he  stayed,  and  died  broken-hearted, 
crazy.  I  was  owned  by  a  man  named  Joseph  Brown ;  he  owned  property  in 
Milford,  and  he  had  a  place  in  Vicksburg,  and  some  of  his  time  he  spends 
there,  and  some  of  the  time  he  lives  in  Milford.  This  Fall  he  said  he  was 
going  to  take  four  of  my  oldest  children  and  two  other  servants  to  Vicks- 
burg. I  just  happened  to  hear  of  this  news  in  time.  My  master  was  want- 
ing to  keep  me  in  the  dark  about  taking  them,  for  fear  that  something 
might  happen.  My  master  is  very  sly ;  he  is  a  tall,  slim  man,  with  a 
smooth  face,  bald  head,  light  hair,  long  and  sharp  nose,  swears  very  hard, 
and  drinks.  He  is  a  widower,  and  is  rich. 

On  the  road  the  poor  mother,  with  her  travel-worn  children  became  des- 
perately alarmed,  fearing  that  they  were  betrayed.  But  God  had  provided 
better  things  for  her ;  her  strength  and  hope  were  soon  fully  restored,  and 
she  was  lucky  enough  to  fall  into  the  right  hands.  It  was  a  special  pleasure 
to  aid  such  a  mother.  Her  arrival  in  Canada  was  announced  by  Rev. 
H.  Wilson  as  follows : 

NIAGARA  CITY,  Nov.  30th,  1858. 

DEAR  BEO.  STILL  : — I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  Mrs.  Jackson  and  her  interesting 
family  of  seven  children  arrived  safe  and  in  good  health  and  spirits  at  my  house  in  St. 
Catharines,  on  Saturday  evening  last.  With  sincere  pleasure  I  provided  for  them  comfort- 
able quarters  till  this  morning,  when  they  left  for  Toronto.  I  got  them  conveyed  there  at 
half  fare,  and  gave  them  letters  of  introduction  to  Thomas  Henning,  Esq.,  and  Mrs.  Dr. 
Willis,  trusting  that  they  will  be  better  cared  for  in  Toronto  than  they  could  be  at  St. 
Catharines.  We  have  so  many  coming  to  us  we  think  ifc  best  for  some  of  them  to  pass 
on  to  other  places.  My  wife  gave  them  all  a  good  supply  of  clothing  before  they  left  us. 
James  Henry,  an  older  son  is,  I  think,  not  far  from  St.  Catharine,  but  has  not  as  yet  re- 
united with  the  family.  Faithfully  and  truly  yours,  HIRAM  WILSON. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  VIRGINIA,  MARYLAND  AND 

DELAWARE. 

• 

LEWIS  LEE,  ENOCH  DAVIS,  JOHN  BROWN,  THOMAS  EDWARD  DIXON,  AND  WILLIAM 

OLIVER. 

Slavery  brought  about  many  radical  changes,  some  in  one  way  and  some 
in  another.  Lewis  Lee  was  entirely  too  white  for  practical  purposes.  They 
tried  to  get  him  to  content  himself  under  the  yoke,  but  he  could  not  see  the 
point.  A  man  by  the  name  of  William  Watkins,  living  near  Fairfax,  Vir- 
ginia, claimed  Lewis,  having  come  by  his  title  through  marriage.  Title  or 
no  title,  Lewis  thought  that  he  would  not  serve  him  for  nothing,  and  that 
he  had  been  hoodwinked  already  a  great  while  longer  than  he  should  have 
allowed  himself  to  be.  Watkins  had  managed  to  keep  him  in  the  dark  and 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  VIRGINIA,  &c.         515 

doing  hard  work  on  the  no-pay  system  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-five.  In 
Lewis'  opinion,  it  was  now  time  to  "  strike  out  on  his  own  hook ;"  he  took 
his  last  look  of  Watkins  (he  was  a  tall,  slim  fellow,  a  farmer,  and  a  hard 
drinker),  and  made  the  first  step  in  the  direction  of  the  North.  He  was  sure 
that  he  was  about  as  white  as  anybody  else,  and  that  he  had  as  good  a  right 
to  pass  for  white  as  the  white  folks,  so  he  decided  to  do  so  with  a  high  head 
and  a  fearless  front.  Instead  of  skulking  in  the  woods,  in  thickets  and 
swamps,  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  he  would  boldly  approach  a  hotel  and 
call  for  accommodations,  as  any  other  southern  gentleman.  He  had  a  little 
money,  and  he  soon  discovered  that  his  color  was  perfectly  orthodox. 
He  said  that  he  was  "treated  first-rate  in  Washington  and  Baltimore;"  he 
could  recommend  both  of  these  cities.  But  destitute  of  education,  and  com- 
ing among  strangers,  he  was  conscious  that  the  shreds  of  slavery  were  still 
to  be  seen  upon  him.  He  had,  moreover,  no  intention  of  disowning  his 
origin  when  once  he  could  feel  safe  in  assuming  his  true  status.  So  as  he 
was  in  need  of  friends  and  material  aid,  he  sought  out  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, and  on  close  examination  they  had  every  reason  to  believe  his  story 
throughout,  and  gave  him  the  usual  benefit. 

ENOCH  DAVIS  came  from  within  five  miles  of  Baltimore,  having  been 
held  by  one  James  Armstrong,  "  an  old  grey-headed  man,"  and  a  farmer, 
living  on  Huxtown  Road.  Judged  from  Davis'  stand-point,  the%  old  master 
could  never  be  recommended,  unless  some  one  wanted  a  very  hard  place 
and  a  severe  master.  Upon  inquiry,  it  was  ascertained  that  Enoch  was 
moved  to  leave  on  account  of  the  "riot,"  (John  Brown's  Harper's  Ferry 
raid),  which  he  feared  would  result  in  the  sale  of  a  good  many  slaves, 
himself  among  the  number ;  he,  therefore,  "  laid  down  the  shovel  and  the 
hoe,"  and  quit  the  place. 

JOHN  BROWN  (this  was  an  adopted  name,  the  original  one  not  being  pre- 
served), left  to  get  rid  of  his  connection  with  Thomas  Stevens,  a  grocer,  living 
in  Baltimore.  John,  however,  did  not  live  in  the  city  with  said  Stevens, 
but  on  the  farm  near  Frederick's  Mills,  Montgomery  county,  Maryland. 
This  place  was  known  by  the  name  of  "White  Hall  Farm;"  and  was 
under  the  supervision  of  James  Edward  Stevens,  a  son  of  the  above-named 
Stevens.  John's  reasons  for  leaving  were  not  noted  on  the  book,  but  his 
eagerness  to  reach  Canada  spoke  louder  than  words,  signifying  that  the 
greater  the  distance  that  separated  him  from  the  old  "White  Hall  Farm" 
the  better. 

THOMAS  EDWARD  DIXON  arrived  from  near  the  Trap,  in  Delaware.  He 
was  only  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  but  as  tall  a?  a  man  of  ordinary 
height ; — dark,  with  a  pleasant  countenance.  He  reported  that  he  had  had 
trouble  with  a  man  known  by  the  name  of  Thomas  W.  M.  McCracken,  who 
had  treated  him  "bad;"  as  Thomas  thought  that  such  trouble  and  bad  treat- 
ment might  be  of  frequent  occurrence,  he  concluded  that  he  had  better  go 


516  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

\ 

away  and  let  McCracken  get  somebody  else  to  fill  his  place,  if  he  did  not 
ehoose  to  fill  it  himself.  So  off  Thomas  started,  and  as  if  by  instinct,  he 
came  direct  to  the  Committee.  He  passed  a  good  examination  and  was 
aided. 

WILLIAM  OLIVER,  a  dark,  well-made,  young  man  with  the  best  of 
country  manners,  fled  from  Mrs.  Marshall,  a  lady  living  in  Prince  George's 
county,  Maryland.  William  had  recently  been  .in  the  habit  of  hiring  his 
time  at  the  rate  of  ten  dollars  per  month,  and  find  himself  everything. 
The  privilege  of  living  in  Georgetown  had  been  vouchsafed  him,  and  he 
preferred  this  locality  to  his  country  situation.  Upon  the  whole  he  said 
he  had  been  treated  pretty  well.  He  was,  nevertheless,  afraid  that  times 
were  growing  "'very  critical,"  and  as  he  had  a  pretty  good  chance,  he  thought 
he  had  better  make  use  of  it,  and  his  arrangements  were  wisely  made. 
He  had  reached  his  twenty-sixth  year,  and  was  apparently  well  settled. 
He  left  one  child,  Jane  Oliver,  owned  by  Mrs.  Marshall. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DIFFERENT  POINTS. 

JACOB  BROWJf,  JAMES  HARRIS,  BENJAMIN  PlNEY,  JOHN  SMITH,  ANDREW  JACKSON", 
WILLIAM  HUGHES,  WESLEY  WILLIAMS,  BOSANNA  JOHNSON,  JOHN  6MALLWOOD, 
AND  HENRY  TOWNSEND. 

JACOB  BROWN  was  eating  the  bread  of  Slavery  in  North  Carolina.  A 
name-sake  of  his  by  the  name  of  Lewis  Brown,  living  in  Washington, 
according  to  the  slave  code  of  that  city  had  Jacob  in  fetters,  and  was  exercis- 
ing about  the  same  control  over  him  that  he  exercised  over  cattle  and  horses. 
While  this  might  have  been  a  pleasure  for  the  master,  it  was  painful  fo'r  the 
slave.  The  usage  which  Jacob  had  ordinarily  received  made  him  anything 
but  contented. 

At  the  age  of  twenty,  he  resolved  that  he  would  run  away  if  it  cost  him 
his  life.  This  purpose  was  made  known  to  a  captain,  who  was  in  the  habit 
of  bringing  passengers  from  the  South  to  Philadelphia.  With  an  unwa- 
vering faith  he  took  his  appointed  place  in  a  private  part  of  the  vessel,  and 
as  fast  as  wind  and  tide  would  bring  the  boat  he  was  wafted  on  his  way 
Canada- ward.  Jacob  was  a  dark  man,  and  about  full  size,  with  hope  large. 

JAMES  HARRIS  escaped  from  Delaware.  A  white  woman,  Catharine 
Odine  by  name,  living  near  Middletown,  claimed  James  as  her  man;  but 
James  did  not  care  to  work  for  her  on  the  unrequited  labor  system.  He 
resolved  to  take  the  first  train  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  that  might 
pass  that  way.  It  was  not  a  groat  while  ere  he  was  accommodated,  and 
was  brought  safely  to  Philadelphia.  The  regular  examination  was  made 
and  he  passed  creditably.  He  was  described  in  the  book  as  a  man  of  yellow 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DIFFERENT  POINTS.  517 

complexion,  good-looking,  and  intelligent.  After  due  assistance,  he  was 
regularly  forwarded  on  to  Canada.  This  was  in  the  month  of  November, 
1856.  Afterwards  nothing  more  was  heard  of  him,  until  the  receipt  of  the 
following  letter  from  Prof.  L.  D.  Mansfield,  showing  that  he  had  been  re- 
united to  his  wife,  under  amusing,  as  well  as  touching  circumstances : 

AUBURN,  Dec.  15th,  '56. 

DEAR  BRO.  STILL: — A  very  pleasant  circumstance  has  brought  you  to  mind,  and  I  am 
always  happy  to  be  reminded  of  you,  and  of  the  very  agreeable,  though  brief  acquaintance 
which  we  made  at  Philadelphia  two  years  since.  Last  Thursday  evening,  while  at  my 
weekly  prayer  meeting,  our  exercises  were  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  Bro.  Loguen, 
of  Syracuse,  who  had  come  on  with  Mrs.  Harris  in  search  of  her  husband,  whom  he  had 
sent  to  my  care  three  weeks  before.  I  told  Bro.  L.  that  no  such  man  had  been  at  my 
house,  and  I  knew  nothing  of  him.  But  I  dismissed  the  meeting,  and  went  with  him 
immediately  to  the  African  Church,  where  the  colored  brethren  were  holding  a  meeting. 
Bro.  L.  looked  through  the  door,  and  the  first  person  whom  he  saw  was  Harris.  He  was 
called  out,  when  Loguen  said,  in  a  rather  reproving  and  excited  tone,  "  What  are  you 
doing  here;  didn't  I  tell  you  to  be  off  to  Canada?  Don't  you  know  they  are  after 
you?  Come  get  your  hat,  and  come  with  us,  we'll  take  care  of  you."  The  poor  fellow 
was  by  this  time  thoroughly  frightened,  and  really  thought  he  had  been  pursued.  We 
conducted  him  nearly  a  mile,  to  the  hotel  where  his  wife  was  waiting  for  him,  leaving  him 
still  under  the  impression  that  he  was  pursued  and  that  we  were  conducting  him  to  a 
place  of  safety,  or  were  going  to  box  him  up  to  send  him  to  Canada.  Bro.  L.  opened  the 
door  of  the  parlor,  and  introduced  him ;  but  he  was  so  frightened  that  he  did  not  know 
his  wife  at  first,  until  she  called  him  James,  when  they  had  a  very  joyful  meeting.  She 
is  now  a  servant  in  my  family,  and  he  has  work,  and  doing  well,  and  boards  with  her. 
We  shall  do  all  we  can  for  them,  and  teach  them  to  read  and  write,  and  endeavor  to  place 
them  in  a  condition  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Loguen  had  a  fine  meeting  in  my  Taber- 
nacle last  night,  and  made  a  good  collection  for  the  cause  of  the  fugitives. 

I  should  be  happy  to  hear  from  you  and  your  kind  family,  to  whom  remember  me  very 
cordially.  Believe  me  ever  truly  yours,  L.  D.  MANSFIELD. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harris  wish  to  be  gratefully  remembered  to  you  and  yours. 

BENJAMIN  PINEY  reported  that  he  came  from  Baltimore  county,  Mary- 
land, where  he  had  been  held  in  subjection  to  Mary  Hawkins.  He  alleged 
that  he  had  very  serious  cause  for  grievance  ;  that  she  had  ill-treated  him 
for  a  long  time,  and  had  of  late,  threatened  to  sell  him  to  Georgia.  His 
brothers  and  sisters  had  all  been  sold,  but  he  meant  not  to  be  if  he  could 
help  himself.  The  sufferings  that  he  had  been  called  upon  to  endure  had 
opened  his  eyes,  and  he  stood  still  to  wait  for  the  Underground  Rail  Road 
car,  as  he  anxiously  wished  to  travel  north,  with  all  possible  speed.  He 
waited  but  a  little  while,  ere  he  was  on  the  road,  under  difficulties  it  is 
true,  but  he  arrived  safely  and  was  joyfully  received.  He  imagined  his  mis- 
tress in  a  fit  of  perplexity,  such  as  he  might  enjoy,  could  he  peep  at  her 
from  Canada,  or  some  safe  place.  He  however  did  not  wish  her  any  evil, 
but  he  was  very  decided  that  he  did  not  want  any  more  to  do  with  her. 
Benjamin  was  twenty  years  of  age,  dark  complexion,  size  ordinary,  mental 
capacity,  good  considering  opportunities. 


518  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

JOHN  SMITH  was  a  yellow  boy,  nineteen  years  of  age,  stout  build,  with 
marked  intelligence.  He  held  Dr.  Abraham  Street  responsible  for  treating 
him  as  a  slave.  The  doctor  lived  at  Marshall  District,  Harford  county, 
Maryland.  John  frankly  confessed,  to  the  credit  of  the  doctor,  that  he 
got  "a  plenty  to  eat,  drink  and  wear,"  yet  he  declared  that  he  was  not 
willing  to  remain  a  slave,  he  had  higher  aims ;  he  wanted  to  be  above  that 
condition.  "  I  left,"  said  he,  "  because  I  wanted  to  see  the  country.  If  he 
had  kept  me  in  a  hogshead  of  sugar,  I  wouldn't  stayed,"  said  the  bright- 
minded  slave  youth.  "They  told  me  anything — told  me  to  obey  my  master, 
but  I  didn't  mind  that.  I  am  going  off  to  see  the  Scriptures,"  said  John. 

ANDREW  JACKSON  "  took  out "  from  near  Cecil,  Delaware,  where  he  had 
been  owned  by  a  man  calling  himself  Thomas  Palmer,  who  owned  seven 
or  eight  others.  His  manners  were  by  no  means  agreeable  to  Andrew ; 
he  was  quite  too  "  blustery,"  and  was  dangerous  when  in  one  of  his  fits. 
Although  Andrew  was  but  twenty-three  years  of  age,  he  thought  that 
Palmer  had  already  had  much  more  of  his  valuable  services  than  he  was 
entitled  to,  and  he  determined,  that  if  he  (the  master),  ever  attempted  to 
capture  him,  he  would  make  him  remember  him  the  longest  day  he  lived. 

WILLIAM  HUGHES  was  an  Eastern  Shore  "piece  of  property"  belonging  to 
Daniel  Cox.  William  had  seen  much  of  the  dark  doings  of  Slavery,  and  his 
mind  had  been  thoroughly  set  against  the  system.  True,  he  had  been  but 
twenty-two  years  under  the  heel  of  his  master,  but  that  was  sufficient. 

WESLEY  WILLIAMS,  on  his  arrival  from  Warrick,  Maryland,  testified 
that  he  had  been  in  the  hands  of  a  man  known  by  the  name  of  Jack  Jones, 
from  whom  he  had  received  almost  daily  floggings  and  scanty  food.  Jones 
was  his  so-called  owner.  These  continual  scourgings  stirred  the  spirit  of 
freedom  in  Wesley  to  that  degree,  that  he  was  compelled  to  escape  for  his  life. 
He  left  his  mother  (a  free  woman),  and  one  sister  in  Slavery. 

ROSANNA  JOHNSON,  alias  CATHARINE  BRICE.  The  spot  that  Rosanna 
looked  upon  with  most  dread  and  where  she  had  suffered  as  a  slave,  under 
a  man  called  Doctor  Street,  was  near  the  Rock  of  Deer  Creek,  in  Harford 
county,  Maryland. 

In  the  darkness  in  which  Slavery  ordinarily  kept  the  fettered  and  "  free 
niggers,"  it  was  a  considerable  length  of  time  ere  Rosanna  saw  how  bar- 
barously she  and  her  race  were  being  wronged  and  ground  down — driven 
to  do  unrequited  labor — deprived  of  an  education,  obliged  to  receive  the 
cuffs,  kicks,  and  curses  of  old  or  young,  who  might  happen  to  claim-a  title 
to  them.  But  when  she  did  see  her  true  condition,  she  was  not  content 
until  she  found  herself  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

Rosanna  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  color,  medium  stature, 
and  intelligent.  She  left  two  brothers  and  her  father  behind.  The  Com- 
mittee forwarded  her  on  North.  From  Albany  Rose  wrote  back  to  inquire 
after  particular  friends,  and  to  thank  those  who  had  aided  her — as  follows: 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860.  519 

ALBANY,. Jan.  the  30,  1858. 

MRS.  WILLIAM  STILL  : — i  sit  don  to  rite  you  a  fue  lines  in  saying  hav  you  herd  of  John 
Smith  or  Bengernin  Pina  i  have  cent  letters  to  them  but  i  hav  know  word  from  them 
John  Smith  was  oned  by  Doker  abe  Street  Bengermin  oned  by  Mary  hawkings  i  wish  to 
kno  if  you  kno  am  if  you  will  let  me  know  as  swon  as  you  get  this.  My  lov  to  Mis  Still 
i  am  much  oblige  for  those  articales.  My  love  to  mrs  george  and  verry  thankful  to  her 
Kosean  Johnson  oned  by  docter  Street  when  you  cend  the  letter  rite  it  Cend  it  63  Gran 
St  in  the  car  of  andrue  Conningham  rite  swon  dela  it  not  write  my  name  Cathrin  Brice. 

Let  me  know  swon  as  you  can. 

SMALL  WOOD  reported  that  he  came  from  Ellicott's  Mills,  Maryland;  that 
he  had  been  restrained  of  his  liberty  all  his  life,  by  one  Samuel  Simons, 
who  had  treated  him  "bad"  all  the  time  that  he  had  held  him  in  his  pos- 
session. He  had,  therefore,  persuaded  himself  that  Ellicott's  Mills  was  a 
poor  neighborhood  for  a  colored  man  who  wanted  his  freedom,  and  that  all 
Maryland  was  no  better.  He  had  heard  but  little  of  Canada,  but  what  he 
had  heard  pleased  him.  As  to  how  he  should  get  there,  he  knew  not ;  a 
whisper  pointed  him  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  told  him  to  be 
fearless  and  take  the  first  train.  Sam  considered  the  matter  carefully  and 
concluded  that  that  would  be  the  only  way  to  get  off.  Unfortunately  his 
mother  and  two  brothers  were  left  behind  in  the  hands  of  Simons. 

HENRY  TOWNSEND  ran  away  from  Caroline  county,  near  Purnell  P.  O., 
Maryland.  The  name  of  his  reputed  owner,  according  to  his  statement,  was 
E.  Townsend,  a  farmer.  Against  him  Henry  harbored  a  very  heavy  grudge, 
and  will  long  hold  said  Townsend  in  remembrance  for  the  injury  he  had  re- 
ceived at  his  hands  on  his  naked  back.  The  back  was  shown,  and  a  most 
frightful  picture  was  presented ;  it  had  been  thoroughly  cut  in  all  directions. 

HENRY  was  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  dark  chesnut  color,  build  sub-, 
stantial.  He  left  behind  two  brothers  and  one  sister  in  Slavery.  The  Com- 
mittee comforted  him  with  the  usual  hospitality. 

These  passengers  arrived  the  latter  part  of  1856  and  the  beginning  of 
1857. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860. 

WILLIAM  CHION  AND  HIS  WIFE,   EMMA,   EVAN  GRAFF,   AND  FOUR  OTHERS. 

WILLIAM  AND  EMMA  came  from  Dorchester  county,  Maryland.  The 
cords  of  Slavery  had  been  tightly  drawn  around  them.  William  was  about 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  of  a  dark  hue,  and  of  a  courageous  bearing. 
On  the  score  of  treatment  he  spake  thus:  " I  have  been  treated  as  bad  as 
a  man  could  be."  Emma,  his  wife,  had  seen  about  the  same  number  of 
years  that  he  had,  and  her  lot  had  been  similar  to  his.  Emma  said,  "  My 
master  never  give  me  the  second  dress,  never  attempted  such  a  thing." 
The  master  was  called  Bushong  Blake.  William  was  owned  by  a  Mr. 


520  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Tubman.  After  leaving  Slavery,  William  changed  his  last  name  to  Williams, 
and  if  he  and  his  wife  are  now  living,  they  are  known  only  by  their  adopted 
names. 

EVAN  GRAFF  was  of  square  solid  build,  dark,  and  smart,  age  twenty- 
five.  He  fled  in  company  with  four  others  (whose  narratives  were  not 
written),  from  Frederick  county,  Maryland.  Henry  Heart,  residing  at  Sam's 
Creek,  exercised  authority  over  Evan.  With  this  master,  said  Evan,  I 
have  known  hard  times.  I  have  been  treated  as  bad  as  a  man  could  be. 
I  have  been  married  three  years  and  have  not  received  five  dollars  in 
money  since,  towards  supporting  my  family.  "  How  have  you  lived  then?" 
inquired  one  who  sympathized.  "My  wife  has  kept  house  for  a  colored 
gentleman,  and  got  her  board  for  her  services,"  said  Evan.  "  In  what  other 
particulars  have  you  been  treated  hard  ?"  was  next  asked.  "  Sometimes  I 
hadn't  half  clothes  enough  to  keep  me  warm,  through  all  weathers," 
answered  Evan.  "What  put  it  into  your  head  to  leave?"  was  the  third 
query.  "Well,  sir,"  said  Evan,  "  I  thought  to  try  and  do  better."  How 
did  you  make  up  your  mind  to  leave  your  wife  and  child  in  Slavery? 
"  Well,  sir,  I  was  very  loth  to  leave  my  wife  and  child,  but  I  just  thought 
in  this  way :  I  had  a  brother  who  was  entitled  to  his  freedom,  but  he  fell 
out  with  one  of  his  young  masters,  and  was  just  taken  up  and  sold  South, 
and  I  thought  I  might  be  taken  off  too,  so  I  thought  I  would  stand  as 
good  a  chance  in  leaving,  as  if  I  stayed."  Had  you  a  mother  and  father, 
brothers  and  sisters  ?  inquired  a  member  of  the  Committee.  "  Yes,  sir," 
was  the  prompt  reply.  Evan  then  gave  their  names  thus :  "  My  father's 
name  was  Sam  Graff,  my  mother's  name  was  Becky."  Ruth  Ann  Dorsey, 
•Isaac  Hanson  (and  two  brothers  of  Evan),  Graftou  and  Allen  accompanied 
him  in  his  flight.  James,  Harriet,  Charles  Albert,  Thomas  Ephraim, 
Adeline  Matilda,  John  Israel  and  Daniel  Buchanan  (brothers  and  sisters 
of  Evan),  were  all  left  in  Slavery. 

Polly  Pool  was  their  mistress,  rather  had  owned  them  up  to  within  a 
short  time  before  the  flight  of  Evan  and  his  comrades,  but  she  had  lately 
been  unfortunate  in  business,  which  resulted  in  a  thorough  scattering  of  the 
entire  family.  Some  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  mistress'  children,  and  some 
into  the  hands  of  the  grandchildren.  In  Evan's  opinion  she  was  a  tolerable 
good  mistress;  his  opportunities  of  judging,  however,  had  not  been  very 
favorable,  as  he  had  not  been  in  her  hands  a  great  while. 

LUKE  GOIXES  came  from  Harper's  Ferry,  where  he  was  owned  by  Mrs. 
Carroll.  Luke  first  made  his  way  to  Baltimore  and  afterwards  to  Phila- 
delphia. 

HEXSOX  KELLY  was  owned  by  Reason  Hastcll,  of  Baltimore.  Slavery 
did  not  agree  with  him,  and  he  left  to  better  his  condition. 

STAFFORD  SMITH  fled  from  Westmoreland  county,  Virginia,  where  he 
was  owned  by  Harriet  Parker,  a  single  woman,  advanced  in  years,  and  the 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1860.  521 

owner  of  many  slaves  "As  a  mistress,  she  was  very  hard.  I  have  been 
hired  to  first  one  and  then  another,  bad  man  all  along.  My  mistress  was  a 
Methodist,  but  she  seemed  to  know  nothing  about  goodness.  She  was  not  in 
the  habit  of  allowing  the  slaves  any  chance  at  all." 


AEEIYAL  FEOM  VIRGINIA,  1860. 

JENNY  BUCHANAN. 

A  KIND  MASTER ;    JENNY  CHASTISED    ONE  OF  HIS    SONS  FOR  AN  INSULT,  AND  AS  A 
PUNISHMENT  SHE   WAS   SOLD — SEIZED   FOR   DEBT — SOLD  A  SECOND  TIME. 

JENNY  was  about  forty-five  years  of  age,  a  dark  mulatto,  stature  medium, 
manners  modest  and  graceful;  she  had  served  only  in  high  life;  thus  she 
had  acquired  a  great  deal  of  information.  She  stated  that  she  was  born  a 
slave,  under  John  Bower,  of  Rockbridge,  Virginia,  and  that  he  was  the 
owner  of  a  large  plantation,  with  a  great  number  of  slaves.  He  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  good  man  to  his  servants,  and  was  generally  beloved  by 
them.  Suddenly,  however,  he  was  taken  ill  with  paralysis,  which  confined 
him  to  his  bed.  During  this  illness  one  of  the  sons,  a  young  gentleman, 
offered  an  insult  to  Jenny,  for  which  she  felt  justified  in  administering  to 
him,  a  severe  chastisement.  For  this  grave  offence  she  was  condemned  to 
be  sold  to  a  trader  by  the  name  of  William  Watts,  who  owned  a  place  in 
Mississippi.  The  conditions  of  sale  were  that  she  was  to  be  taken  out  of 
the  state  and  never  to  be  allowed  to  return.  It  so  happened,  however, 
before  she  was  removed  that  Watts,  the  trader,  failed  in  order  to  cheat  his 
creditors  it  was  supposed.  Governor  McDowell,  of  Virginia,  was  one  of 
those  to  whom  he  was  largely  indebted  for  a  number  of  slaves  which  he,  the 
Governor,  had  placed  in  his  hands  for  disposal,  some  time  before  the  trader 
took  the  benefit.  Therefore,  as  the  Governor  was  anxious  to  recover  his 
loss  as  much  as  possible,  he  seized  on  Jenny.  It  was  through  this  interfer- 
ence that  the  condition  relative  to  her  being  sent  out  of  the  state  was 
broken. 

"  The  Governor,"  said  Jenny,  "  was  a  very  fine  gentleman,  as  good  as  I 
could  expect  of  Virginia.  He  allowed  his  slaves  to  raise  fowl  and  hogs,  with 
many  privileges  of  one  kind  and  another;  besides  he  kept  them  all  together; 
but  he  took  sick  and  died.  There  was  a  great  change  shortly  after  that. 
The  slaves  were  soon  scattered  like  the  wind.  The  Governor  had  nine  sons 
and  daughters. 

After  his  death  Mrs.  McDowell,  alias  Mrs.  Sally  Thomas,  took  possession, 
and  employed  an  overseer,  by  the  name  of  Henry  Morgan.  He  was  a  very 
good  man  in  his  looks,  but  a  very  rascally  man ;  would  get  drunk,  and  sell 
her  property  to  get  whisky.  Mrs.  McDowell  would  let  him  do  just  as  he 


522  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

pleased.  For  the  slightest  complaint  the  overseer  might  see  fit  to  make 
against  any  of  the  slaves,  she  would  tell  him  to  sell  them — "  Sell,  Mr. 
Morgan."  "He  would  treat  them  worse  than  he  would  any  dog;  would  beat 
them  over  the  head  with  great  hickory  sticks,  the  same  as  he  would  beat  an 
ox.  He  would  pasture  cows  and  horses  on  the  plantation,  and  keep  the 
money.  We  slaves  all  knew  it,  and  we  told  her ;  but  our  words  would  not 
go  in  court  against  a  white  man,  and  until  she  was  told  by  Mr.  White,  and 
her  cousin,  Dr.  Taylor,  and  Mr.  Barclay,  she  would  not  believe  how  shame- 
fully this  overseer  was  cheating  her.  But  at  last  she  was  convinced,  and 
discharged  him,  and  hired  another  by  the  name  of  John  Moore.  The  new 
one,  if  anything,  was  worse  than  the  old  one,  for  he  could  do  the  most  un- 
blushing acts  of  cruelty  with  pleasure.  He  was  a  demon." 

Finally  the  estate  had  to  be  settled,  and  the  property  divided.  At  this 
time  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  oldest  daughter,  Mistress  Sally,  who  had 
been  married  to  Frank  Thomas,  the  Governor  of  Maryland.  But  the 
Governor  had  discarded  her  for  some  reason  or  other,  and  according  to  his 
published  account  of  her  it  might  seem  that  he  had  good  reason  for  doing  so. 
It  was  understood  that  he  gave  her  a  divorce,  so  she  was  considered  single 
for  life.  It  was  also  understood  that  she  was  to  buy  in  the  homestead  at  a 
moderate  price,  with  as  many  slaves  as  she  might  desire. 

Said  Jenny,  "  I  was  sold  at  this  settlement  sale,  and  bought  in  by  the 
' grass  widow'  for  four  hundred  dollars."  The  place  and  a  number  of 
slaves  were  bought  in  on  terms-  equally  as  low.  After  this  the  widow  be- 
came smitten  with  a  reverend  gentleman,  by  the  name  of  John  Miller,  who 
had  formerly  lived  North  ;  he  had  been  a  popular  preacher.  After  a  court- 
ship, which  did  not  last  very  long,  they  were  married,  This  took  place 
three  years  ago,  prior  to  the  writing  of  this  narrative.  After  the  marriage, 
Rev.  Mr.  Miller  took  up  his  abode  on  the  old  homestead,  and  entered  upon 
his  duties  as  a  slave-holder  in  good  earnest. 

"  How  did  you  like  him  ?  "  inquired  a  member  of  the  Committee. 

"  I  despised  him,"  was  Jenny's  prompt  answer. 

"Why  did  you  despise  him?" 

"  Because  he  had  such  mean  ways  with  him,"  said  Jenny.  She  then  went 
on  to  remark  as  follows  : — "  Coming  there,  taking  so  much  authority  over 
other  people's  servants.  He  was  so  mean  that  he  broke  up  all  the  privi- 
leges the  servants  had  before  he  came.  He  stopped  all  hands  from  raising 
chickens,  pigs,  etc.  He  don't  like  to  see  them  hold  up  their  heads  above  their 
shoulders."  Didn't  he  preach?  she  was  asked.  "Yes,  but  I  never  heard 
him  preach  ;  I  have  heard  him  pray  though.  On  Thursday  nights,  when 
he  would  not  want  the  servants  to  go  into  town  to  meeting,  he  would 
keep  up  until  it  would  be  too  late  for  them  to  go.  He  is  now  carrying  on 
the  farm,  and  follows  butchering.  He  has  not  yet  sold  any  of  the  slaves, 
but  has  threatened  to  sell  all  hands  to  the  trader." 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE,  1860.  523 

Jenny  once  had  a  husband,  but  he  went  to  Canada,  and  that  was  all  she 
could  tell  about  him,  as  she  had  never  had  a  letter  or  any  direct  informa- 
tion from  him  since  he  left.  That  she  was  childless,  she  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  great  satisfaction,  considering  all  the  circumstances. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  BALTIMORE,  1860. 

WILLIAM  BROWN,   AND  JAMES  HENSON 

Considering  themselves  trampled  upon  by  their  fellow-men,  unitedly 
resolved  to  seek  a  better  country. 

WILLIAM  was  pained  with  the  idea  that  so  much  of  his  time  had  already 
been  used  up,  as  he  was  then  thirty-six  years  of  age.  Yet  he  thought  that 
it  would  do  no  good  to  mourn  over  the  past,  but  do  what  he  intended  to  do 
quickly.  The  master  whom  he  had  served,  he  called,  "  Master  Lynchum." 
He  was  a  farmer,  and  knew  full  well  how  to  use  severity  with  the  slaves ; 
but  had  never  practiced  showing  favors,  or  allowing  privileges  of  any  kind. 
True  he  did  not  flog,  but  he  resorted  to  other  means  of  punishment  when  he 
desired  to  make  the  slaves  feel  that  he  was  master.  William  left  his  mother, 
Harriet  Brown,  three  sisters,  and  one  brother, — Francis,  Mary,  Eliza,  and 
Robert.  They  were  all  free  but  Eliza. 

Seven  weeks  William  and  James  were  under  the  painful  anxiety  of  trying 
to  escape,  but  conscious  of  the  snares  and  dangers  on  the  road,  and  desirous 
of  success,  they  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  move,  save  as  they  saw  their  way 
clear.  This  well-exercised  sagacity  was  strongly  marked  in  the  intellectual 
region  of  William's  head. 

JAMES  HENSON  was  a  man  of  rather  slender  build.  From,  exposure  in 
traveling  he  took  a  severe  cold  and  was  suffering  with  sore  throat.  He  and 
Mrs.  Maria  Thomas  disagreed.  She  set  herself  up  to  be  "  Jim's  "  mistress 
and  owner.  For  some  cause  or  other  Jim  was  unwilling  to  fill  this  station 
longer.  He  had  been  hired  out  by  his  mistress,  who  received  one  hundred 
dollars  per  annum ;  and,  for  aught  Jim  knew,  she  was  pretty  well  pleased 
with  him  and  the  money  also.  She  coolly  held  eleven  others  in  the  same 
predicament.  While  Jim  found  no  fault  with  the  treatment  received  at  the 
hands  of  his  mistress,  he  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  "she  was  a  right  fine 
woman,"  yet,  the  longer  he  lived  her  slave,  the  more  unhappy  he  became. 
Therefore,  he  decided  that  he  would  try  and  do  better,  and  accordingly,  in 
company  with  William  he  started,  success  attending  their  efforts.  James 
left  three  sisters  and  one  brother,  Charlotte,  Susan,  Ellen  and  Johnson,  all 
slaves. 


624  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

PHILIP  8TANTON,   RANDOLPH   NICHOLS,  AND  THOMAS  DOUGLASS. 

PHILIP  had  a  master  by  the  name  of  John  Smith,  whom  he  was  very- 
anxious  to  get  rid  of,  but  hardly  knew  how.  For  a  long  time,  Philip  was 
annoyed  in  various  ways.  Being  the  only  slave  on  the  place,  there  was  no 
rest  for  him.  Said  Smith  was  a  bachelor,  and  his  mother,  who  kept  house 
for  him,  was  quite  aged ;  "  she  was  worse  than  the  old  boy  wanted  her  to 
be,  a  more  contrary  woman  never  was ;  she  was  bad  in  this  way,  she  was 
quarrelsome,  and  then  again  she  would  not  give  you  as  much  to  eat  as  you 
ought  to  have,  and  it  was  pretty  rough ;  nothing  but  corn  bread  and  the 
fattest  pork,  that  was  about  all.  She  was  a  Catholic,  and  was  known  by  the 
name  of  Mary  Eliza  Smith."  This  was  Philip's  testimony  against  his 
master  and  mistress.  Working  on  a  farm,  driving  carriage,  etc.,  had  been 
Philip's  calling  as  a  slave.  His  father  and  mother  were  free.  His  father 
had  been  emancipated,  and  afterwards  had  purchased  his  wife.  One  sister, 
however,  was  still  in  Slavery.  Philip  had  scarcely  reached  his  twenty- 
second  year ;  he  was  nevertheless  wide-awake  and  full  of  courage. 

RANDOLPH  was  still  younger;  he  had  only  just  reached  his  twentieth  year; 
was  nearly  six  feet  high,  athletic,  and  entertained  quite  favorable  notions  of 
freedom.  He  was  owned  by  Mrs.  Caroline  Brang,  a  widow;  he  had  never 
lived  with  her,  however.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  been  held 
in  such  unpleasant  relations,  Randolph  held  "the  opinion,  that  "she  was  a 
tolerable  good  woman."  He  had  been  hired  out  under  Isaac  Howard,  a 
farmer,  who  was  described  by  Randolph  as  "  a  rough  man  to  everybody 
around  him ;  he  was  the  owner  of  slaves,  and  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  in  the  bargain."  As  if  actuated  by  an  evil  spirit  continually,  he 
seemed  to  take  delight  in  "  knocking  and  beating  the  slaves,"  and  would 
compel  them  to  "  be  out  in  all  weathers  not  fit  to  be  out  in."  Randolph 
declared  that  "  he  had  never  been  allowed  a  clay's  schooling  in  his  life. 
On  the  contrary,  he  had  often  been  threatened  with  sale,  and  his  mind  had 
finally  become  so  affected  by  this  fearful  looking-for  of  evil,  that  he  thought 
he  had  better  make  tracks." 

He  left  his  mother,  Louisa,  three  brothers  and  three  sisters,  namely : 
Andrew,  Mary,  Charity,  Margaret,  Lewis  and  Samuel,  all  slaves.  His 
desire  to  escape  brought  the  thought  home  to  his  mind  with  great  emphasis, 
that  he  was  parting  with  his  kinsfolk,  to  see  them  perhaps,  no  more  on 
earth ;  that  however,  happily  he  might  be  situated  in  freedom,  he  would 
have  the  painful  reflection  ever  present  with  him,  that  those  he  most  loved 
in  this  world,  were  slaves — "  knocked  and  beat  about — and  made  to  work 
out  in  all  weathers."  It  was  this  that  made  many  falter  and  give  up  their 


ARRIVAL  FROM  FREDEEICKSBURG,  1860.  525 

purpose  to  gain  their  freedom  by  flight,  but  Randolph  was  not  one  of  this 
class.  His  young  heart  loved  freedom  too  well  to  waver.  True  to  his  love 
of  liberty,  he  left  all,  followed  the  north  star,  and  was  delivered. 

THOMAS,  an  older  companion  of  Philip  and  Randolph,  was  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  full  black,  and  looked  as  if  he  could  appreciate  the  school- 
room and  books,  and  take  care  of  himself  in  Canada  or  any  other  free 
country.  Mary  Howard  was  the  name  of  the  individual  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  address  as  "mistress."  He  said,  however,  that  "she  was  a  very  good 
woman  to  her  servants,"  and  she  had  a  great  many.  She  had  sons,  but  they 
turned  out  to  be  drunkards,  and  followed  no  business;  at  one  time,  each  of 
them  had  been  set  up  in  business,  but  as  they  would  not  attend  to  it,  of 
course  they  failed.  Money  was  needed  more  than  ever,  through  their  intem- 
perate course,  consequently  the  mistress  was  induced  to  sell  her  large  house- 
hold, as  well  as  her  plantation  slaves,  to  Georgia.  Thomas  had  seen  the 
most  of  them  take  up  their  sorrowful  march  for  said  State,  and  the  only 
reason  that  he  was  not  among  them,  was  attributable  to  the  fact,  that  he  had 
once  been  owned  and  thought  pretty  well  of  by  the  brother  of  his 
mistress,  who  interceded  in  Thomas'  behalf.  This  interference  had  the 
desired  effect,  and  Thomas  was  not  sold.  Still,  his  eyes  were  fairly  opened 
to  see  his  danger  and  to  learn  a  valuable  lesson  at  the  same  time;  he,  there- 
fore, profited  by  it  in  escaping  the  first  chance.  He  left  his  mother  Ann 
Williams,  and  one  brother*,  James  Douglass,  both  slaves. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  FREDERICKSBURG,  1860. 

HENRY  TUDLE  AND  WIFE,   MAKY  WILLIAMS. 

HENRY  affirmed,  that  for  the  last  twenty  years,  his  freedom  had  been 
promised  him,  and  during  all  these  long  years,  hardly  a  month  had  passed, 
that  he  had  not  fixed  his  hopes  upon  a  definite  time,  when  his  bondage 
would  end  and  his  freedom  commence.  But  he  had  been  trusting  the 
word  of  a  slave-holder,  who  had  probably  adopte^l  this  plan  simply  with  a 
view  of  drawing  more  willing  toil  out  of  him  than  he  could  have  accom- 
plished in  any  other  way. 

MARY  complained  that  she  had  suffered  severely  for  food,  and  likewise 
for  privileges.  Ezra  Houpt  was  the  name  of  Henry's  master,  and  the  name 
of  his  mistress  was  Catharine,  she  was  hasty  and  passionate ;  slaves  were 
shown  no  quarter  under  her.  Mary  was  owned  by  Christian  Thomas. 
He  was  said  to  be  not  so  hard,  but  his  wife  was  very  hard,  so  much  so, 
that  she  would  rule  both  master  and  slaves.  Her  name  was  Mary 
Elizabeth. 


526  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


SUNDRY  ARRIVALS  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860. 

SAM  ARCHER,  LEWIS  PECK,  DAVID  EDWARDS,  EDWARD  CASTING,  JOE  HENRY,  GEORGE 
AND  ALBERT  WHITE,   JOSEPH   C.   JOHNSON,   DAVID  SNIVELY,   AND   HENRY 

DUNMORE. 

SAM  ARCHER  was  to  "  become  free  at  thirty-five  years  of  age."  He  had 
already  served  thirty  years  of  this  time;  five  years  longer  seemed  an  age  to 
him.  The  dangers  from  other  sources  presented  also  a  frightful  aspect. 
Sam  had  seen  too  many  who  had  stood  exactly  in  the  same  relations  to 
Slavery  and  freedom,  and  not  a  few  were  held  over  their  time,  or  cheated 
out  of  their  freedom  altogether.  He  stated  that  his  own  mother  was  "  kept 
over  her  time,"  simply  "that  her  master  might  get  all  her  children."  Two 
boys  and  two  girls  were  thus  gained,  and  were  slaves  for  life.  These 
facts  tended  to  increase  Sam's  desire  to  get  away  before  his  time  was  out; 
he,  therefore,  decided  to  get  off  via  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  He  grew 
very  tired  of  Bell  Air,  Harford  county,  Maryland,  and  his  so-called  owner, 
Thomas  Hayes.  He  said  that  Hayes  had  used  him  "  rough,"  and  he  was 
"tired  of  rough  treatment."  So  when  he  got  his  plans  arranged,  one 
morning  when  he  was  expected  to  go  forth  to  an  unrequited  day's  labor,  he 
could  not  be  found.  Doubtless,  his  excited  master  thought  Sam  a  great 
thief,  to  take 'himself  away  in  the  manner  that  he  did,  but  Sam  was  not  con- 
cerned on  this  point;  all  that  concerned  him  was  as  to  how  he  could  get  to 
Canada  the  safest  and  the  quickest.  ^YheIl  he  reached  the  Philadelphia 
station,  he  felt  that  the  day  dawned,  his  joy  was  full,  despite  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law. 

LEWIS  PECK  was  a  man  six  feet  high,  and  of  the  darkest  hue.  He 
reported  that  he  fled  from  Joseph  Bryant,  a  farmer,  who  lived  near  Patapsco 
River.  Bryant  was  in  the  habit  of  riding  around  to  look  after  the  slaves. 
Lewis  had  become  thoroughly  disgusted  with  this  manner  of  superintending. 
"  I  got  tired  of  having  Bryant  riding  after  me,  working  my  life  out  of  me," 
said  Lewis.  He  was  also  tired  of  Bryant's  wife ;  he  said  "  she  was  always 
making  mischief,  and  he  didn't  like  a  mischief  maker." 

Thus  he  complained  of  both  master  and  mistress,  seeming  not  to  under- 
stand that  he  "had  no  rights  which  they  were  bound  to  respect." 

DAVID  EDWARDS  broke  away  from  the  above  named  Bryant,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-four.  His  testimony  fully  corroborated  that  of  his  comrade, 
Lewis  Peck.  He  was  also  a  man  of  the  darkest  shade,  tall,  intellect  good, 
and  wore  a  pleasant  countenance.  The  ordinary  difficulties  were  experi- 
enced,'but  all  were  surmounted  without  serious  harm. 

EDWARD  CASTING  and  JOSEPH  HENRY  were  each  about  seventeen  years 
of  age.  Boys,  as  they  were,  with  no  knowledge  of  the  world,  they  had 
wisely  resolved  not  to  remain  in  that  condition.  Edward  fled  from  Robert 
Moore,  who  lived  at  Duck  Creek.  He  gave  his  master  the  name  of  being  a 


SUNDR  Y  ARRIVALS  FR OM  MAR  YLAND,  1860.  527 

"  bad  man,"  and  refused  to  recommend  him  for  anything.  Being  a  likely- 
looking  chattel,  he  would  have  doubtless  brought  seven  hundred  dollars  in 
the  market. 

JOSEPH  HENRY  came  from  Queen  Ann  county,  Maryland.  He  was  a 
well-grown  lad,  and  showed  traces  of  having  been  raised  without  proper 
care,  or  training.  For  deficiencies  in  this  direction,  he  charged  Greenberry 
Parker,  his  claimant,  who  he  said  had  treated  him  "  bad."  Friends  had 
helped  these  boys  along. 

GEORGE  and  ALBERT  WHITE  were  brothers.  They  fled  from  Cecil  county, 
Maryland.  They  escaped  from  William  Parker.  "  What  kind  of  a  man 
was  William  Parker  ?"  they  were  asked.  "  He  was  a  big,  bad  man,  no  goodness 
in  him,"  quickly  replied  one  of  the  brothers.  Their  lot  in  Slavery  had  not 
been  different  from  that  of  numbers  coming  from  that  section  of  the  State. 

JOSEPH  G.  JOHNSON  fled  from  William  Jones  of  Baltimore.  He  said 
that  his  master  kept  a  grocery  store  in  Pratt  street,  and  owned  six  head  of 
slaves';  that  he  was  a  "good  man,  and  always  treated  his  servants  very  well," 
until  about  three  weeks  before  he  escaped.  For  some  reason  unknown  to 
Joseph,  within  the  time  just  alluded  to,  he  had  sold  all  his  slaves,  with  the 
exception  of  himself.  Joseph  was  far  from  being  at  ease,  as  he  hourly  felt 
oppressed  with  the  fear  that  he  was  to  be  sold  at  an  early  day. 

Summoning  courage  he  started  by  the  Baltimore  and  Wilmington  Rail 
Road.  In  this  way  he  reached  Wilmington  where  he  unfortunately  fell  into 
the  hands  of  his  master's  son,  who  resided  in  Wilmington,  and  happened  to 
discover  Joseph  in  the  cars,  (most  likely  he  had  been  telegraphed  to)  and 
had  him  arrested  and  returned.  But  Joseph  did  not  allow  a  week  to  pass 
over  him  before  he  was  ready  to  make  even  a  still  more  daring  adventure 
for  his  liberty.  This  time  he  concluded  to  try  the  water;  by  great  economy 
he  had  saved  up  twenty-five  dollars.  This  was  a  great  deal  to  him,  but  he 
resolved  to  give  it  all  willingly  to  any  man  who  would  secrete  him,  or 
procure  him  a  passage  to  Philadelphia.  The  right  man  was  soon  found, 
and  Joseph  was  off  again.  Good  luck  attended  him,  and  he  reached  the 
Committee  safely.  He  was  in  his  twenty-third  year,  a  man  of  medium  size, 
copper-colored,  and  of  a  prepossessing  countenance. 

DAVID  SNIVELY  ran  away  from  Frederick,  Maryland.  He  was  moved 
to  escape  solely  by  the  love  of  freedom.  His  services  had  been  required  in 
the  blacksmith  shop,  and  on  the  farm  under  Charles  Preston,  who  claimed 
to  own  him.  He  had  been  sold  once  and  brought  nine  hundred  dollars; 
he  resolved  that  a  similar  fate  should  never  overtake  him,  unless  his  owner 
moved  very  suddenly  in  that  direction.  While  Joseph  was  working  daily  in 
the  blacksmith  shop,  he  was  planning  how  to  make  good  his  escape.  No  way 
was  open  but  the  old  route,  which  led  "  hard  by  "  many  dangers,  and  was 
only  accessible  now  and  then  through  regions  where  friends  were  few  and 
far  between.  Howbeit  he  possessed  the  faith  requisite,  and  was  victorious. 


528 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


Joseph  was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  of  unmixed  blood,  ordinary  size,  and 
had  a  commendable  share  of  courage  and  intellect.  He  could  recommend  no 
good  traits  as  his  master's. 

HENRY  DUNMORE  had  served  as  a  slave  up  to  the  age  of  thirty-five,  and 
was  then  on  the  eve  of  being  sold.  As  he  had  endured  severe  hardship 
under  his  old  master  John  Maldon  he  was  unwilling  to  try  another.  While 
he  gave  Maldon  credit  for  being  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  he 
charged  him  with  treating  himself  in  a  most  unchristian-like  manner.  He 
testified  that  Maldon  did  not  allow  him  half  enough  to  eat ;  and  once  he 
kept  him  out  in  the  cold  until  his  toes  were  frozen  off.  Consequently  it  was 
not  in  the  heart  of  Henry  to  give  his  master  any  other  than  a  bad  name. 
He  lived  about  sixteen  miles  from  Elkton,  near  Charleston,  Maryland.  He 
was  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  well-made,  and  active. 


CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  BATTEAU. 

SHARP  CONTEST  WITH  PURSUERS  ON  WATER.      FUGITIVES  VICTORIOUS. 

THOMAS  SIPPLE,  and  his  wife,  MARY  ANN,  HENRY  BURKETT,  add 
ELIZABETH,  his  wife,  JOHN  PURNELL,  and  HALE  BURTON.     This  party 


were  slaves,  living  near  Kunkletown,  in  Worcester  county,  Maryland,  and 
had  become  restive  in  their  fetters.     Although  they  did  not  know  a  letter 


CROSSING  THE  BAY  IN  A  BA TTEA U.  629 

of  the  alphabet,  they  were  fully  persuaded  that  they  were  entitled  to  their 
freedom.  In  considering  what  way  would  he  safest  for  them  to  adopt, 
they  concluded  that  the  water  would  be  less  dangerous  than  any  other  route. 
As  the  matter  of  freedom  had  been  in  their  minds  for  a  long  time,  they 
had  frequently  counted  the  cost,  and  had  been  laying  by  trifling  sums  of 
money  which  had  fallen  perchance  into  their  hands.  Among  them  all  they 
had  about  thirty  dollars.  As  they  could  not  go  by  water  without  a  boat, 
one  of  their  number  purchased  an  old  batteau  for  the  small  sum  of  six 
dollars.  The  Delaware  Bay  lay  between  them  and  the  Jersey  shore,  which 
they  desired  to  reach.  They  did  not  calculate,  however,  that  before  leaving 
the  Delaware  shore  they  would  have  to  contend  with  the  enemy.  That  in 
crossing,  they  would  lose  sight  of  the  land  they  well  understood.  They 
managed  to  find  out  the  direction  of  the  shore,  and  about  the  length  of  time 
that  it  might  take  them  to  reach  it.  Undaunted  by  the  perils  before  them 
the  party  repaired  to  the  bay,  and  at  ten  o'clock,  P.  M.  embarked  direct 
for  the  other  shore. 

Near  Kate's  Hammock,  on  the  Delaware  shore,  they  were  attacked  by 
five  white  men  in  a  small  boat.  One  of  them  seized  the  chain  of  the  fugi- 
tives' boat,  and  peremptorily  claimed  it.  "  This  is  not  your  boat,  we  bought 
this  boat  and  paid  for  it,"  spake  one  of  the  brave  fugitives.  "  I  am  an 
officer,  and  must  have  it,"  said  the  white  man,  holding  on  to  the  chain. 
Being  armed,  the  white  men  threatened  to  shoot.  Manfully  did  the  black 
men  stand  up  for  their  rights,  and  declare  that  they  did  not  mean  to  give 
up  their  boat  alive.  The  parties  speedily  came  to  blows.  One  of  the  white 
*  men  dealt  a  heavy  blow  with  his  oar  upon  the  head  of  one  of  the  black 
men,  which  knocked  him  down,  and  broke  the  oar  at  the  same  time. 
The  blow  was  immediately  returned  by  Thomas  Sipple,  and  one  of  the 
white  men  was  laid  flat  on  the  bottom  of  the  boat.  The  white  men  were 
instantly  seized  with  a  panic,  and  retreated ;  after  getting  some  yards  off 
they  snapped  their  guns  at  the  fugitives  several  times,  and  one  load  of  small 
shot  was  fired  into  them.  John  received  two  shot  in  the  forehead,  but  was 
not  dangerously  hurt.  George  received  some  in  the  arms,  Hale  Burton  got 
one  about  his  temple,  and  Thomas  got  a  few  in  one  of  his  arms ;  but  the 
shot  being  light,  none  of  the  fugitives  were  seriously  damaged.  Some  of  the 
shot  will  remain  in  them  as  long  as  life  lasts.  The  conflict  lasted  for 
several  minutes,  but  the  victorious  bondmen  were  only  made  all  the  more 
courageous  by  seeing  the  foe  retreat.  They  rowed  with  a  greater  will  than 
ever,  and  landed  on  a  small  island.  Where  they  were,  or  what  to  do  they 
could  not  tell.  One  whole  night  they  passed  in  gloom  •  on  this  sad  spot. 
Their  hearts  were  greatly  cast  down ;  the  next  morning  they  set  out  on 
foot  to  see  what  they  could  see.  The  young  women  were  very  sick,  and 
the  men  were  tried  to  the  last  extremity ;  however,  after  walking  about  one 
mile,  they  came  across  the  captain  of  an  oyster  boat.  They  perceived  that 
34 


530  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

he  spoke  in  a  friendly  way,  and  they  at  once  asked  directions  with  regard 
to  Philadelphia.  He  gave  them  the  desired  information,  and  even  offered 
to  bring  them  to  the  city  if  they  would  pay  him  for  his  services.  They 
had  about  twenty-five  dollars  in  all.  This  they  willingly  gave  him,  and 
he  brought  them  according  to  agreement.  When  they  found  the  captain 
they  were  not  far  from  Cape  May  light-house. 

Taking  into  account  the  fact  that  it  was  night  when  they  started,  that 
their  little  boat  was  weak,  combined  with  their  lack  of  knowledge  in  relation 
to  the  imminent  danger  surrounding  them,  any  intelligent  man  would  have 
been  justified  in  predicting  for  them  a  watery  grave,  long  before  the  bay  was 
half  crossed.  But  they  crossed  safely.  They  greatly  needed  food,  clothing, 
rest,  and  money,  which  they  freely  received,  and  were  afterwards  forwarded 
to  John  W.  Jones,  Underground  Rail  Eoad  agent,  at  Elmira.  The  sub- 
joined letter  giving  an  account  of  their  arrival  was  duly  received: 

ELMIEA,  June  6th,  1860. 

FRIEND  Wsr.  STILL  : — All  six  came  safe  to  this  place.  The  two  men  came  last  night, 
about  twelve  o'clock ;  the  man  and  woman  stopped  at  the  depot,  and  went  east  on  the 
next  train,  about  eighteen  miles,  and  did  not  get  back  till  to-night,  so  that  the  two  men 
went  this  morning,  and  the  four  went  this  evening. 

0,  old  master  don't  cry  for  me, 

For  I  am  going  to  Canada  where  colored  men  are  free. 

P.  S.  What  is  the  news  in  the  city  ?  Will  you  tell  me  how  many  you  have  sent  over  to 
Canada?  I  would  like  to  know.  They  all  send  their  love  to  you.  I  have  nothing  new  to 
tell  you.  We  are  all  in  good  health.  I  see  there  is  a  law  passed  in  Maryland  not  to  set  any 
slaves  free.  They  had  better  get  the  consent  of  the  Underground  Eail  Road  before  they 
passed  such  a  thing.  Good  night  from  your  friend,  JOHN  W.  JONES. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DORCHESTER  CO.,  1860. 

HARRIET  TUBMAX'S   LAST   "TRIP"   TO   MARYLAND. 

STEPHEN  ENNETS  and  wife,  MARIA,  with,  three  children,  whose  names  were 
as  follows :  HARRIET,  aged  six  years ;  AMANDA,  four  years,  and  a  babe 
(in  the  arms  of  its  mother),  three  months  old. 

The  following  letter  from  Thomas  Garrett  throws  light  upon  this  arrival : 

WILMINGTOX,  12th  mo.,  1st,  i860. 

RESPECTED  FRIEND  :— WILLIAM  STILL  :— I  write  to  let  thee  know  that  Harriet  Tub- 
man  is  again  in  these  parts.  She  arrived  last  evening  from  one  of  her  trips  of  mercy  to 
God's  poor,  bringing  two  men  with  her  as  far  as  New  Castle.  I  agreed  to  pay  a  man  last 
evening,  to  pilot  them  on  their  way  to  Chester  county  ;  the  wife  of  one  of  the  men,  with 
two  or  three  children,  was  left  some  thirty  miles  below,  and  I  gave  Harriet  ten  dollars,  to 
hire  a  man  with  carriage,  to  take  them  to  Chester  county.  She  said  a  man  had  offered  for 
that  sum,  to  bring  them  on.  I  shall  be  very  uneasy  about  them,  till  I  hear  they  are  safe. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  DORCHESTER  CO.,  1860.  631 

There  is  now  much  more  risk  on  the  road,  till  they  arrive  here,  than  there  has  been  for 
several  months  past,  as  we  find  that  some  poor,  worthless  wretches  are  constantly  on  the 
look  out  on  two  roads,  that  they  cannot  well  avoid  more  especially  with  carriage,  yet, 
as  it  is  Harriet  who  seems  to  have  ha'd  a  special  angel  to  guard  her  on  her  journey  of 
mercy,  I  have  hope.  Thy  Friend,  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

N.  B.     We  hope  all  will  be  in  Chester  county  to-morrow. 

These  slaves  from  Maryland,  were  the  last  that  Harriet  Tubman  piloted 
out  of  the  prison-house  of  bondage,  and  these  "came  through  great  tribu- 
lation." 

STEPHEN,  the  husband,  had  been  a  slave  of  John  Kaiger,  who  would  not 
allow  him  to  live  with  his  wife  (if  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  slave's 
owning  a  wife.)  She  lived  eight  miles  distant,  hired  her  time,  maintained 
herself,  and  took  care  of  her  children  (until  they  became  of  service  to  their 
owner),  and  paid  ten  dollars  a  year  for  her  hire.  She  was  owned  by  Algier 
Pearcy.  Both  mother  and  father  desired  to  deliver  their  children  from  his 
grasp.  They  had  too  much  intelligence  to  bear  the  heavy  burdens  thus  im- 
posed without  feeling  the  pressure  a  grievous  one. 

Harriet  Tubman  being  well  acquainted  in  their  neighborhood,  and  know- 
ing of  their  situation,  and  having  confidence  that  they  would  prove  true,  as 
passengers  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  engaged  to  pilot  them  within 
reach  of  Wilmington,  at  least  to  Thomas  Garrett's.  Thus  the  father  and 
mother,  with  their  children  and  a  young  man  named  John,  found  aid  and 
comfort  on  their  way,  with  Harriet  for  their  "  Moses."  A  poor  woman 
escaping  from  Baltimore  in  a  delicate  state,  happened  to  meet  Harriet's  party 
at  the  station,  and  was  forwarded  on  with  them.  They  were  cheered  with 
clothing,  food,  and  material  aid,  and  sped  on  to  Canada.  Notes  taken  at 
that  time  were  very  brief;  it  was  evidently  deemed  prudent  in  those  days, 
not  to  keep  as  full  reports  as  had  been  the  wont  of  the  secretary,  prior 
to  1859.  The  capture  of  John  Brown's  papers  and  letters,  with  names  and 
plans  in  full,  admonished  us  that  such  papers  and  correspondence  as  had 
been  preserved  concerning  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  might  perchance 
be  captured  by  a  pro-slavery  mob.  For  a  year  or  more  after  the  Harper's 
Ferry  battle,  as  many  will  remember,  the  mob  spirit  of  the  times  was  very 
violent  in  all  the  principal  northern  cities,  as  well  as  southern  ("  to  save 
the  Union.")  Even  in  Boston,  Abolition  meetings  were  fiercely  assailed  by 
the  mob.  During  this  period,  the  writer  omitted  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant particulars  in  the  escapes  and  narratives  of  fugitives.  Books  and 
papers  were  sent  away  for  a  long  time,  and  during  this  time  the  records  were 
kept  simply  on  loose  slips  of  paper. 


532  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND,  1860. 

JERRY  MILLS,  AND  WIFE,  DIANA,  SON,  CORNELIUS,  AND  TWO  DAUGHTERS,  MARGARET, 

AND  SUSAN. 

The  father  of  this  family  was  sixty -five  years  of  age,  and  his  working  days 
were  apparently  well  nigh  completed.  The  mother  was  fifty-seven  years 
of  age ;  son  twenty-seven  ;  daughters  seventeen  and  fifteen  years  of  age. 

The  old  man  was  smart  for  his  years,  but  bore  evidence  that  much  hard 
labor  had  been  wrung  out  of  him  by  Slavery.  Diana  said  that  she  had  been 
the  mother  of  twelve  children  ;  five  had  escaped  to  Canada,  three  were  in 
their  graves,  and  three  accompanied  her ;  one  was  left  in  Maryland.  They 
had  seen  hard  times,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  old  man  and  his 
companion,  especially  under  David  Snively,  who,  however,  had  been  "  re- 
moved by  the  Lord  "a  number  of  years  prior  to  their  escape;  but  the 
change  proved  no  advantage  to  them,  as  they  found  Slavery  no  better  under 
their  mistress,  the  widow,  than  under  their  master.  Mistress  Snively  was 
said  to  be  close  and  stingy,  and  always  unfriendly  to  the  slave.  "  She  never 
thought  you  were  doing  enough."  For  her  hardness  of  heart  they  were 
sure  she  would  repent  some  time,  but  not  while  she  could  hold  slaves. 
The  belief  was  pretty  generally  entertained  with  the  slaves  that  the  slave- 
holder would  have  to  answer  for  his  evil  doings  in  another  world. 


TWELVE  MONTHS  IN  THE  WOODS,  1860. 

HENRY  COTTON. 

As  a  slave,  subjected  to  the  whims  and  passions  of  his  master,  Henry 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  could  not  stand  it  longer.  The  man  who  mas- 
tered it  over  him  was  called  Nathaniel  Dixon,  and  lived  in  Somerset  Co., 
near  Newtown.  This  Dixon  was  not  content  with  his  right  to  flog  and 
abuse  Henry  as  he  saw  fit,  but  he  threatened  to  sell  him,  as  he  would  sell 
a  hog. 

At  this  time  Henry  was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  but  a  man  of 
more  substantial  parts  physically  was  rarely  to  be  seen.  Courage  was  one 
of  his  prominent  trails.  This  threat  only  served  to  arouse  him  completely. 
He  had  no  friends  save  such  as  were  in  the  same  condition  with  himself, 
nevertheless  he  determined  not  to  be  sold.  How  he  should  escape  this  fate 
did.  not  at  first  present  itself.  Everything  looked  very  gloomy ;  Slavery 
he  considered  as  death  to  him ;  and  since  his  master  had  threatened  him,  he 
looked  upon  him  as  his  greatest  enemy,  and  rather  than  continue  a  slave 
he  preferred  living  in  the  swamps  with  wild  animals.  Just  one  year  prior 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND.  533 

to  the  time  that  he  made  his  way  North,  determined  not  to  be  a  slave  any- 
longer,  he  fled  to  a  swamp  and  made  his  way  to  the  most  secluded  spot  that 
he  could  find, — to  places  that  were  almost  impenetrable  so  dense  were  the 
trees  and  undergrowth.  This  was  all  the  better  for  Henry,  he  wanted  to  get 
safety ;  he  did  not  wish  company.  He  made  known  his  plans  to  a  dear 
brother,  who  engaged  to  furnish  him  occasionally  with  food.  Henry  passed 
twelve  months  in  this  way,  beholding  no  human  soul  save  his  brother. 
His  brother  faithfully  took  him  food  from  time  to  time.  The  winter  weather 
of  1859  was  very  hard,  but  it  was  not  so  hard  to  bear  as  his  master  Na- 
thaniel Dixon. .  The  will  of  Henry's  old  master  entitled  him  to  his  free- 
dom, but  the  heirs  had  rendered  said  will  null  and  void ;  this  act  in  addition 
to  the  talk  of  selling  had  its  effect  in  driving  him  to  the  woods.  For  a 
time  he  hid  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree,  which  went  very  hard  with  him,  yet  he 
was  willing  to  suffer  anything  rather  than  go  back  to  his  so-called  master. 
He  managed  finally  to  make  good  his  escape  and  came  to  the  Committee  for 
aid  and  sympathy,  which  he  received. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  MARYLAND. 

WILLIAM   PIERCE. 

But  few  passengers  expressed  themselves  in  stronger  terms  in  regard  to 
their  so-called  masters,  than  William  Pierce,  from  Long  Green.  "I  fled," 
said  he,  "  from  John  Hickol,  a  farmer,  about  fifty  years  old,  grey-headed 
and  drinks  whiskey  very  hard — was  always  a  big  devil — ill-grained.  He 
owned  fifteen  head  ;  he  owns  three  of  my  brothers.  He  has  a  wife,  a  big 
devil,  red  head  ;  her  servants,  she  wouldn't  feed  'em  none,  except  on  corn 
bread ;  she  would  fight  and  swear  too,  when  she  got  ready.  She  and  her 
husband  would  quarrel  too.  A  slave  man,  a  deceitful  fellow,  who  had  been 
put  up  to  watch  on  one  occasion,  when  the  rest  of  the  slaves  had  helped 
themselves  to  a  chicken,  and  cooked  and  ate  it  about  midnight,  though  he 
was  allowed  to  share  a  portion  of  the  feast,  was  ready  enough  to  betray 
them  by  times  next  morning.  This  made  master  and  mistress  'cuss'  all 
hands  at  a  great  rate,  and  master  beat  all  hands  except  the  one  that  told.  I 
was  caned  so  badly  that  it  laid  me  up  for  several  weeks.  I  am  a  little  lame 
yet  from  the  beating." 

Such  was  William's  story.  He  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  of  a  light 
brown  color,  well-made.  Judging  from  his  expressions  and  apparent  feelings 
against  his  master  and  mistress,  he  would  be  willing  to  endure  many  years 
of  suffering  in  Canada  snows,  before  he  would  apply  to  them  for  care  and 
protection. 


534  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


A  SLAVE  CATCHER  CAUGHT  IN  HIS  OWN  TRAP. 

GEORGE  F.  ALBERT!   PERSONATED  BY  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE — 
A   LADY   FRIGHTENED   BY  A  PLACARD. 

One  afternoon,  the  quiet  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Office  was  suddenly  agitated 
by  the  contents  of  a  letter,  privately  placed  in  the  hands  of  J.  Miller 
McKirn  by  one  of  the  clerks  of  the  Philadelphia  Ledger  office.  Said  letter 
it  would  seem,  had  been  dropped  into  the  box  of  the  Ledger  office,  instead 
of  the  U.  S.  box  (one  of  which,  was  also  in  the  Ledger  office),  through  a 
mistake,  and  seeing  that  it  bore  the  name  of  a  well-known  slave-catcher, 
Alberti,  the  clerk  had  a  great  desire  to  know  its  import.  "Whether  it  was  or 
was  not  sealed,  the  writer  cannot  say,  it  certainly  was  not  sealed  when  it 
reached  the  Anti-Slavery  office.  It  stated  that -a  lady  from  Maryland  was 
then  in  Philadelphia,  stopping  at  a  boarding-house  on  Arch  Street,  and  that 
she  was  very  desirous  of  seeing  the  above-mentioned  Alberti,  with  a  view 
of  obtaining  his  services  to  help  catch  an  Underground  Rail  Road  so- 
journer,  whom  she  claimed  as  her  property.  That  she  wrote  the  letter 
could  not  be  proved,  but  that  it  was  sent  by  her  consent,  there  was  no 
doubt.  In  order  to  save  the  poor  fellow  from  his  impending  doom,  it 
seemed  that  nothing  would  avail  but  a  bold  strategical  movement.  Mr. 
McKim  proposed  to  find  some  one  who  would  be  willing  to  answer  for 
Alberti.  Cyrus  Whitsou,  a  member  of  the  Committee,  in  Mr.  McKim's 
judgment,  could  manage  the  matter  successfully.  At  that  time,  C.  Whitson 
was  engaged  in  the  Free  Labor  store,  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Cherry 
streets,  near  the  Anti-Slavery  office.  On  being  sent  for,  he  immediately 
answered  the  summons,  and  Mr.  McKim  at  once  made  known  to  him 
his  plan,  which  was  to  save  a  fellow-man  from  being  dragged  back  to  bond- 
age, by  visiting  the  lady,  and  ascertaining  from  her  in  conversation  the 
whereabouts  of  the  fugitives,  the  names  of  the  witnesses,  and  all  the  partic- 
ulars. Nothing  could  have  delighted  the  shrewd  Whitson  better ;  he  saw 
just  how  he  could  effect  the  matter,  without  the  slightest  probable  failure. 
So  off  he  started  for  the  boarding-house. 

Arriving,  he  rang  the  bell,  and  when  the  servant  appeared,  he  asked 
if  Miss  Wilson,  from  Maryland,  was  stopping  there.  "  She  is,"  was  the 
answer.  "  I  wish  to  see  her."  "  Walk  in  the  parlor,  sir."  In  went  Mr. 
W.,  with  his  big  whiskers.  Soon  Miss  Wilson  entered  the  parlor,  a  tall, 
and  rather  fine-looking  well  dressed  lady.'  Mr.  Whitson  bowing,  politely 
addressed  her,  substantially  thus  : 

"  I  have  come  to  see  you  instead  of  Mr.  Geo.  F.  Alberti,  to  whom  you 
addressed  a  note,  this  morning.  Circumstances,  over  which  Mr.  A.  had  no 
control,  prevented  his  coming,  so  I  have  come,  madam,  to  look  after  your 


A  SLA  VE-CATCHER  CA UGHT  IN  HIS  0  WN  TRAPS.  535 

business  in  his  place.  Now,  madam,  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  in 
the  outset,  that  whatever  transpires  between  us,  so  far  as  this  business  is 
concerned,  must  be  kept  strictly  confidential,  by  no  means,  must  this  matter 
be  allowed  to  leak  out ;  if  it  does,  the  darned  abolitionists  (excuse  me),  may 
ruin  me ;  at  any  rate  we  should  not  be  able  to  succeed  in  getting  your  slave. 
I  am  particular  on  this  point,  remember.'' 

"  You  are  perfectly  right,  Sir,  indeed  I  am  very  glad  that  your  plan  is  to 
conduct  this  matter  in  this  manner,  for  I  do  not  want  my  name  mixed  up 
with  it  in  any  way." 

"  Very  well,  madam,  I  think  we  understand  each  other  pretty  well ;  now 
please  give  me  the  name  of  the  fugitive,  his"  age,  size,  and  color,  and  where 
he  may  be  found,  how  long  he  has  been  away,  and  the  witness  who  can  be 
relied  on  to  identify  him  after  he  is  arrested." 

Miss  Wilson  carefully  communicated  these  important  particulars,  while 
Mr.  Whitson  faithfully  penciled  down  every  word.  At  the  close  of  the 
interview  he  gave  her  to  understand  that  the  matter  should  be  attended  to 
immediately,  and  that  he  thought  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  securing 
the  fugitive.  "  You  shall  hear  from  me  soon,  madam,  good  afternoon." 

In  five  minutes  after  this  interview  Whitson  was  back  to  the  Anti-slavery 
Office  with  all  Miss  Wilson's  secrets.  The  first  thing  to  be  attended  was  to 
send  a  messenger  to  the  place  where  the  fugitive  was  at  work,  with  a  view 
of  securing  his  safety ;  this  was  a  success.  The  man  was  found,  and,, 
frightened  almost  out  of  his  wits,  he  dropped  all  and  followed  the  messenger, 
who  bore  him  the  warning.  In  the  meanwhile  Mr.  McKim  was  preparing, 
with  great  dispatch,  the  subjoined  document  for  the  enlightenment  and 
warning  of  all. 

TO  WHOM  IT  MAY  CONCERN: 

i 

BEWARE   OF   SLAVE-CATCHERS. 

Miss  WILSON,  of  Georgetown  Cross  Roads,  Kent  county,  Md.,  is  now  in  the  city  in 
pursuit  of  her  alleged  slave  man,  BDTLER.  J.  M.  Cummings  and  John  Wilson,  of  the 
same  place,  are  understood  to  be  herg  on  a  similar  errand,  This  is  to  caution  BUTLER 
and  his  friends  to  be  on  their  guard.  Let  them  keep  clear  of  the  above-named  individuals. 
Also,  let  them  have  an  eye  on  all  persons  known  to  be  friends  of  Dr.  High,  of  Georgetown 
Cross  Roads,  and  Mr.  D.  B.  Cummings,  who  is  not  of  Georgetown  Cross  Roads. 

It  is  requested  that  all  parties  to  whom  a  copy  of  this  may  be  sent  will  post  it  in  a 
public  place,  and  that  the  friends  of  Freedom  and  Humanity  will  have  the  facts  herein 
contained  openly  read  in  their  respective  churches. 

"Hide  the  outcast;  bewray  not  him  that  wandereth."     Isaiah  xvi.  3. 

"Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant  that  has  escaped  from  his  master 
unto  thee."  Deut.  xxiii.  15. 

This  document  printed  as  a  large  poster,  about  three  feet  square,  and 
displayed  in  large  numbers  over  the  city,  attracted  much  attention  and 
comment,  which  facts  were  quickly  conveyed  to  Miss  Wilson,  at  her  board- 
ing-house. At  first,  as  it  was  understood,  she  was  greatly  shocked  to  find 


536  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

herself  in  everybody's  mouth.  She  unhesitatingly  took  her  baggage  and 
started  for  "  My  Maryland."  Thus  ended  one  of  the  most  pleasant  inter- 
views that  ever  took  place  between  a  slave-hunter  and  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee of  Philadelphia. 


AREIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858. 

HEXBY  LANGHOEN  alias  WM.  SCOTT. 

THIS  "  chattel "  from  Richmond,  Virginia,  was  of  a  yellow  complexion, 
with  some  knowledge  of  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing ;  he  was  about 
twenty-three  years  of  age  and  considered '  himself  in  great  danger  of  being 
subjected  to  the  auction-block  by  one  Charles  L.  Hobsou.  Hobson  and 
Henry  had  grown  up  from  boyhood  together;  for  years  they  had  even 
occupied  the  same  room, — Henry  as  a  servant-boy  and  protector  of  his 
prospective  young  master.  Under  these  relations  quite  strong  affinities 
were  cemented  between  them,  and  Henry  succeeded  in  gaining  a  knowledge 
of  the  alphabet  with  an  occasional  lesson  in  spelling.  Both  reached  their 
majority.  William  was  hired  out  at  the  American  Hotel,  and  being  a 
"smart,  likely-looking  boy,"  commanded  good  wages  for  his  young  master's 
benefit,  who  had  commenced  business  as  a  tobacco  merchant,  with  about 
seven  head  of  slaves  in  his  possession.  A  year  or  two's  experiment  proved 
that  the  young  master  was  not  succeeding  as  a  merchant,  and  before  the  ex- 
piration of  three  years  he  had  sold  all  his  slaves  except  Henry.  From  such 
indications,  Henry  was  fully  persuaded  that  his  time  was  well  nigh  at  hand, 
and  great  was  his  anxiety  as  he  meditated  over  the  auction-block.  "In  his 
heart"  he  resolved  time  and  again  that  he  would  never  be  sold.  It  be- 
hooved him,  therefore,  to  avert  that  ill  fate.  He  at  first  resolved  to  buy 
himself,  but  in  counting  the  cost  he  found  that  he  would  by  no  means  be 
able  to  accumulate  as  much  money  as  his  master  uould  be  likely  to  demand 
for  him;  he,  therefore,  abandoned  this  idea  and  turned  his  attention 
straightway  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  by  which  route  he  had  often 
heard  of  slaves  escaping.  He  felt  the  need  of  money  and  that  he  must 
make  and  save  an  extra  quarter  whenever  he  could  ;  he  soon  learned  to  be 
a  very  rigid  economist,  and  being  exceedingly  accommodating  in  waiting 
upon  gentlemen  at  the  hotel  and  at  the  springs,  he  found  his  little  "  pile" 
increasing  weekly.  His  object  was  to  have  enough  to  pay  for  a  private  berth 
on  one  of  the  Richmond  steamers  and  also  to  have  a  little  left  to  fall  back 
on  after  landing  in  a  strange  land  and  among  strangers.  He  saved  about 
two  hundred  dollars  in  cash ;  he  was  then  ready  to  make  a  forward  move, 
and  he  arranged  all  his  plans  with  an  agent  in  Richmond  to  leave  by  one 
of  the  steamers  during  the  Christmas  holidays.  "  You  must  come  down 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1858.  537 

to  the  steamer  about  dark,"  said  the  agent  "  and  if  all  is  right  you  will  see 
the  Underground  Kail  Road  agent  come  out  with  some  ashes  as  a  signal, 
and  by  this  you  may  know  that  all  is  ready." 

"  I  will  be  there  certain,"  said  Henry.  Christmas  week  he  was  confident 
would  be  granted  as  usual  as  a  holiday  week ;  a  few  days  before  Christmas 
he  went  to  his  master  and  asked  permission  to  spend  said  holiday  with  his 
mother,  in  Cumberland  county,  adding  that  he  would  need  some  spend- 
ing money,  enough  at  least  to  pay  his  fare,  etc.  Young  master  freely 
granted  his  request,  wrote  him  a  pass,  and  doled  him  out  enough  money 
to  pay  his  fare  thence,  but  concluded  that  Henry  could  pay  his  way 
back  out  of  his  extra  change.  Henry  expressed  his  obligations,  etc.,  and 
returned  to  the  American  Hotel.  The  evening  before  the  time  appointed 
for  starting  on  his  Underground  Hail  Road  voyage,  he  had  occasion  to  go 
out  to  see  the  Underground  Rail  Road  agent,  and  asked  the  clerk  to  give 
hi.n  a  pass.  This  favor  was  peremptorily  refused.  Henry,  "  not  willing  to 
give  it  up  so,"  sat  down  to  write  a  pass  for  himself;  he  found  it  all  that  was 
necessary,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  accomplish  his  business  satisfactorily. 
Next  day  his  Christmas  holiday  commenced,  but  instead  of  his  enjoying  the 
sight  of  his  mother,  he  felt  that  he  had  seen  her  for  the  last  time  in  the  flesh. 
It  was  a  sad  reflection.  That  evening  at  dark,  he  was  at  the  wharf,  accord- 
ing to  promise.  The  man  with  the  ashes  immediately  appeared  and  signalled 
him.  In  his  three  suits  of  clothing  (all  on  his  back),  he  walked  on  the  boat, 
and  was  conducted  to  the  coal  covering,  where  Egyptian  darkness  prevailed. 
The  appointed  hour  for  the  starting  of  the  steamer,  was  ten  o'clock  the  fol- 
lowing morning.  By  the  aid  of  prayer,  he  endured  the  suffering  that  night. 
No  sooner  had  the  steamer  got  under  way,  than  a  heavy  gale  was  encountered ; 
for  between  three  and  four  days  the  gale  and  fog  combined,  threatened  the 
steamer  with  a  total  loss.  All  the  freight  on  deck,  consisting  of  tobacco  and 
cotton,  had  to  be  thrown  overboard,  to  save  the  passengers. 

HENRY,  in  his  state  of  darkness,  saw  nothing,  nor  could  he  know  the 
imminent  peril  that  his  life  was  in.  Fortunately  he  was  not  sea-sick,  but 
slept  well  and  long  on  the  voyage.  The  steamer  was  five  days  coming. 
On  landing  at  Philadelphia,  Henry  could  scarcely  see  or  walk  ;  the  spirit 
of  freedom,  however,  was  burning  brightly  in  the  hidden  man,  and  the  free 
gales  of  fresh  air  and  a  few  hours  on  free  soil  soon  enabled  him  to  overcome 
the  difficulties  which  first  presented  themselves,  and  he  was  soon  one  of  the 
most  joyful  mortals  living.  He  tarried  two  days  with  his  friends  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  then  hastened  on  to  Boston.  After  being  in  Boston  two  months, 
he  was  passing  through  the  market  one  day,  when,  to  his  surprise,  he  espied 
his  young  master,  Charles  L.  Hobson.  Henry  was  sure,  however,  that  he 
was  not  recognized,  but  suspected  that  he  was  hunted.  Instantly,  Henry 
pulled  up  his  coat  collar,  and  drew  his  hat  over  his  face  to  disguise  himself 
as  much  as  possible ;  but  he  could  not  wholly  recover  from  the  shock  he  had 


538  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

thus  sustained.  He  turned  aside  from  the  market  and  soon  met  a  friend 
formerly  from  Richmond,  who  had  been  in  servitude  in  the  tobacco  factory 
owned  by  his  master.  Henry  tried  to  prevail  on  him  to  spot  out  said 
Hobson,  in  the  market,  and  see  if  there  possibly  could  be  any  mistake.  Not 
a  step  would  his  friend  take  in  that  direction.  He  had  been  away  for 
several  years,  still  he  was  a  fugitive,  and  didn't  like  the  idea  of  renewing 
his  acquaintance  with  old  or  new  friends  with  a  white  skin  from  Virginia. 
Henry,  however,  could  not  content  himself  until  he  had  taken  another  good 
look  at  Mr.  Hobson.  Disguising  himself  he  again  took  a  stroll  through  the 
market,  looking  on  the  right  and  left  as  he  passed  along;  presently  he  saw 
him  seated  at  a  butcher's  stall.  He  examined  him  to  his  satisfaction,  and 
then  went  speedily  to  headquarters  (the  Anti-Slavery  Office),  made  known 
the  fact  of  his  discovery,  and  stated  that  he  believed  his  master  had  no 
other  errand  to  Boston  than  to  capture  him.  Measures  were  at  once  taken 
to  ascertain  if  such  a  man  as  Charles  L.  Hobson  was  booked  at  any  of  the 
hotels  in  Boston. 

On  finding  that  this  was  really  a  fact,  Henry  was  offered  and  accepted 
private  quarters  with  the  well-known  philanthropist  and  friend  of  the  fugi- 
tive, Francis  Jackson.  His  house  as  well  as  his  purse  was  always  open  to 
the  slave.  While  under  the  roof  of  Mr.  Jackson,  as  Hobson  advertised 
and  described  Henry  so  accurately,  and  offered  a  reward  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  him,  Henry's  friends  thought  that  they  would  return 
him  the  compliment  by  publishing  him  in  the  Boston  papers  quite  as 
accurately  if  not  with  as  high  a  reward  for  him;  they  advertised  him 
after  this  manner:  "Charles  L.  Hobson,  twenty-two  years  of  age,  six  feet 
high,  with  a  slouched  hat  on,  mixed  coat,  black  pants,  with  a  goatee,  is 
stopping  at  the  Tremont  Hotel,"  &c.,  &c.  This  was  as  a  bomb-shell  to  Mr. 
Hobsou,  and  he  immediately  took  the  hint,  and  with  his  trunks  steered  for 
the  sunny  South.  In  a  day  or  two  afterwards  Henry  deemed  it  advisable 
to  visit  Canada.  After  arriving  there  he  wrote  back  to  his  young  master, 
to  let  him  know  where  he  was,  and  why  he  left,  and  what  he  was  doing. 
How  his  letter  was  received  Henry  was  never  informed.  For  five  years  he 
lived  in  Boston  and  ran  on  a  boat  trading  to  Canada  East.  He  saved  up 
his  money  and  took  care  of  himself  creditably.  He  was  soon  prepared  to 
go  into  some  business  that  would  pay  him  better  than  running  on  the  boat. 
Two  of  his  young  friends  agreed  with  him  that  they  could  do  better  in 
Philadelphia  than  in  Boston,  so  they  came  to  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love 
and  opened  a  first-class  dining-saloon  near  Third  and  Chestnut  streets. 
For  a  time  they  carried  on  the  business  with  enterprise  and  commendable 
credit,  but  one  of  the  partners,  disgusted  with  the  prejudices  of  the  city 
passenger  railway  cars,  felt  that  he  could  no  longer  live  here.  Henry, 
known  after  leaving  Slavery  only  by  the  name  of  Wm.  Scott,  quitted  the 
restaurant  business  and  found  employment  as  a  messenger  under  Thomas  A. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859.  539 

Scott,  Esq.,  Vice-President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Central  Rail  Road,  where 
he  has  faithfully  served  for  the  last  four  years,  and  has  the  prospect  of 
filling  the  office  for  many  years  to  come.  He  is  an  industrious,  sober, 
steady,  upright,  and  intelligent  young  man,  and  takes  care  of  his  wife  and 
child  in  a  comfortable  three  story  brick  house  of  his  own. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND,  1859. 

MILES  ROBINSON  was  the  slave  of  Mrs.  Roberts,  a  widow  lady  living  in 
York  County,  Virginia.  He  did  not  live  with  her,  however,  but  was  hired  out 
in  the  city  of  Richmond.  He  had  been  fortunate  in  falling  into  hands  that 
had  not  treated  him  harshly.  He  was  not  contented,  however.  Much  of  the 
leisure  falling  incidentally  to  his  lot  from  hours  of  duty,  he  devoted  to  the 
banjo.  As  a  player  on  this  instrument  he  had  become  quite  gifted,  but  music 
in  Richmond  was  not  liberty.  The  latter  he  craved,  and  in  thought  was  often 
far  beyond  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  enjoying  that  which  was  denied  him  in 
Virginia.  Although  but  twenty-two  years  of  age,  Miles  was  manly,  and 
determination  and  intelligence  were  traits  strongly  marked  in  his  unusually 
well-shaped  visage.  Hearing  that  he  was  to  be  sold,  he  conferred  not  with 
his  mother,  brothers,  or  sisters,  (for  such  he  had  living  as  slaves  in  Rich- 
mond) but  resolved  to  escape  by  the  first  convenience.  Turning  his  attention 
to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  he  soon  found  an  agent  who  communi- 
cated his  wishes  to  one  of  the  colored  women  running  as  cook  or  cham- 
bermaid on  one  of  the  Philadelphia  and  Richmond  steamers,  and  she  was 
bold  enough  to  take  charge  of  him,  and  found  him  a  safe  berth  in  one  of  the 
closets  where  the  pots  and  other  cooking  utensils  belonged.  It  was  rather 
rough  and  trying,  but  Miles  felt  that  it  was  for  liberty,  and  he  must  pass 
through  the  ordeal  without  murmuring,  which  he  did,  until  success  was 
achieved  and  he  found  himself  in  Philadelphia.  Boston  being  the  haven 
on  which  his  hopes  were  fixed,  after  recruiting  a  short  while  in  the  city  he 
steered  for  said  place.  Finding  liberty  there  as  sweet  as  he  had  fondly 
hoped  to  find  it,  he  applied  himself  unceasingly  to  industrial  'pursuits,  eco- 
nomy, the  improvement  of  his  mind  and  the  elevation  of  his  race.  Four 
years  he  passed  thus,  under  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  he  invested  the  earnings,  which  he  had  saved,  in  a  business  with  two 
young  friends  in  Philadelphia.  All  being  first-class  waiters  and  under- 
standing catering,  they  decided  to  open  a  large  dining-saloon.  Miles  was 
one  of  the  two  friends  mentioned  in  Wm.  Scott's  narrative,  and  as  his 
success  and  consequent  fortunes  have  been  already  referred  to,  it  will  suffice 
here  to  mention  him  simply  in  connection  with  two  contests  that  he  sus- 
tained with  the  prejudice  that  sought  to  drive  colored  people  from  the  pas- 
senger cars. 


540  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

At  the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Walnut  streets  Miles,  in  company  with  two 
other  young  men,  Wallace  and  Marshall,  one  evening  in  a  most  orderly 
manner,  entered  the  cars  and  took  their  seats.  The  conductor  ordered  them 
on  the  front  platform ;  they  did  not  budge.  He  stopped  the  car  and  ordered 
them  out ;  this  did  no  good.  He  read  rules,  and  was  not  a  little  embarrassed 
by  these  polite  and  well-dressed  young  men.  Finally  he  called  for  the  police, 
who  arrested  all  three.  Miles  did  not  yield  his  scat  without  a  struggle. 
In  being  pulled  out  his  resistance  was  such  that  several  window  lights  were 
broken  in  the  car.  The  police  being  in  strong  force,  however,  succeeded  in 
marching  their  prisoners  to  the  Mayor's  police  station  at  the  corner  of  Fifth 
and  Chestnut  streets  where  they  were  locked  up  to  await  further  investiga- 
tion. The  prisoners  thought  they  were  back  in  "  old  Virginny "  again. 
Miles  gritted  his  teeth  and  felt  very  indignant,  but  what  could  he  do  ?  The 
infamous  prejudice  against  which  they  had  borne  testimony  was  controlling 
all  the  lines  of  city  passenger  railways  in  Philadelphia.  While  Miles  and 
his  friends  were  willing  to  suffer  for  a  principle,  the  dirt,  filth,  cold,  and  dis- 
agreeableness  of  the  quarters  that  they  most  likely  would  be  compelled  to 
occupy  all  night  and  the  following  day  (Sunday)  forbade  submission.  Added 
to  this  Miles  felt  that  his  young  wife  would  hardly  be  able  to  contain  her- 
self while  he  was  locked  up.  They  sent  for  the  writer  to  intercede  for 
them. 

At  a  late  hour  of  the  night,  after  going  from  the  alderman's  boarding- 
house  to  a  fire  engine  house  and  other  places,  where  it  was  supposed  that  he 
might  probably  be  found,  on  going  a  third  time  to  his  hotel,  a  little  before 
midnight,  he  was  discovered  to  be  in  bed,  and  it  was  then  ascertained  that 
he  had  not  been  out  all  the  evening.  The  night  was  very  stormy.  We 
could  not  tell  whether  or  not  the  fruitless  chase  on  which  we  had  been  sent 
in  search  of  the  alderman,  was  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  that  had  locked 
the  men  up,  designed  to  mislead  us ;  he  condescended  at  last  to  appear,  and 
accepted  our  offer  to  go  bail  for  all  of  them,  and  finally  issued  a  discharge. 
This  was  hastily  delivered  at  the  station,  and  the  prisoners  were  released. 

But  Miles  was  not  satisfied ;  he  had  breathed  free  air  in  Massachusetts 
for  four  years,  and  being  a  man  of  high  spirit  he  felt  that  he  must  further 
test  the  prejudices  of  the  cars.  Consequently  one  very  cold  night,  when  a 
deep  snow  covered  the  pavements,  he  was  out  with  his  wife,  and  thought 
that  he  would  ride;  his  wife  being,  fair,  he  put  her  on  the  car  at  the 
corner  of  Third  and  Pine  streets,  and  walked  to  the  corner  of  Fourth 
and  Pine  streets,  where  he  stepped  into  the  car  and  took  his  seat.  The 
conductor  straightway  ordered  him  out,  on  the  plea  of  color.  God  had 
shaded  him  a  little  too  much.  "  How  is  this,  my  wife  is  in  this  car,"  spake 
Miles.  All  eyes  gazed  around  to  see  who  his  wife  was.  By  this  time  the 
car  had  been  stopped,  and  the  wrath  of  the  conductor  was  kindled  prodi- 
giously. He  did  not,  however,  lay  violent  hands  upon  Miles.  A  late 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND.  541 

decision  in  court  nad  taught  the  police  that  they  had  no  right  to  interfere, 
except  in  cases  where  the  peace  was  actually  being  broken ;  so  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  this  troublesome  customer,  the  car  was  run  off  the  track,  the  shivering 
passengers  all  leaving  it,  as  though  flying  from  a  plague,  with  the  exception 
of  Miles,  his  wife,  and  another  colored  gentleman,  who  got  on  with  Miles. 
The  conductor  then  hoisted  all  the  windows,  took  out  the  cushions,  and 
unhitched  the  horses.  But  Miles  and  his  party  stood  it  bravely ;  Miles 
burning  all  the  time  with  indignation  at  this  exhibition  of  prejudice  in  the 
city  of  Brotherly  Love.  The  war  was  then  raging  fiercely,  and  as  Miles 
then  felt,  he  was  almost  prepared  to  say,  he  didn't  care  which  beat,  as  the 
•woman  said,  when  she  saw  her  husband  and  the  bear  wrestling.  He  was 
compelled  to  admit  that  this  prejudice  was  akin  to  slavery,  and  gave  to 
slavery  its  chief  support. 

The  occupants  of  the  horseless  car,  which  was  being  aired  so  thoroughly, 
remained  in  it  for  a  length  of  time,  until  they  had  sufficiently  borne  their 
testimony,  and  they  too  quietly  forsook  it. 

Prior  to  this  event,  by  his  industry  and  hard-earned  savings,  Miles  had 
become  the  owner  of  a  comfortable  brick  house,  and  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  remain  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  but  the  spirit  which  prompted  the  afore- 
said treatment  called  up  within  him  reflections  somewhat  similar  to  those 
aroused  by  Slavery,  and  it  was  not  a  great  while  before  he  offered  his  pro- 
perty for  sale,  including  his  business  stand,  resolving  to  return  to  Boston. 
He  received  an  offer  for  his  property,  accepted  it,  pulled  up  stakes,  and 
again  hopefully  turned  his  face  thitherward.  The  ambitious  Miles  com- 
menced business  in  Chelsea,  near  Boston,  where  he  purchased  himself  a 
comfortable  home;  and  he  has  ever  since  been  successfully  engaged  in 
the  sale  of  kerosene  oil.  Instead  of  seeking  pleasure  in  the  banjo,  as  he  was 
wont  to  do  in  Virginia,  he  now  finds  delight  in  the  Baptist  Church,  Rev. 
Mr.  Grimes',  of  which  he  is  a  prominent  member,  and  in  other  fields  of  use- 
fulness tending  to  elevate  and  better  the  condition  of  society  generally. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND. 

JOHN  WILLIAM  DUNGY. — BROUGHT  A  PASS  FROM  EX.  GOV.  GREGORY. 

"  HE  ought  to  be  put  in  a  cage  and  kept  for  a  show,"  said  Anna  Brown, 
daughter  of  the  hero,  John  Brown,  at  the  house  of  the  writer,  where  she 
happened  to  meet  the  above  named  Underground  Rail  Road  passenger.  He 
had  then  just  returned  from  Canada,  after  being  a  Refugee  four  years.  In 
the  mean  time  through  the  war  and  the  Proclamation  of  Father  Abraham  the 
fetters  had  been  torn  from  the  limbs  of  the  slave,  and  the  way  to  Rich- 


542 


THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


mond  was  open  to  all.  John 
William  on  this  occasion  was 
on  his  way  thither  to  see  how 
his  brethren  together  with  their 
old  oppressors  looked  facing 
each  other  as  freemen.  Miss 
Anna  Brown  was  en  route  to 
Norfolk,  where  she  designed 
to  teach  a  school  of  the  un- 
fettered bondmen.  The  return 
of  the  Refugee  was  as  un- 
expected as  it  was  gratifying. 
Scarcely  had  the  cordial  greet- 
ings of  the  writer  and  his 
family  ended  and  the  daughter 
of  Brown  been  introduced  be- 
fore the  writer  was  plying  his 
Refugee  guest  with  a  multiplicity  of  questions  relative  to  his  sojourn  in 
Canada,  etc.  "  How  have  you  been  getting  along  in  Canada  ?  Do  you  like 
the  country?"  "First-rate,"  said  John  William.'  "You  look  as  though 
you  had  neither  been  starved,  nor  frozen.  Have  you  had  plenty  of 
work,  made  some  money,  and  taken  care  of  yourself? "  "  Yes."  "  When 
you  were  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  oh  your  way  to  Canada  you 
promised  that  you  were  going  to  keep  from  all  bad  habits ;  how  about 
the  'crittur?'  do  you  take  a  little  sometimes?"  "  No,  I  have  not  drank  a 
drop  since  I  left  the  South"  replied  John  William  with  emphasis.  "Good  ! 
f<T  suppose  you  smoke  and  chew  at  any  rate?"  "No,  neither.  I  never 
think  of  such  a  thing."  "  Now  don't  you  keep  late  hours  at  night  and 
swear  occasionally  ?"  "  No,  Sir.  All  the  leisure  that  I  have  of  evenings 
is  spent  over  my  books  as  a  general  thing;  I  have  not  fallen  into  the 
fashionable  customs  of  young  men."  Miss  Brown,  who  had  been  an  atten- 
tive listener,  remarked :  "  HE  OUGHT  TO  BE  PUT  IN  A  CAGE,  ETC." 

He  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age  when  he  first  landed  in  Philadelphia, 
in  the  month  of  February,  1860,  per  steamer  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he 
had  been  stowed  away  in  a  store-room  containing "  a  lot  of  rubbish  and 
furniture;  in  this  way  he  reached  City  Point;  here  a  family  of  Irish  emi- 
grants, very  dirty,  were  taken  on  board,  and  orders  were  given  that 
accommodations  should  be  made  for  them  in  the  room  occupied  by  J.  W. 
Here  was  trouble,  but  only  for  a  moment.  Those  into  whose  charge  he  had 
been  consigned  on  the  boat  knew  that  the  kettle  and  pot-closet  had  often 
been  used  for  Underground  Rail  Road  purposes,  and  he  was  safely  con- 
ducted to  quarters  among  the  pots.  The  room  was  exceedingly  limited, 
but  he  stood  it  bravely.  On  landing  he  was  not  able  to  stand.  It  re- 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND.  543 

quired  not  only  his  personal  efforts  but  the  help  of  friends  to  get  him  in 
a  condition  to  walk.  No  sooner  had  he  stepped  on  shore,  however,  than  he 
began  to  cry  aloud  for  joy.  "  Thank  God  !"  rang  out  sonorously  from  his 
overflowing  soul.  Alarmed  at  this  indication  of  gratitude  his  friends  im- 
mediately told  him  that  that  would  never  do;  that  all  hands  would  be 
betrayed ;  that  he  was  far  from  being  safe  in  Philadelphia.  He  suppressed 
his  emotion.  After  being  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  Acting  Committee, 
where  he  was  in  more  private  quarters,  he  gave  full  vent  to  the  joy  he 
experienced  on  reaching  this  city.  He  said  that  he  had  been  trying  earnestly 
for  five  years  to  obtain  his  freedom.  For  this  special  object  he  had  saved 
up  sixty-eight  dollars  and  fifteen  cents,  all  of  which  but  the  fifteen  cents  he 
willingly  paid  for  his  passage  on  the  boat.  Fifteen  cents,  the  balance  of  his 
entire  capital,  was  all  that  he  had  when  he  landed  in  Philadelphia. 

Before  leaving  the  South  he  was  hired  in  the  family  of  Ex-Governor 
Gregory.  Of  the  Governor  and  his  wife  he  spoke  very  highly, — said  that 
they  were  kind  to  him  and  would  readily  favor  him  whenever  he  solicited 
them  to  do  so.  He  stated  that  after  making  his  arrangements  to  start,  in 
order  that  he  might  be  away  several  days  before  being  missed,  he  told  Mrs. 
Gregory  that  he  would  be  glad  to  spend  a  week  with  his  mother,  (she  lived 
some  distance  in  the  country).  As  he  was  not  feeling  very  well  she  kindly 
acceded  to  his  request,  and  told  him  to  ask  the  Governor  for  a  pass  and 
some  money.  The  Governor  was  busy  writing,  but  he  at  once  granted  the 
prayer,  wrote  him  a  pass,  gave  John  five  dollars,  adding  that  he  was  sorry 
that  he  had  no  more  in  his  pocket,  &c.  John  bowed  and  thanked  the 
Governor,  and  soon  got  ready  for  his  visit;  but  his  route  lay  in  a  far 
different  direction  than  that  contemplated  by  the  Governor  and  his  lady. 
He  was  aiming  for  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  As  has  already  been  inti- 
mated, he  was  not  owned  by  the  Governor,  but  by  the  Ferrell  heirs — five 
children  who  had  moved  from  Virginia  to  Alabama  years  back.  "  Every 
Ferrell  that  lives  is  down  on  slaves ;  they  are  very  severe,"  said  John. 
Yet  he  had  not  suffered  as  many  others  had  who  belonged  to  them,  as  he 
had  been  a  dining-room  servant.  At  one  time  they  had  owned  large 
numbers  of  slaves,  but  latterly  they  had  been  selling  them  off.  Contrary 
to  John's  wishes  his  Alabama  owners  had  notified  him  as  well  as  the 
Governor,  that  in  a  short  while  he  was  to  be  taken  to  Alabama.  This 
induced  John  to  act  with  great  promptness  in  leaving  at  the  time  that  he 
did. 

After  passing  several  years  in  Canada  as  has  been  already  noticed,  he 
returned  to  Richmond  and  paid  a  visit  to  his  old  home. 

He  found  that  the  governor  and  his  wife  had  both  departed,  but  two  of 
the  daughters  (young  ladies),  still  lived.  They  were  both  glad  to  see  him; 
the  younger  especially ;  she  told  him  that  she  was  glad  that  he  escaped, 
and  that  she  "  prayed  for  him."  The  elder  remarked  that  she  had  always 


544  THE    UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

thought  that  he  was  too  "good  a  Christian  to  run  away.".  Another  thing 
which  she  referred  to,  apparently  with  much  feeling,  was  this:  On  his 
way  to  Canada,  he  wrote  to  the  governor,  from  Rochester,  "  that  he  need 
put  himself  to  no  trouble  in  hunting  him  up,  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  visit  Canada."  She  thought  that  John  was  rather  "  naughty,"  to  write 
thus  to  her  "  papa,"  nevertheless,  she  was  disposed  to  forgive  him,  after  she 
had  frankly  spoken  her  mind. 

JOHN  found  Richmond,  which  so  long  had  held  him  in  chains,  fully 
humbled,  and  her  slave  power  utterly  cast  down.  His  wondering  eyes 
gazed  until  he  was  perfectly  satisfied  that  it  was  the  Lord's  doings,  and 
it  was  marvellous  in  his  eyes.  He  was  more  than  ever  resolved  to  get  an 
education,  and  go  back  to  Virginia,  to  help  teach  his  brethren  who  had 
been  so  long  denied  the  privilege.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was  at 
Oberlin  College,  a  faithful  student,  commanding  the  highest  respect  from 
all  the  faculty  for  his  good  deportment  and  studious  habits. 

After  advancing  rapidly  there,  the  way  opened  more  fully  to  pursue  his 
studies  with  greater  facilities  and  less  expense  at  a  college  in  one  of  the 
Eastern  States.  He  accepted  the  favors  of  friends  who  oifered  him  assis- 
tance, with  a  view  of  preparing  him  for  a  mission  among  the  freed  men, 
believing  that  he  possessed  in  a  high  degree,  the  elements  for  a  useful 
worker,  preacher,  organizer  and  teacher.  As  the  friends  alluded  to,  were 
about  taking  measures  to  start  a  college  at  Harper's  Ferry,  especially  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Freedmen,  they  anticipated  making  this  latitude  the  field  of 
his  future  endeavors,  at  least  for  a  time.  Ere  he  graduated  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  harvest  in  the  South  so  urgently  called  for  laborers,  he  was 
solicited  to  be  an  agent  for  the  Storer  College,*  and  subsequently  to  enter 
upon  a  mission  under  the  auspices  of  the  Free- Will  Baptists,  in  Martins- 
burg,  Virginia.  For  three  or  four  years  he  labored  in  this  field  with  com- 
mendable zeal  and  acceptably,  gathering  young  and  old  in  day  and  Sunday- 
schools,  and  also  organizing  churches.  By  his  constant  labors  his  health 

*  The  appended  extract  from  an  official  circular,  issued  by  the  Board  of  Instruction  of  Storer 
College,  will  throw  light  upon  this  Institution  : 

STORES  COLLEGE,   HARPER'S  FERRY,   WEST  VIRGINIA. 

This  Institution,  deriving  its  name  from  John  Storer,  Esq.,  late  of  Sanford,  Me.,  who  gave  ten 
thousand  dollars  to  aid  in  its  establishment,  is  located  at  Harper's  Ferry,  West  Va.,  and  has  been 
chartered  with  full  powers  by  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature.  The  Corporation  has  been  regularly 
organized,  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  money  has  been  obtained,  a  large  tract  of  land  has 
been  purchased,  ample  buildings  have  been  secured,  and  a  Normal  School  has  been  in  successful 
operation  during  the  last  eighteen  months.  The  U.  S.  authorities  have  repeatedly  expressed  their 
confidence  in  and  sympathy  with  this  undertaking,  by  liberal  grants  of  money  and  buildings,  and 
the  agent  for  the  distribution  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  has  pledged  pecuniary  aid  to  the  best  of  the 
pupils  in  attendance,  who  may  be  in  need  of  such  assistance. 

REV.  J.  CALDER,'  D.  D.,  Pres.,  REV.  N.  C.  BBACKETT,  Act.  Sec'y., 

Harrisburg,  Penna.  Harper's  Ferry,  West  Va. 

Harper's  Ferry,  Wast  Va.,  March  1,  1869. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  RICHMOND.  545 

became  impaired ;  receiving  a  call  from  a  church  in  Providence,  he  accepted, 
not  without  knowing,  however,  that  his  mission  was  to  be  left  in  faithful 
hands,  to  carry  on  the  good  work. 

There  is  still  need  of  efficient  laborers  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 
According  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Dungy,  scores  of  places  may  still  be 
found  where  the  children  have  no  school  privileges,  and  where  many,  both 
old  and  young,  have  never  had  the  opportunity  of  entering  a  meeting-house 
or  church  since  the  war,  as  the  spirit  of  the  white  Christians  in  these 
regions  is  greatly  embittered  against  the  colored  people,  owing  to  the 
abolition  of  Slavery;  and  they  do  not  invite  them  to  either  church  or 
school.  Indeed,  the  churches  are  closed  against  them.  At  different  times, 
Mr.  Dungy  has  eloquently  represented  the  condition  of  the  colored  churches 
of  the  South,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  As  a  speaker,  Mr.  Dungy  is 
able  and  interesting,  of  good  address,  remarkably  graceful  in  his  manners, 
and  possessing  much  general  information. 

The  subjoined  letters  received  from  him,  while  a  fugitive  in  Canada,  are 
characteristic  of  the  man,  and  will  repay  a  perusal. 

BRANTFORD,  March  3d,  1860. 

MR.  WK.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  seated  myself  this  evening  to  write  you  a  few  lines 
to  inform  you  that  I  have  got  through  my  journey,  and  landed  safely  in  Brantford,  where 
I  found  my  friend,  Stepney  Brown,  and  we  expressed  great  joy  at  meeting  each  other,  and 
had  a  great  shaking  of  hands,  and  have  not  got  done  talking  yet  of  the  old  times  we  had 
in  Virginia. 

I  thank  God  I  am  enjoying  vigorous  health,  and  hope  you  all  are  well,  as  it  is  written 
in  the  first  Psalm,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly, 
nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful." 

I  wish  you  may  think  of  me  often  and  pray  for  me  that  I  may  grow  a  man,  one  of  tho 
followers  of  our  meek  and  lowly  Saviour.  Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Still,  and  family,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Gibbs,  that  was  residing  with  you  when  I  was  there. 

I  must  now  inform  you  a  little  about  Canada,  at  least  as  much  of  it  as  I  have  seen  and 
heard.  I  arrived  in  the  city  of  Hamilton,  on  the  15th  February,  1860,  at  nine  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  and  the  weather  was  dreary  and  cold,  and  the  cars  laid  over  there  until  ten 
o'clock  next  day,  and  I  went  up  into  the  city  and  saw  a  portion  of  it.  I  then  started  for 
Toronto,  arrived  there  same  day  at  12  o'clock.  There  I  met  friends  from  Richmond,  re- 
mained there  several  days ;  during  the  time  we  had  a  very  extensive  snow  storm,  and  I 
took  the  opportunity  of  walking  around  the  city  looking  at  the  elephants,  and  other  great 
eights.  I  liked  it  very  much ;  but  upon  hearing  that  my  friend  and  brother  Stepney 
Brown  was  in  Brantford,  I  became  disatisfied  and  left  for  Brantford  on  the  21st  February, 
1860.  I  have  found  it  a  very  pleasant,  and  have  been  told  it  is  the  prettiest  place  in 
Canada. 

It  is  built  upon  the  Grand  River,  which  is  two  hundred  miles  long,  and  empties  into 
Lake  Erie.  It  rises  to  a  great  height  every  spring,  and  great  masses  of  ice  come  down, 
bringing  bridges,  saw-logs,  trees,  and  fairly  sweeps  everything  before  it.  The  people  who 
live  upon  the  flats  are  in  great  danger  of  being  drowned  in  their  houses. 

I  got  a  situation  immediately  at  the  Kerby  House,  by  the  influence  of  my  friend  and 
brother,  Stepney  Brown,  who  I  must  say  has  been  very  kind  to  me,  as  also  have  the  peo- 
35 


546  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

pie  of  Brantford.     The  Kerbey  House  is  the  largest  hotel  in  the  town  about  250  rooms, 
and  a  stable  at  the  back,  with  a  gas-house  of  its  own.     No  more  at  present,  but  remain, 

Yours  very  respectfully,        JOHN  WILLIAM  DUNQY. 

P.  S.  Write  at  your  earliest  convenience,  and  oblige  your  friend,  J.  W.  D. 

/ 

BRANTFORD,  April  20th. 

MR.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  feel  myself  quite  lonesome  this  evening,  and  not  hearing 
from  you  lately  I  take  this  opportunity  to  drop  you  a  few  lines.  I  have  not  much  to  say, 
brother  Brown  has  left  for  the  falls,  and  expects  to  return  next  winter.  The  weather  is 
mild  and  warm  at  this  time;  the  grass  is  putting  up  and  begins  to  look  like  spring.  I 
thank  the  Lord  I  am  enjoying  good  health  at  this  time.  I  hope  this  letter  will  find  you 
and  your  family  well,  give  my  compliments  to  them  all  and  Mr.  Gibbs  and  the  young 
lady  that  was  at  your  house  when  I  was  there.  Times  has  been  hard  this  winter,  but 
they  are  increasing  for  the  better.  I  wrote  to  you  a  few  days  ago,  I  don't,  know  whether 
you  got  my  letter.  I  asked  in  my  letter  if  Mr.  Williams  was  on  the  Pennsylvania,  that 
runs  from  their  to  Richmond,  Va.  I  should  have  written  to  him,  but  I  did  not  know  his 
number,  I  also  named  a  friend  of  mine,  Mr  Plumer  if  he  arrives  their  pleas  to  tell  him  to 
come  to  Brantford,  where  I  am  for  there  are  good  chances  for  business  I  think  a  great  deal 
about  my  colored  brethren  in  the  South  but  I  hope  to  be  a  benefit  to  them  one  of  these 
days.  We  have  quite  a  melancholy  affair  about  one  of  our  colored  brothers  who  made  his 
escape  from  the  South  those  who  took  him  up  have  gone  back  to  obtain  witness  to  con- 
vict him  for  murder.  These  witness  is  to  be  here  on  Monday  23  inst  but  the  defendence 
of  the  law  says  they  shant  take  him  back  unless  they  bring  good  witness  and  men  of  truth 
I  will  write  you  more  about  it  after  the  trial  comes  of;  I  must  say  a  little  about  myself. 
I  want  to  devote  myself  to  study  if  I  can  for  the  next  twelve  months.  I  expect  to  leave 
the  Kirby  House  on  the  5th  of  may.  I  have  taken  a  barber  shop  which  is  a  very  good 
situation  and  one  hand  employed  with  me.  I  would  be  much  oblige  to  you  if  you  would 
give  me  some  advice  what  to  do.  I  sent  you  the  morning  herald  yesterday  which  con- 
tained a  accident  which  occurd  on  the  G.  trunk  R.  W.  you  will  see  in  it  that  we  don't 
have  much  politics  here.  The  late  destructive  fire  we  had  I  thought  it  would  have  kept 
brantford  back  this  summer  but  it  is  increasing  slowly  I  have  nothing  more  to  say  at 
this  time.  I  hope  the  Lord  may  bless  you  all  and  take  care  of  you  in  this  world,  and 
after  time  receive  you  in  his  everlasting  kingdom  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Answer 
this  as  soon  as  convenient.  Good  bye.  Yours  respectfully  J.  W.  DUNGY. 

BRANTFORD,  C.  W.,  JANUARY  llth,  61. 

MR.  WM.  STILL,  DEAR  SIR  : — I  take  this  opportunity  to  drop  you  a  few  lines  to  let  you 
hear  from  me.  I  am  well  at  this  time,  hoping  this  will  find  you  the  same. 

I  acknowledge  my  great  neglectness  of  you  with  great  regret  that  I  have  not  answered 
your  letter  before  this,  I  hope  you  will  excuse  me  as  I  have  succeeded  in  getting  me  a 
wife  since  I  wrote  to  you  last. 

My  mind  has  been  much  taken  up  in  so  doing  for  several  months  past.  Give  my  com- 
pliments to  your  wife  and  your  family,  and  Mr.  Gibbs,  also  hoping  they  are  all  well. 
Tell  Mrs.  Still  to  pray  for  me  that  I  may  grow  in  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

I  often  think  of  you  all.  I  pray  that  the  time  may  come  when  we  will  all  be  men  in 
the  United  States.  We  have  read  here  of  the  great  disturbance  in  the  South.  My 
prayer  is  that  this  may  be  a  deathblow  to  Slavery.  Do  you  ever  have  any  Underground 
Rail  Road  passengers  now  ?  Times  have  been  very  prosperous  in  Canada  this  year. 

The  commercial  trade  and  traffic  on  the  railways  has  been  very  dull  for  these  few 


A  TINT  HANNAH  MOORE.  547 

months  back.  Business  on  the  Buffalo  and  Lake  Huron  railway  has  been  so  dull  that  a 
great  number  of  the  hands  have  been  discharged  on  account  of  the  panic  in  the  South. 

Canada  yet  cries,  Freedom  !  Freedom  !  Freedom  ! 

I  must  now  say  a  little  about  my  friend  and  brother  Stepney  Brown,  he  lived  about  six 
months  at  the  Niagara  Falls  and  is  now  going  to  school  here  in  Brantford,  he  sends  his 
best  respects  to  you  all.  He  and  I  often  sit  together  at  night  after  the  labor  of  the  day 
is  over  talking  about  our  absent  friends  wishing  we  could  see  them  once  more. 

Mr.  Brown  and  myself  have  been  wishing  for  one  or  two  of  your  slavery  standards  and 
would  be  much  obliged  to  you  if  you  would  send  some  of  the  latest. 

Please  let  me  hear  from  you  as  soon  as  possible.  I  must  now  bring  my  letter  to  a  close 
and  remain  your  affectionate  friend,  J.  W.  DUNGY. 

P.  S.  May  the  Lord  be  with  you.  J.  W.  DUNGY. 

Address  your  letter  to  John  W.  Dungy,  Brantford,  C.  W. 


"AUNT  HANNAH  MOORE." 

In  1854  in  company  with  her  so-called  Mistress  (Mary  Moore)  Aunt 
Hannah  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  from  Missouri,  being  en  route  to  California, 
where  she  with  her  mistress  was  to  join  her  master,  who  had  gone  there 
years  before  to  seek  his  fortune.  The  mistress  having  relatives  in  this 
city  tarried  here  a  short  time,  not  doubting  that  she  had  sufficient  con- 
trol over  Aunt  Hannah  to  keep  her  from  contact  with  either  abolitionists 
or  those  of  her  own  color,  and  that  she  would  have  no  difficulty  in 
taking  her  with  her  to  her  journey's  end.  If  such  were  her  calculations 
she  was  greatly  mistaken.  For  although  Aunt  Hannah  was  destitute 
of  book-learning  she  was  nevertheless  a  woman  of  thought  and  natural 
ability,  and  while  she  wisely  kept  her  counsel  from  her  mistress  she  took 
care  to  make  her  wants  known  to  an  abolitionist.  She  had  passed  many 
years  under  the  yoke,  under  different  owners,  and  now  seeing  a  ray  of 
hope  she  availed  herself  of  the  opportunity  to  secure  her  freedom.  She 
had  occasion  to  go  to  a  store  in  the  neighborhood  where  she  was  stopping, 
and  to  her  unspeakable  joy  she  found  the  proprietor  an  abolitionist  and 
a  friend  who  inquired  into  her  condition  and  proffered  her  assistance. 
The  store-keeper  quickly  made  known  her  condition  at  the  Anti-sla- 
very Office,  and  in  double-quick  time  J.  M.  McKim  and  Charles  Wise  as 
abolitionists  and  members  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  repaired  to  the  stop- 
ping-place of  the  mistress  and  her  slave  to  demand  in  the  name  of  hu- 
manity and  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  that  Aunt  Hannah  should  be  no  longer 
held  in  fetters  but  that  she  should  be  immediately  proclaimed  free.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  mistress  this  procedure  was  so  extraordinary  that  she  became 
very  much  excited  and  for  a  moment  threatened  them  with  the  "  broom- 
stick," but  her  raving  had  no  effect  on  Messrs.  McKim  and  Wise,  who 
did  not  rest  contented  until  Aunt  Hannah  was  safely  in  their  hands. 


548  THE  UNDERGROUND  EAIL  ROAD. 

She  had  lived  a  slave  in  Moore's  family  in  the  State  of  Missouri  about 
ten  years  and  said  she  was  treated  very  well,  had  plenty  to  eat,  plenty  to 
wear,  and  a  plenty  of  work.  It  was  prior  to  her  coming  into  the  possession 
of  Moore  that  Aunt  Hannah  had  been  made  to  drink  the  bitter  waters  of 
oppression.  From  this  point,  therefore,  we  shall  present  some  of  the  inci- 
dents of  her  life,  from  infancy,  and  very  nearly  word  for  word  as  she  re- 
lated them: 

"Moore  bought  me  from  a  man  named  McCaully,  who  owned  me 
about  a  year.  I  fared  dreadful  bad  under  McCaully.  One  day  in  a  rage 
he  undertook  to  beat  me  with  the  limb  of  a  cherry-tree ;  he  began  at  me 
and  tried  in  the  first  place  to  snatch  my  clothes  off,  but  he  did  not  succeed. 
After  that  he  beat  the  cherry-tree  limb  all  to  pieces  over  me.  The  first 
blow  struck  me  on  the  back  of  my  neck  and  knocked  me  down ;  his 
wife  was  looking  on,  sitting  on  the  side  of  the  bed  crying  to  him  to  lay  on. 
After  the  limb  was  worn  out  he  then  went  out  to  the  yard  and  got  a  lath, 
and  he  come  at  me  again  and  beat  me  with  that  until  he  broke  it  all  to 
pieces.  He  was  not  satisfied  then ;  he  next  went  to  the  fence  and  tore  off 
a  paling,  and  with  that  he  took  both  hands,  '  cursing '  me  all  the  time  as 
hard  as  he  could.  With  an  oath  he  would  say,  '  now  don't  you  love  me  ?' 
'  Oh  master,  I  will  pray  for  you,  I  would  cry,  then  he  would  '  cuss '  harder 
than  ever/  He  beat  me  until  he  was  tired  and  quit.  I  crept  out  of  doors 
and  throwed  up  blood ;  some  days  I  was  hardly  able  to  creep.  With  this 
beating  I  was  laid  up  several  weeks.  Another  time  Mistress  McCaully  got 
very  angry.  One  day  she  beat  me  as  bad  as  he  did.  She  was  a  woman 
who  would  get  very  mad  in  a  minute.  One  day  she,  began  scolding  and 
said  the  kitchen  wasn't  kept  clean.  I  told  her  the  kitchen  was  kept  as 
clean  as  any  kitchen  in  the  place ;  she  spoke  very  angry,  and  said  she  didn't 
go  by  other  folks  but  she  had  rules  of  her  own.  She  soon  ordered  me  to 
come  in  to  her.  I  went  in  as  she  ordered  me ;  she  met  me  with  a  mule-rope, 
and  ordered  me  to  cross  my  hands.  I  crossed  my  hands  and  she  tied  me  to 
the  bedstead.  Here  her  husband  said,  f  my  dear,  now  let  me  do  the  fighting/ 
In  her  mad  fit  she  said  he  shouldn't  do  it,  and  told  him  to  stand  back  and 
keep  out  of  the  way  or  I  will  give  you  the  cowhide  she  said  to  him.  He 
then  l  sot '  down  in  a  '  cheer '  and  looked  like  a  man  condemned  to  be  hung ; 
then  she  whipped  me  with  the  cowhide  until  I  sunk  to  the  floor.  He  then 
begged  her  to  quit.  He  said  to  his  wife  she  has  begged  and  begged  and  you 
have  whipped  her  enough.  She  only  raged  '  wus  ;'  she  turned  the  butt  end 
of  the  cowhide  and  struck  me  five  or  six  blows  over  my  head  as  hard  as  she 
could  ;  she  then  throwed  the  cowhide  down  and  told  a  little  girl  to  untie  me. 
The  little  girl  was  not  able  to  do  it ;  Mr.  McCaully  then  untied  me  himself. 
Both  times  that  I  was  beat  the  blood  run  down  from  my  head  to  my  feet. 

"They  wouldn't  give  you  anything  to  eat  hardly.  McCaully  bore  the 
name  of  coming  by  free  colored  children  without  buying  them,  and  selling 


A  UNT  HANNAH  MO  ORE.  549 

them  afterwards.  One  boy  on  the  place  always  said  that  he  was  free  but 
had  been  kidnapped  from  Arkansas.  He  could  tell  all  about  how  he  was 
kidnapped,  but  could  not  find  anybody  to  do  anything  for  him,  so  he  had 
to  content  himself. 

"  McCaully  bought  me  from  a  man  by  the  name  of  Landers.  "While  in 
Landers'  hands  I  had  the  rheumatism  and  was  not  able  to  work.  He  was 
afraid  I  was  going  to  die,  or  he  would  lose  me,  and  I  would  not  be  of  any 
service  to  him,  so  he  took  and  traded  me  off  for  a  wagon.  J  was  something 
better  when  he  traded  me  off;  well  enough  to  be  about.  My  health  remained 
bad  for  about  four  years,  and  I  never  got  my  health  until  Moore  bought  me. 
Moore  took  me  for  a  debt.  McCaully  owed  Moore  for  wagons.  I  was  not 
born  in  Missouri  but  was  born  in  Virginia.  From  my  earliest  memory  I 
was  owned  by  Conrad  Hackler ;  he  lived  in  Grason  County.  He  was  a  very 
poor  man,  and  had  no  other  slave  but  me.  He  bought  me  before  I  was  quite 
four  years  old,  for  one  hundred  dollars.  Hackler  bought  me  from  a  man 
named  William  Scott.  I  must  go  back  by  good  rights  to  the  beginning  and 
tell  all :  Scott  bought  me  first  from  a  young  man  he  met  one  day  in  the 
road,  with  a  bundle  in  his  arms.  Scott,  wishing  to  know  of  the  young  man 
what  he  had  in  his  bundle,  was  told  that  he  had  a  baby.  '  What  are  you 
going  to  do  with  it?'  said  Scott.  The  young  man  said  that  he  was  going  to 
take  it  to  his  sister ;  that  its  mother  was  dead,  and  it  had  nobody  to  take 
care  of  it.  Scott  offered  the  young  man  a  horse  for  it,  and  the  young  man 
took  him  up.  This  is  the  way  I  was  told  that  Scott  came  by  me.  I  never 
knowed  anything  about  my  mother  or  father,  but  I  have  always  believed 
that  my  mother  was  a  white  woman,  and  that  I  was  put  away  to  save  her 
character  ;  I  have  always  thought  this.  Under  Hackler  I  was  treated  more 
like  a  brute  than  a  human  beings  I  was  fed  like  the  dogs ;  had  a  trough 
dug  out  of  a  piece  of  wood  for  a  plate.  After  I  growed  up  to  ten  years  old 
they  made  me  sleep  out  in  an  old  house  standing  off  some  distance  from  the 
main  house  where  my  master  and  mistress  lived.  A  bed  of  straw  and  old 
rags  was  made  for  me  in  a  big  trough  called  the  tan  trough  (a  trough  having 
been  used  for  tanning  purposes).  The  cats  about  the  place  came  and  slept 
with  me,  and  was  all  the  company  I  had.  I  had  to  work  with  the  hoe  in 
the  field  and  help  do  everything  in  doors  and  out  in  all  weathers.  The 
place  was  so  poor  that  some  seasons  he  would  not  raise  twenty  bushels  of 
corn  and  hardly  three  bushels  of  wheat.  As  for  shoes  I  never  knowed  what 
it  was  to  have  a  pair  of  shoes  until  I  was  grown  up.  After  I  growed  up 
to  be  a  woman  my  master  thought  nothing  of  taking  my  clothes  off,  and 
would  whip  me  until  the  blood  would  run  down  to  the  ground.  After  I 
was  twenty-five  years  old  they  did  not  treat  me  so  bad ;  they  both  professed 
to  get  religion  about  that  time ;  and  my  master  said  he  would  never  lay  the 
weight  of  his  finger  on  me  again.  Once  after  that  mistress  wanted  him  to 
whip  me,  but  he  didn't  do  it,  nor  never  whipped  me  any  more.  After  awhile 


550  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

my  master  died ;  if  they  had  gone  according  to  law  I  would  have  been  hired 
out  or  sold,  but  my  mistress  wanted  to  keep  me  to  carry  on  the  place  for  her 
support.  So  I  was  kept  for  seven  or  eight  years  after  his  death.  It  was 
understood  between  my  mistress,  and  her  children,  and  her  friends,  who  all 
met  after  master  died,  that  I  was  to  take  care  of  mistress,  and  after  mistress 
died  I  should  not  serve  anybody  else.  I  done  my  best  to  keep  my  mistress 
from  suffering.  After  a  few  years  they  all  became  dissatisfied,  and  moved 
to  Missouri.  They  scattered,  and  took  up  government  land.  Without 
means  they  lived  as  poor  people  commonly  live,  on  small  farms  in  the  woods. 
I  still  lived  with  my  mistress.  Some  of  the  heirs  got  dissatisfied,  and  sued 
for  their  rights  or  a  settlement;  then  I  was  sold  with  my  child,  a  boy." 

Thus  Aunt  Hannah  reviewed  her  slave-life,  showing  that  she  had  been  in 
the  hands  of  six  different  owners,  and  had  seen  great  tribulation  under 
each  of  them,  except  the  last ;  that  she  had  never  known  a  mother's  or  a 
father's  care ;  that  Slavery  had  given  her  one  child,  but  no  husband  as  a 
protector  or  a  father.  The  half  of  what  she  passed  through  in  the  way  of 
suffering  has  scarcely  been  hinted  at  in  this  sketch.  Fifty-seven  years  were 
passed  in  bondage  before  she  reached  Philadelphia.  Under  the  good  Provi- 
dence through  which  she  came  in  possession  of  her  freedom,  she  found  a 
kind  home  with  a  family  of  Abolitionists,  (Mrs.  Gillingham's),  whose  hearts 
had  been  in  deep  sympathy  with  the  slave  for  many  years.  In  this  situa- 
tion Aunt  Hannah  remained  several  years,  honest,  faithful,  and  obliging, 
taking  care  of  her  earnings,  which  were  put  out  at  interest  for  her  by  her 
friends.  Her  mind  was  deeply  imbued  with  religious  feeling,  and  an 
unshaken  confidence  in  God  as  her  only  trust ;  she  connected  herself  with 
the  A.  M.  E.  Bethel  Church,  of  Philadelphia,  where  she  has  walked, 
blameless  and  exemplary  up  to  this  day.  Probably  there  is  not  a  mem- 
ber in  that  large  congregation  whose  simple  faith  and  whose  walk  and 
conversation  are  more  commendable  than  Aunt  Hannah's.  Although  she 
has  passed  through  so  many  hardships  she  is  a  woman  of  good  judgment 
and  more  than  average  intellect;  enjoys  good  health,  vigor,  and  peace 
of  mind  in  her  old  days,  with  a  small  income  just  sufficient  to  meet  her 
humble  wants  without  having  to  live  at  service.  After  living  in  Phila- 
delphia for  several  years,  she  was  married  to  a  man  of  about  her  own  age, 
possessing  all  her  good  qualities;  had  served  a  life-time  in  a  highly 
respectable  Quaker  family  of  this  city,  and  had  so  won  the  esteem  of  his 
kind  employer  that  at  his  death  he  left  him  a  comfortable  house  for  life,  so 
that  he  was  not  under  the  necessity  of  serving  another.  The  name  of  the 
recipient  of  the  good  Quaker  friend's  bounty  and  Aunt  Hannah's  com- 
panion, was  Thomas  Todd.  After  a  few  years  of  wedded  life,  Aunt  Han- 
nah was  called  upon  to  be  left  alone  again  in  the  world  by  the  death  of  her 
husband,  whose  loss  was  mourned  by  many  friends,  both  colored  and  white, 
who  knew  and  respected  him. 


KIDNAPPING  EACHEL  AND  ELIZABETH  PARKER.  551 


KIDNAPPING    OF    RACHEL    AND    ELIZABETH    PARKER- 
MURDER  OF  JOSEPH  C.  MILLER  IN  1851  AND  1852. 

Those  who  were  interested  in  the  Anti-Slavery  cause,  and  who  kept 
posted  with  reference  to  the  frequent  cases  of  kidnapping  occurring  in  differ- 
ent Free  States,  especially  in  Pennsylvania,  during  the  twenty  years  previous 
to  emancipation,  cannot  fail  to  remember  the  kidnapping  of  Rachel  and 
Elizabeth  Parker,  and  the  murder  of  Joseph  C.  Miller,  who  resided  in  West 
Nottingham  township,  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  latter  part  of 
1851,  and  the  beginning  of  1852. 

Both  the  kidnapping  and  the  murder  at  the  time  of  the  occurrence 
shocked  and  excited  the  better  thinking  and  humane  classes  largely,  not 
only  in  Pennsylvania,  but  to  a  considerable  extent  over  the  Northern  States. 
It  may  be  said,  without  contradiction,  that  Chester  county,  at  least,  was 
never  more  aroused  by  any  one  single  outrage  that  had  taken  place 
within  her  borders,  than  by  these  occurrences.  For  a  long  while  the  in- 
terest was  kept  alive,  and  even  as  lately  as  the  past  year  (1870),  we  find 
the  case  still  agitating  the  citizens  of  Chester  county.  Judge  Benjamin  I. 
Passmore,  of  said  county,  in  defence  of  truth  in  an  exhaustive  article 
published  in  the  "Village  Record,"  West  Chester,  Oct.  12th,  1870,  gives 
a  reliable  version  of  the  matter,  from  beginning  to  end,  which  we  feel  con- 
strained to  give  in  full,  as  possessing  great  historical  value,  bearing  on 
kidnapping  in  general,  especially  in  Pennsylvania. 

TOM  M'CREARY. 

FRIEND  EVANS: — I  noticed  in  the  "Village  Record,"  a  short  time  since, 
an  article  taken  from  the  Delaware  "  Transcript,"  an  obituary  notice  of  the 
death  of  the  noted  character,  whose  name  heads  this  article,  in  which  false 
statements  were  made,  relative  to  the  outrage  he  committed  in  kidnapping 
Rachel  and  Elizabeth  Parker,  two  colored  girls  who  were  then,  1851,  resid- 
ing in  the  southern  portion  of  Chester  county.  In  your  paper  of  the  13th 
ult.,  I  also  read  an  answer  to  the  charges  and  insinuations  made  in  the 
"  Transcript,"  against  Joseph  C.  Miller,  (whose  life  was  basely  destroyed), 
and  other  citizens  of  Chester  county ;  as  the  occurrence  took  place  in  my 
immediate  neighborhood,  and  I  was  familiar  with  all  the  facts  and  circum- 
stances, I  propose  to  give  a  truthful  history  of  that  vile  and  wicked  transac- 
tion. 

In  the  winter  of  1851,  the  said  McCreary  in  some  unexplained  way,  took 
Elizabeth  Parker,  one  of  the  said  colored  girls,  from  the  house  of  one 
Donally  (not  McDonald),  in  the  township  of  East  Nottingham,  where  she 
was  living ;  but  little  was  said  about  it  by  Donally,  or  any  one  else.  Soon 
after,  McCreary  with  two  or  three  others  of  like  proclivities,  called  at  the 


552  THE .  UNDER GRO  UND  RAIL  ROAD. 

house  of  Joseph  C.  Miller,  in  West  Nottingham,  where  Rachel  was  living, 
and  seized  her,  gagged  her,  and  placed  her  in  a  carriage  and  drove  off.  The 
screams  of  Mrs.  Miller  and  her  children,  soon  brought  the  husband  and 
father  to  the  rescue ;  he  pursued  them  on  foot,  and  at  a  short  distance  over- 
took them  in  a  narrow  private  road,  disputing  with  James  Pollock,  the 
owner  of  the  land,  whose  wagon  prevented  them  from  passing.  They  turned 
and  took  another  road,  and  came  out  at  Stubb's  Mill,  making  for  the  Mary- 
land line  with  all  possible  speed ;  they  arrived  at  Perry ville  before  the  train 
for  Baltimore.  Eli  Haines  and  a  young  man  named  Wiley,  who  lived  near 
Rising  Sun,  Maryland,  about  two  miles  from  Joseph  C.  Miller's,  arrived  at 
the  same  place  soon  after,  intending  to  go  to  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Haines 
knew  Rachel,  and  seeing  McCreary  there,  and  her  so  overwhelmed  in 
sorrow,  at  once  guessed  the  situation  of  affairs,  and  he  and  Wiley  changed 
their  intentions  of  going  to  Philadelphia;  and  went  in  the  same  car  with 
McCreary  and  his  victim,  to  Baltimore,  and  quietly  watched  what  disposi- 
tion would  be  made  of  her,  as  they  felt  certain  pursuit  would  be  made. 

As  soon  as  possible,  after  McCreary  had  escaped  from  West  Nottingham, 
Joseph  C.  Miller,  William  Morris,  Abner  Richardson,  Jesse  B.  Kirk,  and 
H.  G.  Coates,  started  in  pursuit  on  horseback ;  when  they  arrived  at  Perry- 
ville,  the  train  had  gone,  with  the  kidnapper  and  the  girl ;  they  followed  in 
the  next  train.  Soon  after  they  arrived  in  Baltimore,  they  were  met  by 
Haines  and  Wiley,  who  had  been  on  the  lookout  for  a  pursuing  party,  and 
they  gave  the  information  that  Rachel  was  deposited  in  Campbell's  slave- 
pen.  They  were  directed  by  an  acquaintance  of  one  of  the  party,  to  Francis 
S.  Cochran,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Francis  informed 
them  he  was  well  acquainted  with  Campbell,  and  he  at  once  accompained 
them.  Campbell  assured  Friend  Cochran  that  whilst  he  approved  of 
Slavery  and  catching  runaway  slaves,  he  despised  kidnapping  and  kidnap- 
pers ;  and  on  the  arrival  of  McCreary,  he  ordered  him  to  remove  Rachel 
forthwith,  which  he  proceeded  to  do.  Friend  Cochran  insisted  on  going 
with  them,  and  saw  the  girl  deposited  in  jail  to  await  a  legal  investigation. 
By  this  time  it  was  evening,  and  the  Chester  county  men  all  went  home 
with  Cochran,  where  they  had  their  suppers ;  the  excitement  being  great, 
Friend  Cochran  did  not  consider  it  safe  for  them  to  go  to  the  depot  direct ; 
he  procured  their  tickets  and  had  them  driven  by  a  circuitous  route  .to  the 
depot,  charging  them  to  keep  together,  and  take  their  seats  in  the  cars  at 
once.  Soon  after  they  were  seated  and  before  the  cars  started,  Miller  stepped 
out  on  the  platform  to  smoke,  against  the  expostulations  of  his  friends. 
Jesse  B.  Kirk,  his  brother-in-law  and  Abner  Richardson  followed  immedi- 
ately, and  although  they  were  right  at  his  heels,  he  was  gone;  they  called 
him  by  name,  and  stepped  down  into  the  crowd,  but  soon  became  alarmed 
for  their  own  safety,  and  returned  to  their  seats.  A  consultation  was  held, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  Wiley,  who  was  least  known,  and  not  directly  identi- 


KIDNAPPING  RACHEL  AND  ELIZABETH  PARKER.  553 

fied  with  the  affair,  should  pass  through  the  train  when  it  started,  and  see  if 
Miller  had  not  mistakenly  got  into  another  car.  At  Stemen's  Run  station, 
Wiley  returned  to  the  party  with  the  sad  tidings  that  Joseph  C.  Miller  was 
not  in  that  train.  On  consultation,  it  was  agreed  that  Jesse  B.  Kirk  and 
Abner  Richardson  should  return  from  Perryville  in  the  next  train,  and  pros- 
ecute further  search  for  Miller.  They  did  so  return,  and  McCreary  also 
returned  to  Baltimore  in  the  same  car,  he  having  left  Baltimore  in  the  car  in 
the  evening  with  the  Chester  county  men ;  they  arrived  late  in  the  night, 
and  locked  themselves  up  in  a  room  in  the  first  hotel  they  came  to.  Their 
search  was  fruitless,  and  they  were  forced  to  return  home  with  the  sad 
tidings  that  Miller  could  not  be  found.  This  intelligence  aroused  the  whole 
neighborhood ;  public  meetings  were  held  to  consult  about  what  was  best  to 
be  done.  The  writer  presided  at  one  of  those  meetings,  which  was  largely 
attended,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  people  could  be  restrained  from 
organizing  an  armed  force  to  kidnap  and  lynch  McCreary.  Better  counsels, 
however,  finally  prevailed  and  it  was  resolved  to  send  a  party  to  Baltimore  to 
prosecute  further  the  search  for  Miller.  About  twenty  men  volunteered  for 
the  service;  I  went  to  the  house  of  Joseph  C.  Miller,  the  morning  they 
were  to  start,  but  they  had  met  at  Lewis  Mellrath's,  a  brother-in-law  of 
Miller.  I  was  there  endeavoring  to  console  the  aged  mother  and  distracted 
wife  and  children  of  Joseph  C.  Miller,  when  word  came  that  he  had  been 
found  hanging  to  a  limb  in  the  bushes  near  Stemen's  Run  station,  and  such 
a  scene  of  distress  I  hope  may  never  again  be  my  lot  to  witness;  it  was 
heart-rending  in  the  extreme. 

The  party  went  to  Baltimore,  and  such  was  the  excitement  that  it  was 
considered  unsafe  for  the  party  to  go  out  in  a  body  in  day-time.  Levi  K. 
Brown,  who  then  resided  in  Baltimore,  went  with  them  by  moonlight,  and 
they  disinterred  the  body,  which  they  found  about  two  feet  under  ground,  in 
a  rough  box,  with  a  narrow  lid  that  freely  admitted  the  dirt  to  surround  his 
body  in  the  box.  No  undertaker  in  Baltimore  could  be  found  that  would 
allow  the  body  left  at  his  place  of  business  whilst  a  coffin  was  prepared,  and 
it  was  deposited  in  "  Friends' "  vault ;  a  coffin  was  finally  procured  and 
William  Morris  and  Abner  Richardson  started  with  it  for  his  home.  When 
they  arrived  at  Perryville  no  one  would  render  them  any  assistance,  and 
they  were  compelled  to  leave  the  corpse  in  an  old  saw  mill,  and  walk  up  to 
Port  Deposit,  a  distance  of  five  miles,  in  the  night,  the  weather  being  ex- 
tremely cold,  and  a  deep  snow  on  the  ground.  There  they  procured  horses 
and  a  sled  and  started  with  the  body,  but  when  within  a  short  distance  of 
the  Pennsylvania  line  they  were  overtaken  by  a  messenger  with  a  requisi- 
tion from  the  Governor  of  Maryland  to  return  the  body  to  Baltimore  county, 
in  order  that  an  inquisition  and  post-mortem  examination  might  be  held  in 
legal  form.  With  sorrowful  hearts  they  turned  back ;  (one  of  these  young 
men  told  me  that  at  no  place  south  of  Port  Deposit  could  they  get  any  one 


554  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

to  assist  them  in  handling  the  corpse).  By  this  time  the  affair  had  created 
a  great  excitement,  both  in  Chester  county  and  the  City  of  Baltimore,  llev. 
John  M.  Dickey,  Hon.  Henry  S.  Evans,  then  a  member  of  the  Senate.  Brin- 
ton  Darlington,  then  Sheriff  of  Chester  county,  and  very  many  of  the 
leading  men  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  matter ;  we  all  did  our  part.  The 
Society  of  Friends  in  Baltimore  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  many  other 
worthy  citizens  belonging  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  others  lent  their 
aid  and  influence.  Hon.  Henry  S.  Evans,  who  was  then  in  the  Senate  of 
Pennsylvania,  brought  the  matter  before  the  Legislature,  and  the  result  was 
that  the  Governor  appointed  Judges  Campbell  and  Bell,  the  latter  of  our 
county,  to  defend  these  two  poor  colored  girls  thus  foully  kidnapped. 

The  body  of  Miller  underwent  a  post-mortem  examination  in  Baltimore 
county,  at  which  a  great  number  of  rowdies  attended,  who  occupied  their 
time  drinking  whisky  and  cursing  the  Pennsylvania  Abolitionists;  the 
body  finally  reached  its  distressed  home  for  interment.  Drs.  Hutchinson 
and  Dickey  were  called  upon  to  make  an  examination,  at  which  I  was  pre- 
sent, and  all  were  clearly  of  opinion  that  he  had  been  foully  murdered.  His 
wrists  and  ankles  bore  the  unmistakable  marks  of  manacles;  across  the  abdo- 
men was  a  black  mark  as  if  made  by  a  rope  or  cord;  the  end  of  his  nose  bore 
marks  as  if  held  by  some  instrument  of  torture.  His  funeral  took  place,  and 
his  remains  were  followed  to  the  grave  by  an  immense  concourse  of  sympa- 
thizing friends  and  neighbors. 

Such,  however,  was  the  excitement,  that  the  public  demanded  a  further 
examination;  he  was  disinterred  again,  and  the  same  two  eminent  physicians 
made  a  thorough  post-mortem  examination,  and  one  of  them  told  the  writer 
that  there  were  not  two  ounces  of  contents  in  his  stomach  and  bowels,  and 
that  there  was  abundant  evidence  of  the  presence  of  arsenic.  His  remains 
were  again  interred  and  suffered  to  remain  undisturbed. 

The  theory  of  his  friends  was  that  he  had  been  suddenly  snatched  from 
the  platform  of  the  car  in  the  Baltimore  Depot,  gagged,  stripped,  and  lashed 
down  by  the  ankles  and  wrists,  and  a  rope  across  his  abdomen,  that  his  nose 
had  been  held  by  some  instrument,  and  that  he  was  in  this  situation 
drenched  with  arsenic,  and  puked  and  purged  to  death,  and  that  McCreary, 
or  some  one  for  him,  had  heard  Wiley  repeat  at  Stemen's  Run  Station,  that 
he  was  not  on  the  train,  conceived  the  idea  of  taking  his  body  there  and 
hanging  it  to  a  tree  to  convey  the  idea  that  he  had  committed  suicide  at  that 
place,  and  such  was  the  statement  published  by  some  of  the  Maryjand  news- 
papers. His  companions  said  he  eat  a  very  hearty  supper  that  evening  at 
Francis  S.  Coehran's,  which  with  the  other  facts  that  his  clothing  were  not 
soiled,  and  his  stomach  and  bowels  were  empty,  goes  strongly  to  substantiate 
the  theory  that  he  had  been  stripped  and  foully  murdered,  as  above  indi- 
cated. Never  was  there  a  more  false  assertion  than  that  the  Abroad  brimmed 
Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  were  accomplices  of  McCreary,"  as  it  is  well 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1854.  555 

known  that  opposition  to  slavery  has  been  a  cardinal  principle  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  for  a  century.  And  that  Joseph  C.  Miller  committed  suicide 
because  of  his  being  implicated  in  the  kidnapping  is  a  base  fabrication.  I 
knew  Joseph  C.  Miller  from  boyhood  intimately,  and  I  here  take  pleasure 
in  saying  that  he  was  an  honest,  unassuming  man,  of  good  moral  character 
and  stern  integrity,  and  would  have  spurned  the  idea  of  any  complication, 
directly  or  indirectly,  with  slavery  or  kidnapping. 

It  appeal's  his  foul  murder  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  friends  of 
slavery  and  kidnapping,  but  an  attempt  is  now  made,  after  the  victim  has 
slumbered  near  twenty  years  in  the  grave,  to  blast  his  good  name  by  insinu- 
ating that  he  was  a  party,  or  implicated  in  the  vile  transactions  here  nar- 
rated. . 

Rachel  remained  in  jail ;  Elizabeth,  who  had  been  sold  to  parties  in  New 
Orleans,  was  sent  for  by  Campbell,  ample  security  having  been  given  that 
she  should  be  returned  if  proved  to  be  a  slave.  Their  trial  finally  came  on, 
and  after  a  long  and  tedious  investigation  they  were  both  proven,  by  hosts 
of  respectable  witnesses  to  be  free.  They  returned  to  their  mother,  in 
Chester  county,  who  was  still  living. 

The  Grand  Jury  of  Chester  county  found  a  true  bill  against  McCreary  for 
kidnapping,  a  requisition  was  obtained,  and  B.  Darlington,  Esq.,  then  High 
Sheriff,  proceeded  with  it  to  Annapolis ;  but  the  Governor  of  Maryland  re- 
fused to  allow  McCreary  to  be  arrested  in  that  State. 

Thus  terminated  this  terrible  affair,  which  cost  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
nearly  $3000,  as  well  as  a  heavy  expense  to  many  citizens  of  Baltimore,  and 
those  of  this  county  who  took  an  active  part,  and  whilst  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  principal  actor  in  this  sad  transaction  fully  atoned  for  his  evil  deeds, 
whilst  living,  and  his  friends  may  have  had  a  right  to  eulogize  him  after 
death,  they  should  not  have  gone  out  of  their  way  to  traduce  other  parties, 
dead  and  alive,  whose  reputations  were  known  by  living  witnesses,  to  be 
beyond  reproach.  JUSTICE. 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1854.. 

TUCKER  WHITE. 

TUCKER  reported  that  he  fled  from  Major  Isaac  Roney,  of  Dinwiddie 
Court-House,  Virginia,  in  the  Christmas  week  prior  to  his  arrival ;  that  he 
reached  Petersburg  and  then  encountered  difficulties  of  the  most  trying 
nature;  he  next  stopped  at  City  Point,  and  was  equally  unfortunate  there. 
From  exposure  in  the  cold  he  was  severely  frost-bitten.  While  suffering 
from  the  frost  he  was  kept  in  the  poor-house.  After  partial  recovery  he 
made  his  way  to  Baltimore  and  thence  to  Philadelphia.  Once  or  twice  he 


556  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

was  captured  and  carried  back.  The  Committee  suspected  that  he  was  a 
cunning  impostor  who  had  learned  how  to  tell  a  tale  of  suffering  simply 
to  excite  the  sympathies  of  the  benevolent ;  yet,  with  the  map  of  Virginia 
before  them,  he  proved  himself  familiar  with  localities  adjacent  to  the 
neighborhood  in  which  he  was  raised.  Although  not  satisfied  with  his 
statement,  the  Committee  decided  to  aid  him. 

Passmore  Williamson,  who  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  examination 
of  his  case,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  facts,  addressed  the  following  note  to 
Major  Honey,  using  as  his  signature  the  name  of  his  friend,  Wm.  J. 
Canby : 

PHILADELPHIA,  June  24,  1854. 
MAJOR  ISAAC  HONEY  : 

DEAR  SIR  : — Within  a  few  days  past  a  colored  man  has  been  traversing  the  streets  of 
this  city,  exciting  the  sympathies  of  the  benevolent  by  the  recital  of  a  tale  of  the  hard- 
ships he  has  lately  passed  through.  He  represents  himself  to  be  Tucker  White,  your 
slave,  a  carpenter  by  trade,  and  that  he  escaped  from  your  service  last  Christmas.  He  is 
quite  dark  in  complexion,  rather  over  the  medium  size,  and  a  little  lame ;  the  latter,  pro- 
bably, from  the  effects  of  frost  on  his  feet,  from  which,  he  alleges,  he  suffered  severely. 

He  seems  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  adjoining  localities,  but  altogether  his  narra- 
tive is  almost  incredible,  and  I  am  therefore  induced  to  make  the  inquiry  whether  such  a 
man  has  escaped  from  your  service  or  lately  left  your  neighborhood.  We  are  perfectly 
flooded  with  such  vagrants.  It  would  be  a  great  relief  if  some  measures  could  be  resorted 
to  to  keep  them  under  legal  restraint.  An  answer  addressed  to  No.  73  South  4th  Street, 
above  Walnut,  will  reach  me,  and  oblige,  Yours,  &c.  WM.  J.  CANBY. 

Weeks  passed,  but  no  answer  came  from  the  Major.  All  hope  was  aban- 
doned of  obtaining  a  more  satisfactory  clue  to  the  history  of  Tucker  White. 
About  three  months,  however,  after  Mr.  Williamson  had  written,  the  ap- 
pended note  came  as  an  answer : 

MR.  CANBY  : 

Major  Roney  received  a  letter  from  you  relative  to  his  boy,  Tucker  White,  and  has  sent 
me  here  to  inquire  of  you  his  whereabouts  now.  If  you  know  anything  concerning  him 
and  will  give  me  such  information  so  I  can  get  him,  you  will  be  rewarded  for  your  trou- 
ble. You  will  please  address, 

No.  147  American  Hotel. 

The  Major  would  have  sent  on  sooner  but  he  has  been  sick,  and  the  letter  laid  in 
Office  several  days. 

Mr.  Canby  was  at  the  time  ill,  and  no  attention  was  paid  to  the  com- 
munication. After  a  day's  delay  the  following  note  came  to  hand,  but,  as 
in  the  former  instance,  no  answer  was  returned. 

MR.  CANBY  : 

You  will  confer  a  great  favor  on  me  by  writing  me  whether  you  were  really  the  author 
of  a  letter  to  Major  Isaac  Roney,  of  Dinwiddie  Court  House,  Va.,  relative  to  his  boy 
Tucker  White,  and  if  you  were  the  author,  please  let  me  know  when  you  last  saw  him, 
and  where.  I  called  at  your  office  yesterday  to  see  you,  but  your  cousin  (I  think  he  said 
he  was)  told  me  you  had  the  cholera,  and  if  you  felt  well  enough  you  were  going  to  the 


ARRIVAL  FROM  VIRGINIA,  1854.  557 

country  to-morrow.  I  hope  you  will  excuse  my  writing  to  you  to-day,  on  that  account. 
I  would  not  know  where  to  direct  a  letter  if  I  were  to  wait  until  to-morrow.  If  you 
know  anything  concerning  him  and  will  let  me  know  it,  so  that  I  can  find  and  arrest  him, 
you  will  very  much  oblige  Yours,  &c.,  I.  M.  TUCKER, 

No.  147  American  Hotel. 

Please  write  me  an  answer  to-day,  so  I  may  know  how  to  proceeed  to-morrow.  If  I 
find  him  I  will  be  very  happy  to  see  you  before  I  leave  in  behalf  of  Major  Honey,  in 
whose  business  I  am  now  engaged.  I.  M.  T. 

Some  one,  however,  who  had  a  hand  in  the  first  letter,  referred  the  Major 
to  Passmore  Williamson,  Seventh  and  Arch  Streets.  To  Mr.  Williamson's 
surprise  the  individual  who  had  addressed  Mr.  C.  appeared  at  his  office  with 
the  identical  letter  in  his  hand  that  had  been  addressed  him  by  Mr.  W.  (with 
W.  J.  C.'s  signature.)  On  addressing  Mr.  W.  he  held  out  the  letter  and  in- 
quired :  "Are  you  the  author  of  this  letter,  sir?"  Mr.  W.  looked  at  it  and 
remarked  that  it  appeared  to  have  been  written  by  a  man  named  Canby. 
"  My  name  is  Williamson,  but  if  you  will  walk  in  and  take  a  seat  I  will 
attend  to  you  in  a  few  moments."  Accordingly,  after  occupying  a  little  time 
in  adjusting  some  papers,  he  signified  to  the  stranger  that  he  was  ready  to 
answer  any  of  his  questions.  Said  Mr.  W.,  "  I  say  frankly  that  I  am  the 
author  of  that  letter."  He  then  paused  for  a  reply.  The  stranger  then  said, 
"  I  have  come  from  Virginia  in  behalf  of  Major  Raney,  in  search  of  his 
boy,  Tucker  White ;  the  Major  was  very  anxious  to  recover  him,  and  he 
would  gladly  reward  Mr.  W.  or  anybody  else  who  would  aid  him  in  the 
matter."  He  then  asked  Mr.  W.  if  he  knew  anything  of  his  whereabouts. 
Mr.  W.  replied :  "  I  do  not  at  present ;  for  a  long  time  I  have  heard 
nothing  of  him.  I  must  tell  you  that  I  am  very  sorry  that  Major 
Honey  gave  himself  the  trouble  to  send  all  the  way  to  Philadelphia  to 
re-capture  his  '  boy  Tucker  White,'  and  with  regard  to  giving  information 
or  assistance,  I  know  of  but  one  or  two  men  in  this  city  who  would  be 
mean  enough  to  stoop  to  do  such  dirty  work.  Geo.  F.  Alberti,  a  notorious 
kidnapper,  and  E.  D.  Ingraham,  equally  as  notorious  as  a  counsel  of  slave- 
hunters  whom  everybody  here  despises,  might  have  served  you  in  this  mat- 
ter. I  know  no  others  to  recommend ;  if  anybody  can  find  the  '  boy,'  they 
can.  But  should  they  find  him  they  will  be  obliged  to  take  legal  steps  in 
arresting  him  before  they  can  proceed.  In  such  a  case,  instead  of  assisting 
Major  Roney,  I  should  feel  bound  to  assist  Tucker  White  by  throwing  every 
obstacle  that  I  possibly  could  in  the  way  of  his  being  carried  back  to  Vir- 
ginia ;  and  to  close  the  matter  I  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  I  do  not  de- 
sire to  hold  any  further  correspondence  with  Major  Roney,  of  Dinwiddie, 
Virginia,  about  his  ( boy/  Tucker  White." 


558 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


ARRIVAL  FKOM  NORFOLK. 

MARY  MILLBUBN,   alias  LOUISA  F.   JOKES,   ESCAPED   IN  MALE  ATTIEE. 

Neither  in  personal  appearance, 
manners,  nor  language,  were  any 
traces  of  the  Peculiar  Institution 
visible  in  Mary  Millburn.  On 
the  contrary,  she  represented  a 
young  lady,  with  a  passable  edu- 
cation, and  very  refined  in  her 
deportment.  She  had  eaten  the 
white  bread  of  Slavery,  under 
the  Misses  Chapman,  and  they 
had  been  singularly  kind  to  her, 
taking  special  pains  with  her  in 
regard  to  the  company  she  should 
keep,  a  point  important  to  young 
girls,  so  liable  to  exposure  as  were 
the  unprotected  young  females  of 
the  South.  She  being  naturally  of  a  happy  disposition,  obliging,  competent, 
there  was  but  little  room  for  any  jars  in  the  household,  so  far  as  Mary  was 
concerned.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  she  was  not  satisfied ;  Slavery  in  its 
most  dreaded  aspect,  was  all  around  her,  continually  causing  the  heart  to 
bleed  and  eyes  to  weep  of  both  young  and  old.  The  auction-block  and 
slave-pen  were  daily  in  view.  Young  girls  as  promising  as  herself,  she 
well  knew,  had  to  be  exposed,  examined,  and  sold  to  the  vilest  slave-holders 
living. 

With  her  knowledge  of  the  practical  wickedness  of  the  system,  how  could 
she  be  satisfied  ?  It  was  impossible  !  She  determined  to  escape.  She  could 
be  accommodated,  but  with  no  favored  mode  of  travel.  No  flowery  beds  of 
ease  could  be  provided  in  her  case,  any  more  than  in  the  case  of  others. 
Mary  took  the  Underground  Rail  Road  enterprise  into  consideration.  The 
opportunity  of  a  passage  on  a  steamer  was  before  her  to  accept  or  refuse. 
The  spirit  of  freedom  dictated  that  she  should  accept  the  offer  and  leave 
by  the  first  boat.  Admonished  that  she  could  reach  the  boat  and  also  travel 
more  safely  in  male  attire  she  at  once  said,  "Any  way  so  I  succeed."  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment,  that  the  effort  could  be  made  without 
encountering  a  great  "  fight  of  affliction."  When  the  hour  arrived  for  the 
boat  to  start,  Mary  was  nicely  secreted  in  a  box  (place),  where  she  was 
not  discovered  when  the  officers  made  their  usual  search.  On  arriving  in 
Philadelphia,  she  mingled  her  rejoicings  with  the  Committee  in  testifying 
to  the  great  advantage  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  to  the  care- 


ARRIVAL  FROM  NORFOLK.  559 

fulness  of  its  agents  in  guarding  against  accidents.  After  remaining  a 
short  time  in  Philadelphia,  she  made  choice  of  Boston  as  her  future  resi- 
dence, and  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  she 
proceeded  thitherward.  How  she  was  received,  and  what  she  thought 
of  the  place  and  people,  may  be  gleaned  from  this  letter  (written  by  herself.) 

BOSTON,  May  15th,  1858. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  have  selected  this  opportunity  to  write  you  a  few  lines,  hopeing  thay 
may  find  you  and  yours  enjoying  helth  and  happiness.  I  arrived  hear  on  Thirsday  last, 
and  had  a  letter  of  intoduction  giving  to  me  by  one  of  the  gentlemen  at  the  Antoslavery 
office  in  New  York,  to  Mr.  Garrison  in  Boston,  I  found  him  and  his  lady  both  to  bee  very 
clever.  I  stopped  with  them  the  first  day  of  my  arrivel  hear,  since  that  Time  I  have  been 
living  with  Mrs.  Hilliard  I  have  met  with  so  menny  of  my  acquaintances  hear,  that  I  all 
most  immagion  my  self  to  bee  in  the  old  country.  I  have  not  been  to  Canaday  yet,  as 
you  expected.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  lettor  that  you  wrote  to  them  on  the  sub- 
ject. I  suffered  much  on  the  road  with  head  ake  but  since  that  time  I  have  no  reason  to 
complain,  please  do  not  for  git  to  send  the  degarritips  in  the  Shaimpain  basket  with  Dr. 
Lundys,  Mr.  Lesley  said  he  will  send  them  by  express,  tell  Julia  kelly,  that  through 
mistake,  I  took  one  of  her  pocket  handkerchift,  that  was  laying  on  the  table,  but  I  shall 
keep  it  in  remembranc  of  the  onner.  I  must  bring  my  lettor  to  a  close  as  I  have  nothing 
more  to  say,  and  believe  me  to  be  your  faithfull  friend.  LOUISA  F.  JONES. 

P.  S.  Remember  me  to  each  and  every  member  of  your  familly  and  all  Enquiring 
Friends. 

Being  of  an  industrious  turn  she  found  a  situation  immediately,  and  from 
that  day  to  the  present,  she  has  sustained  an  excellent  character  in  every 
respect,  and  as  a  fashionable  dressmaker  does  a  good  business. 


ARRIVAL  OF  FIFTEEN  FROM  NORFOLK,  VIRGINIA. 

PER  SCHOONER — TWICE  SEARCHED— LANDED   AT   LEAGUE   ISLAND. 

ISAAC  FORMAN,  HENRY  WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM   SEYMOUR,  HARRIET  TAYLOR, 
MARY    BIRD,    MRS.    LEWEY,    SARAH    SAUNDERS,    SOPHIA    GRAY,  HENRY 

GRAY,  MARY  GRAY,  WINFIELD  SCOTT,  and  three  children. 

About  the  4th  of  July,  1856,  a  message  reached  the  Secretary  that  a 
schooner  containing  fifteen  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers,  from  Nor- 
folk, Virginia,  would  be  landed  near  League  Island,  directly  at  the  foot  of 
Broad  street,  that  evening  at  a  late  hour,  and  a  request  accompanied  the 
message,  to  the  effect  that  the  Committee  would  be  on  hand  to  receive  them. 
Accordingly  the  Secretary  procured. three  carriages,  with  trustworthy  drivers, 
and  between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  at  night  arrived  on  the  banks  of  the 
Schuylkill,  where  all  was  quiet  as  a  "  country  grave-yard."  The  moon  was 


560  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

shining  and  soon  the  mast  of  a  schooner  was  discovered.  No  sign  of  any 
other  vessel  was  then  in  sight.  On  approaching  the  bank,  in  the  direction 
of  the  discovered  mast,  the  schooner  was  also  discovered.  The  hearts  of 
those  on  board  were  swelling  with  unutterable  joy;  yet  even  at  that  dead 
hour  of  night,  far  away  from  all  appearance  of  foes,  no  one  felt  at  liberty 
to  give  vent  to  his  feelings  other  than  in  a  whisper.  The  name  of  the  cap- 
tain and  schooner  being  at  once  recognized,  the  first  impulse  was  to  jump 
down  on  the  deck.  Upon  second  view  it  was  seen  that  the  descent  was  too 
great  to  admit  of  such  a  feat.  In  a  moment  we  concluded  that  we  could 
pull  them  up  the  embankment  from  the  deck  by  taking  hold  of  their  hands 
as  they  stood  on  tip  toe. 

One  after  another  was  pulled  up,  and  warmly  greeted,  until  it  came  the 
turn  of  a  large  object,  weighing  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  full 
large  enough  to  make  two  ordinary  women.  The  captain,  who  had  experi- 
enced much  inconvenience  with  her  on  the  voyage,  owing  to  the  space  she 
required  chuckled  over  the  fact  that  the  Committee  would  have  their  hands 
full  for  once.  Poor  Mrs.  Walker,  however,  stretched  out  her  large  arms, 
we  seized  her  hands  vigorously ;  the  captain  laughing  heartily  as  did  the 
other  passengers  at  the  tug  now  being  made.  We  pulled  with  a  will, 
but  Mrs.  Walker  remained  on  the  deck.  A  one  horse  power  was  needed. 
The  pullers  took  breath,  and  again  took  hold,  this  time  calling  upon  the 
captain  to  lay-to  a  helping  hand ;  the  captain  prepared  to  do  so,  and  as 
she  was  being  raised,  he  having  a  good  foot-hold,  placed  himself  in  a  posi- 
tion for  pushing  to  the  full  extent  of  his  powers,  and  thus  she  was  safely 
landed.  All  being  placed  in  the  carriages,  they  were  driven  to  the  station 
and  comfortably  provided  for. 

On  the  voyage  they  had  encountered  more  than  the  usual  dangers.  In- 
deed troubles  began  with  them  before  they  had  set  sail  from  Norfolk.  The 
first  indication  of  danger  manifested  itself  as  they  stood  on  the  bank  of  the 
river  awaiting  the  arrival  of  a  small  boat  which  had  been  engaged  to  row 
them  to  the  schooner.  Although  they  had  sought  as  they  supposed  a  safe 
place,  sufficiently  far  from  the  bounds  usually  traversed  by  the  police ;  still, 
in  the  darkness,  they  imagined  they  heard  watchmen  coming.  Just  on  the 
edge  of  the  river,  opposite  where  they  were  waiting,  a  boat  under 
repairs  was  in  the  stocks.  In  order  to  evade  the  advancing  foe,  they 
all  marched  into  the  river,  the  water  being  shallow,  and  with  the  vessel 
for  a  breastwork  hiding  them  from  the  shore,  there  they  remained  for  an 
hour  and  a  half.  They  were  thoroughly  soaked  if  nothing  more.  However, 
about  ten  o'clock  a  small  oyster  boat  came  to  their  relief,  and  all  were  soon 
placed  aboard  the  schooner,  which  was  loaded  with  corn,  etc.  All,  with 
the  exception  of  the  large  woman  above  referred  to,  and  one  other  female^ 
were  required  to  enter  a  hole  apparently  leading  through  the  bottom  of 
the  boat,  but  in  reality  only  a  department  which  had  been  expressly  con- 


ARRIVAL  OF  FIFTEEN  FROM  NORFOLK,   VA.  561 

structed  for  the  Underground  Rail  Road  business,  at  the  expense  of  the 
captain,  and  in  accordance  with  his  own  plan. 

The  entrance  was  not  sufficiently  large  to  admit  Mrs.  Walker,  so  she  with 
another  female  who  was  thought  "  too  fat"  to  endure  the  close  confinement, 
was  secreted  behind  some  corn  back  of  the  cabin,  a  place  so  secluded  that 
none  save  well-experienced  searchers  would  be  likely  to  find  it.  In  this 
way  the  Captain  put  out  to  sea.  After  some  fifteen  hours  he  deemed  it  safe 
to  bring  his  passengers  up  on  deck  where  they  could  inhale  pure  air  which 
was  greatly  needed,  as  they  had  been  next-door  to  suffocation  and  death. 
The  change  of  air  had  such  an  effect  on  one  of  the  passengers  (Scott)  that, 
in  his  excitement,  he  refused  to  conform  to  the  orders  required ;  for  prudential 
reasons  the  Captain,  threatened  to  throw  him  over-board.  Whereupon 
Scott  lowered  his  tone.  Before  reaching  the  lock  the  Captain  supposing  that 
they  might  be  in  danger  from  contact  with  boats,  men,  etc.,  again  called 
upon  them  "to  go  into  their  hole"  under  the  deck.  Not  even  the  big 
woman  was  excused  now.  She  pleaded  that  she  could  not  get  through, 
her  fellow-sufferers  said  that  she  must  be  got  through  urging  the  matter  on 
the  ground  that  they  would  have  great  danger  to  face.  The  big  woman 
again  tried  to  effect  an  entrance,  but  in  vain.  Said  one  of  the  more  resolute 
sisters  "  she  must  take  off  her  clothes  then,  it  will  never  do  to  have  her 
staying  up  on  deck  to  betray  all  the  rest ; "  thus  this  resolute  stand  being 
unanimous,  the  poor  woman  had  to  comply,  and  except  a  siugle  garment 
she  was  as  destitute  of  raiment  as  was  Mother  Eve  before  she  induced 
Adam  to  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  With  the  help 
of  passengers  below,  she  was  squeezed  through,  but  not  without  bruising 
and  breaking  the  skin  considerably  where  the  rub  was  severest.  All  were 
now  beneath  the  deck,  the  well-fitting  oil-cloth  was  put  over  the  hole 
covering  the  cabin-floor  snugly,  and  a  heavy  table  was  set  over  the 
hole.  They  are  within  sight  of  the  lock,  but  no  human  beings  are  visible 
about  the  schooner  save  the  Captain,  the  mate  and  a  small  boy,  the  son  of 
the  Captain.  At  the  lock  not  unexpectedly  three  officers  came  on  board 
of  the  boat  and  stopped  her.  The  Captain  was  told  that  they  had  received 
a  telegraphic  dispatch  from  Norfolk  to  the  effect  that  his  boat  was  suspected 
of  having  slaves  secreted  thereon.  They  talked  with  the  Captain  and  mate 
separately  for  a  considerable  while,  and  more  closely  did  they  examine  the 
boy,  but  gained  no  information  exeept  that  "  the  yellow-fever  had  been 
raging  very  bad  in  Norfolk."  At  this  fever-news  the  officers  were  not  a 
little  alarmed,  and  they  now  lost  no  time  in  attending  to  their  official 
errand.  They  searched  the  cabin  where  the  two  fat  women  were  first 
secreted,  and  other  parts  of  the  boat  pretty  thoroughly.  They  then  com- 
menced taking  up  the  hatchways,  but  the  place  seemed  so  shockingly  per- 
fumed with  foul  air  that  the  men  started  back  and  declared  that  nobody 
could  live  in  such  a  place,  and  swore  that  it  smelt  like  the  yellow-fever ; 
36 


562  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  Captain  laughed  at  them,  and  signified  that  they  were  perfectly  welcome 
to  search  to  their  hearts'  content.  The  officers  concluded  that  there  were 
no  slaves  on  that  boat,  that  nobody  could  live  there,  etc.,  etc.,  asked  for  their 
charges  ($3),  and  discharged  the  Captain.  The  children  had  been  put  under 
the  influence  of  liquor  to  keep  them  still,  so  they  made  no  noise ;  the  others 
endured  their  hour  of  agony  patiently  until  the  lock  was  safely  passed,  and 
the  river  reached.  Fresh  air  was  then  allowed  them,  and  the  great  danger 
was  considered  overcome.  The  Captain,  however,  far  from  deeming  it 
advisable  to  land  his  live  cargo  at  the  wharves  of  Philadelphia,  delivered 
them  at  League  Island.  The  passengers  testified  that  Captain  B.  was  very 
kind.  They  were  noticed  thus: 

ISAAC,  was  about  fifty  years  of  age,  dark,  tall,  well-made,  intelligent,  and 
was  owned  by  George  Brown,  who  resided  at  Deep  Creek.  Isaac  testified 
that  said  Brown  had  invariably  treated  him  cruelly.  For  thirty  years 
Isaac  had  hired  his  time,  found  himself  in  food,  clothing,  and  everything, 
yet  as  he  advanced  in  years,  neither  his  task,  nor  his  hire  was  diminished, 
but  on  the  contrary  his  hire  of  late  years  had  been  increased.  He  winced 
under  the  pressure,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  study  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  While  arrangements  for  fleeing  were  pending,  he  broke  the 
secret  to  his  wife,  Polly,  in  whom  he  trusted ;  she  being  true  to  freedom, 
although  sorrowing  to  part  with  him,  threw  no  obstacle  in  his  way.  Besides 
his  wife,  he  had  also  two  daughters,  Amanda  A.  and  Mary  Jane,  both 
slaves.  Nevertheless,  having  made  up  his  mind  not  to  die  a  slave,  he  re- 
solved to  escape  at  all  hazards. 

HENDERSON  belonged  to  the  estate  of  A.  Briggs,  which  was  about  to  be 
settled,  and  knowing  that  he  was  accounted  on  the  inventory  as  personal 
property,  he  saw  that  he  too  would  be  sold  with  the  rest  of  the  movables, 
if  he  was  not  found  among  the  missing. 

He  began  to  consider  what  he  had  endured  as  a  slave,  and  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  had  had  a  "  rugged  road  to  hoe  all  the  way  along  "  and 
that  he  might  have  it  much  worse  if  he  waited  to  be  sold.  The  voice  of 
reason  admonished  him  to  escape  for  his  life.  In  obeying  this  call  he  suf- 
fered the  loss  of  his  wife,  Julia,  and  two  children,  who  were  fortunately 
free.  Henderson  was  about  thirty-one  years  of  age,  stout,  and  of  healthy 
appearance,  worth  in  cash  perhaps  $1200. 

WILLIAM  was  thirty-four  years  of  age,  of  a  chestnut  color,  substantial 
physical  structure,  and  of  good  faculties.  The  man  who  professed  to  own 
him  he  called  William  Taylor,  and  "  he  was  a  very  hard  man,  one  of  the 
kind  which  could  not  be  pleased,  nor  give  a  slave  a  pleasant  answer  one 
time  in  fifty."  Being  thoroughly  sick  of  William  Taylor,  he  fell  in  love 
with  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and  Canada. 

MRS.  WALKER,  the  big  fat  woman,  was  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  and  a 
pleasant-looking  person,  of  a  very  dark  hue.  Besides  the  struggles  already 


ARRIVAL  OF  FIFTEEN  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA.  563 

alluded  to,  she  was  obliged  to  leave  her  husband.  Of  her  master  she  de- 
clared that  she  could  "  say  nothing  good."  His  name  was  Arthur  Cooper, 
of  Georgetown ;  she  had  never  lived  with  him,  however ;  for  twenty  years 
she  had  hired  her  time,  paying  five  dollars  per  month.  When  young  she 
scarcely  thought  of  the  gross  wrongs  that  were  heaped  upon  her ;  but  as  she 
grew  older,  and  thought  more  about  her  condition,  she  scouted  the  idea  that 
God  had  designed  her  to  be  a  slave,  and  decided  that  she  would  be  one  to 
leave  Dixey  in  the  first  Underground  Rail  Road  train  that  might  afford 
her  the  chance.  She  determined  not  to  remain  even  for  the  sake  of  her 
husband,  who  was  a  slave.  With  such  a  will,  therefore,  she  started. 
Upon  leaving  Philadelphia,  she  went  with  the  most  of  her  company  to 
Boston,  and  thence  to  New  Bedford,  where  she  was  living  when  last  heard 
from. 

REBECCA  LEWEY  was  the  wife  of  a  man,  who  was  familiarly  known  by 
the  name  of  "  Blue  Beard,"  his  proper  name  being  Henry  Lewey.  For  a 
long  time,  although  a  slave  himself,  he  was  one  of  the  most  dexterous 
managers  in  the  Underground  Rail  Road  agency  in  Norfolk.  No  single 
chapter  in  this  work  could  be  more  interesting  than  a  chapter  of  his 
exploits  in  this  respect. 

The  appearing  of  Mrs.  Lewey,  was  a  matter  of  unusual  interest. 
Although  she  had  worn  the  yoke,  she  was  gentle  in  her  manners,  and 
healthy-looking,  so  much  so  that  no  life  insurance  agent  would  have  had 
need  to  subject  her  to  medical  examination  before  insuring  her.  She  was 
twenty-eight  years  of  age,  but  had  never  known  personal  abuse  as  a 
slave;  she  was  none  the  less  anxious,  however,  to  secure  her  freedom.  Her 
husband,  Blue  Beard,  judging  from  certain  signs,  that  he  was  suspected 
by  slave-holders,  and  might  at  any  time  be  caged,  (indeed  he  had  recently 
been  in  the  lions'  den,  but  got  out) ;  in  order  to  save  his  wife,  sent  her  on 
in  advance  as  he  had  decided  to  follow  her  soon  in  a  similar  manner.  Re- 
becca was  not  without  hope  of  again  meeting  her  husband.  This  desire  was 
gratified  before  many  months  had  passed,  as  he  was  fortunate  enough  to 
make  his  way  to  Canada. 

MARY  KNIGHT  was  a  single  woman,  twenty-six  years  of  age,  dark,  stout, 
and  of  pleasing  manners ;  she  complained  of  having  been  used  hard. 

SARAH  SAUNDERS  had  been  claimed  as  the  property  of  Richard  Gate- 
wood,  a  clerk  in  the  naval  service.  According  to  Sarah  he  was  a  very 
clever  slave-holder,  and  had  never  abused  her.  Nor  was  she  aware  that 
he  had  ever  treated  any  of  his  servants  cruelly.  Sarah,  however,  had  not 
lived  in  Gatewood's  immediate  family,  but  had  been  allowed  to  remain 
with  her  grandmother,  rather  as  a  privileged  character.  She  was  young, 
fair,  and  prepossessing.  Having  a  sister  living  in  Philadelphia,  who  was 
known  to  the  agent  in  Norfolk,  Sarah  was  asked  one  day  if  she  would  not 
like  to  see  her  sister.  She  at  once  answered  "Yes."  After  further  conver- 


564  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sation  the  agent  told  her  that  if  she  would  keep  the  matter  entirely  private, 
he  would  arrange  for  her  to  go  by  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  Being 
willing  and  anxious  to  go,  she  promised  due  obedience  to  the  rules;  she 
was  not  told,  however,  how  much  she  would  have  to  pass  through  on  the 
way,  else,  according  to  her  own  admission,  she  never  would  have  come  as 
she  did ;  her  heart  would  have  failed  her.  But  when  the  goal  was  gained, 
like  all  others,  she  soon  forgot  her  sufferings,  and  rejoiced  heartily  at 
getting  out  of  Slavery,  even  though  her  condition  had  not  been  go  bad  as 
that  of  many  others. 

SOPHIA  GRAY,  with  her  son  and  daughter,  Henry  and  Mary,  was  from 
Portsmouth.  The  mother  was  a  tall,  yellow  woman,  with  well  cut  features, 
about  thirty-three  years  of  age,  with  manners  indicative  of  more  than 
ordinary  intelligence.  The  son  and  daughter  were  between  twelve  and  four- 
teen years  of  age ;  well -developed  for  their  age,  modest,  and  finely-formed 
mulattoes.  All  the  material  necessary  for  a  story  of  great  interest,  might 
have  readily  been  found  in  the  story  of  the  mother  and  her  children. 
They  were  sent  with  others  to  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts.  It  was  not 
long  after  being  in  New  Bedford,  before  the  boy  was  put  to  a  trade,  and 
the  daughter  was  sent  to  Boston,  where  she  had  an  aunt  (a  fugitive),  living 
in  the  family  of  the  Hon.  George  S.  Hilliard.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hilliard  were 
so  impressed  by  Mary's  intelligent  countenance  and  her  appearance  gene- 
rally, that  they  decided  that  she  must  have  a  chance  for  an  education,  and 
opened  their  hearts  and  home  to  her. 

On  a  visit  to  Boston,  in  1859,  the  writer  found  Mary  at  Mr.  Hilliard's? 
and  in  an  article  written  for  the  "  Anti-Slavery  Standard,"  upon  the  con- 
dition of  fugitive  slaves  in  Boston  and  New  Bedford,  allusion  was  made 
particularly  to  her  and  several  others,  under  this  hospitable  roof,  in  the 
following  paragraph : 

"On  arriving  in  Boston,  the  first  persons  I  had  the  pleasure  to  converse 
with,  were  four  or  five  uncommonly  interesting  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers,  who  had  only  been  out  of  bondage  between  three  and  five  years. 
Their  intelligent  appearance  contradicted  the  idea  that  they  had  ever  been 
an  hour  in  Slavery,  or  a  mile  on  an  Underground  Rail  Road.  Two  of  them 
were  filling  trustworthy  posts,  where  they  were  respected  and  well  paid  for 
their  services.  Two  others  were  young  people  (one  two,  and  the  other  three 
years  out  of  Slavery),  a  girl  of  fifteen,  and  a  boy  of  twelve,  whose  interest- 
ing appearance  induced  a  noble-hearted  Anti-Slavery  lady  to  receive  them 
into  her  own  family,  expressly  to  educate  them ;  and  thus,  almost  ever  since 
their  arrival,  they  have  been  enjoying  this  lady's  kindness,  as  well  as  the 
excellent  equal  Free  School  privileges  of  Boston.  The  girl,  in  the  Gram- 
mar School  (chiefly  composed  of  whites),  has  already  distinguished  herself, 
having  received  a  diploma,  with  an  excellent  certificate  of  character;  and 
the  boy,  naturally  very  apt,  has  made  astonishing  progress. 


ARRIVAL  OF  FIFTEEN  FROM  NORFOLK,  VA.  565 

The  "boy  of  twelve,"  alluded  to,  was  not  Mary's  brother.  He  was  quite 
a  genius  of  his  age,  who  had  escaped  from  Norfolk,  stowed  away  in  a 
schooner  and  was  known  by  the  name  of  "  Dick  Page." 

On  arriving  in  Philadelphia,  Dick  was  delivered,  as  usual,  into  the  hands 
of  the  Committee.  The  extraordinary  smartness  of  the  little  fellow  (only 
ten  years  old),  astonished  all  who  saw  him.  The  sympathies  of  a  kind- 
hearted  gentleman  and  his  wife,  living  in  Philadelphia,  had  been  deeply 
awakened  in  his  behalf,  through  their  relative  and  friend,  Mrs.  Hilliard, 
in  whose  family,  as  has  been  already  stated,  the  boy's  aunt  lived.  So  much 
were  these  friends  interested  to  secure  Dick's  freedom,  that  they  often  con- 
templated buying  him,  although  they  did  not  like  the  idea  of  buying,  as  the 
money  would  go  into  the  pocket  of  the  master,  who  they  considered  had  no 
just  right  to  deprive  any  individual  of  his  freedom.  So  when  Dick  arrived 
the  Committee  felt  that  it  was  .as  little  as  they  could  do,  to  give  these  friends 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  little  Underground  Rail  Road  passenger.  He 
was  therefore  conveyed  to  the  residence  of  Prof.  J.  P.  Lesley.  He  could 
not  have  been  sent  to  a  house  in  the  great  city  of  Brotherly  Love,  where  he 
would  have  found  a  more  cordial  and  sincere  reception.  After  passing  an 
hour  or  so  with  them,  Dick  was  brought  away,  but  he  had  been  so  touched 
by  their  kindness,  that  he  felt  that  he  must  see  them  again,  before  leaving 
the  city;  so  just  before  sundown,  one  evening,  he  was  missed;  search  was 
made  for  him,  but  in  vain.  Great  anxiety  was  felt  for  him,  fearing  that 
he  was  lost.  During  the  early  part  of  the  evening,  the  writer,  with  a  bell 
in  hand,  passed  up  one  street  and  down  another,  in  quest  of  the  stranger, 
but  no  one  could  give  any  information  of  him.  Finally  about  ten  o'clock, 
the  mayor's  office  was  visited  with  a  view  of  having  the  police  stations 
telegraphed.  Soon  the  mystery  was  solved ;  one  of  the  policemen  stated 
that  he  had  noticed  a  strange  colored  boy  with  Professor  Lesley's  children. 
Hastening  to  the  residence  of  the  professor,  sure  enough,  Dick  was  there, 
happy  in  bed  and  asleep. 

From  that  time  to  this,  it  has  been  a  mystery  to  know  how  a  boy,  a 
perfect  stranger,  could  make  his  way  alone,  (having  passed  over  the  route 
but  once),  without  getting  lost,  so  circuitous  was  the  road  that  he  had  to 
travel,  in  order  to  reach  Professor  Lesley's  house.  Having  said  this  much, 
the  way  is  now  open  to  refer  to  him  again,  in  Boston  at  school.  He  was 
generously  assisted  through  his  education  and  trade,  and  was  prepared  to 
commence  life  at  his  majority,  an  intelligent  mechanic,  and  a  man  of 
promise. 


566  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS, 

CLAIMED  AS  A  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  UNDER  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE- LAW  AFTER  HAVING 
LIVED  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  FOR  MORE  THAN  TWENTY  YEARS. 

Scarcely  had  the  infamous  statute  been  in  existence  six  months,  ere  the 
worst  predictions  of  the  friends  of  the  slave  were  fulfilled  in  different 
Northern  States.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  that  Pennsylvania  was 
considered  wholly  unsafe  to  nine-tenths  of  her  colored  population.  The 
kidnapper  is  fully  shown  in  the  case  of  Rachel  and  Elizabeth  Parker  as  he 
appeared  on  the  soil  of  Pennsylvania,  doing  his  vile  work  in  the  dead  of 
night,  entering  the  homes  of  unprotected  females  and  children,  therefore : 

The  case  of  Enphemia  Williams  will  serve  to  represent  the  milder  form 
of  kidnapping  in  open  day,  in  the  name  of  the  law,  by  professed  Christians 
in  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love,  and  the  home  of  William  Penn. 

February  6,  1851,  Euphemia  Williams,  the  mother  of  six  children,  the 
youngest  at  the  breast,  was  arrested  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city  (Phila- 
delphia), and  hurried  before  Edward  D.  Ingraham,  a  United  States  conimis- 
sioner,  upon  the  charge  of  being  a  fugitive  from  labor.  She  was  claimed  by 
William  T.  J.  Purnell,  of  Worcester  county,  Maryland,  who  admitted  that 
she  had  been  away  from  him  for  twenty-two  years,  or  since  1829.  Her  off- 
spring were  born  on  the  soil  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  eldest  daughter  was 
seventeen  years  of  age. 

EUPHEMIA  was  living  in  her  own  house,  and  had  been  a  member  of 
church,  in  good  and  regular  standing,  for  about  seventeen  years,  and  was 
about  forty  years  of  age.  When  the  arrest  was  made,  Euphemia  had  just 
risen  from  her  bed,  aud  was  only  partly  dressed,  when  a  little  after  daylight, 
several  persons  entered  her  room,  and  arrested  her.  Murder !  murder !  was 
cried  lustily,  and  awakened  the  house.  Her  children  screamed  lamentably, 
and  her  eldest  daughter  cried  "  They've  got  my  mother !  they've  got  my 
mother !"  "  For  God's  sake,  save  me,"  cried  Euphemia,  to  a  woman  in  the 
second  story,  who  was  an  eye-witness  to  this  monstrous  outrage.  But 
despite  the  piteous  appeals  of  the  mother  and  children,  the  poor  woman  was 
hastened  into  a  cab,  and  borne  to  the  marshall's  office. 

Through  the  vigilance  of  J.  M.  McKim  and  Passmore  Williamson,  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  returnable  forthwith  was  obtained  at  about  one  o'clock. 
The  heart-broken  mother  was  surrounded  by  five  of  her  children,  three  of 
whom  were  infants.  It  was  a  dark  and  dreadful  hour.  When  her  children 
were  brought  into  the  room  where  she  was  detained,  great  drops  of  sweat 
standing  on  her  face  plainly  indicated  her  agony. 

By  mutual  arrangement  between  the  claimants  and  the  prisoner's  counsel 
the  hearing  was  fixed  for  the  next  day,  at  the  hour  of  three  o'clock.  Accord- 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA   WILLIAMS.  50  7 

ing  to  said  arrangement,  at  three  o'clock  Euphemia  was  brought  face  to  face 
with  her  claimant,  William  T.  J.  Purnell.  The  news  had  already  gone 
out  that  the  trial  would  come  off  at  the  time  fixed ;  hence  a  multitude  were 
on  hand  to  witness  the  proceedings  in  the  case.  The  sympathy  of  anti- 
slavery  ladies  was  excited,  and  many  were  present  in  the  court-room  to 
manifest  their  feelings  in  behalf  of  the  stricken  woman.  The  eloquent 
David  Paul  Brown  (the  terror  of  slave-hunters)  and  William  S.  Pierce, 
Esqrs.,  appeared  for  Euphemia,  R.  C.  McMurtrie,  Esq.,  for  the  claimant. 

Mr.  McMurtrie  in  the  outset,  arose  and  said,  that  it  was  with  extreme 
regret  that  he  saw  an  attempt  to  influence  the  decision  of  this  case  by 
tumult  and  agitation.  The  sympathy  shown  by  so  many  friendly  ladies, 
was  not  a  favorable  sign  for  the  slave-holder.  Notwithstanding,  Mr. 
McMurtrie  said  that  he  would  "prove  that  Mahala,  sometimes  called 
Mahala  Purnell,  was  born  and  bred  a  slave  of  Dr.  George  W.  Purnell,  of 
Worcester  county,  Maryland,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  hiring  her  to  the 
neighbors,  and  while  under  a  contract  of  hiring,  she  escaped  with  a  boy, 
with  whom  she  had  taken  up,  belonging  to  the  person  who  hired  her."  The 
present  claimant  claimed  her  as  the  administrator  of  Dr.  George  W. 
Purnell. 

In  order  to  sustain  this  claim  many  witnesses  and  much  positive  swearing 
were  called  forth.  Robert  F.  Bo  wen,  the  first  witness,  swore  that  he  knew 
both  Mahala  and  her  master  perfectly  well,  that  he  had  worked  as  a  car- 
penter in  helping  to  build  a  house  for  the  latter,  and  also  had  hired  the 
former  directly  from  her  owner. 

Definite  time  and  circumstances  were  all  harmoniously  fixed  by  this  lead- 
ing witness.  One  of  the  important  circumstances  which  afforded  him 
ground  for  being  positive  was,  as  he  testified  on  cross-examination,  that  he 
was  from  home  at  a  camp-meeting  (when  she  run  away);  "our  camp-meet- 
ings," said  the  witness,  "  are  held  in  the  last  of  August  or  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember ;  the  year  I  fix  by  founding  it  upon  knowledge ;  the  year  before  she 
ran  away,  I  professed  religion;  I  have  something  at  home  to  fix  the  year; 
she  was  with  me  a  part  of  a  year:  I  hired  her  for  the  year  1 848  as  a  house 
servant ;  I  hired  her  directly  from  Dr.  George  W.  Purnell.  When  she  ran 
away  I  proceeded  after  her.  I  advertised,  in  Delware  in  written  advertise- 
ments, in  Georgetown,  Milford  and  Millsborough,  and  described  her  and  the 
boy ;  her  general  features.  I  have  not  the  advertisement  and  can't  tell  how 
she  was  described  ;  Dr.  George  Purnell  united  with  me  in  the  advertisement. 
I  followed  her  to  Delaware  City ;  that's  all  I  have  done  since,  about  inquir- 
ing after  them.  I  came,  after  twenty-two  years'  absence,  to  seek  my  own 
rights,  and  as  an  evidence  for  my  friend.  I  have  not  seen  her  more  than 
once  since  she  ran  away,  until  she  was  arrested ;  I  saw  her  two  or  three 
times  in  court.  I  saw  her  first  in  a  wretched-looking  room,  at  Fifth  and 
Germantown  Road;  it  was  yesterday  morning ;  it  was  the  evening  before  at 


568  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Congress  Hall ;  I  arrived  here  last  Tuesday  a  week ;  a  man  told  me  where 
she  was  " — "  I  beg  the  court," — here  Mr.  McMurtrie  interposed  an  objection 
to  his  mentioning  the  person.  The  court,  however,  said  the  question  could 
be  put. 

Witness. — I  was  pledged  not  to  tell  the  name ;  the  person  signed  her  name 
Louisa  Truit ;  the  information  was  got  by  letter ;  the  reason  I  did  not  tell, 
because  I  thought  she  might  be  murdered ;  I  have  not  the  letters,  and  can't 
tell  the  contents ;  the  letter  that  I  received  required  a  pledge  that  I  would 
not  tell :  I  was  directed  to  send  my  letter  to  the  post-office  without  any 
definite  place ;  the  representative  of  Louisa  Truit  was  a  man ;  I  saw  him  in 
Market  street  between  Third  and  Fourth,  at  Taylor  and  Paulding's  store, 
in  the  course  of  last  week;  I  was  brought  into  contact  with  the  representa- 
tive of  Louisa  by  appointment  in  the  letter,  to  get  the  information ;  I  never 
heard  him  tell  his  name;  he  was  neither  colored  nor  white;  we  call  them 
with  us  mixed  blood ;  (I  should  take  you  to  be  colored,  said  the  witness  to 
Mr.  Brown.)  I  suppose  he  lives  somewhere  up  there;  I  saw  him  at  my 
room  the  next  morning ;  I  did  not  learn  from  him  who  wrote  the  letter ;  he 
did  not  describe  the  person  of  the  woman  in  the  letter  written  to  me,  only 
her  general  appearance ;  Purnell  said  he  burnt  the  letter. 

Mr.  Brown  demanded  the  letter,  or  the  proof  of  its  destruction. 

I  never  wrote  myself,  but  my  friend,  Mr.  Henry  did;  he  said  so;  I  never 
received  a  letter ;  it  was  written  to  Robert  J.  Henry ;  part  of  the  letter  was 
written  to  me,  but  not  directed  to  me ;  the  Louisa  Truit,  who  wrote,  stated, 
that  for  the  information  he  wanted  $100  for  one  of  the  fugitives;  he  was 
referred  to  the  store  of  Taylor  &  Paulding,  and  Mr.  Henry  would  meet  him 
there ;  when  I  got  to  the  store,  some  of  the  concern  let  Mr.  Henry  know 
that  a  man  wanted  to  see  him;  I  heard  this  at  the  store  the  man  was  there; 
he  was  a  mulatto  man,  middle-aged,  and  middling  tall ;  he  is  not  here,  that  I 
know  of;  can't  tell  when  I  last  saw  him.  His  name  I  understood  to  be 
Gloucester. 

Under  the  severe  cross-examination  that  the  witness  had  been  subjected  to 
under  D.  P.  Brown,  he  became  very  faint,  and  called  for  water.  Large 
drops  of  sweat  stood  upon  his  forehead,  and  he  was  obliged  to  sit  down,  lest 
he  should  fall  down.  "Take  a  seat,"  said  Mr.  Brown  tauntingly,  "  and 
enjoy  yourself,  while  I  proceed  with  my  interrogations."  But  the  witness 
was  completely  used  up,  and  was  allowed  to  withdraw  to  another  room, 
where  fresh  air  was  more  plentiful.  The  cause  of  the  poor  slave  woman 
was  greatly  strengthened  by  this  failure. 

Another  witness,  named  Zachariah  Bowen,  for  the  claimants,  swore  pos- 
itively that  he  knew  the  prisoner  well,  that  she  had  been  hired  to  his 
brother  for  three  years  by  Dr.  Purnell,  whose  slave  she  was ;  also  he  swore 
that  he  knew  her  parents,  who  were  slaves  to  the  said  Doctor  P.  ;  that  he 
last  saw  her  in  1827,  etc.  On  cross-examination  he  swore  thus :  "  I  last  saw 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS.  569 

her  in  1827,  she  was  about  sixteen  or  seventeen;  she  was  about  an  ordinary 
size,  not  the  smallest  size,  nor  the  largest ;  she  was  neither  thick  nor  thin ; 
there  was  nothing  remarkable  in  her  more  than  is  common ;  nothing  in  her 
speech ;  she  was  about  the  same  color  as  the  woman  here ;  I  never  saw  a 
great  deal  of  change  in  a  nigger,  from  sixteen  to  thirty-five  or  forty,  some- 
times they  grow  fatter,  and  sometimes  leaner.  As  to  recognizing  her  in 
Philadelphia,  he  had  not  the  slightest  difficulty.  He  went  on  to  swear,  that 
he  first  saw  her  in  a  cab,  in  the  city ;  I  knew  her  yesterday ;  if  you  could 
see  the  rest  of  the  family  you  could  pick  her  out  yourself  in  thirty  :  I  knew 
her  by  her  general  favor,  and  have  no  particular  mark ;  I  would  not  attempt 
to  describe  features ;  her  favor  is  familiar  to  me ;  I  never  saw  any  marks 
upon  her." 

Here  Mr.  Brown  said  he  would  not  examine  this  witness  further  until  he 
had  concluded  the  examination  of  the  witness,  who  had  become  sick.  The 
court  then  adjourned  till  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning. 

The  avenues  to  the  court  were  filled  with  anxious  persons,  and  in  the 
front  and  rear  of  the  state  house  the  crowd  was  very  great. 

The  next  morning,  at  an  early  hour,  the  court-room,  and  all  the  avenues 
to  it  were  densely  crowded  by  people  interested  in  behalf  of  the  woman 
whose  case  was  under  trial.  A  large  number  of  respectable  ladies  formed  a 
part  of  the  large  gathering. 

Robert  F.  Bowen,  the  witness,  who  became  sick,  was  recalled. 

Witness. — "  I  saw  the  colored  person,  who  gave  the  information,  the  next 
evening ;  after  I  saw  him  in  Market  street,  at  Congress  Hall,  in  our  room ; 
the  gentleman  who  keeps  the  hotel  we  did  not  wish  to  place  under  any 
responsibility,  as  he  might  be  accused  of  carrying  on  the  business.  (Of  kid- 
napping, suggested  Mr.  Brown.)  No,  said  witness,  that  is  what  you  call  it; 
the  woman  would  have  run  away  if  it  had  gone  out ;  I  heard  his  name  was 
Gloucester,  that  gave  the  information ;  I  saw  him  three  times ;  once  on  the 
street ;  I  have  never  been  in  his  house ;  I  have  been  to  a  house  where  I 
heard  he  lived  ;  I  gave  a  pledge  not  to  disclose  the  matter ;  I  made  a  per- 
sonal pledge  to  Gloucester  in  our  room  last  week  at  Congress  Hall ;  he  said 
he  was  afraid  of  being  abused  by  the  population  of  his  own  color  for  telling 
that  this  girl  run  away  from  Dr.  Purnell ;  I  understood  that  Louisa  Truit 
was  Gloucester's  wife. 

Under  this  searching  cross-examination,  Mr.  Brown  constrained  him  not 
only  to  tell  all  and  more  than  he  knew  in  favor  of  his  friend,  the  claimant, 
but  wrung  from  him  the  secrets  which  he  stood  pledged  never  to  disclose. 

Witness. — I  know  no  marks;  she  was  in  the  condition  of  a  married  woman 
when  sh?  left  me ;  it  was  the  particular  favor  of  her  father  and  mother  that 
made  me  recognize  her ;  nothing  else ;  she  was  pretty  well  built  for  her 
size." 

While  this  witness  remembered  every  thing  so  accurately  occurring  in  re- 


570  'THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

lation  to  the  life  and  escape  of  the  girl  of  sixteen,  and  was  prepared  to 
swear  to  her  identity  simply  "  by  her  favor,"  as  he  termed  it,  he  was  found 
sadly  deficient  in  memory  touching  the  owner,  whom  he  had  known  much 
longer,  and  more  intimately  than  he  had  the  girl,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  facts  in  this  witness'  testimony  : 

Witness. — "  I  don't  know  when  Dr.  P.  died ;  I  can't  tell  the  year ;  I 
should  suppose  about  fourteen  years  ago ;  I  was  at  the  funeral,  and  helped 
to  make  his  coffin ;  it  was  in  the  fall,  I  think ;  it  was  after  the  camp-meet- 
ing I  spoke  of;  at  that  time  I  went  regularly,  but  not  of  late;  I  have  no 
certain  recollection  of  the  year  he  died ;  I  kept  a  record  of  the  event  of  my 
conversion,  and  have  referred  to  it  often.  It  has  been  a  reference  every 
year,  and  perhaps  a  thousand  times  a  year ;  it  was  in  the  Bible,  and  I  was 
in  the  habit  of  looking  into  it ;  I  was  in  the  habit  of  turning  over  the  leaves 
of  this  precious  book;  I  think  it  was  eighteen  years  ago  ;  can't  say  I'm  cer- 
tain ;  can't  say  it  was  more  than  twelve  years ;  Dr.  P.  left  six  children  ;  two 
remain  in  our  country,  and  one  in  Louisiana,  and  the  one,  who  is  here, 
making  four;  I  have  no  interest  in  the  fugitive;  I  made  no  contract  in 
regard  to  this  case ;  there  was  an  offer ;  are  you  waiting  for  an  answer  ?  the 
offer  was  this,  that  I  was  to  come  on  after  my  fugitive,  and  if  I  did  not  get 
him  they  were  to  pay  my  expenses ;  I  hesitated  about  coming ;  it  was  a 
long  time  before  I  made  up  my  mind ;  they  said  they  would  pay  my 
expenses  if  I  didn't  succeed  in  getting  mine  out  of  prison." 

In  this  way  the  above  witness  completely  darkened  counsel,  and  added  to 
the  weakness  of  his  cause  in  a  marked  degree. 

THE   OVERSEER  'IS   NOW    EXAMINED. 

Zachariah  Bowen  recalled. — "  I  didn't  come  here  on  any  terms  ;  I  hardly 
understand  what  you  mean  by  terms ;  I  made  no  contract ;  I  came  upon  my 
own  hook;  there  was  no  contract;  I  have  no  expectations;  I  don't  know 
that  Dr.  P.  ever  manumitted  any  female  slaves ;  I  never  knew  that  she  was 
in  the  family  way  when  she  ran  away ;  I  heard  of  it  about  that  time ;  she 
ran  off  in  the  fall  of  1828.  Dr.  P.  told  me  so;  in  the  fall  of  1828;  in  1825, 
'26,  '27,  she  lived  with  my  brother ;  in  1825  I  lived  there ;  in  1827  and  '28 
I  lived  with  Dr.  P.  I  moved  there  and  was  overseer  for  him  ;  I  was  over- 
seer for  fifteen  years  for  him ;  two  years  at  his  house ;  I  ceased  to  be  his 
overseer  in  1841,  I  think;  he  was  living  in  1841;  I  am  certain  of  that 
year,  I  think ;  Dr.  Purnell  died  in  1844,  I  feel  certain ;  I  said  to  Mr.  Pur- 
nell  that  I  did  not  know  what  ailed  the  other  Mr.  Bowen,  for  the  doctor 
died  in  1844 ;  he  died  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Spring  of  1844 ;  Mr.  Bowen 
made  a  mistake  in  saying  it  was  eighteen  years  ago ;  if  you  recall  him  he 
will  rectify  the  mistake,  I  think ;  several  slaves  escaped  from  Dr.  Purnell ; 
a  boy,  that  lived  with  my  brother,  ran  away  in  1827 ;  the  others  were  not 
hired  to  my  brother ;  I  don't  know  that  I  could  tell  the  exact  time,  nor  the 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS.  571 

year ;  the  doctor  used  to  say  to  us,  there  is  another  of  my  niggers  ran  away; 
the  reason  that  I  can  tell  when  Mahala  ran  away,  is  because  she  took  a 
husband  and  ran  away;  I  was  married  that  year;  the  reason  I  cannot  tell 
about  the  others  is,  because  they  went  at  different  times  in  five  years;  the 
first  who  ran  away  before  Mahala,  was  named  Grace ;  she  went  in  1827 ;  I 
don't  know  when  the  last  went,  or  who  it  was. 

******  *  * 

Gloucester  said  they  had  raised  a  mob  on  him,  on  account  of  this  case,  and 
he  would  have  to  leave  the  city  ;  the  case  of  this  woman  or  these  proceed- 
ings was  not  spoken  of  there  ;  he  staid  but  a  short  time ;  he  said  one  of  the 
witnesses  had  betrayed  him  in  court,  yesterday,  and  they  attacked  him  last 
night ;  I  asked  him  how  he  escaped  from  so  many  ;  he  said  very  few  were 
in  the  city  who  could  outrun  him ;  I  asked  him  where  he  was  going,  he 
replied  he  had  a  notion  to  put  for  Canada ;  some  of  the  gentlemen  proposed 
his  going  to  Baltimore  ;  he  said  that  would  not  do,  as  the  laws  of  Maryland 
would  catch  him  ;  he  was  going  to  get  a  boat  and  go  to  New  Jersey,  and 
then  to  New  York  ;  Mr.  Purnell  gave  him  just  thirty-five  dollars  last  night; 
he  paused  a  while,  and  Mr.  P.  told  him  to  hand  it  back  ;  he  then  took  out 
his  money  and  put  some  more  to  it,  and  said :  "  Here  is  fifty  dollars."  Mr. 
P.  said  that  if  he  got  the  slave  he  would  leave  fifty  dollars  more  with  a  per- 
son in  the  city. 

******** 

Question  by  the  judge. — "You  have  spoken  of  a  conversation  in  which 
Mr.  P.  told  you  of  certain  letters  or  correspondence,  and  that  they  had 
reference  to  this  alleged  fugitive.  I  want  you  to  give  me,  to  the  best  of 
your  recollection,  everything  he  said  the  letters  contained." 

Witness. — Mr  P.  told  me  when  he  first  mentioned  it  to  me,  he  said  that  he 
was  going  to  mention  something  to  me,  that  he  did  not  want  anything  said, 
in  regard  to  some  negroes  that  had  run  away  from  his  father ;  he  said  he 
wanted  me  to  come  on  here,  and  he  did  not  want  me  to  tell  any  person 
before  we  left  our  county  ;  that  if  the  negroes  heard  of  it,  they  could  get 
information  to  the  parties  before  he  could  get  here;  I  told  him  I  would  not 
tell  any  person  except  my  wife ;  he  then  said  he  had  correspondence  with  a 
person  here,  for  a  month  or  two,  and  he  had  no  doubt  but  that  several  of  his 
negroes  were  here,  from  what  he  had  heard  from  his  correspondent;  he 
asked  me  if  I  could  recognize  the  favor  of  this  Mahala  ?  I  told  him  I 
didn't  know ;  he  then  said  if  anybody  would  know  her,  I  would,  as  she  had 
lived  with  my  brother  three  years ;  he  then  said  that  he  would  want  to  start 
the  next  week,  but  he  would  see  me  again  at  that  time ;  that  was  all  he  said 
at  that  time,  only  we  turned  into  a  hotel,  and  he  said  don't  breathe  this  to 
anybody ;  on  Saturday  before  we  left  home,  he  came  to  my  house,  and  said : 
well,  I  shall  want  you  to  start  for  Philadelphia,  on  Monday  morning ;  I 
suppose  you  will  go  ?  I  told  him  I  would  rather  not,  if  he  could  do  with- 


572  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

out  me ;  but  as  I  told  him  before,  I  would  go,  if  he  still  requested  it.  I 
would  go;  that's  all,  sir,  except  that  I  said  I  would  be  along  in  the  stage. 
******** 

J.  T.  Hammond  was  then  called,  a  young  man  who  admitted  he  had 
never  seen  the  respondent  till  he  came  to  the  court-house,  but  was  ready  to 
swear  that  he  would  have  known  her  by  her  resemblance  to  Dr.  Purnell's 
set  of  negroes.  "  His  whole  set  ?"  said  Mr.  Brown.  "  Yes,  sir."  (Derisive 
laughter). 

******** 

Mr.  McMurtrie  offered  to  ^rove,  by  persons  who  had  known  the  two 
witnesses  who  had  testified  in  this  case,  from  their  youth,  that  they  were 
respectable  and  worthy  men.  D.  P.  Brown,  said  that  if  the  gentleman 
found  it  necessary  to  sustain  his  witnesses'  reputation,  in  consequence  of  the 
peculiar  dilemma  they  had  got  into,  he  would  object,  and  if  he  supposed 
that  he  was  about  to  contradict  them  in  some  point  in  the  defence,  he 
certainly  was  right,  but  as  the  case  could  not  be  concluded  to-day,  he  would 
like  to  have  the  matter  adjourned  over  until  Tuesday  next. 

Mr.  McMurtrie  objected,  by  saying,  that  his  client  was  anxious  to  have 
the  matter  disposed  of  as  soon  as  possible,  as  he  had  been  subjected  to 
numerous  insults  since  the  matter  had  been  before  the  court. 

Judge  Kane  intimated  that  no  weight  was  to  be  attached  to  this  consider- 
ation, as  the  full  power  of  the  court  was  at  his  disposal  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  his  client  from  insult. 

Mr.  McMurtrie  replied  that  he  did  not  know  whether  words  spoken  came 
within  the  meaning  of  the  act  of  Congress,  in  such  matters. 

The  court  took  a  recess  until  a  quarter  to  three  o'clock. 

The  court  met  again  at  a  quarter  to  three  o'clock. 

Mr.  McMurtrie  asked  that  the  witnesses  for  the  defence  be  excluded  from 
the  court  room,  except  the  one  upon  the  stand. 

This  was  objected  to  by  Mr.  Brown,  as  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution 
had  not  been  required  so  to  do ;  but  he  afterwards  withdrew  his  objections, 
and  notified  Mr.  McMurtrie  that  he  would  require  any  witnesses  he  might 
have  in  addition,  should  retire  also;  as  he  would  object  to  any  of  them  being 
heard  if  they  remained. 

The  Defence. — Mr.  Pierce  opened  the  case  by  saying  that  the  testimony  for 
the  defence  would  be  clear  and  conclusive ;  that  the  witnesses  for  the  pro- 
secution are  mistaken  in  the  identity  of  the  alleged  fugitive.  That  at 
the  time  they  allege  her  to  have  been  in  Maryland,  on  the  plantation  of  Dr. 
Purnell,  she  was  in  Chester  county,  and  in  the  year  Lafayette  visited  this 
country,  she  was  in  this  city.  He  would  confine  the  testimony  exclusively 
to  these  two  counties,  and  show  that  she  is  not  the  alleged  slave. 

Henry  C.  Cornish,  sworn.  I  live  in  this  city,  and  am  a  shoemaker ;  I 
came  here  in  the  year  1830 ;  before  that  I  lived  in  Chester  county,  East 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS.  573 

"Whiteland  township,  with  Wra.  Latta ;  my  father  lived  with  Mr.  Latta  six 
or  eight  years  ;  I  lived  there  three  years  before  that  time,  and  was  familiar 
with  the  place  for  more  than  six  years  before  1830 ;  I  saw  the  alleged  fugi- 
tive some  five  years  before  1830,  at  George  Amos',  in  Uwchland  township, 
some  eight  or  ten  miles  from  our  house ;  I  fix  the  time  from  a  meeting  being 
held  on  the  Valley  Hill  by  a  minister,  named  Nathan  D.  Tierney ;  that 
must  have  been  in  1825;  I  am  positive  it  was  before  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1828  ;  I  have  not  the  least  doubt;  I  joined  church  about  that  time;  it 
was  the  first  of  rny  uniting  with  the  church ;  it  was  in  1825 ;  I  joined  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church ;  before  they  built  a  church  they  held  meetings 
alternately  at  people's  houses ;  I  met  her  at  Amos'  house,  I  recollect  my 
father  going  to  dig  the  foundation  of  the  church  :  I  saw  her  there  before  the 
church  was  built ;  I  knew  her  before  she  was  married ;  and  since  I  left 
there  I  have  met  her  at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  church ;  I  have  kept  up 
the  acquaintance  ever  since ;  I  knew  that  she  had  two  children,  that  were 
buried  as  long  as  twenty-one  or  twenty-two  years  ago ;  if  the  boy  -had  lived 
he  would  have  been  twenty-three  or  twenty-four  years  old ;  he  was  the  oldest ; 
she  was  not  married  when  I  first  saw  her  in  1827 ;  she  did  not  appear  to  be 
anything  but  a  girl,  and  was  not  married,  and  she  of  course  could  not  be  in 
the  condition  of  a  married  woman ;  I  was  not  at  her  wedding ;  if  I  had  not 
continued  to  know  her,  I  would  not  now  know  her ;  she  was  then  a  small 
person ;  age  and  flesh  would  change  her  a  little ;  her  complexion  has  not 
changed ;  I  think  she  worked  for  Mrs.  Amos ;  a  church  record  is  now  kept 
very  correct ;  but  when  I  first  went  into  the  church,  colored  men  could  not 
read  and  write ;  I  acted  as  the  clerk  of  the  church  ;  I  united  with  the  church 
after  I  first  saw  her ;  I  have  seen  her  very  often  since  I  left  Chester ;  five 
hundred  times  to  speak  safely ;  I  worship  down  town  and  she  np  in  Brown 
street ;  to  the  best  of  my  recollection  they  moved  over  Schuylkill  about 
twelve  years  ago;  she  has  lived  here  about  nine  years;  she  has  six  children,' 
I  have  heard  ;  I  have  seen  five ;  the  oldest  is  eighteen  or  nineteen ;  the 
youngest  a  sucking  babe;  I  have  visited  her  house  since  I  have  been  here; 
I  was  not  sent  for  by  my  uncle,  who  was  employed  by  Joseph  Smith  &  Co., 
next  to  the  Girard  Bank ;  I  was  with  Edward  Biddle  for  four  years,  until 
he  was  elected  President  of  the  Morris  Canal  and  Banking  Company,  and 
then  I  went  to  learn  shoemaking  under  instructions,  since  which  time  I  have 
been  in  business  for  myself;  my  father  burnt  limestone  for  Mr.  Latta ;  he 
and  his  wife  are  dead ;  I  was  there  a  day  or  two  ago  for  witnesses  to  testify 
in  this  case. 

Cross-examined. — I  was  born  in  1814,  and  am  thirty-seven  years  of  age; 
when  I  first  knew  her  I  suppose  she  was  fifteen  years  old  ;  she  was  married 
about  three  years  afterwards ;  her  husband's  name  is  Micajah  Williams ; 
I  heard  he  was  in  prison  for  stealing ;  her  name  before  marriage  was  Phamie 
Coates  ;  I  didn't  know  her  husband  before  they  were  married  ;  don't  know 


674  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

whether  they  came  from  Maryland ;  I  never  knew  of  Mahala  Richardson 
before  last  evening  in  court ;  the  difference  in  her  appearance  is  a  natural 
one,  that  every  body  is  acquainted  with ;  I  mean  that  a  little  boy  is  not  a 
man,  and  a  growing  girl  is  not  a  woman ;  age  and  flash  and  size  make  a 
difference ;  if  I  had  not  conversed  with  her  during  the  twenty-one  years,  I 
would  not  have  known  her ;  I  never  changed  a  word  with  her  about  the 
case,  except  to  say  I  was  sorry  to  see  her  here ;  I  knew  her  the  moment 
I  saw  her;  her  arrest  could  not  have  been  in  the  newspapers  of  the  morning 
as  she  was  not  arrested  until  seven  o'clock  that  day ;  I  went  to  Chester  to 
look  for  witnesses ;  I  came  to  the  court  because  I  am  a  vigilant  man,  and 
my  principle  is  to  save  any  person  whose  liberty  is  in  danger ;  I  had  heard 
that  a  woman  was  arrested  ;  her  business  is  to  get  work  wherever  she  can. 

Deborah  Ann  Boyer,  sworn.  I  was  thirty-three  last  January ;  I  live 
within  one  mile  of  West  Chester ;  I  am  a  married  woman ;  I  have  lived 
there  since  1835.  I  went  there  with  my  mother;  I  can  read;  I  have  seen 
the  alleged  fugitive  before  this ;  I  first  knew  her  at  Downingtown,  when  she 
came  to  my  mother's  house ;  that  was  before  I  had  gone  to  West  Chester 
with  my  mother;  you  can  tell  how  long  it  was,  for  it  was  in  1826  ;  my 
brother  was  born  in  that  year ;  I  was  quite  small  then ;  don't  know  how 
she  came  there;  she  was  with  my  mother  during  her  confinement;  my 
brother  is  dead  ;  it  is  written  down  in  our  Testament ;  and  I  took  an  epitaph 
from  it  to  put  on  the  tombstone;  the  last  time  I  saw  it  was  when  the  fellow 
killed  the  school-mistress.  I  looked  because  about  1830,  a  man  killed  a 
woman,  and  was  hung,  and  I  wanted  to  see  how  long  ago  it  was.  I  have  seen 
her  more  or  less  ever  since,  until  within  two  years.  I  don't  remember  when 
she  went  from  mother,  but  I  saw  her  at  Mr.  Latta's  afterwards.  I  have  no 
doubt  she  is  the  woman  ;  she  was  then  a  slim,  tall  girl,  larger  than  myself; 
she  is  not  darker  now,  but  heavier  set  every  way. 

***  *  *  *  *  * 

Sarah  Gayly  affirmed. — I  am  between  forty-seven  and  forty-eight  years 
of  age.*  I  live  in  the  city  at  this  time.  I  was  raised  in  Chester  county,  in 
1824,  and  have  been  here  about  five  years.  I  lived  in  Downingtown  nine  or 
ten  years.  I  lived  awhile  in  West  Chester,  and  lived  in  Chester  county 
until  about  five  years  ago.  I  know  the  alleged  fugitive.  I  first  saw 
her  in  the  neighborhood  of  Downingtown,  at  a  place  they  call  Down- 
ing's  old  stage  office ;  she  worked  in  the  house  with  me ;  it  was  some- 
where near  1824,  just  before  Lafayette  came  about ;  she  worked  off 
and  on  days'  work,  to  wash  dishes ;  she  was  a  small  girl  then,  very  thin, 
and  younger  than  me.  I  met  with  her,  as  near  as  I  can  tell  you,  down  in 
the  valley,  at  a  place  called  the  Valley  Inn.  I  used  to  see  her  off  and  on 
at  church,  in  1826.  I  visited  her  at  Mr.  Latta's,  after  she  lived  at  the 
Valley  Inn.  I  don't  know  when  she  left  that  county.  I  know  the  alleged 
fugitive  is  the  same  person ;  she  belonged  to  the  same  church,  Ebenezer.  I 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS,  575 

know  the  brothers  Cornish,  and  have  whipped  them  many  a  time.  I  lived 
with  Latta  myself,  and  the  Cornish,  who  is  now  a  minister,  lived  there ;  he 
lived  there  before  I  did,  and  so  did  the  alleged  fugitive.  I  was  then 
between  twenty-three  and  twenty-five  years  old  ;  she  was  a  strip  of  a  girl ; 
she  was  not  in  the  family  way  when  she  came  there. 

Cross-examined. — I  have  not  seen  her  since  1826,  until  I  saw  her  here  in 
the  court-room  ;  I  recognized  her  when  I  first  saw  her  -here  without  any- 
body pointing  her  out,  and  she  recognized  me ;  I  have  reason  to  know  her, 
because  she  has  the  same  sort  of  a  scar  on  her  forehead  that  I  have ;  we 
used  to  make  fun  of  each  other  about  the  marks;  she  went  by  the  name  of 
Fanny  Coates.  I  know  nothing  about  her  husband ;  she  did  not  do  the 
work  of  a  woman  in  1826  ;  she  washed  dishes,  scrubbed,  etc.  I  heard  her 
say  her  father  and  mother  were  dead,  and  that  they  lived  somewhere  in  that 
neighborhood ;  she  at  that  time  made  her  home  with  a  family  named  Amos. 

The  Judge  asked  to  see  the  scar  on  the  witness'  forehead  and  that  on  the 
forehead  of  the  respondent.  They  were  brought  near  the  bench,  and  the 
marks  inspected,  which  were  plainly  seen  on  both.  During  this  time  the 
infant  of  the  respondent  was  entrusted  to  another  colored  woman.  The 
child,  who,  up  to  this  time,  had  been  quiet,  raised  a  piteous  cry  and  would 
not  be  pacified.  The  whole  scene  excited  a  great  sensation. 

******** 

Mr.  Brown  then  rose  in  reply  to  the  plaintiff's  counsel,  and  said :  If  I 
consulted  my  own  views,  I  should  not  say  one  syllable,  in  answer  to  the 
arguments  of  the  learned  counsel  upon  the  other  side,  and  relying  as  I  do 
upon  the  evidence,  and  out  of  respect  to  the  convenience  of  your  honor,  I 
shall  say  very  little  as  it  is.  The  views  of  the  counsel  it  appears  to  me,  are 
most  extraordinary  indeed.  He  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that  every-r 
thing  that  is  said  on  the  part  of  the  witnesses  for  the  claimant  is  gospel,  and 
that  what  is  said  on  the  part  of  the  witnesses  for  the  respondent,  is  to  be 
considered  matter  of  suspicion.  Now  I  rate  no  man  by  his  size,  color,  or 
position,  but  I  appeal  to  you  in  looking  at  the  testimony  that  has  been  pro- 
duced here,  on  the  different  sides  of  the  question,  and  judging  it  by  its 
intrinsic  worth,  whether  there  is  the  slightest  possible  comparison  between  the 
witnesses  on  the  part  of  the  plaintiff,  and  those  of  the  defendant,  either  in 
intelligence,  memory,  language,  thought,  or  anything  else.  This  is  a  fine 
commentary  upon  the  disparagement  of  color !  Looking  at  the  men  as-  they 
are,  as  you  will,  I  say  that  the  testimony  exhibited  on  the  part  of  the 
respondent  would  outweigh  a  whole  theatre  of  such  men  as  are  exhibited  on 
the  part  of  the  complainant.  I  say  nothing  here  about  their  respectability. 
It  would  have  been  proper  for  the  learned  counsel  on  the  part  of  the  plain- 
tiff, if  he  thought  the  witnesses  on  the  part  of  the  respondent  unworthy  of 
belief,  to  have  proved  them  so;  but  instead  of  that,  he  attempts  to  bolster 
up  men,  who,  whether  respectable  or  otherwise,  from  their  inconsistency, 


576  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

involutions  and  tergiversations  in  regard  to  this  case,  produce  no  possible 
effect  upon  the  judicial  mind,  but  that  which  is  unfavorable  to  themselves. 
Impartial  men,  are  they  ?  How  do  they  appear  before  you  ?  They  appear 
under  cover  from  first  to  last;  standing  upon  their  right  to  resist  inquiries 
legitimately  propounded  to  them ;  burning  up  letters  since  they  have 
arrived,  calculated  to  shed  light  upon  this  subject ;  and  before  they  come 
here,  corresponding  with  and  'deriving  information  from  a  man,  an  evident 
kidnapper,  who  dare  not  sign  his  name  and  gets  his  wife  to  sign  hers.  This 
is  the  character  these  men  exhibit  here  before  you ;  clandestinely  meeting 
together  at  the  tavern,  and  that  to  consult  in  regard  to  the  identity  of  a 
person  about  whom  they  know  nothing.  Can  they  refer  to  any  marks  by 
which  to  identify  this  person?  Nothing  at  all  of  the  kind.  Do  they,  with 
the  exception  of  the  first  witness  examined,  state  even  the  time  when  she 
left  ?  Have  they  produced  the  letter  written  by  this  kidnapper,  showing 
how  he  described  her  ?  Why,  let  me  ask,  is  not  the  full  light  allowed  to 
shine  on  this  case?  But  even  with  the  light  they  have  shed  upon  it,  I  would 
have  been  perfectly  content  to  have  rested  it,  relying  upon  their  testimony 
alone,  for  a  just  decision. 

******** 
Now,  what  man  among  them,  professes  to  have  seen  this  woman  for 
twenty-one  years?  Not  one.  The  learned  gentleman  attempts  to  sustain 
his  case,  because  one  of  our  witnesses,  certainly  not  more  than  one,  has  not 
seen  this  woman  for  about  the  same  length  of  time :  but  don't  you  perceive, 
that  in  this  case  they  all  lived  in  the  same  State,  if  not  in  the  same  county — 
they  had  intercourse  with  persons  mutually  acquainted  with  her,  and  three 
out  of  four  of  them,  met  her  for  several  months  at  the  same  church  ;  and 
one  witness,  who  had  long  been  in  her  society,  and  in  close  association  with 
her,  knew  she  had  a  mark  upon  her  forehead  corresponding  to  the  one  she  bore 
on  her  own.  And  by  dint  of  all  these  matters,  this  long  continued  acquain- 
tance only  reviving  the  impressions  received  in  early  life,  they  had  no  doubt 
of  the  identity  of  the  person.  Was  there  ever  a  more  perfect  train  of 
evidence  exhibited  to  prove  the  identity  of  a  person,  than  on  the  present 

occasion  ? 

******** 

We  have  called  witnesses  on  this  point  alone,  and  have  more  than  counter- 
poised the  evidence  produced  upon  the  opposite  side.  And  we  huve  not 
only  made  it  manifest  that  she  was  a  free  woman,  but  we  have  confirmed 
her  charter  by  separate  proof.  What  does  the  gentleman  say  further?  Do 
I  understand  him  to  say  we  have  no  right  to  determine  this  matter  judi- 
cially ?  Now  what  is  all  this  about  ?  Why  is  it  before  you,  taking  your 
time  day  after  day  ?  According  to  this  argument,  you  have  nothing  to  do 
but  to  give  the  master  the  flesh  he  claims.  But  you  are  to  be  satisfied  that 
you  have  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that  these  claims  are  well  founded.  And 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS,  577 

if  you  leave  that  matter  in  a  state  of  doubt,  it  does  not  require  a  single  wit- 
ness to  be  called  on  the  part  of  the  respondent,  to  prove  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  question.  But  we  have  come  in  with  a  weight  of  evidence  demolish- 
ing the  structure  he  has  raised,  restoring  the  woman  to  her  original  position 
in  the  estimation  of  the  law.  "  Well,"  says  the  gentleman,  "  it  is  like  the 
case  of  a  fugitive  from  justice."  But  it  is  not,  and  if  it  were,  it  would  not 
benefit  his  case.  The  case  of  a  fugitive  from  justice  is  one  in  which  the 
prisoner  is  remanded  to  the  custody  of  the  law,  handed  over  for  legal  pur- 
poses. The  case  of  a  fugitive  from  labor  is  a  case  in  which  the  individual  is 
handed  over  sometimes  to  a  merciless  master,  and  very  rarely  to  a  chari table 
one.  Does  the  counsel  mean  to  say  that  in  the  case  of  a  fugitive  from  justice 
he  is  not  bound  to  satisfy  the  judge  before  whom  the  question  is  heard?  He 
should  prove  our  witnesses  unworthy  of  belief.  As  Judge  Grier  said,  upon 
a  former  occasion,  "  You  can  choose  your  own  time ;  you  have  full  and 
abundant  opportunities  on  every  side  to  prepare  against  any  contingency." 
Why  don't  they  do  so  ?  He  is  not  to  come  here  and  force  on  a  case,  and 
say,  I  suppose  you  take  every  thing  for  granted.  He  is  to  come  prepared  to 
prove  the  justice  of  his  claim  before  the  tribunal  who  is  to  decide  upon  it. 
That  he  has  not  done  successfully,  and  I  would,  therefore,  ask  your  Honor, 
after  the  elaborate  argument  on  the  part  of  the  plaintiff,  to  discharge  this 
woman :  for  after  such  an  abundance  of  testimony  unbroken  and  incontesta- 
ble as  that  we  have  exhibited  here,  it  would  be  a  monstrous  perversion  of 
reason  to  suppose  that  anything  more  could  be  required. 

Mr.  McMurtrie  replied  by  reasserting  his  positions.  It  was  a  grave  ques- 
tion for  the  court  to  consider  what  evidence  was  required.  He^thought  that 
this  decision  might  be  the  turning  case  to  show  whether  the  act  of  Congress 
would  be  carried  out  or  whether  we  were  to  return  in  fact  to  the  state  of 
affairs  under  the  old  laws. 

Judge  Kane  said,  in  reference  to  the  remarks  at  the  close  of  Mr.  McMur- 
trie's  speech  :  So'  long  as  I  retain  my  seat  on  this  bench,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
enforce  this  law  without  reference  to  my  own  sympathies,  or  the  sympathies 
and  opinions  of  others.  I  do  not  think,  in  the  cases  under  this  act  of 
Congress,  or  a  treaty,  or  constitutional,  or  legal  provision  for  the  extradition 
of  fugitives  from  justice,  that  it  is  possible  to  imagine  that  conclusive  proof 
of  identity  could  be  established  by  depositions.  From  the  nature  of  the 
case  and  the  facts  to  be  proved,  proof  cannot  be  made  in  anticipation  of  the 
identity  of  the  party.  That  being  established,  it  is  the  office  of  the  judge, 
to  determine  whether  a  prima  facie  case  indicates  the  identity  of  the  party 
charged,  with  the  party  before  him. 

******** 

On  the  other  hand,  the  evidence  of  the  claimant  has   been  met,  and 
regarding  the  bearing  of  the  witnesses  for  the  respondent,  met  by  witnesses 
who  testified,  with  apparent  candor  and  great  intelligence.     If  they  are 
37 


578  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

believed,  then  the  witnesses  for  the  claimant  are  mistaken.  The  question  is, 
whether  two  witnesses  for  the  claimant,  who  have  not  seen  the  respondent 
for  twenty-three,  one  for  twenty-four  years,  are  to  be  believed  in  preference 
to  four  witnesses  on  the  other  side,  three  of  whom  have  seen  her  frequently 
since  1826,  and  known  her  as  Euphemia  Williams,  and  the  fourth,  who  has 
not  seen  her  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  but  testifies  that  when  they  were 
children,  they  used  to  jest  each  other  about  scars,  which  they  still  bear  upon 
their  persons ;  I  am  bound  to  say  that  the  proof  by  the  four  witnesses  has 
not  been  overthrown  by  the  contrary  evidence  of  the  two  who  only  recog- 
nized her  when  they  called  on  her  with  the  marshal  1.  One  says  he  called 
her  Mahala  Purnell  as  soon  as  he  saw  her.  He  might  be  mistaken.  He 
inferred  he  would  find  her  at  the  place  to  which  he  went.  There  were  three 
persons  in  the  room,  one  was  Mahala  Richardson,  whom  he  knew,  a  young 
girl,  and  the  prisoner.  If  she  had  been  alone,  his  recognition  would  have 
been  of  no  avail.  The  fact  is  obvious  to  this  court,  that  the  respondent  has 
no  peculiar  physiognomy  or  gait.  It  has  been  shown  she  has  no  peculiarity 
of  voice ;  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  fact  alleged  by  the  claimant  is  very 
doubtful,  when  the  witnesses,  without  mark  or  peculiarity,  testify  that  they 
can  readily  recognize  the  girl  of  fifteen  in  the  woman  of  forty.  The  prisoner 
is  therefore  discharged. 

A  slight  attempt  at  applause  in  the  court  room  was  promptly  suppressed. 
The  intelligence  of*the  discharge  of  the  woman,  was  quickly  spread  to  those 
without,  who  raised  shouts  of  joy.  The  woman,  with  her  children,  were 
hurried  into  a  carriage,  which  was  driven  first  to  the  Anti-slavery  office  and 
then  to  the  Philadelphia  Institute,  in  Lombard  Street  above  Seventh. 
Here  she  was  introduced  to  a  large  audience  of  colored  people,  who  hailed 
her  appearance  with  lively  joy ;  several  excited  speeches  were  made,  and 
great  enthusiasm  was  manifested  in  and  outside  of  the  building  and  the 
adjacent  streets.  When  Euphemia  came  out,  the  horses  were  taken  out  of 
the  carriage,  and  a  long  rope  was  attached,  which  was  taken  by  as  many 
colored  people  as  could  get  hold  of  it,  and  the  woman  and  her  children 
thus  conveyed  to  her  home. 

The  procession  was  accompanied  by  several  hundreds  of  men,  women  and 
boys.  They  dragged  the  carriage  past  the  residence  of  the  counsel  for  the 
respondent,  cheering  them  by  huzzas  of  the  wildest  kind,  and  then  took  the 
vehicle  and  its  contents  to  the  residence  of  the  woman,  Germantown  Road 
near  Fifth  street,  beguiling  the  way  with  songs  and  shouts.  The  whole 
scene  was  one  of  wild,  ungovernable  excitement,  produced  by  exuberance 
of  joy. 

The  masterly  management  of  abolitionists  in  connection  with  the  counsel, 
saved  poor  Euphemia  from  being  dragged  from  her  children  into  hopeless 
bondage.  While  the  victory  was  a  source  of  great  momentary  rejoicing  on 
the  part  of  the  friends  of  the  slave  it  was  nevertheless  quite  manifest  that 


THE  CASE  OF  EUPHEMIA  WILLIAMS.  579 

she  was  only  released  by  the  "skin  of  her  teeth."  "A  scar  on  her  forehead" 
saved  her.  Relative  to  this  important  mark,  a  few  of  Euphemia's  friends 
enjoyed  a  very  pleasing  anecdote,  which,  at  the  time,  they  were  obliged  to 
withhold  from  the  public ;  it  is  too  good  to  be  kept  any  longer.  For  a  time, 
Euphemia  was  kept  in  durance  vile,  up  in  the  dome  of  Independence  Hall, 
partly  in  the  custody  of  Lieutenant  Gouldy  of  the  Mayor's  police,  (who  was 
the  right  man  in  the  right  place),  whose  sympathies  were  secretly  on  the 
side  of  the  slave.  While  his  pitying  eyes  gazed  on  Euphemia's  sad  face, 
he  observed  a  very  large  scar  on  her  forehead,  and  was  immediately  struck 
with  the  idea  that  that  old  scar  might  be  used  with  damaging  effect  by  the 
witnesses  and  counsel  against  her.  At  once  he  decided  that  the  scar  must 
be  concealed,  at  least,  until  after  the  examination  of  the  claimant's  witnesses. 
Accordingly  a  large  turban  was  procured  and  placed  on  Euphemia's  head  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  hide  the  scar  completely,  without  exciting  the  least 
suspicion  in  the  minds  of  any.  So  when  the  witnesses  against  her  swore 
that  she  had  no  particular  mark,  David  Paul  Brown  made  them  clinch  this 
part  of  their  testimony  irrevocably.  Now,  when  Sarah  Gayly  affirmed  (on 
the  part  of  the  prisoner)  that  "  I  have  reason  to  know  her  because  she  has 
the  same  sort  of  a  scar  on  her  forehead  that  I  have,  we  used  to  make  fun  of 
each  other  about  the  marks,"  etc.,  if  it  was  not  evident  to  all,  it  was  to 
some,  that  she  had  "stolen  their  thunder,"  as  the  "chop-fallen"  countenances 
of  the  slave-holder's  witnesses  indicated  in  a  moment.  Despair  was  depicted 
on  all  faces  sympathizing  with  the  pursuers. 

With  heavy  pecuniary  losses,  sad  damage  of  character,  and  comfort- 
less, the  unhappy  claimant  and  his  witnesses  were  compelled  to  return  to 
Maryland,  wiser  if  not  better  men.  The  account  of  this  interesting  trial, 
we  have  condensed  from  a  very  careful  and  elaborate  report  of  it  published 
in  the  "Pennsylvania  Freeman,"  January  13th,  1857. 

Apparently,  the  vigilance  of  slave-hunters  was  not  slackened  by  this 
defeat,  as  the  records  show  that  many  exciting  cases  took  place  in  Philadel- 
phia and  Pennsylvania,  and  if  the  records  of  the  old  Abolitionist  Society 
could  be  published,  as  they  should  be,  it  would  appear  that  many  hard- 
fought  battles  have  taken  place  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  on  this  soil. 

Here  in  conclusion  touching  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  arrests  under  it,  etc., 
as  a  fitting  sequel  we  copy  two  extracts  from  high  authority.  The  first  is 
from  the  able  and  graphic  pen  of  James  Miller  McKim,  who  was  well 
known  to  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of  both  the  Anti-slavery  Society  and  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  cause  through  all  the  long  and  trying  contest, 
during  which  the  country  was  agitated  by  the  question  of  immediate  eman- 
cipation, and  shared  the  full  confidence  and  respect  of  Abolitionists  of  all 
classes  throughout  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

The  letter  from  which  we  have  made  this  extract  was  written  to  Hon. 


580  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

George  Thompson,  the  distinguished  abolitionist  of  England,  and  speaks 
for  itself.  The  other  quotation  is  from  the  pen  of  a  highly  respectable  and 
intelligent  lady,  belonging  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  or  Quakers,  and  a  most 
devoted  friend  of  the  slave,  whose  statement  obviously  is  literally  true. 


From  Mr.  McKiM  to  GEORGE  THOMPSON,  1851. 

"  The  accompanying  parcel  of  extracts  will  give  you  a  full  account  of  the 
different  slave  cases  tried  in  this  city,  under  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Law  up 
to  this  time.  Full  and  accurate  as  these  reports  are,  they  will  afford  you 
but  a  faint  idea  of  the  anguish  and  confusion  that  have  been  produced  in 
this  part  of  the  country  by  this  infamous  statute.  It  has  turned  South- 
eastern Pennsylvania  into  another  Guinea  Coast,  and  caused  a  large  portion 
of  the  inhabitants  to  feel  as  insecure  from  the  brutal  violence  and  diabolical 
acts  of  the  kidnapper,  as  are  the  unhappy  creatures  who  people  the  shores 
of  Africa.  Ruffians  from  the  other  side  of  the  Slave-line,  aided  by  profes- 
sional kidnappers  on  our  own  soil,  a  class  of  men  whose  'occupation '  until 
lately,  had  been  'gone/  are  continually  prowling  through  the  community, 
and  every  now  and  then  seizing  and  carrying  away  their  prey.  As  a  speci- 
men of  the  boldness,  though  fortunately,  not  of  the  success  always  with 
which  these  wretches  prosecute  their  nefarious  trade,  read  the  enclosed 
article;  which  I  cut  from  the  Freeman,  of  January  2d,  and  bear  in  mind 
that  in  no  respect  are  the  facts  here  mentioned  over-stated. 

This  affair  occurred  in  Chester  county,  one  of  the  most  orderly  and  intel- 
ligent counties  in  the  State,  a  county  settled  principally  by  Quakers.  A 
week  or  two  after  this  occurrence,  and  not  far  from  the  same  place,  a  farm- 
house was  entered  by  a  band  of  armed  ruffians,  in  the  evening,  and  at  a  time 
when  all  the  able-bodied  occupants,  save  one,  were  known  to  be  absent. 
This  was  a  colored  man,  who  was  seated  by  the  kitchen  fire,  and  in  the  act 
of  taking  off  his  shoes.  He  was  instantly  knocked  down  and  gagged ;  but, 
still  resisting,  he  was  beaten  most  unmercifully.  There  was  a  woman,  and 
also  a  feeble  old  man,  in  the  house,  who  were  attracted  to  the  spot  by  the 
scuffle ;  but  they  could  neither  render  any  assistance,  nor  (the  light  being 
put  out),  could  they  recognize  the  parties  engaged  in  it.  The  unhappy 
victim  being  fairly  overcome,  was  dragged  like  a  slain  beast  to  a  wagon, 
which  was  about  a  hundred  yards  distant,  waiting  to  receive  him.  In  this 
he  was  placed,  and  conveyed  across  the  line,  which  was  about  twenty  miles 
further  south ;  and  that  was  the  last,  so  far  as  I  know,  that  has  ever  been 
heard  of  him.  The  alarm  was  given,  of  course,  as  soon  as  possible,  and  the 
neighbors  were  quickly  in  pursuit ;  but  the  kidnappers  had  got  the  start  of 
them.  The  next  morning  the  trail  between  the  house,  and  the  place  where 
the  wagon  stood,  was  distinctly  visible,  and  deeply  marked  with  blood. 


KIDNAPPING.  581 

About  a  fortnight  since,  a  letter  was  brought  to  our  office,  from  a  well- 
known  friend,  the  contents  of  which  were  in  substance  as  follows :  A  case  of 
kidnapping  had  occurred  in  the  vicinity  of  West  Cain  Township,  Chester 
county,  at  about  half  past  one  on  Sunday  morning,  the  16th  March.  A 
black  man,  by  the  name  of  Thomas  Hall,  an  honest,  sober,  and  industrious 
individual,  living  in  the  midst  of  a  settlement  of  farmers,  had  been  stolen 
by  persons  who  knocked  at  his  door,  and  told  him  that  his  nearest  neighbor 
wanted  him  to  come  to  his  house,  one  of  his  children  being  sick.  Hall,  not 
immediately  opening  his  door,  it  was  burst  in,  and  three  men  rushed  into 
his  house ;  Hall  was  felled  by  the  bludgeons  of  the  men.  His  wife  received 
several  severe  blows,  and  on  making  for  the  door  was  told,  that  if  she  at- 
tempted to  go  out  or  halloo,  she  would  have  her  brains  blown  out.  She, 
however,  escaped  through  a  back  window,  and  gave  the  alarm  ;  but  before 
any  person  arrived  upon  the  ground,  they  had  fled  with  their  victim.  He 
was  taken  without  any  clothing,  except  his  night  clothes.  A  six-barrelled 
revolver,  heavily  loaded,  was  dropped  in  the  scuffle,  and  left ;  also  a  silk 
handkerchief,  and  some  old  advertisement  of  a  bear  bait,  that  was  to  take 
place  in  Emmittsburg,  Maryland.  In  how  many  cases  the  persons  stolen 
are  legally  liable  to  capture,  it  is  impossible  to  state.  The  law,  you  know, 
authorizes  arrests  to  be  made,  with  or  without  process,  and  nothing  is  easier 
under  such  circumstances  than  to  kidnap  persons  who  are  free  born. 

The  very  same  day  that  I  received  the  above  mentioned  letter,  and  while 
our  hearts  were  still  aching  over  its  contents,  another  was  brought  us  from 
Thomas  Garrett,  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  announcing  the  abduction,  a 
night  9r  two  before,  of  a  free  colored  man  of  that  city.  The  outrage  was 
committed  by  an  ex-policeman,  who,  pretending  to  be  acting  under  the  com- 
mission which  he  had  been  known  to  hold,  entered,  near  the  hour  of  mid- 
night, the  house  of  the  victim,  and  alleging  against  him  some  petty  act  of 
disorder,  seized  him,  handcuffed  him  in  the  presence  of  his  dismayed  family, 
and  carried  him  off  to  Maryland.  The  cheat  that  had  been  practised  was 
not  discovered  by  the  family  until  next  evening;  but  it  was  too  late,  the 
man  was  gone. 

At  the  time  Mr.  Garrett's  letter  was  handed  to  me,  narrating  the  foregoing 
case  of  man  stealing,  I  was  listening  to  the  sad  tales  of  two  colored  women, 
who  had  come  to  the  office  for  advice  and  assistance.  One  of  them  was  an 
elderly  person,  whose  son  had  been  pursued  by  the  marshal's  deputies,  and 
who  had  just  escaped  with  ( the  skin  of  his  teeth.'  She  did  not  come  on 
her  own  account,  however;  her  heart  was  too  full  of  joy  for  that.  She  came 
to  accompany  the  young  woman  who  was  with  her.  This  young  woman 
was  a  remarkably  intelligent,  lady-like  person,  and  her  story  made  a  strong 
appeal  to  my  feelings.  She  is  a  resident  of  Washington,  and  her  errand 
here  was,  to  procure  the  liberation  of  a  sister-in-law,  who  is  confined  in  that 
city,  under  very  peculiar  circumstances.  The  sister-in-law  had  absconded 


582  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

from  her  mistress  about  nine  months  since,  and  was  secreted  in  the  room  of 
an  acquaintance,  who  was  cook  in  a  distinguished  slave-holding  family  in 
Washington;  her  intention  being,  there  to  wait  until  all  search  should  be 
over,  and  an  opportunity  offer  of  escape  to  the  North.  But,  as  yet,  no  such 
opportunity  had  presented  itself;  at  least  none  that  was  available,  and  for 
nine  long  mouths  had  that  poor  girl  been  confined  in  the  narrow  limits  of 
the  cook's  chamber,  watched  over  day  and  night  by  that  faithful  friend  with 
a  vigilance  as  sleepless  as  it  was  disinterested.  The  time  had  now  come, 
however,  when  something  must  be  done.  The  family  in  whose  house  she  is 
-hid  is  about  to  be  broken  up,  and  the  house  to  be  vacated,  and  the  girl  must 
either  be  rescued  from  her  peril,  or  she,  and  all  her  accomplices  must  be  ex- 
posed. What  to  do  under  these  circumstances  was  the  question  which 
brought  this  woman  to  Philadelphia.  I  advised  her  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  and  sent  her  away  hopeful,  if  not  rejoicing. 

But  in  many  of  these  cases  we  can  render  no  aid  whatever.  All  we  can  do 
is  to  commend  them  to  the  God  of  the  oppressed,  and  labor  on  for  the  day 
of  general  deliverance.  But,  oh  !  the  horrors  of  this  hell-born  system,  and 
the  havoc  made  by  this,  its  last  foul  offspring,  the  Fugitive  Slave  law.  The 
anguish,  the  terror,  the  agony  inflicted  by  this  infamous  statute,  must  be  wit- 
nessed to  be  fully  appreciated.  You  must  hear  the  tale  of  the  broken-hearted 
mother,  who  has  just  received  tidings  that  her  son  is  in  the  hands  of  man- 
thieves.  You  must  listen  to  the  impassioned  appeal  of  the  wife,  whose 
husband's  retreat  has  been  discovered,  and  whose  footsteps  are  dogged  by 
the  blood-hounds  of  Slavery.  You  must  hear  the  husband,  as  I  did,  a  few 
weeks  ago,  himself  bound  and  helpless,  beg  you  for  God's  sake  to  save  his  wife. 
You  must  see  such  a  woman  as  Hannah  Dellam,  with  her  noble-looking  boy 
at  her  side,  pleading  in  vain  before  a  pro-slavery  judge,  that  she  is  of  right 
free ;  that  her  son  is  entitled  to  his  freedom ;  and  above  all,  that  her  babe, 
about  to  be  born,  should  be  permitted  to  open  its  eyes  upon  the  light  of 
liberty.  You  must  hear  the  judge's  decision,  remorselessly  giving  up  the 
woman  with  her  children  born  and  unborn,  into  the  hands  of  their  claim- 
ants— by  them  to  be  carried  to  the  slave  prison,  and  thence  to  be  sold  to  a 
returnless  distance  from  the  remaining  but  scattered  fragments  of  her  once 
happy  family.  These  things  you  must  see  and  hear  for  yourself  before 
you  can  form  any  adequate  idea  of  the  bitterness  of  this  cup  which  the 
unhappy  children  of  oppression  along  this  southern  border  are  called  upon 
to  drink.  Manifestations  like  these  have  we  been  obliged  either  to  witness 
ourselves,  or  hear  the  recital  of  from  others,  almost  daily,  for  weeks  together. 
Our  aching  hearts  of  late,  have  known  but  little  respite.  A  shadow  has 
been  cast  over  our  home  circles,  and  a  check  been  given  to  the  wonted  cheer- 
fulness of  our  families.  One  night,  the  night  that  the  woman  and  the  boy 
and  the  unborn  babe  received  their  doom,  my  wife,  long  after  midnight, 
literally  wept  herself  to  sleep.  For  the  last  fortnight  we  have  had  no  new 


KIDNAPPING.  583 

cases ;  out  even  now,  when  I  go  home  in  the  evening,  if  I  happen  to  look 
more  serious  than  usual,  my  wife  notices  it,  and  asks :  "  Is  there  another 
slave  case  ?"  and  my  little  girls  look  up  anxiously  for  my  reply. 


From  Miss  MARY  B.  THOMAS. 

Daring  outrage!  burglary  and  kidnapping!  The  following  letter  tells  its 
own  startling  and  most  painful  story.  Every  manly  and  generous  heart 
must  burn  with  indignation  at  the  villainy  it  describes,  and  bleed  with 
sympathy  for  the  almost  broken-hearted  suiferers. 

"DOWNINGTOWN,  19th,  4th  mo.,  1848. 

"MY  DEAR  FRIEND: — This  morning  our  family  was  aroused  by  the 
screams  of  a  young  colored  girl,  who  has  been  living  with  us  nearly  a  year 
past ;  but  we  were  awakened  only  in  time  to  see  her  borne  off  by  three 
white  men,  ruffians  indeed,  to  a  carriage  at  our  door,  and  in  an  instant  she 
was  on  her  way  to  the  South.  I  feel  so  much  excited  by  the  attendant 
circumstances  of  this  daring  and  atrocious  deed,  as  scarcely  to  be  able  to 
give  you  a  coherent  account  of  it,  but  1  know  that  it  is  a  duty  to  make  it 
known,  and,  I  therefore  write  this  immediately. 

"As  soon  as  the  house  was  opened  in  the  morning,  these  men  who  were 
lurking  without,  having  a  carriage  in  waiting  in  the  street,  entered  on  their 
horrid  errand.  They  encountered  no  one  in  their  entrance,  except  a  colored 
boy,  who  was  making  the  fire  ;  and  who,  being  frightened  at  their  approach, 
ran  and  hid  himself;  taking  a  lighted  candle  from  the  kitchen,  and  carrying 
it  up  stairs,  they  went  directly  to  the  chamber  in  which  the  poor  girl  lay  in 
a  sound  sleep.  They  lifted  her  from  her  bed  and  carried  her  down  stairs. 
In  the  entry  of  the  second  floor  they  met  one  of  my  sisters,  who,  hearing  an 
unusual  noise,  had  sprung  from  her  bed.  Her  screams,  and  those  of  the 
poor  girl,  who  was  now  thoroughly  awakened  to  the  dreadful  truth,  aroused 
my  father,  who  hurried  undressed  from  his  chamber,  on  the  ground  floor. 
My  father's  efforts  were  powerless  against  the  three ;  they  threw  him  off, 
and  with  frightful  imprecations  hurried  the  girl  to  the  carriage.  Quickly  as 
possible  my  father  started  in  pursuit,  and  reached  West  Chester  only  to 
learn  that  the  carriage  had  driven  through  the  borough  at  full  speed, 
about  half  an  hour  before.  They  had  two  horses  to  their  vehicle,  and  there 
were  three  men  besides  those  in  the  house.  These  particulars  we  gather 
from  the  colored  boy  Ned,  who,  from  his  hiding-place,  was  watching  them 
in  the  road. 

"Can  anything  be  done- for  the  rescue  of  this  girl  from  the  kidnappers? 
We  are  surprised  and  alarmed  !  This  deliberate  invasion  of  our  house,  is  a 
thing  'unimagined.  There  must  be  some  informer,  who  is  acquainted  with 
our  house  and  its  arrangements,  or  they  never  would  have  come  so  boldly 


584  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

through.  Truly,  there  is  no  need  to  preach  about  Slavery  in  the  abstract, 
this  individual  case  combines  every  wickedness  by  which  human  nature  can 
be  degraded.  Truly,  thy  friend, 

MARY  B.  THOMAS." 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  our  friend  says :  "  As  to  detail,  the  whole  transac- 
tion was  like  a  flash  to  those  who  saw  the  miserable  ending.  I  was 
impelled  to  write  without  delay,  by  the  thought  that  it  would  be  in  time  for 
the  ( Freeman/  and  that  any  procrastination  on  my  part,  might  jeopard 
others  of  these  suffering  people,  who  are  living,  as  was  this  poor  girl,  in 
fancied  security.  Our  consternation  was  inexpressible;  our  sorrow  and 
indignation  deepen  daily,  as  the  thought  returns  of  the  awful  announcement 
with  which  we  were  awakened  :  they  have  carried  Martha  to  the  South. 
To  do  what  will  be  of  most  service  to  the  cause — not  their  cause — ours — 
that  of  our  race,  is  our  burning  desire." 


HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD- 
INTERESTING  LETTERS. 

The  necessities  of  the  Committee  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute  and  way- 
worn travelers  bound  freedom-ward,  were  met  mainly  by  friends  of  the 
cause  in  Philadelphia.  Generous- hearted  abolitionists  nobly  gave  their 
gold  in  this  work.  They  gave  not  only  material,  but  likewise  whole-souled 
aid  and  sympathy  in  times  of  need,  to  a  degree  well  worthy  of  commemo- 
ration while  the  name  of  slave  is  remembered.  The  Shipleys,  Hoppers, 
Parrishes,  Motts,  Whites,  Copes,  Wistars,  Pennocks,  Sellers,  Davis, 
Prices,  Hallowells,  Sharpless,  Williams,  Coates,  Morris,  Browns,  Towns- 
ends,  Taylors,  Jones,  Grews,  Wises,  Lindseys,  Barkers,  Earles,  Pughs, 
Rogers,  Whartons,  Barnes,  Willsons,  Wrights,  Peirces,  Justices,  Smiths, 
Cavenders,  Stackhouses,  Nealls,  Dawsons,  Evans,  Lees,  Childs,  Clothiers, 
Harveys,  Laings,  Middletons,  etc.,  are  among  the  names  well-known  in 
the  days  which  tried  men's  souls,  as  being  most  true  to  the  bondman, 
whether  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  before  a  Fugitive  Slave-Law 
Court,  or  on  a  rice  or  cotton  plantation  in  the  South.  Nor  would  we  pass 
over  the  indefatigable  labors  of  the  Ladies'  Anti-slavery  Societies  and 
Sewing  Circles  of  Philadelphia,  whose  surpassing  fidelity  to  the  slave  in 
the  face  of  prejudice,  calumny  and  reproach,  year  in  and  year  out,  should 
be  held  in  lasting  remembrance.  In  the  hours  of  darkness  they  cheered 
the  cause.  While  we  thus  honor  the  home-guards  and  coadjutors  in 
our  immediate  neighborhood,  we  cannot  forget  other  earnest  and  faithful 
friends  of  the  slave,  in  distant  parts  of  the  country  and  the  world,  who 


HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS.  585 

volunteered  timely  aid  and  sympathy  to  the  VTigilance  Committee  of  Phila- 
delphia. Not  to  mention  any  of  this  class  would  be  to  fail  to  bestow 
honor  where  honor  is  due.  We  have  only  to  allow  the  friends  to  whom 
we  allude,  to  speak  for  themselves  through  their  correspondence  when  their 
hearts  were  stirred  in  the  interest  of  the  escaping  slave,  and  they  were 
practically  doing  unto  others  as  they  would  have  others  do  unto  them. 

Here,  truly,  is  pure  philanthropy,  that  vital  Christianity,  that  True  and 
Undefiled  Religion  before  God  and  the  Father,  which  is  to  visit  the  father- 
less and -widow  in  their  affliction,  and  to  undo  the  heavy  burden,  and  let 
the  oppressed  go  free.  The  posterity  of  the  oppressed  at  least,  will  need 
such  evidences  of  tender  regard  and  love  as  here  evinced.  In  those  days, 
such  expressions  of  Christian  benevolence  were  cheering  in  the  extreme. 
From  his  able  contribution  to  Anti-slavery  papers,  and  his  fearless  and 
eloquent  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  the  down-trodden  slave  in  the  pulpit,  on 
the  platform,  and  in  the  social  circle,  the  name  of  Rev.  N.  R.  Johnston, 
Reformed  Presbyterian  (of  the  old  Covenanter  faith),  will  be  familiar  to 
many.  But  we  think  it  safe  to  say  that  his  fidelity  and  devotion  to  the 
slave  are  nowhere  more  fully  portrayed  than  in  the  appended  Underground 
Rail  Road  letters. 

TOPSHAM,  VT.,  September  1st,  1855. 

WM.  STILL,  MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  have  the  heart,  but  not  the  time,  to 
write  you  a  long  letter.  It  is  Saturday  evening,  and  I  am  preparing  to 
preach  to-morrow  afternoon  from  Heb.  xiii.  3,  "  Remember  them  that  are  in 
bonds  as  bound  with  them."  This  will  be  my  second  sermon  from  this 
text.  Sabbath  before  last  I  preached  from  it,  arguing  and  illustrating  the 
proposition,  deduced  from  it,  that  "  the  great  work  to  which  we  are  now 
called  is  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  or  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,"  showing 
our  duty  as  philanthropists.  To-morrow  I  intend  to  point  out  our  duty  as 
citizens.  Some  to  whom  I  minister,  I  know,  will  call  it  a  political  speech ; 
but  I  have  long  since  determined  to  speak  for  the  dumb  what  is  in  my  heart 
and  in  my  Bible,  let  men  hear  or  forbear.  I  am  accountable  to  the  God  of 
the  oppressed,  not  to  man.  If  I  have  his  favor,  why  need  I  regard  man's 
disfavor.  Many  besides  the  members  of  my  own  church  come  out  regularly  to 
hear  me.  Some  of  them  are  pro-slavery  politicians.  The  consequence  is,  I 
preach  much  on  the  subject  of  Slavery.  And  while  I  have  a  tongue  to  speak, 
and  lips  to  pray,  they  shall  never  be  sealed  or  silent  so  long  as  millions  of 
dumb  have  so  few  to  speak  for  them. 

But  poor  Passmore  Williamson  is  in  bonds.  Let  us  also  remember  him, 
as  bound  with  him.  He  has  many  sympathizers.  I  am  glad  you  did  not 
share  the  same  fate.  For  some  reasons  I  am  sorry  you  have  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  thieves.  For  some  others  I  am  glad.  It  will  make  you  more 
devoted  to  your  good  work.  Persecution  always  brightens  the  Christian, 


586  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  gives  more  zeal  to  the  true  philanthropist.     I  hope  you  will  come  off 
victorious.     I  pray  for  you  and  your  co-laborers  and  co-sufferers. 

My  good  brother,  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  you  for  your  continued  kind- 
ness. The  Lord  reward  you. 

I  have  a  scholarship  in.  an  Ohio  College,  Geneva  Hall,  which  will  entitle 
me — any  one  I  may  send — to  six  years  tuition.  It  is  an  Anti-slavery  insti- 
tution, and  wholly  under  Anti-slavery  control  and  influence.  They  want 
colored  students  to  prepare  them  for  the  great  field  of  labor  open  to  men  of 
talent  and  piety  of  that  class.  When  I  last  saw  you  I  purposed  talking  to 
you  about  this  matter,  but  was  disappointed  very  much  in  not  getting  to 
take  tea  with  you,  as  I  partly  promised.  Have  you  a  son  ready  for  college? 
or  for  the  grammar  school  ?  Do  you  know  any  promising  young  man  who 
would  accept  my  scholarship?  Or  would  your  brother's  son,  Peter  or 
Levin,  like  to  have  the  benefit  of  it?  If  so,  you  are  at  liberty  to  promise  it 
to  any  one  whom  you  think  I  would  be  willing  to  educate.  Write  me  at 
your  earliest  convenience,  about  this  matter. 

******** 

I  presume  the  Standard  will  contain  full  accounts  of  the  Norristown 
meeting,  the  Williamson  case,  and  your  own  and  those  connected.  If  it  does 
not,  I  will  thank  you  to  write  me  fully. 

What  causes  the  delay  of  that  book,  the  History  of  Peter  Still's  Family, 
etc.?  I  long  to  see  it. 

The  Lord  bless  you  in  your  labors  for  the  slave. 

Yours,  etc.,  N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

TOPSHAM,  VT.,  December  26th,  1855. 

WM.  STILL,  MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  wrote  to  you  some  two  or  three 
weeks  ago,  enclosing  the  letter  to  the  care  of  a  friend  in  Philadelphia,  whom 
I  wished  to  introduce  to  you.  I  have  had  no  answer  to  that  letter,  and  I 
am  afraid  you  have  not  received  it,  or  that  you  have  written  me,  and  I  have 
not  received  yours.  In  that  letter  I  wished  to  receive  information  respect- 
ing the  best  way  to  expend  money  for  the  aid  of  fugitives.  Lest  you  may 
not  have  received  it,  I  write  you  again,  though  briefly. 

A  few  of  the  Anti-slavery  friends,  mostly  ladies,  in  our  village  have 
formed  an  Anti-slavery  Society  and  sewing  circle,  the  proceeds  of  which  are 
to  go  to  aid  needy  or  destitute  fugitive  slaves.  They  have  appointed  me 
corresponding  secretary.  In  obedience  to  my  instructions,  and  that  I  may 
fulfill  my  promises,  I  want  to  find  out  from  you  the  desired  information. 
We  want  to  give  the  little  money  raised,  in  such  a  way  that  fugitives  who 
are  really  needy  will  be  benefited  by  it.  Write  me  as  soon  as  possible,  where 
and  to  whom  we  should  send  the  funds  when  raised.  I  have  thought  that 
you  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  in  Philadelphia  had  need  of  it.  Or,  if  not, 


HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS.  587 

you  can  tell  us  where  money  is  needed.  Probably  you  know  of  some  one  in 
Canada  who  acts  for  the  needy  there.  So  many  impositions  have  been 
palmed  off  upon  charitable  abolitionists,  I  ain  afraid  to  act  in  such  a  case 
without  the  directions  of  one  who  knows  all  about  these  things.  Is  money 
needed  to  help  those  escaping?  If  so,  should  we  send  to  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, or  where  else  ?  When  I  was  in  New  York  last,  a  young  man  from 
Richmond,  Va.,  assuming  the  name  of  Robert  Johnston,  who  had  come  by 
steamboat  to  Philadelphia,  and  whom  you  had  directed  to  the  Anti-slavery 
office  in^New  York,  had  only  one  dollar  in  money.  His  fare  had  to  be 
paid  by  a  friend  there,  the  treasurer  of  the  fund  being  absent.  I  know  that 
they  nearly  all  need  money,  or  clothing.  We  want  to  send  our  money 
wherever  it  is  most  needed,  to  help  the  destitute,  or  those  in  danger,  and 
where  it  will  be  faithfully  applied.  Write  me  fully,  giving  specific  direc- 
tions ;  and  I  will  read  your  letter  to  the  society.  And  as  I  have  been  wait- 
ing anxiously,  for  some  two  weeks  or  more,  for  an  answer  to  my  previous 
letter,  but  am  disappointed  unless  you  have  written  very  recently,  I  will 
be  much  obliged  if  you  will  write  on  the  reception  of  this.  Any  informa- 
tion you  may  communicate,  respecting  the  doing  of  your  section  of  the 
Underground  Railway  will  be  read  before  the  society  with  much  interest. 

If  you  know  the  address  of  any  one  in  Canada,  who  would  be  a  good 
correspondent  respecting  this  matter,  please  give  me  his  name. 

******** 

My  dear  brother,  go  on  in  your  good  work ;  and  the  God  of  the  oppressed 
sustain  and  reward  you,  is  my  earnest  prayer. 

Yours,  fraternally,  in  our  common  cause,         ft".  R.  JOHNSTON. 

TOPSHAM,  VT.,  December  18th,  1856. 

WM.  STILL,  VERY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  will  be  much  pleased  to  hear  from 
you  and  our  common  cause  in  Pennsylvania.  I  am  so  far  removed,  away 
here  in  Yankeedom,  that  I  hear  nothing  from  that  quarter  but  by  the  public 
prints.  And  as  for  the  Underground  Railway,  of  course,  I  hear  nothing, 
except  now  and  then.  I  would  be  greatly  pleased  if  you  would  write  me 
the  state  of  its  funds  and  progress.  Whatever  you  write  will  be  inter- 
esting. 

The  Topsham  Sewing  Circle  has  begun  its  feeble  operations  again.  Owing 
to  much  opposition,  a  very  few  attend,  consequently  little  is  made.  The 
ladies,  however,  have  some  articles  on  hand  unsold,  which  will  bring  some 
money  ere  long.  I  wish  you  would  write  me  another  long  letter  in  detail  of 
interesting  fugitives,  etc.,  such  as  you  wrote  last  winter,  and  I  will  have  it 
read  before  the  circle.  Your  letter  last  winter  was  heard  by  the  ladies  with 
great  interest.  You  are  probably  not  aware  that  fugitives  are  never  seen 
here.  Indeed  the  one  half  of  the  people  have  never  seen  more  than  a  half- 
dozen  of  colored  people.  There  are  none  in  all  this  region. 


588  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

I  am  lending  Peter  Still — the  book — to  ray  neighbors.  It  is  devoured 
with  great  interest.  It  does  good.  I  think,  however,  if  I  had  been  writing 
such  a  book,  I  would  have  wedged  in  much  more  testimony  against  slavery 
and  its  horrid  accompaniments  and  consequences. 

I  would  be  glad  to  hear  how  Peter  and  his  family  are  prospering. 

Do  you  see  my  friends,  Mr.  Orr  and  Rev.  Willson,  now-a-days  ?  Do  they 
help  in  the  good  cause  ? 

If  the  ladies  here  should  make  up  fine  shirts  for  men,  or  children's  clothes 
of  various  kinds,  would  they  be  of  use  at  Philadelphia,  or  Ne,w  York,  to 
fugitives  ?  Or  would  it  not  be  advisable  to  send  them  there  ?  The  ladies 
here  complain  that  they  cannot  sell  what  they  make. 

My  dear  brother,  be  not  discouraged  in  your  work,  your  labor  of  love. 
The  prospect  before  the  poor  slave  is  indeed  dark,  dark  !  But  the  power 
shall  not  always  be  on  the  side  of  the  oppressor.  God  reigns.  A  day  of 
vengeance  will  come,  and  that  soon. 

Mrs.  Stowe  makes  Dred  utter  many  a  truth.  Would  that  God  would 
write  it  indelibly  on  the  heart  of  the  nation.  But  the  people  will  not  hear, 
and  the  cup  of  iniquity  will  soon  fill  to  overflowing ;  and  whose  ears  will 
not  be  made  to  tingle  when  the  God  of  Sabaoth  awakes  to  plead  the  cause 
of  the  dumb  ?  Yours,  very  sincerely,  N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

P.  S.  When  I  was  in  New  York  last  Fall,  October,  I  was  in  the  Anti- 
Slavery  office  one  day,  when  a  friend  in  the  office  showed  me  a  dispatch  just 
received  from  Philadelphia,  signed  W.  S.,  which  gave  notice  of  "six  parcels" 
coming  by  the  train,  etc.  And  before  I  left  the  office  the  "  parcels "  came 
in,  each  on  two  legs.  Strange  parcels,  that  would  run  away  on  legs. 

My  heart  leaped  for  joy  at  seeing  these  rescued  ones.  O  that  God  would 
arise  and  break  the  yoke  of  oppression  !  Let  us  labor  on  and  ever,  until  our 
work  is  done,  until  all  are  free. 

Since  the  late  Republican  farce  has  closed  I  hope  to  get  some  more  sub- 
scribers for  the  Standard.  Honest  men's  eyes  will  be  opened  after  a  while, 
and  the  standard  of  right  and  expediency  be  elevated.  Let  us  "  hope  on 
and  ever."  Yours,  for  the  right,  N.  R.  J. 

TOPSHAM,  VT.,  April  3d,  1858. 

DEAR  FRIEND  STILL,  : — I  entreat  you  not  to  infer  from  my  tardiness  or 
neglect,  that  I  am  forgetful  of  my  dear  friend  in  Philadelphia.  For  some 
time  past  I  have  done  injustice  to  many  of  my  friends,  in  not  paying  my 
debts  in  epistolary  correspondence.  Some  of  my  dearest  friends  have  cause 
to  censure  me.  But  you  must  pardon  me.  I  have  two  letters  of  yours  on 
hand,  unanswered.  One  of  them  I  read  to  the  Sewing  Circle ;  and  part  of 
the  other.  For  them  I  most  heartily  thank  you.  You  are  far  kinder  to  me 
than  I  deserve.  May  God  reward  you. 

I  long  to  see  you.     My  head  and  heart  is  full  of  the  cause  of  the  slave. 


HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS.  589 

I  fear  I  give  the  subject  too  much  relative  importance.  Is  this  possible? 
I  preach,  lecture,  and  write  for  the  slave  continually.  And  yet  I  don't  do 
enough.  Still  I  fear  I  neglect  the  great  concerns  of  religion  at  home,  in  my 
own  heart,  in  my  congregation,  and  in  the  community. 

I  wish  we  were  located  near  to  each  other.  We  are  far  separated.  I  am 
almost  isolated.  You  are  surrounded  by  many  friends  of  the  cause.  Still 
we  are  laboring  on  the  same  wall,  though  far  apart.  Are  we  not  near  in 
spirit? 

You  see  by  the  papers  that  we  have  been  trying  to  do  something  in  our 
Green  Mountain  State.  The  campaign  has  fairly  begun.  We  will  carry 
the  battle  to  the  gate. 

I  see  our  friend,  Miss  Watkins,  is  still  pleading  for  the  dumb.  Noble 
girl !  I  love  her  for  her  devotedness  to  a  good  cause.  Oh,  that  her  voice 
could  be  heard  by  the  millions !  I  hope  that  we  can  have  her  again  in  Ver- 
mont. 

Give  my  kind  regards  to  our  mutual  friend,  Miller  McKim.  Will  I  not 
see  him  and  you  at  the  anniversary  in  New  York? 

Do  you  ever  see  Rev.  Willson  ?  Is  he  doing  anything  for  the  cause  ?  I 
wish  I  could  peep  into  your  house  to-night,  and  see  if  there  are  any  "  pack- 
ages" on  hand.  God  bless  you  in  your  labors  of  love. 

Yours,  truly,  for  the  slave, 

N.  R.  JOHNSTON. 

While  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  Mr.  Johnston  and  his  coadjutors,  to 
render  any  great  amount  of  material  aid  to  the  Committee,  as  they  had  not 
been  largely  blessed  with  this  world's  goods,  nevertheless,  the  sympathy 
shown  was  as  highly  valued,  as  if  they  had  given  thousands  of  dollars. 
Not  unfrequently  has  the  image  of  this  singularly  faithful  minister  entered 
the  writer's  mind  as  he  once  appeared  when  visiting  the  Synod  of  his 
church  in  Philadelphia.  Having  the  Underground  Rail  Road  cause  at 
heart,  he  brought  with  him — all  the  way  from  Vermont — his  trunk  well 
filled  with  new  shirts  and  under-clothing  for  the  passengers  on  that  Road. 
It  was  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  has  ever  since  been  remembered  with 
pleasure. 

From  another  quarter,  hundreds  of  miles  from  Philadelphia,  similar 
tokens  of  interest  in  the  cause  of  the  fleeing  bondmen  were  manifested  by  a 
Ladies'  Anti-slavery  Society,  in  Western  New  York,  which  we  must  here 
record.  As  the  proffered  aid  was  wholly  unsolicited,  and  as  the  Committee 
had  no  previous  knowledge  whatever  of  the  existence  of  the  society,  or 
any  of  its  members,  and  withal,  as  the  favors  conferred,  came  at  times  when 
the  cause  was  peculiarly  in  need  (the  Committee  oft-times  being  destitute 
of  clothing  or  money),  the  idea  that  the  Underground  Rail  Road  was 
providentially  favored,  in  this  respect,  was  irresistible. 


590  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

We  therefore  take  great  pleasure  in  commemorating  the  good  deeds  of  the 
society,  by  copying  the  following  letters  from  its  president,  Mrs.  Dr.  Brooks: 

ELLINGTON,  Nov.  21st,  1859. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL: — Dear  Sir: — In  the  above-named  place,  some  five 
years  since  there  was  formed  a  Ladies'  Anti-slavery  Society,  which  has  put 
forth  its  feeble  endeavors  to  aid  the  cause  of  "  breaking  every  yoke  and 
letting  the  oppressed  go  free,"  and  we  trust,  through  our  means,  others  have 
been  made  glad  of  heart.  Every  year  we  have  sent  a  box  of  clothing,  bed- 
ding, etc.,  to  the  aid  of  the  fugitive,  and  wishing  to  send  it  where  it  would 
be  of  the  most  service,  we  have  it  suggested  to  us,  to  send  to  you  the  box 
we  have  at  present.  You  would  confer  a  favor  upon  the  members  of  our 
society,  by  writing  us,  giving  a  detail  of  that  which  would  be  the  most 
service  to  you,  and  whether  or  no  it  would  be  more  advantageous  to  you 
than  some  nearer  station,  and  we  will  send  or  endeavor  to,  that  which  would 
benefit  you  most. 

William  Wells  Brown  visited  our  place  a  short  time  since,  recommending 
us  to  send  to  you  in  preference  to  Syracuse,  where  we  sent  our  last  box. 

Please  write,  letting  me  know  what  most  is  needed  to  aid  you  in  your 
glorious  work,  a  work  which  will  surely  meet  its  reward.  Direct,  Ellington, 
Chautauqua  county,  N.  Y.  Your  sister,  in  the  cause, 

Mrs.  M.  BROOKS. 
ELLINGTON,  Chautauqua  Co.,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  7th,  1859. 

MR.  STILL: — Dear  Sir: — Yours  of  the  29th,  was  duly  and  gratefully 
received,  although  the  greater  portion  of  your  epistle,  of  a  necessity, 
portrayed  the  darker  side  of  the  picture,  yet  we  have  great  reason  to  be 
thankful  for  the  growing  interest  there  is  for  the  cause  throughout  the  free 
States,  for  it  certainly  is  on  the  increase,  even  in  our  own  locality.  There  are 
those  who,  five  years  since,  were  (ashamed,  must  I  say  it!)  to  bear  the  appel- 
lation of  "  Anti-slavery"  who  can  now  manfully  bear  the  one  then  still 
more  repellant  of  Abolitionist.  All  this  we  wish  to  feel  thankful  for,  and 
wish  their  number  may  never  grow  less. 

The  excitement  relative  to  the  heroic  John  Brown,  now  in  his  grave,  has 
affected  the  whole  North,  or  at  least  every  one  who  has  a  heart  in  his  breast, 
particularly  this  portion  of  the  State,  which  is  so  decidedly  Anti-slavery. 

At  a  meeting  of  our  Society,  to-day,  at  which  your  letter  was  read,  it  was 
thought  best  that  I  should  reply  to  it,  a  request  with  which  I  cheerfully 
comply.  We  would  like  to  hear  from  you,  and  learn  the  directions  to  be 
given  to  our  box,  which  will  be  ready  to  send  as  soon  as  we  can  hear  from 
you.  Please  give  us  all  necessary  information,  and  oblige  our  Society. 

You  have  the  kind  wishes  and  prayers  of  all  the  members,  that  you  may 
be  the  instrument  of  doing  much  good  to.  those  in  bonds,  and  may  God 
speed  the  time  when  every  yoke  shall  be  broken,  and  let  the  oppressed  go 
free.  Yours,  truly,  Mrs.  DR.  BROOKS. 


HELPERS  AND  SYMPATHIZERS.  591 

P.  S.  I  have  just  learned  that.  John  Brown's  body  passed  through  Dun- 
kirk, a  few  miles  from  this  place,  yesterday.  A  funeral  sermon  is  to  be 
preached  in  this  place  one  week  from  next  Sabbath,  for  the  good  old  man. 

Mrs.  DR.  B. 

ELLINGTON,  Jan.  2d,  1860. 

WILLIAM  STILL  : — Dear  Sir : — Enclosed  are  $2,00,  to  pay  freightage  on 
the  box  of  bedding,  wearing  apparel,  etc.,  that  has  been  sent  to  your  address. 
It  has  been  thought  best  to  send  you  a  schedule  of  the  contents  of  said  box. 
Trusting  it  will  be  acceptable,  and  be  the  means  of  assisting  the  poor  fugitive 
on  his  perilous  way,  you  have  the  prayers  of  our  Society,  that  you  may  be 
prospered  in  your  work  of  mercy,  and  you  surely  will  meet  with  your 
reward  according  to  your  merciful  acts. 

Two  bed  quilts,  32,  $8,00 ;  five  bed  quilts,  24,  $15,00  ;  one  bed  quilt,  28, 
$3,50 ;  two  pairs  cotton  socks,  3,  75  cents ;  three  pairs  cotton  stockings,  4, 
$1,50 ;  one  pair  woolen  stockings,  6,  75  cents ;  one  pair  woolen  stockings, 
4,  50  cents ;  three  pair  woolen  socks,  2,  75  cents ;  five  pair  woolen  socks, 
3,  $1,88;  eight  chemise,  32,  $4,50;  thirteen  men's  shirts,  66  cents,  $8,58  ; 
one  pair  pants,  12,  $1,50;  six  pair  overall  pants,  80  cents,  $4,80;  three  pair 
pillow  cases,  $1,00;  three  calico  aprons,  2,  75  cents;  three  sun-bonnets,  2, 
75  cents  ;  two  small  aprons,  1,  25  cents;  one  alpaca  cape,  8,  $1,00;  two 
capos,  1,  25  cents;  one  black  shawl,  4,  50  cents.  Total,  $56,51. 

The  foregoing  is  a  correct  list  of  the  articles  and  the  appraisal  of  the  same. 
Please  aeknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  letter  and  box,  and  oblige  the  Anti- 
slavery  Society  of  Ellington.  Mrs.  DE.  BROOKS. 

The  road  was  doing  a  flourishing  business  during  the  short  time  that  this 
station  received  aid  and  sympathy  from  the  Ladies'  Anti-slavery  Society  of 
Ellington,  and  little  did  we  dream  that  its  existence  would  so  soon  be  ren- 
dered null  and  void  by  the  utter  overthrow  of  Slavery. 

We  have  great  pleasure  in  stating  that  beyond  our  borders  also,  across  the 
ocean,  there  came  help  to  a  laudable  degree  in  the  hour  of  need.  The  num- 
bers of  those  who  aided  in  this  special  work,  however,  were  very  few  and  far 
between,  a  hundred  per  cent,  less  (so  far  as  the  receipts  of  the  Philadelphia 
Committee  were  concerned),  than  was  supposed  by  slave-holders  and  their 
sympathizers,  judging  from  their  oft  repeated  allegations  on  this  subject. 

It  is  true,  that  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society  and  kindred  associations, 
received  liberal  contributions  from  a  few  warm-hearted  and  staunch  aboli- 
tionists abroad,  to  aid  the  great  work  of  abolishing  Slavery.  In  reference  to 
the  Philadelphia  Vigilance  Committee,  we  are  safe  in  saying,  that,  except 
from  a  few  sources,  no  direct  aid  came.  How  true  this  was  of  other  stations, 
we  do  not  pretend  to  know  or  speak,  but  in  the  directions  above  alluded  to, 
we  feel  that  the  cause  was  placed  under  lasting  obligations.  The  Webbs  of 


592  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Dublin,  and  the  Misses  Wighams,  of  Scotland,  representatives  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Ladies'  Emancipation  Society,  were  constantly  in  correspondence  with 
leading  abolitionists  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  manifesting  a  deep 
interest  in  the  general  cause,  and  were  likewise  special  stockholders  of  the 
Underground  Rail  Road  of  Philadelphia.  In  common  with  stockholders 
at  home,  these  trans-atlantic  investors  were  willing  to  receive  their  shares  of 
dividends  in  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience,  or,  in  other  words,  from  the 
satisfaction  and  pleasure  derivable  from  a  consciousness  of  having  done  what 
they  could  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  oppressed  struggling  to  be  free. 
Having  thus  shown  their  faith  by  their  works  it  would  be  unjust  not  to 
make  honorable  mention  of  them. 

Last,  though  not  least,  at  the  risk  of  wounding  the  feelings  of  one  who 
preferred  not  to  let  the  left  hand  know  what  the  right  hand  doeth,  we  may 
contemplate  the  philanthropic  labors  of  one,  whose  generosity  and  benevo- 
lence knew  no  bounds ;  whose  friendship  devotion  and  liberality,  were  felt 
in  all  the  principal  stations  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road ;  whose  heart 
went  out  after  the  millions  in  fetters,  the  fleeing  fugitive,  the  free,  proscribed, 
the  ignorant  deprived  of  education;  whose  house  was  the  home  of  the  advo- 
cate of  the  slave  from  the  United  States,  especially  if  he  wore  a  colored  skin 
or  had  been  a  slave.  We  would  not  venture  to  say  how  many  of  the 
enslaved  this  kind  hand  helped  to  purchase  (Frederick  Douglass  and  many 
others,  being  of  the  number.) 

How  many  were  assisted  in  procuring  an  education,  how  many  who  pined 
in  slave  prisons  were  aided,  how  many  fleeing  over  the  perilous  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  were  benefited,  the  All-seeing  Eye  alone  knoweth; 
nevertheless,  we  are  happy  to  be  able  to  give  our  readers  some  idea  of 
the  unwearied  labors  of  the  friend  to  whom  we  allude.  Here  again  we 
are  compelled  to  resort  to  private  correspondence  which  took  place  when 
Cotton  was  King,  and  the  Slave-power  of  the  South  could  boastingly  say, 
in  the  language  of  the  apocalyptic  woman,  "I  sit  as  a  queen,  and  shall 
see  no  sorrow,"  when  that  power  was  maddened  to  desperation,  by  the  hero- 
ism of  the  martyr,  John  Brown,  and  the  lettered  bondmen  were  ever  and 
anon  traveling  over  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  In  this  "  darkest  hour, 
just  before  the  break  of  day,"  the  heart  of  the  friend  of  whom  we  speak, 
was  greatly  moved  to  consider  the  wants  of  the  oppressed  in  various 
directions. 

How  worthily  and  successfully  her  labors  gave  evidence  of  an  earnest 
devotion  to  freedom,  the  mode  and  measures  adopted  by  her,  to  awaken 
sympathy  in  the  breast  of  the  benevolent  of  her  own  countrymen,  and  how 
noble  her  example,  may  be  learned  from  a  small  pamphlet  and  explanatory 
letters  which,  when  written,  were  intended  especially  for  private  use,  but 
which  we  now  feel  constrained  to  copy  from  a  sense  of  justice  to  disinterested 
philanthropy. 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE.  593 

PAMPHLET,  AND  LETTERS 

FROM   MRS.   ANNA  H.   RICHARDSON,   OF  NEWCASTLE,   ENGLAND. 

To  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE. 

DEAR  FRIENDS  — For  some  months  past  my  dear  husband  and  I  have 
wished  very  gratefully  to  thank  you  for  having  so  kindly  assisted  us  in  vari- 
ous Anti-Slavery  efforts,  and  we  now  think  it  quite  time  to  give  an  account 
of  our  stewardship,  and  also  to  lay  before  you  several  items  of  interesting 
intelligence  received  from  different  parts  of  the  United  States.  We  will 
thank  you  to  look  upon  this  intelligence  as  private,  and  must  request  you  to 
guard  against  any  portion  of  it  being  reprinted. 

WILLIAM  S.  BAILEY. — We  have  had  great  pleasure  in  forwarding  £222 
to  our  valued  correspondent,  William  S.  Bailey,  of  Newport,  Kentucky ; 
<£160  of  this  sum  in  response  to  a  circular  issued  at  Newcastle  in  the  sum- 
mer of  last  year,  and  received  by  our  friend,  David  Oliver,  who  acted  as 
treasurer,  and  the  remainder  chiefly  collected  by  our  dear  young  friends 
in  England  and  Ireland,  after  reading  the  account-  of  his  little  daughter, 
"  Laura."  This  money  has  been  very  thankfully  acknowledged,  with  the 
exception  of  the  last  remittance  just  now  on  the  road. 

Most  of  our  readers  will  be  aware  that  W.  S.  Bailey's  printing-office  and 
premises  were  again  ruthlessly  attacked  after  the  Harper's  Ferry  outbreak, 
on  the  unfounded  assumption  that  he  was  meditating  a  similar  proceeding, 
and  that  it  was  unsafe  for  a  free  press  to  be  any  longer  tolerated  in  Ken- 
tucky. His  forms  and  type  were  accordingly  dragged  through  the  streets  of 
Newport,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  them  flung  by  a  mob  (of  "  gentle- 
men ")  into  the  Ohio  River.  A  few  extracts  from  his  own  letters  will  pretty 
fully  explain  both  his  past  and  present  position.  The  subscription  list  on 
his  behalf  is  still  open,  and  any  further  assistance  for  this  heroic  man  and  his 
noble-hearted  family  will  be  very  gratefully  received  and  forwarded. 

"NEWPORT,  KENTUCKY,  Nov.  19th,  1859. 

"  From  my  letter  of  the  7th  inst.  you  will  have  learned  the  sad  intelli- 
gence that  my  printing-office  has  been  destroyed  by  a  brutal  mob  of  Pro- 
Slavery  men.  Through  the  money  I  received  from  you  and  other  friends 
in  this  country  I  was  moving  the  cause  of  freedom  in  all  parts  of  Kentucky. 
The  people  seemed  to  grasp  our  platform  with  eagerness,  and  the  slave- 
holders became  alarmed  to  see  their  wish  to  read  and  discuss  its  simple 
truths.  Hence  they  plotted  together  to  devise  a  stratagem  by  which  they 
could  destroy  The  Free  South,  and  in  the  meantime  the  Harper's  Ferry  dif- 
ficulty, by  Mr.  Brown,  was  seized  upon  to  excite  the  people  against  me,  and 
the  most  extravagant  lies  were  told  about  me,  as  trying  to  excite  slaves  to 
38 


594  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

rebellion;  intending  to  seize  the  United  States  barracks  at  this  place,  arm  the 
negroes,  and  commence  war  upon  slave-holders.  All  these  lies  were  told  as 
profound  secrets  to  the  people  by  the  tools  of  the  slave-power.  But  these  lies 
have  already  exploded,  and  the  people  are  resuming  their  common  sense  again. 
"  I  tried  your  plan  of  non-resistance  with  all  my  power.  I  pleaded  with 
all  the  earnestness  of  my  soul,  and  so  did  my  wife  and  daughters,  but  though 
I  am  certain  many  were  moved  in  conscience  against  the  savage  outrage, 
and  did  their  work  with  a  stinging  heart,  yet  they  felt  that  they  must  stick 
to  their  party,  and  complete  the  destruction.  Slavery,  indeed,  makes  the 
most  hardened  savages  the  world  ever  knew.  The  savage  war-whoop  of  the 
Indian  never  equalled  their  dastardly  cry  of  '  shoot  him,'  '  cut  his  throat/ 
'stab  him,' and  such  like  words  most  maliciously  spoken."  *  * 

"  Slavery  is  the  cause  of  this  devilish  spirit  in  men ;  but  this  outrage  has 
gained  me  many  friends,  and  will  do  much  towards  putting  down  Slavery  in 
the  state.  It  will  also  add  many  thousand  votes  to  the  republican  presi- 
dential candidate  in  1860.  God  grant  it  may  work  out  a  great  good  !"  * 
*  "I  want  to  get  started  again  as  soon  as  I  possibly  can. 
As  soon  as  I  can  raise  1,000  dollars,  I  can  make  a  beginning,  and  soon  after 
you  will  see  The  Free  South  again,  and  I  trust  a  much  handsomer  sheet  than 
it  was  before." 

NEWPORT,  January  6th,  1860. 

"Yours  of  12mo.  17th,  1860,  is  received,  containing  a  draft  for  £50,  and 
another  of  the  '  Little  Laura '  books,  which,  thank  God,  is  doing  some  good 
in  Newport  and  Covington,  in  the  hands  of  two  Christian  friends.  The  re- 
newed obligations  under  which  the  good  people  of  England,  through  your 
instrumentality,  place  me  and  my  abused  people,  call  for  expressions  of  grati- 
tude from  both  me  and  them  beyond  my  ability  to  pen.  But  you  can 
imagine  how  we  ought  to  feel  in  our  trials  and  wants  to  such  kind  friends 
as  you.  Neither  I  nor  my  Anti-Slavery  friends  here  can  express  our  thank- 
fulness in  the  elegant  language  your  better  educated  countrymen  may  feel 
we  should  use,  but,  by  the  Omnipotent  Judge  of  all  hearts,  I  trust  our  feeble 
eifort  will  be  accepted,  and  you  and  yours  be  blessed  and  protected  now  and 
for  ever.  Such  encouragement  strengthens  me  in  the  belief  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  abroad  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  moving  them  to  sympathize 
with  the  poor,  subjected  slave."  *  *  *  *  "I  have  the 
promise  of  abler  pens  to  aid  me  when  I  get  started  again ;  and  I  am  glad  to 
see  that  a  poor  working-man  and  his  family  have  been  the  means  of  calling 
the  attention  of  men  of  letters  to  assist  in  raising  from  the  dust  a  crushed 
race  of  men  ;  and  although  the  red  clouds  of  war  hover  thick  around  us,  and 
vengeance  lurks  in  secret  places,  I  trust,  through  the  guidance  of  an  All-wise 
Director,  to  steer  safely  through  the  angry  tide  that  now  so  often  ebbs  and 
flows  around  me ;  but  should  I  fall,  I  trust,  dear  lady,  that  my  dear  wife 
and  family  may  be  remembered  by  the  good  and  true." 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE.  595 

"  NEWPORT,  May  25th,  1860. 

"I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  we  feel  it  a  great  victory  over  the  slave  power 
to  be  able  to  rise  again  from  our  ruins,  and  in  the  face  of  slave-owning 
despots  denounce  their  inhumanity  and  their  sins.  I  trust  that  Almighty 
God  will  continue  to  be  with  me  and  my  dear  family  ill  this  good  work." 
*  *  *  "You  cannot  but  see,  I  think,  by  the  southern  press,  that 
slave-holders  begin  to  fear  and  tremble  for  the  safety  of  their  '  peculiar  insti- 
tution.' The  death  of  John  Brown  is  yet  to  be  atoned  for,  by  the  slave- 
holding  oligarchy.  His  undying  spirit  haunts  them  by  day  and  by  night, 
and  in  the  midst  of  their  voluptuous  enjoyments,  the  very  thought  of  John 
Brown  chills  their  souls  and  poisons  their  pleasures.  Their  tarring  and 
feathering  of  good  citizens;  their  riding  them  upon  rails,  and  ducking  them 
in  dirty  ponds;  their  destruction  of  liberty  presses,  and  the  hanging  of  John 
Brown  and  his  friends,  to  intimidate  men  from  the  advocacy  of  freedom, 
will  all  come  tumbling  upon  their  own  heads  as  a  just  retribution  for  their 
outrageous  brutality.  Only  let  us  persevere,  and  oppressed  humanity,  bent 
in  timid  silence  throughout  the  south,  will  rise  and  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
Slavery  and  rejoice  in  beholding  itself  free!" 

(t  NEWPORT,  August  18. 

"I  send  you  three  copies  of  my  paper.  Since  receiving  your  letter,  I  and 
my  family  have  done  all  in  our  power  to  get  it  out,  but  we  had  to  get  old 
type  from  the  foundry  and  sort  it,  to  make  the  sheet  the  size  you  now  see  it. 
We  hate  to  be  put  down  by  the  influence  of  tyranny,  and  you  cannot 
imagine  our  sorrow,  anxiety,  necessity  and  determination." 
"  I  have  received,  since  the  press  was  destroyed,  700  dollars  in  all,  which 
has  been  spent  in  repairing  and  roofing  our  dwelling-house,  and  repairing 
the  breaches  made  upon  the  office,  together  with  mending  the  presses  and 
procuring  job  type  and  some  little  for  the  paper,  but  nearly  all  the  latter  is 
old  type.  Our  kindest  thanks  to  the  liberty-loving  people  of  your  country, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  tell  them  I  shall  never  surrender  the  cause  of 
freedom.  A  little  money  from  all  my  friends,  would  soon  reinstate  me,  and 
when  they  see  my  paper  I  trust  it  will  cheer  their  hopes,  and  cause  a  new  fire 
for  liberty  in  Kentucky. 

"  I  cannot  but  sometimes  ask  in  my  closet  meditations :  O  God  of  mercy 
and  love,  why  permittest  Thou  these  things  ?  But  still  I  hope  for  a  change 
of  mind  in  my  enemies,  and  shall  press  onward  to  accomplish  the  great  task 
seemingly  allotted  to  me  upon  Kentucky  soil." 

THE  PERSECUTED  BEREANS. — There  is  another  call  connected  with  Ken- 
tucky, which  we  wish  to  bring  before  our  friends.  At  a  village  in  that  State, 
called  Berea,  (situated  in  Madison  county),  a  little  band  of  Christian  men 
and  women,  had  been  pursuing  their  useful  labors  for  some  years  past. 


596  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

They  avowedly  held  Anti-slavery  sentiments,  but  this  was  the  beginning 
and  end  of  their  offending.  They  possessed  a  farm  and  saw-mill,  etc.,  and 
had  established  a  flourishing  school.  These  good  people  were  quietly  fol- 
lowing their  usual  employments,  when,  in  the  early  part  of  last  winter, 
sixty-two  armed  Kentuckians  rode  upon  horseback  to  their  cottage  doors, 
and  summarily  informed  them  that  they  must  leave  the  State  in  ten  days' 
time,  or  would  be  expelled  from  it  forcibly.  All  pleading  was  hopeless,  and 
any  attempt  at  self-defence  out  of  the  question.  They  bowed  before  the 
storm,  and  hastily  gathering  up  their  garments,  in  three  days'  time  were  on 
their  road  to  Ohio.  Their  three  Christian  pastors  took  the  same  course. 
One  of  the  latter  has  since  returned  to  Kentucky,  to  bury  his  youngest  little 
boy,  in  a  grave-yard  attached  to  one  of  the  churches  there.  He  was  enabled 
to  preach  to  the  people  who  assembled  on  the  occasion,  but  was  not  allowed 
to  remain  in  his  native  State. 

Another  of  the  exiles  ventured  to  go  back  to  Berea,  but  this  immediately 
led  to  an  outbreak  of  popular  feeling,  for  his  saw-mill  was  set  on  fire  by  the 
mob,  and  presently  destroyed.  The  exiles  are  consequently  still  in  Ohio,  or 
wandering  about  in  search  of  employment.  We  have  been  privileged  in 
receiving  two  letters  respecting  them,  from  one  of  their  excellent  pastors, 
John  G.  Fee.  This  gentleman  is  himself,  the  son  of  a  slave-holder,  but 
gave  up  his  earthly  patrimony  many  years  since  for  conscience'  sake, 
and  has  since  made  it  the  business  of  his  life  to  proclaim  the  gospel  in  its 
purity,  and  to  use  every  available  means  for  directing  all  to  Christ. 

When  speaking  of  Berea,  Mr.  Fee  remarks  :  "  The  land  was  poor,  but 
the  situation  beautiful,  with  good  water,  and  a  favorable  location,  in  some 
respects.  We  could  have  had  locations  more  fertile  and  more  easy  of  access, 
but  more  exposed  to  the  slave-power.  It  was  five  miles  from  a  turnpike 
road,  with  quite  a  population  around  it  for  a  slave  State." 

In  one  of  Mr.  Fee's  letters  he  introduces  a  subject  which  we  wish 
especially  to  bring  before  our  friends,  feeling  almost  sure  that  many  of  them 
will  respond  to  its  importance: 

"  You  ask,  he  says,  if  there  are  not  noble-hearted  young  people  in  slave- 
holding  families  ?  There  is  one  whom  I  desire  to  commend  to  your  special 
prayer  and  regard,  Elizabeth  Rawlings,  daughter  of  John  H.  Rawlings,  of 
Madison  county,  Kentucky.  He  was  once  a  slave-holder,  but  has  twice  been  a 
delegate  to  our  Free-soil  National  Conventions,  and  is  a  strong  friend  of 
freedom.  His  daughter  has  had  small  opportunities  for  acquiring  know- 
ledge, but  was  in  our  school  at  Berea,  and  making  rapid  progress.  Our 
school  was  not  only  Anti-slavery,  but  avowedly  Anti-caste.  This  made  it 
the  more  odious.  W7hen  Mr.  Rogers  and  others  were  about  to  be  driven 
away,  she  announced  that  she  would  continue  the  school  on  the  same  princi- 
ples. Accordingly  she  went  into  the  school-room  after  a  few  days,  with  a 
little  band  of  small  scholars,  and  has  perseveringly  kept  it  up.  This  noble 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLA  VE.  597 

and  brave-hearted  young  woman  is  about  twenty-two  years  of  age  ;  has  a 
very  vigorous  mind;'  acquires  knowledge  very  rapidly;  is  very  modest;  and 
is,  I  trust,  a  true  believer  in  Christ.  I  desire  to  see  her  fitted  for  the  post 
of  teacher.  One  year's  study  would  greatly  benefit  her.  She  has  not  gone 
beyond  grammar  and  arithmetic.  I  have  not  means  or  would  at  once  give 
her  those  advantages  she  needs.  I  once  had  a  small  patrimony,  but 
expended  it  in  freedom's  cause,  and  now  live  on  the  small  salary  of  a  [Home] 
Missionary.  I  have  a  daughter  of  fifteen,  as  far  advanced  as  Miss  Rawlings. 
I  want  to  train  and  educate  them  both  for  teaching,  and  had  thought  to 
educate  the  latter,  and  suggest  to  some  one  to  educate  the  other.  I  do  not 
urge,  but  simply  suggest.  This  might  be  another  cord  binding  the  two  con- 
tinents. Lewis  Tappan,  of  New  York,  would  receive  to  transmit,  and  I 
would  report." 

Now  if  we  may  lay  before  you,  dear  friends,  our  hearts'  inquiry,  it  is  this: 
"  Cannot  we  in  England,  raise  £50  or  <£60  for  one  year's  schooling  for  these 
two  dear  girls,  Elizabeth  Rawlings  and  J.  G.  Fee's  daughter?"  It  seems  to 
us,  that  the  one  deserves  it  from  her  noble  daring,  the  other  as  a  little 
tribute  to  her  father's  virtues.  How  delightful  it  would  be  if  these  two 
young  people  could  become  able  teachers  of  our  own  rearing,  and  in  days  to 
come,  be  looked  to  as  maintaining  schools  of  an  elevated  character  upon 
their  native  soil !  We  have  laid  the  case  before  a  few  kind  friends,  and 
already  had  the  pleasure  of  forwarding  .£8  to  Mr.  Fee's  care,  on  behalf  of 
his  valued  young  friend,  Elizabeth  Rawlings. 

CORNELIA  WILLIAMS. — The  next  person  to  be  referred  to  is  Cornelia 
Williams,  a  bright  young  niece  of  our  friend,  Henry  H.  Garnet's,  whom 
many  of  our  friends  kindly  assisted  to  redeem  from  Slavery,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, about  three  years  since.  We  rejoice  to  say  this  dear  girl  is  going  on 
very  satisfactorily.  She  has  been  diligently  pursuing  her  studies  in  a  school 
at  Nantucket,  and  appears  to  be  much  esteemed  by  all  who  know  her.  She 
kindly  sends  us  a  little  letter  now  and  then,  again  returning  her  glowing 
thanks  to  all  who  assisted  in  procuring  her  freedom.  Her  mother,  Dinah 
Williams  (also  a  slave  a  few  years  since,  and  redeemed  in  part  by  the  sur- 
plus of  'the  Weims  Ransom  Fund),'  has  married  an  estimable  Baptist 
minister  within  the  last  year,  and  Cornelia  resides  under  their  roof. 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. — It  is  known  that  our  much-valued  friend, 
Frederick  Douglass,  left  this  country  suddenly  for  America  last  spring, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  decease  of  a  most  beloved  little  girl.  Till  quite 
recently  he  was  intending  to  return  to  England  very  soon,  but  this  is  for 
the  present  delayed,  on  account  of  increasing  and  pressing  engagements 
in  the  United  States.  We  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  an  extract  from  one 
of  his  letters : 


598  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  ROCHESTER,  July  2d,  1860. 

"  You  hold  up  before  me  the  glorious  promises  contained  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures.  These  are  needed  by  none  more  than  by  those  who  have  pre- 
sumed to  put  themselves  to  the  work  of  accomplishing  the  abolition  of 
Slavery  in  this  country.  There  is  scarcely  one  single  interest,  social,  moral, 
religious,  or  physical,  which  is  not  in  some  way  connected  with  this  stupend- 
ous evil.  On  the  side  of  the  oppressor  there  is  power,  now  as  in  the  earlier 
days  of  the  world.  I  find  much  comfort  in  the  thought  that  I  am  but  a 
passenger  on  board  of  this  ship  of  life.  I  have  not  the  management  com- 
mitted to  me.  I  am  to  obey  orders,  and  leave  the  rest  to  the  great  Captain 
whose  wisdom  is  able  to  direct.  I  have  only  to  go  on  in  His  fear  and  in  His 
spirit,  uttering  with  pen  and  tongue  the  whole  truth  against  Slavery,  leav- 
ing to  Him  the  honor  and  the  glory  of  destroying  this  mighty  work  of  the 
devil.  I  long  for  the  end  of  my  people's  bondage,  and  would  give  all  I 
possess  to  witness  the  great  jubilee;  but  God  can  wait,  and  surely  I  may. 
If  He,  whose  pure  eyes  cannot  look  upon  sin  with  allowance,  can  permit 
the  day  of  freedom  to  be  deferred,  I  certainly  can  work  and  wait.  The 
times  are  just  now  a  little  brighter;  but  I  will  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight, 
for  all  grounds  of  hope  founded  on  external  appearance,  have  thus  far 
signally  failed  and  broken  down  uncjer  me.  Twenty  years  ago,  Slavery  did 
really  seem  to  be  rapidly  hastening  to  its  fall,  but  ten  years  ago,  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  and  the  efforts  to  enforce  it,  changed  the  whole  appearance  of  the 
struggle.  Anti-slavery  in  an  abolition  sense,  has  been  e.ver  since  battling 
against  heavy  odds,  both  in  Church  and  State.  Nevertheless,  God  reigns, 
and  we  need  not  -despair,  and  I  for  one  do  not.  I  know,  at  any  rate,  no 
better  work  for  me  during  the  brief  period  I  am  to  stay  on  the  earth,  than 
is  found  in  pleading  the  cause  of  the  down-trodden  and  the  dumb. 

"  Since  I  reached  home  I  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  passing  nearly  a 
score  on  to  Canada,  only  two  women  among  them  all.  The  constant  meet- 
ing with  these  whip-scarred  brothers  will  not  allow  me  to  become  forgetful 
of  the  four  millions  still  in  bonds." 

Our  friends  may,  perhaps,  remember  that  the  cost  of  Frederick  Douglass1 
paper  is  but  five  shillings  per  annum  (with  the  exception  of  a  penny  per 
month  at  the  door  for  postage.)  It  is  a  very  interesting  publication,  and 
amply  repays  the  trifling  outlay.  F.  D.  would  be  glad  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  his  British  readers.  He  also  continues  gratefully  to  receive  any  aid 
from  this  country  for  the  assistance  of  the  fugitives  who  are  so  often  taking 
refuge  under  his  roof.  Another  letter  of  his  remarks,  when  speaking  of 
them  :  "  They  usually  tarry  with  us  only  during  the  night,  and  are  forwarded 
to  Canada  by  the  morning  train.  We  give  them  supper,  lodging,  and  break- 
fast ;  pay  their  expenses,  and  give  them  a  half  dollar  over." 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE.  599 

FUGITIVE  SLAVES. — We  next  turn   to  the   communication  of  another 

warm  friend  to  the  fugitives  in  the  State  of .     The  following  is  an 

extract  from  a  recent  letter  of  his : 

"  We  have  had  within  the  last  week  just  nineteen  Underground  passen- 
gers. Fifteen  came  last  Saturday,  between  the  hours  of  six  in  the  morning 
and  eleven  at  night.  Three  only  were  females,  wives  of  men  in  the  parties, 
the  rest  were  all  able-bodied  young  men.  That  they  were  all  likely-looking 
it  needed  no  southern  eye  to  decide,  and  that  their  hearts  burned  within 
them  for  freedom  was  apparent  in  every  look  of  their  countenances.  But  it 
is  only  of  one  arrival  that  my  time  will  allow  me  to  speak  on  the  present 
occasion. 

This  consisted  of  two  married  couples,  and  two  single  young  men.  They 
had  been  a  week  on  the  way.  To  accomplish  the  desired  object  they  could 

see  no  way  so  feasible  as  to  cross  the Bay.  By  inquiry  they  gained 

instructions  as  to  the  direction  they  should  steer  to  strike  for  the  lighthouse 
on  the  opposite  shore.  Consequently  they  invested  six  dollars  in  a  little 
boat,  and  at  once  prepared  themselves  for  this  most  fearful  adventure.  To 
the  water  and  their  little  bark  they  stealthily  repaired,  and  off  they  started. 
For  some  distance  they  rowed  not  far  from  the  shore.  Being  in  sight  of 
land,  they  were  spied  by  the  ever-watchful  slave-holder  or  some  one  not 
favorable  to  their'escape.  Hence  a  small  boat,  containing  four  white  men, 
soon  put  out  after  the  fugitives.  On  overhauling  them,  stern  orders  were 
given  to  surrender;  The  boat  the  runaways  were  in  was  claimed,  if  not  the 
party  themselves.  With  determined  words  the  fugitives  declared  that  the 
boat  was  their  own  property,  and  that  they  would  riot  give  it  up ;  they  said 
they  would  die  before  they  would  do  so.  At  this  sign  of  resistance  one  of 
the  white  men,  with  an  oar,  struck  the  head  of  one  of  the  fugitives,  which 
knocked  him  down.  At  the  same  moment  another  white  man  seized  the 
chain  of  their  boat,  and  the  struggle  became  fearful  in  the  extreme  for  a  few 
moments.  However,  the  same  spirit  that  prompted  the  effort  to  be  free, 
moved  one  of  the  heroic  black  bondmen  to  apply  the  oar  to  the  head  of  one 
of  their  pursuers,  which  straightway  laid  him  prostrate.  The  whites,  like  old 
Apollyon  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  at  this  decided  indication  that  their 
precious  lives  might  not  be  spared  if  they  did  not  avail  themselves  of  an 
immediate  retreat,  suddenly  parted  from  their  antagonists.  Not  being  con- 
tented, however,  thus  to  give  up  the  struggle,  after  getting  some  yards  off, 
they  fired  a  loaded  gun  in  the  midst  of  the  fugitives,  peppering  two  of  them 
considerably  about  the  head  and  face,  and  one  about  the  arms.  As  the  shot 
was  light  they  were  not  much  damaged,  however,  at  any  rate  not  discour- 
aged. Not  forgetting  which  way  to  steer  across  the  bay,  in  the  direction  of 
the  lighthouse,  they  rowed  for  that  point  with  all  possible  speed,  but  their 
bark  being  light,  and  the  wind  and  rough  water  by  no  means  manageable, 


600  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ere  they  reached  the  desired  shore  they  were  carried  a  considerable  distance 
off  their  course,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  small  island.  Leaving  their 
boat  they  went  upon  the  island,  the  women  sick,  and  there  reposed  without 
food,  utterly  ignorant  of  where  they  were  for  one  whole  day  and  night,  with- 
out being  able  to  conjecture  when  or  where  they  should  find  free  land  for 
which  they  had  so  long  and  fervently  prayed.  However,  after  thus  resting, 
feeling  compelled  to  start  on  again,  they  set  off  on  foot.  They  had  not 
walked  a  mile  ere,  providentially,  they  fell  in  with  an  oyster  man  and  a 
little  boy  waiting  for  the  tide.  With  him  they  ventured  to  converse,  and 
soon  felt  that  he  might  be  trusted  with,  at  least,  a  hint  of  their  condition. 
Accordingly  they  made  him  acquainted  in  part  with  their  piteous  story,  and 

he  agreed  to  bring  them  within  fifteen  miles  of for  twenty-five  dollars, 

all  the  capital  they  had.  Being  as  good  as  his  word,  he  did  not  leave  them 
fifteen  miles  off  the  city,  but  brought  them  directly  to  it."  *  *  *  * 
"  How  happy  they  were  at  finding  themselves  in  the  hands  of  friends,  and 
surrounded  with  flattering  prospects  of  soon  reaching  Canada  you  may  ima- 
gine, but  I  could  not  describe."* 

Thanks  to  the  benevolent  bounty  of  several  kind  donors,  we  had  lately 
the  pleasure  of  sending  a  few  pounds  to  the  writer  of  the  foregoing  letter. 
We  omit  his  name  and  residence.  He  belongs,  like  Douglass,  to  the  pro- 
scribed race.  Who  would  not  help  these  generous-hearted  men,  who  are 
devoting  their  whole  energies  to  the  well-being  of  the  crushed  and  down- 
trodden ?  We  are  the  more  encouraged  to  send  out  this  little  sheet,  made 
up  of  thanks  and  requisitions,  because  occasional  inquiries  are  reaching  us 
of "  What  can  we  do  for  the  slave  ?  We  are  hearing  but  little  about  him, 
and  do  not  know  how  to  work  on  his  behalf."  Allow  us  to  say  to  one  and 
all,  who  may  be  thus  circumstanced,  that  we  do  not  look  for  great  things, 
but  that  if  they  can  levy  a  shilling  a  year  from  all  who  feel  for  the  injured 
bondman,  these  little  sums  would  soon  mount  up  and  prove  of  incalculable 
service  to  those  who  are  struggling  for  freedom.  As  to  the  special  destiny 
of  these  shillings  or  half-crowns,  let  the  subscribers  choose  for  themselves, 
and  their  kind  aid  will  be  sure  to  be  truly  welcome  to  the  party  receiving  it. 
We  do  not  ask  for  such  contributions  to  be  forwarded  through  Newcastle  un- 
less this  be  a  matter  of  convenience  to  those  concerned.  If  there  be  other 
modes  of  sending  to  the  United  States  within  the  reach  of  the  friends,  who 
receive  this  paper,  let  them  by  all  means  be  used.  We  are  always  happy  to 
receive  aid  for  the  fugitives  or  for  any  other  Anti-slavery  cause,  and  consider 
it  no  trouble  at  all  to  send  it  on,  but  do  not  wish  to  be  monopolizing.  As 
far  as  Kentucky  is  concerned,  that  State  being  distant,  and  mob-law  ram- 

*  In  those  days  the  writer  in  giving  information  enjoined  the  utmost  secresy,  considering  that 
the  cause  might  be  sadly  damaged  simply  by  being  inadvertently  exposed  even  by  friends,  thousands 
of  miles  away.  The  Pro-slavery-mob  spirit  at  that  time  was  also  very  rampant  in  Philadelphia  and 
other  northern  cities,  threatening  abolitionists  and  all  concerned  in  the  work  of  aiding  the  slave. 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLA  VE.  601 

pant  there,  we  shall  continue  gratefully  to  receive  assistance  on  its  behalf, 
and  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  accustomed  mode  of  reaching  it,  this  having 
been  proved  to  be  both  safe  and  easy. 

FREE  LABOR  PRODUCE. — And  lastly,  as  to  the  long-prized  principle,  to 
our  minds  the  very  alphabet  of  Anti-Slavery  action,  the  importance  of 
encouraging  the  growth  and  consumption  of  Free  produce  rather  than  that 
raised  by  the  sweat  and  blood  of  the  bondman.  Our  convictions  of  the 
righteousness  of  this  course  are  as  strong  as  they  ever  were  ;  but  perhaps  we 
hoped  too  much,  relied  too  fondly  on  the  conscientiousness  of  the  British  Anti- 
Slavery  public,  in  supposing  that  a  sufficient  number  of  individuals  could  be 
found  prepared  to  make  a  slight  sacrifice  for  humanity's  sake,  and  to  keep 
the  oppressed  continually  in  mind  by  a  little  untiring  pains-taking.  We 
hardly  supposed  that  the  most  strenuous  efforts  in  this  direction  would  be 
enough  to  affect  the  British  market ;  but  we  did  believe,  and  believe  still, 
that  not  only  is  there  a  consistency  in  a  preference  for  free  produce,  but  that 
this  preference  is  encouraging  to  the  free  laborer,  and  that  humanly  speaking 
nothing  is  more  calculated  to  nerve  his  hand  and  heart  for  vigorous  effort. 
The  principle  of  abstinence  from  slave  produce  may  be  smiled  at,  but  we  are 
quite  sure  it  is  an  honest  one,  and,  as  a  good  old  proverb  observes,  "  It  takes 
a  great  many  bushels  full  of  earth  to  bury  a  truth." 

But  while  this  self-denying  protest  has  been  going  on  in  a  few  limited 
circles,  how  great  is  the  advance  that  free  labor  has  been  making  within  the 
last  two  years  !  Who  is  to  say  whether  some  of  those  quiet  testimonies  may 
not  have  contributed  to  erect  that  mighty  machinery  that  is  now  adding  to 
its  wheels  and  springs  from  day  to  day,  and  which  bids  fair  at  no  distant 
period  to  supersede  slave  labor  and  its  long  train  of  sorrow  and  oppression  ? 

Earnest  lectures  have  just  been  delivered  in  Newcastle  by  our  colored 
friend,  Dr.  M.  R.  Delany,  lately  engaged  in  a  tour  of  observation  in  West 
Africa,  where  he  longs  to  establish  a  flourishing  colony  of  his  people,  whose 
express  object  shall  be  to  put  down  the  «abominable  Slave-trade  and  to  culti- 
vate free  cotton  and  other  tropical  produce.  We  wish  this  brave  man  every 
encouragement  in  his  noble  enterprise.  He  has  secured  the  confidence  of 
"  The  African  Aid  Society,"  in  London,  one  of  whose  earliest  measures  has 
been  to  assist  him  with  funds.  The  present  Secretary  of  the  society  is  Frede- 
rick W.  Fitzgerald,  7  Adam  Street,  Strand,  London. 

And  who  need  speak  of  the  Zambesi  and  Dr.  Livingston,  or  of  Central  or 
Eastern  Africa ;  of  India,  or  Australia,  or  of  the  prolific  West  India  Islands? 

As  we  prepare  this  little  sheet,  a  kind  letter  has  come  in  from  Stephen 
Bourne,  for  many  years  a  stipendiary  magistrate  in  Jamaica,  and  now  the 
ardent  promoter  of  a  cotton-growing  company  of  that  island.  He  says  to 
us,  when  writing  from  London,  on  the  19th  inst.,  "  Our  scheme  embraces 
more  than  meets  the  eye,  and  to  illustrate  this,  I  send  a  map  (with  pros- 
pectus) of  the  proposed  estate,  by  which  you  will  see  that  we  reckon  on 


602  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

obtaining  cotton  by  free  labor  and  by  mechanical  agency  from  Jamaica,  at  a 
price  so  far  below  that  at  which  it  can  be  produced  by  slave  labor,  that  if 
we  succeed,  we  shall  put  an  end  to  the  whole  system,  as  no  one  will  be  able 
to  afford  to  carry  it  on  in  competition  with  free  labor."  *  *  * 
"  Jamaica  is  much  nearer  and  easier  of  access  for  fugitives  from  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico,  than  Canada  is  to  Georgia,  Virginia,  or  Louisiana.  If,  there- 
fore, we  can  offer  them  an  asylum  and  profitable  employment  on  the  estate, 
we  shall  open  up  a  new  Underground  Rail  Road,  or  rather  enable  the 
slaves  to  escape  from  Cuba  by  getting  into  a  boat,  and  in  one  night  finding 
their  way  to  freedom."  *  *  *  "  There  is  no  doubt  they  could  do 
this  at  much  less  risk  than  slaves  now  incur,  in  order  to  obtain  liberty 
in  America." 

The  proposed  estate  in  Jamaica  consists  of  about  one  thousand  acres,  and 
the  shares  in  this  company  are  £10  each,  £1  only  to  be  called  up  immedi- 
ately, the  rest  by  instalments.  The  liability  is  limited.  Full  information 
may  be  obtained  by  addressing  Stephen  Bourne,  Esq.,  55  Charing  Cross, 
London,  or  the  Secretary  of  the  "Jamaica  Cotton-growing  Company,"  C. 
W.  Streatfield,  Esq.  We  rejoice  to  see  that  this  new  company  is  being  sup- 
ported not  only  by  benevolent  philanthropists  and  capitalists  in  London, 
but  by  experienced  Manchester  manufacturers;  among  the  rest  by  the 
excellent  Thomas  Clegg,  so  well  known  for  his  persevering  efforts  in  West 
Africa,  and  by  Thomas  Bazley,  M.  P.  for  Manchester,  and  a  most  extensive 
cotton  spinner.  Their  mills  would  alone,  consume  the  cotton  grown  on 
three  such  estates  as  that  which  it  is  proposed  to  cultivate.  There  is  abundant 
room,  therefore,  for  cultivation  of  cotton  by  the  emancipated  freeholders. 

Communications  have  also  reached  us  from  Demerara.  Charles  Rattray, 
a  valuable  Scotch  missionary  in  that  colony,  was  in  England  last  spring, 
and  went  back  .to  his  adopted  country  with  his  mind  full  fraught  with  the 
importance  of  cotton  growing  within  its  borders.  He  happened  to  have 
small  samples  of  Demerara  cotton  wjth  him.  These  were  shown  to  cotton- 
brokers  and  manufacturers  in  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  and  were  pro- 
nounced to  be  most  excellent — so  much  so,  that  specimen  gins  and  a  supply 
of  cotton-seed  were  kindly  presented  to  him  at  the  latter  place,  before  he 
left  England.  Mr.  Rattray  is  now  bringing  the  subject  before  his  people, 
and  is  also  intending  to  plant  with  cotton  some  ground  belonging  to  the 
Mission  station. 

But  we  will  not  further  enlarge.  Commending  our  cause  to  Him,  who  has 
promised  never  to  forget  the  poor  and  needy,  and  that  in  His  own  good  time 
He  will  arise  for  their  deliverance  and  "  break  every  yoke." 
I  remain,  sincerely  and  respectfully,  your  friend, 

ANNA  H.  RICHARDSON. 

54  Westmoreland  Terrace, 

Newcastle-on-Tyne,  9  mo.,  22,  1860. 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLA  VE.  603 

P.  S.  Since  writing  the  above,  we  have  seen  it  stated  in  the  Principia,  a 
New  York  paper,  that  William  S.  Bailey  has  been  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
publishing  an  incendiary  paper,  and  held  to  bail  in  the  sum  of  $1,000,  to 
appear  before  the  Circuit  Court,  in  November  next.  It  is  further  stated  that 
one  of  the  two  magistrates  by  whom  W.  S.  Bailey  was  examined,  and  held 
to  bail  on  this  charge,  was  the  chosen  leader  of  the  mob  that  destroyed  his 
type  and  printing  press. 

We  have  yet  to  see  what  will  be  the  end  of  this  cruel  conflict.  Let  us 
not  desert  our  suffering  friend  and  his  noble-hearted  family. 

LETTERS  TO  THE  WRITER. 

WESTMORELAND  TERRACE,  December  28,  1860. 

MY  ESTEEMED  FRIEND  : — I  received  thy  touching  letter  of  the  10th  inst. 
a  few  days  since,  and  hasten  to  assure  thee  of  our  heart-felt  sympathy,  and 
most  lively  interest  in  the  present  tremendous  state  of  things  around  you. 
At  the  same  time,  I  cannot  tell  thee  how  glad  and  thankful  we  feel,  that 
with  God's  help  thou  art  determined  to  persevere  and  not  in  any  way  flinch 
in  this  day  of  sore  trial.  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee 
a  crown  of  life."  "  Be  strong,  fear  not."  "  In  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  strong 
confidence ;  and  his  children  shall  have  a  place  of  refuge."  One  thing,  too, 
is  sure,  "  that  all  things  will  work  together  for  the  good  "  of  those  who  love 
their  Lord,  that  He  will  never,  never  forsake  them  whatever  their  outward 
trials  may  be. 

I  think,  dear  friend,  thou  shouldst  be  careful  not  to  be  about  alone,  par- 
ticularly in  the  evening.  We  heard  from  W.  S.  Bailey  the  other  day,  and 
he  spoke  of  the  advantage  of  several  kind  friends  sticking  close  to  him  under 
recent  circumstances  at  Alexandria,  when  he  was  exposed  to  the  spite  and 
rage  of  slave-holding  bullies.  Would  it  not  be  well  to  make  a  habit,  in  the 
evening  in  particular,  of  you,  who  are  marked  men,  going  about  in  little 
companies  ?  Wicked  men  are  generally  cowards  ;  and  I  think  would  hesi- 
tate more  to  do  a  bad  act  in  the  presence  of  observers.  I  think  thou  wouldst 
receive  a  little  letter  from  me  a  day  or  two  after  thine  was  written,  through 
our  friend  Saml.  Rhoads,  enclosing  £7  for  the  fugitives,  £5  for  thy  own  use, 
and  £2  for  the  Vigilance  Committee.  This  letter  of  mine  was  sent  off  about 
the  24th  ult.,  but  I  conclude  was  not  delivered  till  just  after  thine  was 
written.  It  is  well  to  keep  us  fully  informed  of  your  circumstances,  whether 
favorable  or  more  appalling.  I  do  not  intend  to  put  anything  of  a  private 
character  into  print ;  but  private  confidence  is  the  creed  in  England,  and 
thou  needst  not  fear  my  abusing  it.  I  enclose  the  only  paper  that  we  have 
printed  that  thou  mayest  see  there  was  nothing  to  fear.  Thou  wilt  observe 
there  is  no  reference  either  to  thy  own  name  or  to  Philadelphia,  and  people 
here  are  not  very  familiar  with  American  topography.  I  am  sending  W.  S. 
Bailey  one  of  the  same  papers  by  to-day's  mail.  We  have  merely  a  limited 


604  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

number  of  them  printed.  I  cannot  very  well  obtain  money  from  my  friends, 
(with  numerous  home  claims  constantly  pressing  on  them),  without  having 
something  to  show.  Some  fugitives  are  now  beginning  to  reach  England. 
A  gentleman  in  London  wrote  to  me,  a  day  or  two  ago,  to  know  if  we  could 
find  a  berth  for  a  fine  fellow,  who  had  just  applied  to  him.  He  had  arrived 
by  steamer  from  New  York,  after  residing  there  for  three  years.  A  police- 
man, in  the  street,  good-naturedly  whispered  to  him  his  own  name,  and  then 
that  of  his  masters.  He  was  sure  that  peril  was  at  hand,  and  that,  having 
been  branded  for  escaping  before,  he  should  be  whipped  to  death  if  taken 
again,  so  he  packed  up  his  little  wardrobe  and  embarked  for  England  im- 
mediately. 

Another  poor  fellow  is  in  this  town,  recently  from  Charleston,  whence 
he  escaped,  among  some  cotton  bales  to  Greenock.  He  is  getting  fair 
wages  in  a  'saw-yard,  and  likes  England  very  well,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
thought  of  his  poor  wife  and  children  still  in  Slavery.  We  invited  him,  the 
other  day  to  a  working-men's  tea  party,  where  I  had  been  asked  to  make  tea 
for  them ;  and  he  gave  us  quite  an  able  account  of  his  travels.  The  men 
kindly  invited  him  to  join  their  "  Benefit  Club,"  and  told  him  they  would 
like  to  have  "  a  colored  brother "  amongst  them. 

Art  thou  not  thinking,  dear  friend,  of  asking  your  people  to  emigrate  to 
the  African  Coast,  or  the  West  India  Islands  ?  Two  gentlemen  in  London 
are  writing  most  warmly  about  this.  I  wrote  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  address  on 
the  enclosed  paper.  Instead  of  being  colpnizationists,  in  the  objectionable 
sense,  he  and  Mrs.  Bowen  are  burning  with  love  to  your  people,  and  are 
fervently  desirous  of  doing  them  all  the  good  they  can.  I  cannot  see  why 
little  united  parties  should  not  promptly  emigrate  under  the  wing  of  these 
gentlemen.  Assure  those  who  think  and  feel  with  thee,  dear  friend,  and 
are  nobly  determined  to  suffer  rather  than  to  sin,  that  according  to  our  very 
small  ability  we  will  not  desert  them  in  their  hour  of  trial  and  danger.  We 
commend  them  to  Him  who  can  do  for  them  a  thousand  times  more,  and 
better  than  we  can  either  ask  or  think.  With  our  united  kindest  remem- 
brance, sincerely,  ANNA  H.  RICHARDSON. 

WESTMORELAND  TERRACE,  NEWCASTLE-ON-TTNE,  March  16, 1860. 
We  have  lately  read  the  life  of  thy  brother  and  sister  (Peter  and  Vina 
Still),  dear  friend,  with  the  deepest  interest.  It  is  a  most  touching  and 
beautiful  book,  and  we  think  should  be  either  reprinted  in  England  or  sent 
over  here  very  largely.  My  husband  and  I  are  hardly  acquainted  with  a 
volume  more  calculated  to  stir  up  the  British  mind  on  the  subject  of  Slavery. 
Great  Britain  is  just  now  getting  really  warm  on  the  Anti-slavery  subject, 
and  is  longing  to  shake  herself  from  being  so  dependent  as  hitherto,  on  slave 
produce.  Why,  Oh !  why  should  not  the  expatriated  blacks  go  to  free 
countries  and  grow  produce  for  themselves  and  for  everybody  who  requires 


PAMPHLET- TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE.  605 

it  ?  Why  not,  in  time,  become  "  merchants  and  princes,"  in  those  countries? 
I  am  told  (as  a  secret)  that  this  subject  is  likely,  ere  long,  to  be  taken  up  in 
high  quarters  in  England.  » We  are  feeling  hopeful,  dear  friends,  about  thy 
crushed  and  persecuted  people,  for  surely  God  is  working  for  them  by  ways 
and  means  that  we  know  not.  I  have  been  careful  to  keep  it  to  private 
circles,  but  thy  valuable  letter  of  last  July,  has  been  read  by  many  with 
the  deepest  interest.  A  dear  young  lady  from  Dublin  is  by  my  side,  and  has 
but  this  minute  returned  it  to  me.  It  is  but  a  little,  but  I  have  gathered  <£4j 
by  its  perusal  here  and  there.  I  am  not  able  to  forward  so  small  a  sum  in. 
this  letter,  but  some  way  wish  to  send  «£2  of  this  amount  for  thy  own  use, 
and  the  other  X2  to  your  Vigilance  Committee.  It  so  happens  that  we 
have  not  anything  for  the  better  from  our  own  Anti-slavery  Association  this 
year.  Very  sincerely  thy  friend,  my  dear  husband  uniting  in  kind  regards, 

ANNA  H.  RICHAEDSON. 

WOOD  HOUSE,  near  NEWCASTLE,  May  3,  1860. 
[An  occasional  rural  residence  of  ours,  five  miles  from  home.] 

To  WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  have  again  to  thank  thee,  dear  friend,  for  a 
kind  letter  and  for  the  perusal  of  three  letters  from  thy  fugitive  friends.  It 
must  be  truly  cheering  to  receive  such,  and  their  warm  and  affectionate 
gratitude  must  be  as  rich  reward  for  many  anxieties.  I  conclude  that  it  is 
not  necessary  for  those  letters  to  be  returned,  but  should  it  be  so,  let  me 
know,  and  I  will  be  on  the  lookout  for  some  private  opportunity  of  return- 
ing them  to  Philadelphia.  Such  occur  now  and  then.  We  like  to  see  such 
letters.  They  assist  us  to  realize  the  condition  of  these  poor  wanderers.  I 
am  sorry  for  not  having  explained  myself  distinctly  in  my  last.  The 
promised  ,£4  were  for  the  fugitives,  being  gathered  from  various  Christian 
friends,  who  gave  it  me  for  their  particular  use.  But  we  wished  half  of 
that  sum  to  be  laid  out  (as  on  a  previous  occasion),  at  thy  own  discretion, 
irrespective  of  the  Vigilance  Committee.  I  have  now  another  <£!  to  add  to 
the  latter  half,  and  would  gladly  have  enclosed  a  £5  note  in  this  envelope, 
but  we  are  rather  afraid  of  sending  the  actual  money  in  letters,  and  our 
London  bankers  do  not  like  to  remit  small  sums.  I  shall  continue  to  watch 
for  the  first  opportunity  of  forwarding  the  above. 

Our  valued  friend,  Samuel  Rhoads,  has  been  lately  in  heavy  sorrow.  I 
send  this  through  his  medium,  but  fear  to  add  more  lest  I  should  make  his 
letter  too  heavy.  With  our  united  kind  regards,  very  truly,  thy  friend, 

ANNA  H.  RICHAEDSON. 

54,  WESTMORELAND  TEKKACE,  June  8,  1860. 

DEAE  FEIEND  : — WILLIAM  STILL  : — It  is  a  good  plan  to  send  me  these 
interesting  communications.  The  letter  to  your  coadjutor  at  Elmira, 
reached  us  a  few  days  since.  That  depot  must  not  be  allowed  to  go  down  if 
it  be  possible  for  this  to  be  prevented.  Perhaps  J.  W.  Jones  might  be 


606  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

encouraged  by  a  gift  from  England,  that  is,  by  a  little  aid  from  this  country, 
expressly  for  the  fugitives,  being  put  into  his  hands.  If  you  think  so,  I  am 
sure  my  friends  would  approve  of  this,  and  you  can  use  your  own  discretion 
in  giving  him  our  gifts  in  one  sum  or  by  detached  remittances.  The 
greatest  part  of  the  money  on  hand,  has  come  in  from  the  private  perusal  of 
thy  interesting  letters,  and  my  friends  simply  gave  my  husband  and  me  their 
money  for  the  fugitives,  leaving  the  exact  disposal  of  it  to  our  own  discre- 
tion. It  has  struck  me  of  late,  that  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  print  occasional 
extracts  from  thy  letters  (with  other  Anti-slavery  information),  it  would 
greatly  facilitate  the  obtaining  of  pecuniary  aid.  As  it  is,  I  can  lend  a 
private  letter  to  a  trustworthy  friend,  but  if  by  any  chance,  this  letter  got 
lost,  it  would  be  awkward,  and  it  is  also  impossible,  of  course,  to  lend  the 
original  in  two  quarters  at  once.  Then,  again,  the  mechanical  trouble  of 
making  copies  of  letters,  is  not  convenient ;  much  sedentary  employment 
does  not  suit  my  health,  and  I  cannot  manage  it.  I  have  been  thinking  of 
late,  that  if  my  friends  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  could  be  supplied 
with  a  small  quarto,  an  occasional  printed  paper,  for  private  circulation,  it 
would  save  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  and  probably  bring  in  considerable  aid. 
My  husband  and  I  have  long  been  accustomed  to  preparing  tracts  and  small 
periodicals  for  the  press,  so  that  I  think  we  know  exactly  what  ought  to  be 
made  public  and  what  not.  If  thou  likest  to  give  me  this  discretionary 
power,  do  so,  and  I  will  endeavor  to  exercise  it  wisely,  and  in  a  way  that  I 
feel  almost  certain  would  be  in  accordance  with  thy  wishes. 

The  sum  now  remitted  through  our  friend,  Samuel  Rhoads,  is  <£8  (eight 
pounds).  Of  this,  we  should  like  £3  to  be  placed  at  thy  own  discretion,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  fugitives,  <£3  (if  you  approve  it)  in  a  similar  way,  to  be 
handed  to  J.  W.  Jones,  and  £2  as  formerly,  to  be  handed  to  the  Philadel- 
phia Vigilance  Committee.  The  latter  is  not,  however,  as  in  past  times, 
from  the  Newcastle  Anti-slavery  Society,  for,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  it  is  not-  a 
sufficiently  pains-taking  and  executive  little  body,  but  more  apt  to  work  by 
fits  and  starts,  but  from  our  private  friends,  who  kindly  place  their  money 
in  our  hauds  as  their  Anti-slavery  stewards.  My  friend  S.  R.  will  therefore 
kindly  hand  for  us:  .£3  for  "William  Still,  for  fugitives;  £3  for  J.  W.  Jones, 
for  fugitives ;  £2  for  Philadelphia  Vigilance  Committee,  for  fugitives. 
Total  £8. 

We  are  very  sorry  for  thee  to  have  to  incur  so  much  persecution.  Be  of 
good  cheer,  the  right  will  eventually  triumph,  if  not  in  this  world,  in  that 
day,  when  all  shall  be  eventually  righted  on  our  Lord's  right  hand.  Oh,  for 
ability  in  the  meantime,  to  love  Him,  trust  Him,  confide  in  Him  implicitly! 

Many  thanks  for  the  "  Anti-slavery  Standards."  No  one  in  this  town,  takes 
them  in,  consequently  we  only  see  them  occasionally.  Do  any  tidings  reach 
you  of  our  friend,  Frederick  Douglass?  We  heard  from  him  from  Portland, 
but  are  anxiously  looking  for  another  letter.  He  always  spoke  of  thee,  my 


PAMPHLET— TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  SLAVE.  607 

friend,  very  kindly,  and  one  day,  when  some  money  had  been  given  to  him 
for  fugitives,  said  :  "  You  shall  have  part  of  this  if  you  like,  for  William 
Still,"  but  I  said,  "No,  I  will  try  and  get  some  elsewhere  for  him."  Doug- 
lass left  us  in  April,  after  losing  his  little  Annie,  but  wished  his  visit  to  be 
kept  private,  and  hoped  to  be  able  to  return  to  England  in  August.  My 
husband  and  I  agree  with  F.  D.  in  political  matters.  We  are  not  disunioii- 
ists,  but  want  to  mend  your  corrupted  government.  With  kind  regards, 
sincerely  thy  friend,  A.  H.  R. 

We  are  well  acquainted  with  William  and  Ellen  Craft.  They  have  just 
sent  us  their  little  book. 

NEWCASTLE,  5th  mo.,  2, 1861. 

W.  STILL: — DEAR  FRIEND  :  —  That  poor  fellow,  who  was  so  long 
secreted,  had  been  often  in  my  thoughts,  when  laying  this  case  of  the 
fugitives  before  our  friends.  I  should  like  thee  to  feel  at  liberty  to  replace 
the  remainder  of  the  twenty-five  dollars  from  the  accompanying  ten  pounds, 
which  I  have  much  pleasure  in  forwarding,  but  think  it  better  to  mention, 
that  it  may  perhaps  be  the  last  remittance  for  some  little  time  from  this 
quarter,  as  I  do  not  at  present  see  any  immediate  opening  for  getting  more. 
Our  worthy  friend,  W.  S.  Bailey,  has  lately  been  here,  and  Dr.  Cheever  and 
W.  H.  Day,  are  expected  in  a  week  or  two.  From  London  too,  there  are 
very  earnest  appeals  to  assist  the  "  African  Anti-slavery  Society."  Thank 
thee  for  the  newspapers  and  thy  last  kind  note.  I  think  thou  rather  over- 
rates my  little  services.  What  a  crisis  is  coming !  O,  what  will  the  end  be? 
With  our  united  best  wishes,  thy  sincere  friend, 

ANNA  H.  EICHABDSON. 

£7  of  this  money  is  from  some  personally  unknown  friend  at  Lancaster ; 
£5  from  two  nice  little  children  of  my  acquaintance. 

54  WESTMORELAND  TERRACE, 

NEWCASTLE- ON-TYNE,  Oct.  10,  18G2. 

I  have  pleasure,  dear  friend,  in  sending  you  £5  for  your  "  contrabands," 
in  response  to  your  last  letter  of  the  17th  ult.  It  is  not  much,  but  may  be 
a  little  help.  It  will  be  forwarded  by  our  valued  and  mutual  friend,  IT.  H. 
Garnet,  to  whom  I  am  sending  a  remittance  for  his  "  contrabands,"  by  the 
same  mail. 

We  shall  be  interested  in  any  particulars  you  may  like  to  send  us,  of  these 
poor  creatures,  but  at  the  same  time,  I  dare  not  hold  out  any  hopes  of  con- 
siderable assistance  from  England,  for  our  own  manufacturing  districts  are 
in  a  starving  state,  from  the  absence  of  the  accustomed  supply  of  cotton,  and' 
till  this  has  been  grown  in  other  quarters,  they  will  continue  to  have  a 
strong  claim  on  every  thoughtful  mind.  Some  of  us  would  rather  work 
with  your  colored  people  in  your  own  cause,  than  with  any  one  else,  for  we 
do  not  like  the  war,  and  do  not  at  all  approve  of  "  the  American  churches  " 


608  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

committing  themselves  to  it  so  fearfully.  If  your  President  had  but  taken 
the  step  at  first,  he  is  taking  now,  what  rivers  of  blood  might  have  been 
stayed !  It  is  remarkable,  how  you,  as  a  people,  have  been  preserved  to 
each  other,  without  having  your  own  hands  stained  with  blood.  But  as  to 
expatriation,  the  very  thought  of  it  is  foolish.  You  have  been  brought  to 
America,  not  emigrated  to  it,  and  who  on  earth  has  any  possible  right  to 
send  you  away?  Some  of  us  are  almost  as  much  displeased  with  the  North, 
for  talking  of  this,  as  with  the  South  for  holding  you  in  Slavery.  What 
can  we  say  to  you,  but  "  watch  and  pray,"  "  hope  and  wait,"  and  surely,  in 
His  own  good  time,  the  Most  High  will  make  you  a  pathway  out  of 
trouble.  We  are  delighted  to  hear  of  the  good  behaviour  of  your  people, 
wherever  they  have  a  fair  chance  of  acting  (on  the  borders),  as  upright  men 
and  Christians. 

Very  sincerely,  your  friend, 
To  WILLIAM  STILL.  ANNA  H.  EICHARDSON. 


WOMAN  ESCAPING  IN  A  BOX,  1857. 

8HE  WAS  SPEECHLESS. 

In  the  winter  of  1857  a  young  woman,  who  had  just  turned  her  majority, 
was  boxed  up  in  Baltimore  by  one  who  stood  to  her  in  the  relation  of  a  com- 
panion, a  young  man,  who  had  the  box  conveyed  as  freight  to  the  depot  in 
Baltimore,  consigned  to  Philadelphia.  Nearly  all  one  night  it  remained  at 
the  depot  with  the  living  agony  in  it,  and  after  being  turned  upside  down 
more  than  once,  the  next  day  about  ten  o'clock  it  reached  Philadelphia. 
Her  companion  coming  on  in  advance  of  the  box,  arranged  with  a  hackman, 
George  Custus,  to  attend  to  having  it  brought  from  the  depot  to  a  designated 
house,  Mrs.  Myers',  412  S.  7th  street,  where  the  resurrection  was  to  take 
place. 

Custus,  without  knowing  exactly  what  the  box  contained,  but  suspecting 
from  the  apparent  anxiety  and  instructions  of  the  young  man  who  engaged 
him  to  go  after  it,  that  it  was  of  great  importance,  while  the  freight  car  still 
remained  on  the  street,  demanded  it  of  the  freight  agent,  not  willing  to  wait 
the  usual  time  for  the  delivery  of  freight.  At  first  the  freight  agent  declined 
delivering  under  such  circumstances.  The  hackman  insisted  by  saying  that 
he  wished  to  despatch  it  in  great  haste,  said  it  is  all  right,  you  know  me,  I 
have  been  coming  here  for  many  years  every  day,  and  will  be  responsible 
for  it.  The  freight-master  told  him  to  "  take  it  and  go  ahead  with  it." 
No  sooner  said  than  done.  It  was  placed  in  a  one  horse  wagon  at  the 
instance  of  Custus,  and  driven  to  Seventh  and  Minster  streets. 


WOMAN  ESCAPING  IN  A  BOX.  609 

The  secret  had  been  intrusted  to  Mrs.  M.  by  the  young  companion  of  the 
woman.  A  feeling  of  horror  came  over  the  aged  woman,  who  had  been 
thus  suddenly  entrusted  with  such  responsibility.  A  few  doors  from  her 
lived  an  old  friend  of  the  same  religious  faith  with  herself,  well  known  as 
a  brave  woman,  and  a  friend  of  the  slave,  Mrs.  Ash,  the  undertaker  or 
shrouder,  whom  every  body  knew  among  the  colored  people.  Mrs.  Myers 
felt  that  it  would  not  be  wise  to  move  in  the  matter  of  this  resurrection 
without  the  presence  of  the  undertaker.  Accordingly,  she  called  Mrs.  Ash 
in.  Even  her  own  family  was  excluded  from  witnessing  the  scene.  The 
two  aged  women  chose  to  be  alone  in  that  fearful  moment,  shuddering  at 
the  thought  that  a  corpse  might  meet  their  gaze  instead  of  a  living  creature. 
However,  they  mustered  courage  and  pried  off  the  lid.  A  woman  was 
discovered  in  the  straw  but  no  sign  of  life  was  perceptible.  Their  fears 
seemed  fulfilled.  "  Surely  she  is  dead,"  thought  the  witnesses. 

"Get  up,  my  child,"  spake  one  of  the  women.  With  scarcely  life 
enough  to  move  the  straw  covering,  she,  nevertheless,  did  now  show  signs  of 
life,  but  to  a  very  faint  degree.  She  could  not  speak,  but  being  assisted 
arose.  She  was  straightway  aided  up  stairs,  not  yet  uttering  a  word.  After 
a  short  while  she  said,  "  I  feel  so  deadly  weak."  She  was  then  asked  if  she 
would  not  have  some  water  or  nourishment,  which  she  declined.  Before  a 
great  while,  however,  she  was  prevailed  upon  to  take  a  cup  of  tea.  She 
then  went  to  bed,  and  there  remained  all  day,  speaking  but  a  very  little 
during  that  time.  The  second  day  she  gained  strength  and  was  able  to  talk 
much  better,  but  not  with  ease.  The  third  day  she  began  to  come  to  herself 
and  talk  quite  freely.  She  tried  to  describe  her  sufferings  and  fears  while 
in  the  box,  but  in  vain.  In  the  midst  of  her  severest  agonies  her  chief 
fear  was,  that  she  would  be  discovered  and  carried  back  to  Slavery.  She 
had  a  pair  of  scissors  with  her,  and  in  order  to  procure  fresh  air  she  had 
made  a  hole  in  the  box,  but  it  was  very  slight.  How  she  ever  managed 
to  breathe  and  maintain  her  existence,  being  in  the  condition  of  becoming 
a  mother,  it  was  hard  to  comprehend.  In  this  instance  the  utmost  endur- 
ance was  put  to  the  test.  She  was  obviously  nearer  death  than  Henry 
Box  Brown,  or  any  of  the  other  box  or  chest  cases  that  ever  came  under  the 
notice  of  the  Committee. 

In  Baltimore  she  belonged  to  a  wealthy  and  fashionable  family,  and  had 
been  a  seamstress  and  ladies'  servant  generally.  On  one  occasion  when  sent 
of  an  errand  for  certain  articles  in  order  to  complete  arrangements  for  the 
Grand  Opening  Ball  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  she  took  occasion  not  to 
return,  but  was  among  the  missing.  Great  search  was  made,  and  a  large 
reward  offered,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  A  free  colored  woman,  who  washed 
for  the  family,  was  suspected  of  knowing  something  of  her  going,  but  they 
failing  to  get  aught  out  of  her,  she  was  discharged. 

Soon  after  the  arrival  of  this  traveler  at  Mrs.  Myers'  the  Committee  was 
39 


610  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sent  for  and  learned  the  facts  as  above  stated.  After  spending  some 
three  or  four  days  in  Mrs.  Myers'  family  she  remained  in  the  writer's  family 
about  the  same  length  of  time,  and  was  then  forwarded  to  Canada. 

Mrs.  Myers  was  originally  from  Baltimore,  and  had  frequently  been  in 
the  habit  of  receiving  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers ;  she  had  always 
found  Thomas  Shipley,  the  faithful  philanthropist,  a  present  help  in  time  of 
need.  The  young  man  well  knew  Mrs.  Myers  would  act  with  prudence 
in  taking  his  companion  to  her  house. 

George  Custus,  the  hackman,  a  colored  man,  was  cool,  sensible,  and  reli- 
able in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  as  were  the  other  parties,  therefore  every 
thing  was  well  managed. 

With  this  interesting  case  our  narratives  end,  except  such  facts  of  a  like 
kind  as  may  be  connected  with  some  of  the  sketches  of  stockholders.  A 
large  number  on  the  record  book  must  be  omitted.  This  is  partly  owing 
to  the  fact  that  during  the  first  few  years  of  our  connection  with  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road,  so  little  was  written  out  in  the  way  of  narratives,  that 
would  hardly  be  of  sufficient  interest  to  publish ;  and  partly  from  the  fact 
that,  although  there  are  exceptional  cases  even  among  those  so  omitted, 
that  would  be  equally  as  interesting  as  many  which  have  been  inserted, 
time  and  space  will  not  admit  of  further  encroachment.  If  in  any  way 
we  have  erred  in  the  task  of  furnishing  facts  and  important  information 
touching  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  it  has  not  been  in  overstating  the 
sufferings,  trials,  perils,  and  marvellous  escapes  of  those  described,  but  on 
the  contrary.  In  many  instances  after  hearing  the  most  painful  narratives 
we  had  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  write  them  out,  except  in  the  briefest 
manner,  simply  sufficient  to  identify  parties,  which  we  did,  not  dreaming 
that  the  dark  cloud  of  Slavery  was  so  soon  to  give  way  to  the  bright  sun- 
light of  Freedom. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE. 

MEETING  TO  FORM  A  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE. 

As  has  already  been  intimated,  others  besides  the  Committee  were  deeply 
interested  in  The  Road ;  indeed,  the  little  aid  actually  rendered  by  the 
Committee,  was  comparatively  insignificant,  compared  with  the  aid  rendered 
by  some  who  were  not  nominally  members.  To  this  latter  class  of  friends,  it 
seems  meet  that  we  should  particularly  allude.  Before  doing  so,  however, 
simple  justice  to  all  concerned,  dictates  that  we  should  here  copy  the  official 
proceedings  of  the  first  meeting  and  organization  of  the  Philadelphia  Vigi- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE.  611 

lance  Committee  as  it  existed  until  the  very  day  that  the  ever  to  be 
remembered  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  rendered  the 
services  of  the  organization  and  road  no  longer  necessary.  It  reads  as 
follows: 

"  PENNSYLVANIA  FREEMAN,"  December  9,  1852. 

Pursuant  to  the  motion  published  in  last  week's  "  Freeman,"  a  meeting 
was  held  in  the  Anti-slavery  rooms,  on  the  evening  of  the  2d  inst.,  for  the 
purpose  of  organizing  a  Vigilance  Committee. 

On  motion  Samuel  Nickless  was  appointed  chairman,  and  "William  Still 
secretary.  J.  M.  McKim  then  stated  at  some  length,  the  object  of  the 
meeting.  He  said,  that  the  friends  of  the  fugitive  slave  had  been  for  some 
years  past,  embarrassed,  for  the  want  of  a  properly  constructed  active, 
Vigilance  Committee ;  that  the  old  Committee,  which  used  to  render  effec- 
tive service  in  this  field  of  Anti-slavery  labor,  had  become  disorganized  and 
scattered,  and  that  for  the  last  two  or  three  years,  the  duties  of  this  depart- 
ment had  been  performed  by  individuals  on  their  own  responsibility,  and 
sometimes  in  a  very  irregular  manner;  that  this  had  been  the  cause  of 
much  dissatisfaction  and  complaint,  and  that  the  necessity  for  a  remedy  of 
this  state  of  things  was  generally  felt.  Hence,  the  call  for  this  meeting.  It 
was  intended  now  to  organize  a  committee,  which  should  be  composed  of 
persons  of  known  responsibility,  and  who  could  be  relied  upon  to  act  system- 
atically and  promptly,  and  with  the  least  possible  expenditure  of  money  in 
all  cases  that  might  require  their  attention. 

James  Mott  and  Samuel  Nickless,  expressed  their  hearty  concurrence  in 
what  had  been  said,  as  did  also  B.  N.  Goines  and  N.  W.  Depee.  The 
opinion  was  also  expressed  by  one  or  more  of  these  gentlemen,  that  the 
organization  to  be  formed  should  be  of  the  simplest  possible  character;  with 
no  more  machinery  or  officers  than  might  be  necessary  to  hold  it  together 
and  keep  it  in  proper  working  order.  After  some  discussion,  it  was  agreed 
first  to  form  a  general  committee,  with  a  chairman,  whose  business  it  should 
be  to  call  meetings  when  necessity  should  seem  to  require  it,  and  to  preside 
at  the  same  ;  and  a  treasurer  to  take  charge  of  the  funds ;  and  second,  to 
appoint  out  of  this  general  committee,  an  acting  committee  of  four  persons, 
who  should  have  the  responsibility  of  attending  to  every  case  that  might 
require  their  aid,  as  well  as  the  exclusive  authority  to  raise  the  funds 
necessary  for  their  purpose.  It  was  farther  agreed  that  it  should  be  the 
duty  of  the  chairman  of  the  Acting  Committee  to  keep  a  record  of  all  their 
doings,  and  especially  of  the  money  received  and  expended  on  behalf  of 
every  case  claiming  their  interposition. 

The  following  persons  were  appointed  on  the  General  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee : 


612  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 


GENEBAL    VIGILANCE   COMMITTEE. 

ROBERT  PURVIS,  WILLIAM  STILL, 

CHARLES  H.  BUSTELL,  P.  WILLIAMSON, 

SAMUEL  NICKLESS,  B.  N.  GOINES, 

MORRIS  HALL,  J.  M.  M'Km, 

NATHANIEL  DEPEE,  ISAIAH  C.  WEARS, 

CHARLES  WISE,  JOHN  D.  OLIVER, 

JACOB  C.  WHITE,  PROF.  C.  L.  REASON, 

CYRUS  WHITSON,  HENRY  GORDON, 

J.  ASHER,  W.  H.  RILEY. 
J.  P.  BURR, 

Robert  Purvis  was  understood  to  be  Chairman  of  the  General  Committee, 
having  been  nominated  at  the  head  of  the  list,  and  Charles  Wise  was 
appointed  treasurer.  The  Acting  Committee  was  thus  constituted  : 

William  Still,  chairman,  N.  W.  Depee,  Passmore  Williamson,  J.  C. 
White.  This  Committee  was  appointed  for  the  term  of  one  year. 

On  motion,  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting  were  ordered  to  be  published 
in  the  "  Pennsylvania  Freeman." 

(Adjourned.) 

WILLIAM  STILL,  Secretary.  SAMUEL  NICKLESS,  Chairman. 

The  Committee  having  been  thus  organized,  J.  M.  McKim,  corresponding 
secretary  and  general  agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society, 
issued  the  subjoined  notice,  which  was  published  shortly  afterwards  in  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Freeman,"  and  the  colored  churches  throughout  the  city : 

"We  are  pleased  to  see  that  we  have  at  last,  what  has  for  some  time  been 
felt  to  be  a  desideratum  in  Philadelphia,  a  responsible  and  duly  authorized 
Vigilance  Committee.  The  duties  of  this  department  of  Anti-slavery  labor, 
have,  for  want  of  such  an  organization,  been  performed  in  a  very  loose  and 
unsystematic  manner.  The  names  of  the  persons  constituting  the  Acting 
Committee,  are  a  guarantee  that  this  will  not  be  the  case  hereafter.  They 
are — 

WILLIAM  STILL  (Chairman),  31  North  Fifth  Street, 

NATHANIEL  W.  DEPEE,  334  South  Street, 

JACOB  C.  WHITE,  100  Old  York  Road,  and 

PASSMORE  WILLIAMSON,  southwest  cor.  Seventh  and  Arch  Streets. 
We  respectfully  commend  these  gentlemen,  and  the  cause  in  which  they 
are  engaged,  to  the  confidence  and  co-operation  of  all  the  friends  of  the 
hunted  fugitive.  Any  funds  contributed  to  either  of  them,  or  placed  in 
the  hands  of  their  Treasurer,  Charles  Wise,  corner  of  Fifth  and  Market 
Streets,  will  be  sure  of  a  faithful  and  judicious  appropriation. 


ESTHER  MOORE.  613 


PORTRAITS  AND  SKETCHES. 


ESTHER  MOORE. 

For  many  years  no  woman  living  in  Philadelphia  was  better  known  to 
the  colored  people  of  the  city  generally,  than  Esther  Moore.  No  woman, 
white  or  colored,  living  in  Philadelphia  for  the  same  number  of  years, 
left  her  home  oftener,  especially  to  seek  out  and  aid  the  weary  travelers 
escaping  from  bondage,  than  did  this  philanthropist.  It  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  with  her  own  hand  she  administered  to  hundreds.  She  begged 
of  the  Committee,  as  a  special  favor,  that  she  might  be  duly  notified  of  every 
fugitive  reaching  Philadelphia,  and  actually  felt  hurt  if  from  any  cause  what- 
ever this  request  was  not  complied  with.  For  it  was  her  delight  to  see  the 
fugitives  individually,  take  them  by  the  hand  and  warmly  welcome  them 
to  freedom.  She  literally  wept  with  those  who  wept,  while  in  tones  of 
peculiar  love,  sincerity,  and  firmness,  she  lauded  them  for  their  noble 
daring,  and  freely  expressed  her  entire  sympathy  with  them,  and  likewise 
with  all  in  the  prison-house.  She  condemned  Slavery  in  all  its  phases,  as  a 
"  monster  to  be  loathed  as  the  enemy  of  God  and  man." 

Often  after  listening  attentively  for  hours  together  to  recitals  of  a  very 
harrowing  nature,  especially  from  females,  her  mind  would  seem  to  be 
filled  with  the  sufferings  of  the  slave  and  it  was  hard  for  her  to  withdraw 
from  them  even  when  they  were  on  the  eve  of  taking  up  their  march  for 
a  more  distant  station ;  and  she  never  thought  of  parting  with  them 
without  showing  her  faith  by  her  works  putting  a  "  gold  dollar "  in  the 
hand  of  each  passenger,  as  she  knew  that  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the 
Committee  to  do  much  more  than  defray  their  expenses  to  the  next  station, 
to  New  York  sometimes,  to  Elmira  at  other  times,  and  now  and  then  clear 
through  to  Canada.  She  desired  that  they  should  have  at  least  one  dollar 
to  fall  back  upon,  independent  of  the  Committee's  aid.  This  magnanimous 
rule  of  giving  the  gold  dollar  was  adopted  by  her  shortly  after  the  passage 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  which  daily  vexed  her  righteous  soul,  and  was 
kept  up  as  long  as  she  was  able  to  leave  her  house,  which  was  within  a 
short  time  of  her  death. 

Not  only  did  Esther  Moore  manifest  such  marked  interest  in  the  fugitive 
but  she  likewise  took  an  abiding  interest  in  visiting  the  colored  people  in 
their  religious  meetings,  schools,  and  societies,  and  whenever  the  way  opened 
and  the  Spirit  moved  her  she  would  take  occasion  to  address  them  in  the 
most  affectionate  manner,  in  regard  to  their  present  and  future  welfare, 
choosing  for  her  theme  the  subjects  of  temperance,  education,  and  slavery. 


614  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Nor  did  she  mean  that  her  labors  in  the  interest  of  the  oppressed  should 
cease  with  her  earthly  existence,  as  the  following  extracts  from  her  last  will 
and  testament  will  prove : 

2d  Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  executors,  hereinafter  named,  the 
sum  of  Twelve  hundred  dollars,  in  trust  to  invest  in  ground  rent,  or  City  of 
Philadelphia  Loans  at  their  disposal  or  discretion  to  pay  the  interest  or  in- 
come arising  therefrom  annually.  To  be  applied,  the  interest  of  the  Twelve 
hundred  dollars  above  mentioned,  for  educational  purposes  alone,  for  chil- 
dren of  both  sexes  of  color,  in  Canada,  apart  from  all  sectarian  or  traditional 
dogmas,  which  is  the  only  hope  for  the  rising  generation.  The  application 
of  this  money  is  intended  to  remain  perpetual. 

7th  Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  executors  the  sum  of  one  hundred 
dollars,  to  be  expended  by  them  in  educating  and  assisting  to  clothe  Phaeton 
and  Pliny  J.  Lock,  the  sons  of  Ishmael  Lock,  deceased,  and  Matilda  Lock 
(his  wife).  My  will  is  that  it  shall  be  given  out  discretionally  by  my  execu- 
tors for  the  purpose  above  mentioned. 

17th  Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Oliver  Johnson,  editor  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Freeman,  one  hundred  dollars,  if  he  be  living  at  my  death ;  if  not 
living,  to  go  with  the  remainder  of  my  estate.  My  will  is  that  if  Oliver 
Johnson  be  not  living  at  my  death  his  bequest  go  with  my  estate. 

18th  Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Cyrus  Burleigh,  lecturer  and  agent  for 
the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society,  one  hundred  dollars,  if  Cyrus  be 
living  at  my  death.  If  not  living  at  my  death,  his  bequest,  Cyrus  Bur- 
leigh's,  I  wish  to  go  with  the  residue  of  my  estate.  The  untiring  vigilance 
of  these  two  young  men,  in  devoting  the  best  of  their  days  to  the  rescue  and 
emancipation  of  the  poor  and  down-trodden  fugitives  has  obtained  for  them 
a  warm  place  in  my  heart.  And  may  heaven's  richest  blessings  reward 
them.  They  have  ministered  more  than  "the  cup  of  water." 

Item  19th.  I  give  and  bequeath  unto  the  Association  for  the  care  of 
Colored  Orphans  of  Philadelphia,  called  the  Shelter  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  colored  orphans  of  both  sexes,  to  be  paid  into  the  hands  of  the  treasurer 
for  the  time  being,  for  the  use  of  said  Society  all  the  rest  and  remainder  of 
my  estate. 

I  wish  my  Executors  or  Trustees  to  carry  out  my  views  in  regard  to  the 
education  of  colored  children  in  Canada,  by  paying  over  the  interest  arising 
annually  from  the  twelve  hundred  dollars  mentioned  in  the  second  item  to 
such  school  or  schools  as  in  their  judgment  they  may  deem  best.  My  desire 
being  the  benefit  of  such  children  who  may  be  in  the  same  neighborhood 
with  them.  The  interest  arising  from  the  twelve  hundred  dollars  mentioned 

O 

in  second  item  for  the  purpose  of  educating  colored  children  in  Canada  is 
intended  to  remain  perpetual. 

******** 
I  give  and  bequeath  to  William  Still,  of  Philadelphia,  now  employed  in 


ESTHER  MOOEE.  615 

the  Anti-slavery  office,  in  Fifth  St.,  Philadelphia,  February  21,  the.  sum 
of  one  hundred  dollars ;  and  request  my  executors  and  trustees  to  pay  over 
that  amount  out  of  my  estate. 

Esther  Moore  was  not  rich  in  this  world's  goods,  but  was  purely  benevo- 
lent and  rich  in  good  works  towards  her  fellow-men,  hating  every  form  of 
oppression  and  injustice,  and  an  uncompromising  witness  against  prejudice  on 
account  of  color.  Such  a  friend  as  was  Esther  Moore  during  these  many  dark 
years  of  kidnapping,  slave-catching,  mob  violence,  and  bitter  prejudice 
which  the  colored  people  were  wont  to  encounter,  should  never  be  forgotten. 

The  legacy  devised  for  educational  purposes  was  applied  in  due  time,  after 
one  of  the  executors  in  company  with  his  wife,  Dr.  J.  Wilson  and  Rachel 
Barker  Moore,  visited  the  various  settlements  of  fugitives  in  Canada,  ex- 
pressly with  a  view  of  finding  out  where  the  fund  would  do  the  most  good, 
in  accordance  with  the  testator's  wishes.  And  although  the  testator  has  been 
dead  seventeen  years,  her  legacy  is  still  doing  its  mission  in  her  name,  in  a 
school,  near  Chatham,  Canada  West. 

In  order  to  complete  this  sketch,  it  is  only  necessary  that  we  should  copy 
the  beautiful  and  just  tribute  to  her  memory,  written  by  Oliver  Johnson, 
editor  of  the  "National  Anti-slavery  Standard,"  and  published  in  the 
columns  thereof,  as  follows : 

DEATH  OF  A  NOBLE  WOMAN. 

[From  the  "  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard."] 

Just  as  our  paper  is  going  to  press,  there  comes  to  us  intelligence  of  the 
death  of  our  beloved  and  revered  friend,  Esther  Moore,  widow  of  the  late 
Dr.  Robert  Moore,  of  Philadelphia.  She  expired  on  Tuesday  morning, 
November  21st,  1854,  of  gout  of  the  heart,  after  a  short,  but  painful  illness, 
in  the  eightieth  year  of  her  age. 

The  writer  of  this  first  became  acquainted  with  her  in  1836,  and,  at  vari- 
ous times  since  then,  has  met  her  at  Anti-slavery  meetings,  or  in  familiar 
intercourse  at  her  own  house.  Her  most  remarkable  traits  of  character  were 
an  intense  hatred  of  oppression  in  all  its  forms,  a  corresponding  love  for  the 
oppressed,  an  untiring  devotion  to  their  welfare,  and  a  courage  that  never 
quailed  before  any  obstacles,  however  formidable.  Her  zeal  in  behalf  of  the 
Anti-slavery  cause,  and  especially  in  behalf  of  the  fugitive,  a  zeal  that  ab- 
sorbed all  the  powers  of  her  noble  nature,  was  a  perpetual  rebuke  to  the 
comparative  coldness  and  indifference  of  those  around  her.  We  well  remem- 
ber how  her  soul  was  fired  with  a  righteous  indignation  when  upwards  of 
thirty  innocent  persons,  most  of  them  colored  people,  were  thrown  into 
prison  at  Philadelphia,  upon  a  charge  of  treason,  for  their  alleged  participa- 
tion in  the  tragedy  at  Christiana.  Day  after  day  did  she  visit  the  prisoners 
in  their  cells,  to  minister  to  their  wants,  and  cheer  them  in  their  sorrow ; 


616  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  during  the  progress  of  Hanway's  trial,  her  constant  presence  in  the 
court-room,  and  her  frequent  interviews  with  the  District  Attorney,  attested 
her  deep  anxiety  as  to  the  result  of  the  impending  struggle.  When  we  last 
saw  her,  about  a  month  since,  she  was  engaged  in  collecting  a  large  sum  of 
money  to  ransom  a  family  of  slaves,  whose  peculiar  condition  had  enlisted 
her  deepest  sympathy.  Notwithstanding  her  age  and  infirmities,  she  had 
enlisted  in  this  work  with  a  zeal  which,  even  in  a  younger  person,  would 
have  been  remarkable.  For  many  days,  perhaps  for  many  weeks,  she  went 
from  door  to  door,  asking  for  the  means  whereby  to  secure  the  freedom  and 
the  happiness  of  an  enslaved  and  plundered  household. 

As  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  she  lamented  the  guilty  supineness 
of  that  body,  in  regard  to  the  question  of  Slavery,  and  often,  in  its  meet- 
ings, as  well  as  in  private  intercourse,  felt  herself  constrained  to  utter  the 
language  of  expostulation  and  rebuke.  In  this,  as  in  other  relations  of  life, 
she  was  obedient  to  the  revelation  of  God  in  her  own  soul,  and  a  worthy 
example  of  fidelity  to  her  convictions  of  duty.  Her  step-son,  J.  Wilson 
Moore,  in  a  letter  to  us  announcing  her  decease,  says: 

Among  the  last  injunctions  she  gave,  was,  "  Write  to  Oliver  Johnson,  and 
tell  him  I  die  firm  in  the  faith !  MIND  THE  SLAVE  !"  She  had  enjoyed 
excellent  health  the  last  few  years,  and  continued  actively  engaged  in  works 
of  benevolence.  During  the  last  few  weeks,  she  had  devoted  much  time  and 
labor  to  the  collection  of  funds  for  the  liberation  of  ten  slaves  in  North 
Carolina,  who  had  been  promised  their  freedom  at  a  comparatively  small 
amount.  Notwithstanding  her  great  bodily  suffering,  her  mind  was  clear  to 
the  last,  expressing  her  full  assurance  of  Divine  approbation  in  the  course 
she  had  taken. 

This  is  all  that  we  can  now  say  of  the  life  of  our  revered  and  never-to- 
be-forgotten  friend.  Perhaps  some  one  who  knew  her  more  intimately  than 
we  did,  and  who  is  better  acquainted  with  the  history  of  her  life  and  labors, 
will  furnish  us  with  a  more  complete  sketch.  If  so,  we  shall  publish  it 
with  great  satisfaction. 

Happy !  ay,  happy  !  let  her  ashes  rest ; 
Her  heart  was  honest,  and  she  did  her  best ; 
In  storm  and  darkness,  evil  and  dismay, 
The  star  of  duty  was  her  guiding  ray. 

Her  injunction  to  "MiND  THE  SLAVE,"  comes  to  us  as  the  dying  admo- 
nition of  one,  whose  life  was  a  beautiful  exemplification  of  the  duty  and  the 
privilege  thus  enjoined.  It  imposes,  indeed,  no  new  obligation;  but  coming 
from  such  a  source,  it  will  linger  in  our  memory  while  life  and  its  scenes 
shall  last,  inspiring  in  us,  we  hope,  a  purer  and  a  more  ardent  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  freedom  and  humanity.  And  may  we  not  hope  that  others 
also,  will  catch  a  new  inspiration  from  the  dying  message  of  our  departed 
friend  :  "  MIND  THE  SLAVE  !" 


ABIGAIL  GOODWIN.  617 


ABIGAIL  GOODWIN. 

Contemporary  with  Esther  Moore,  and  likewise  an  intimate  personal 
friend  of  hers,  Abigail  Goodwin,  of  Salem,  N.  J.,  was  one  of  the  rare,  true 
friends  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  whose  labors  entitle  her  name  to  be 
mentioned  in  terms  of  very  high  praise. 

A.  W.  M.  a  most  worthy  lady,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  refers  to  her  in  the 
following  language : 

"  From  my  long  residence  under  the  same  roof,  I  learned  to  know  well 
her  uncommon  self-sacrifice  of  character,  and  to  be  willing  and  glad,  when- 
ever in  my  power,  to  honor  her  memory.  But,  yet  I  should  not  know  what 
further  to  say  about  her  than  to  give  a  very  few  words  of  testimony  to  her 
life  of  ceaseless  and  active  benevolence,  especially  toward  the  colored  people. 

"Her  life  outwardly  was  wholly  uneventful;  as  she  lived  out  her  whole 
life  of  seventy-three  years  in  the  neighborhood  of  her  birth-place." 

With  regard  to  her  portrait,  which  was  solicited  for  this  volume,  the  same 
lady  thus  writes :  "  No  friend  of  hers  would  for  a  moment  think  of  per- 
mitting that  miserable  caricature,  the  only  picture  existing  meant  to  repre- 
sent her,  to  be  given  to  the  public.  I  cannot  even  bear  to  give  a  place  in 
my  little  album  to  so  mournful  and  ridiculous  a  misrepresentation  of  her  in- 
teresting face."  *  * 
"  You  wonder  why  her  sister,  E.,  my  loved  and  faithful  friend,  seems  to  be 
so  much  less  known  among  anti-slavery  "people  than  Abbie?  One  reason 
is,  that  although  dear  Betsy's  interest .  in  the  subject  was  quite  equal  in 
earnestness,  it  was  not  quite  so  absorbingly  exclusive.  Betsy  economized 
greatly  in  order  to  give  to  the  cause,  but  Abby  denied  herself  even  necessary 
apparel,  and  Betsy  has  often  said  that  few  beggars  came  to  our  doors  whose 
garments  were  so  worn,  forlorn,  and  patched-up  as  Abby's.  Giving  to  the 
colored  people  was  a  perfect  passion  with  her ;  consequently  she  was  known 
as  a  larger  giver  than  Betsy. 

"  Another  and  greater  reason  why  she  was  more  known  abroad  than  her 
sister  E.,  was  that  she  wrote  with  facility,  and  corresponded  at  intervals 
with  many  on  these  matters,  Mr.  McKim  and  others,  and  for  many  years." 
******** 

Abigail  was  emphatically  of  the  type  of  the  poor  widow,  who  cast  in  all 
her  living.  She  worked  for  the  slave  as  a  mother  would  work  for  her 
children.  Her  highest  happiness  and  pleasure  in  life  seemed  to  be  derived 
from  rendering  acts  of  kindness  to  the  oppressed.  Letters  of  sympathy  ac- 
companied with  bags  of  stockings,  clothing,  and  donations  of  money  were 
not  unfrequent  from  her. 

New  Jersey  contained  a  few  well-tried  friends,  both  within  and  without 
the  Society  of  Friends,  to  which  Miss  Goodwin  belonged ;  but  among  them 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

all  none  was  found  to  manifest,  at  least  in  the  Underground  Rail  Road  of 
Philadelphia,  such  an  abiding  interest  as  a  co-worker  in  the  cause,  as  did 
Abigail  Goodwin. 

The  sympathy  which  characterized  her  actions  is  clearly  evinced  in  her 
own  words,  as  contained  in  the  appended  extracts  from  her  letter,  as 
follows : 

"  DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  sent  E.  M.  (Esther  Moore)  forty-one  dollars  more  by 
half  than  I  expected  to  when  I  set  about  it.  I  expect  that  abolitionists  there 
are  all  opposed  to  buying  slaves,  and  will  not  give  anything.  I  don't  like 
buying  them,  or  giving  money  to  slave-holders  either ;  but  this  seems  to  be  a 
peculiar  case,  can  be  had  so  cheap,  and  so  many  young  ones  that  would  be 
separated  from  their  parents ;  slavery  is  peculiarly  hard  for  children,  that 
cannot  do  anything  to  protect  themselves,  nor  can  their  parents,  and  the  old 
too,  it  is  hard  for  them ;  but  it  is  a  terrible  thing  altogether.  The  case  of 
the  fugitive  thee  mentioned  was  indeed  truly  affecting;  it  makes  one  ashamed 
as  well  as  sad  to  read  such  things,  that  human  beings,  or  any  other  beings 
should  be  so  treated.  I  cannot  but  hope  and  believe  that  slavery  will  ere 
long  cease.  I  have  a  strong  impression  that  the  colored  people  and  the 
women  are  to  have  a  day  of  prosperity  and  triumph  over  their  oppressors. 
"We  must  patiently  wait  and  quietly  hope;  but  not  keep  too  much  'in  the 
quiet.'  Shall  have  to  work  our  deliverance  from  bondage.  '  Who  would 
be  free,  themselves  must  strike  the  blow.' 

"  I  regret  very  much  that  I  have  not  more  clothing  to  send  than  the  stock- 
ings. I  have  not  had  time  since  I  thought  of  it,  to  make  anything ;  am 
ashamed  that  I  was  so  inconsiderate  of  the  poor  runaways.  I  will  go  to 
work  as  soon  as  I  have  earned  money  to  buy  materials ;  have  managed  so  as 
to  spend  my  little  annual  allowance  in  nine  months,  and  shall  not  be  able 
to  give  you  any  money  for  some  months,  but  if  more  stockings  are  wanted 
let  me  know,  our  benevolent  society  have  plenty  on  hand ;  and  I  have  some 
credit  if  not  money ;  they  will  trust  me  till  I  have ;  they  furnish  work  for 
poor  women  and  sell  it.  I  get  them  for  fifty  cents  a  pair. 

*'  My  sister  says  Lucretia  (Mott)  told  her  that  there  was  not  much  clothing 
in  the  trunk,  only  a  few  old  things.  I  think  she  told  me  there  was  nothing 
in  it,  she  meant,  I  suppose,  of  any  consequence. 

"  I  should  like  to  know  if  the  fugitives  are  mostly  large.  T  have  an  idea 
they  are  generally  small  in  stature ;  that  slavery  stunts  the  body  as  well  as 
mind.  I  want  to  know  in  regard  to  the  clothes  that  I  intend  making ;  it's 
best  to  have  them  fit  as  well  as  can  be.  I  shall  work  pretty  much  for 
women.  I  hope  and  expect  there  are  many  friends  of  the  cause  who  furnish 
clothing  in  the  city.  They  ought  to  be  fitted  out  for  Canada  with  strong, 
warm  clothing  in  cold  weather,  and  their  sad  fate  alleviated  as  much  as 
can  be."  ******* 

The  forty-one  dollars,  referred  to  in  the  above  letter,  and  sent  to  "E.  M." 


ABIGAIL  GOODWIN.  619 

was  to  go  especially  towards  buying  an  interesting  family  of  ten  slaves, 
who  were  owned  in  North  Carolina  by  a  slave-holder,  whose  rare  liberality 
was  signalized  by  offering  to  take  $1,000  for  the  lot,  young  and  old.  In 
this  exceptional  case,  while  opposed  to  buying  slaves,  in  common  with 
abolitionists  generally,  she  was  too  tender-hearted  to  resist  the  temptation  so 
long  as  "  they  could  be  bought  so  cheap." 

To  rid  men  of  their  yoke  was  her  chief  desire.  Such  was  her  habit  of 
making  the  sad  lot  of  a  slave  a  personal  matter,  that  let  her  view  him,  in 
any  light  whatever,  whether  in  relation  to  young  ones  that  would  be  sepa- 
rated from  their  parents,  or  with  regard  to  the  old,  the  life  of  a  slave  was 
"peculiarly  hard,"  "a  terrible  thing  "  in  her  judgment. 

The  longer  she  lived,  and  the  more  faithfully  she  labored  for  the  slave's 
deliverance,  the  more  firmly  she  became  rooted  in  the  soul-encouraging  idea, 
that  "  Slavery  will  ere  long  cease."  Whilst  the  great  masses  were  either 
blind,  or  indifferent,  she  was  nerved  by  this  faith  to  bear  cheerfully  all  the 
sacrifices  she  was  called  on  to  make.  From  another  letter  we  copy  as  follows : 

JANUARY  25th,  1855. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — The  enclosed  ten  dollars  I  have  made,  earned  in  two 
weeks,  and  of  course  it  belongs  to  the  slave.  It  may  go  for  the  fugitives,  or 
Carolina  slaves,  whichever  needs  it  most.  I  am  sorry  the  fugitives'  trea- 
sury is  not  better  supplied,  if  money  could  flow  into  it  as  it  does  into  the 
Tract  Fund  ;  but  that  is  not  to  be  expected.  *  * 

Thy  answer  in  regard  to  impostors  is  quite  satisfactory.  No  doubt  you 
take  great  pains  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  but  cannot  at  all  times  avoid  being 
imposed  on.  Will  that  little  boy  of  seven  years  have  to  travel  on  foot  to 
Canada  ?  There  will  be  no  safety  for  him  here.  I  hope  his  father  will  get 
off.  John  Hill  writes  very  well,  considering  his  few  advantages.  If  plenty 
of  good  schools  could  be  established  in  Canada  for  the  benefit  of  fugitives, 
many  bright  scholars  and  useful  citizens  would  be  added  to  society.  I  hope 
these  will  be  in  process  of  time. 

It  takes  the  most  energetic  and  intelligent  to  make  their  way  out  of 
bondage  from  the  most  Southern  States.  It  is  rather  a  wonder  to  me  that  so 
many  can  escape,  the  masters  are  so  continually  watching  them.  The  poor 
man  that  secreted  himself  so  long,  must,  indeed,  have  suffered  dreadfully, 
and  been  exceedingly  resolute  to  brave  dangers  so  long.  *  *  * 

It  was  so  characteristic  of  her  to  take  an  interest  in  everything  that  per- 
tained to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  that  even  the  deliverance  of  a  little 
nameless  boy  was  not  beneath  her  notice.  To  her  mind,  his  freedom  was 
just  as  dear  to  him  as  if  he  had  been  the  son  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

How  they  got  on  in  Canada,  and  the  question  of  education,  were  matters 
that  concerned  her  deeply ;  hence,  occasional  letters  received  from  Canada, 


620  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

evincing  marked  progress,  such  as  the  hero  John  H.  Hill  was  in  the  habit 
of  writing,  always  gave  her  much  pleasure  to  peruse. 

Jn  the  Wheeler  slave-case,  in  which  Passmore  Williamson  and  others 
were  engaged,  her  interest  was  very  great.  From  a  letter  dated  Salem, 
September  9,  1855,  we  quote  the  subjoined  extract: 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  am  truly  rejoiced  and  thankful  that  the  right  has 
triumphed.  But  stranger  had  it  been  otherwise,  in  your  intelligent  com- 
munity, where  it  must  be  apparent  to  all  who  inquire  into  it,  that  you  had 
done  nothing  but  what  was  deserving  of  high  commendation,  instead  of 
blame  and  punishment;  and  shame  on  the  jury  who  would  bring  in  the  two 
men  guilty  of  assault  and  battery.  They  ought  to  have  another  trial ;  per- 
haps another  jury  would  be  more  just.  It  is  well  for  the  credit  of  Philadel- 
phia, that  there  is  one  upright  judge,  as  Kelley  seems  to  be,  and  his  sentence 
will  be  a  light  one  it  is  presumed,  showing  he  considered  the  charge  a  mere 
pretence. 

I  hope  and  trust,  that  neither  thyself  nor  the  other  men  will  have  much 
if  any  of  the  expense  to  bear ;  your  lawyers  will  not  charge  anything  I 
suppose,  and  the  good  citizens  will  pay  all  else.  It  seems  there  are  hopes 
entertained  that  Passmore  Williamson  will  soon  be  set  at  liberty.  It  must 
be  a  great  comfort  to  him  and  wife,  in  their  trials,  that  it  will  conduce  to 
the  furtherance  of  the  good  cause. 

If  Philadelphians  are  not  aroused  now  after  this  great  stretch  of  power, 
to  consider  their  safety,  they  must  be  a  stupid  set  of  people,  but  it  must  cer- 
tainly do  good.  *  *  *  You  will  take  good  care  of  Jane  Johnson, 
I  hope,  and  not  let  her  get  kidnapped  back  to  Slavery.  Is  it  safe  for  her  to 
remain  in  your  city  or  anywhere  else  in  our  "  free  land  ?"  I  have  some 
doubts  and  fears  for  her ;  do  try  to  impress  her  with  the  necessity  of  being 
very  cautious  and  careful  against  deceivers,  pretended  friends.  She  had 
better  be  off  to  Canada  pretty  soon. 

Thy  wife  must  not  sit  up  washing  and  ironing  all  night  again.  She 
ought  to  have  help  in  her  sympathy  and  labors  for  the  poor  fugitives,  and,  I 
should  think  there  are  many  there  who  would  willingly  assist  her. 

I  intended  to  be  careful  of  trespassing  upon  thy  time,  as  thee  must  have 
enough  to  do  ;  the  fugitives  are  still  coming  I  expect.  With  kind  regards, 
also  to  thy  wife,  your  friend, 

A.  GOODWIN. 

In  another  letter,  she  suggests  the  idea  of  getting  up  a  committee  of 
women  to  provide  clothing  for  fugitive  females ;  on  this  point  she  wrote 
thus: 

"SALEM,  8th  mo.,  1st. 

"  Would  it  not  be  well  to  get  up  a  committee  of  women,  to  provide  clothes 
for  fugitive  females — a  dozen  women  sewing  a  day,  or  even  half  a  day  of 


ABIGAIL  GOODWIN.  621 

each  week,  might  keep  a  supply  always  ready,  they  might,  I  should  think, 
get  the  merchants  or  some  of  them,  to  give  cheap  materials — mention  it  to 
thy  wife,  and  see  if  she  cannot  get  up  a  society.  I  will  do  what  I  can  here 
for  it.  I  enclose  five  dollars  for  the  use  of  fugitives.  It  was  a  good  while 
that  I  heard  nothing  of  your  rail  road  concerns ;  I  expected  thee  had  gone 
to  Canada,  or  has  the  journey  not  been  made,  or  is  it  yet  to  be  accomplished, 
or  given  up  ?  I  was  in  hopes  thee  would  go  and  see  with  thy  own  eyes, 
how  things  go  on  in  that  region  of  fugitives,  and  if  it's  a  goodly  land  to 
live  in. 

"  This  is  the  first  of  August,  and  I  suppose  you  are  celebrating  it  in  Phila- 
delphia, or  some  of  you  are,  though  I  believe  you  are  not  quite  as  zealous  as 
the  Bostonians  are  in  doing  it.  When  will  our  first  of  August  come  ?  oh, 
that  it  might  be  soon,  very  soon  !  *  *  *  It's  high  time  the  'reign 
of  oppression  was  over.' " 

Ever  alive  to  the  work,  she  would  appeal  to  such  as  were  able  among  her 
friends,  to  take  stock  in  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  would  sometimes 
succeed.  In  a  letter  dated  July  30,  1856,  she  thus  alludes  to  her  efforts : 

"  I  have  tried  to  beg  something  for  them,  but  have  not  got  much ;  one  of 
our  neighbors,  S.  W.  Acton,  gave  me  three  dollars  for  them;  I  added 
enough  to  make  ten,  which  thee  will  find  inside.  I  shall  owe  three  more, 
to  make  my  ten.  I  presume  they  are  still  coming  every  day  almost,  and  I 
fear  it  comes  rather  hard  on  thee  and  wife  to  do  for  so  many ;  but  you  no 
doubt  feel  it  a  satisfaction  to  do  all  you  can  for  the  poor  sufferers." 

February  10,  1858,  she  forwarded  her  willing  contribution,  with  the  fol- 
lowing interesting  remarks: 

SALEM,  February  10,  1858. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — Thee  will  find  enclosed,  five  dollars  for  the  fugitives,  a 
little  for  so  many  to  share  it,  but  better  than  nothing  ;  oh,  that  people,  rich 
people,  would  remember  them  instead  of  spending  so  much  on  themselves ; 
and  those  too,  who  are  not  called  rich,  might,  if  there  was  only  a  willing 
mind,  give  too  of  their  abundance ;  how  can  they  forbear  to  sympathize 
with  those  poor  destitute  ones — but  so  it  is — there  is  not  half  the  feeling  for 
them  there  ought  to  be,  indeed  scarcely  anybody  seems  to  think  about  them. 
"Inasmuch  as  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  me."  Thy  friend, 

A.  GOODWIN. 

When  the  long  looked-for  day  of  emancipation  arrived,  which  she  had 
never  expected  to  witness,  the  unbounded  thankfulness  of  her  heart  found 
expression  in  the  appended  letter : 

SALEM,  September  23,  1862. 

DEAR  FRIEND  : — Thy  letter  dated  17th,  was  not  received  till  last  night. 
I  cannot  tell  where  it  has  been  detained  so  long.  On  the  22d,  yesterday, 
Amy  Reckless  came  here,  after  I  began  writing,  and  wished  me  to  defer 


622  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

sending  for  a  day  or  two,  thinking  she  could  get  a  few  more  dollars,  and  she 
has  just  brought  some,  and  will  try  for  more,  and  clothing.  A  thousand 
thanks  to  President  Hamlin  for  his  kindness  to  the  contrabands;  poor 
people !  how  deplorable  their  situation ;  where  will  they  go  to,  when  cold 
weather  conies?  so  many  of  them  to  find  homes  for,  but  they  must  and  will, 
I  trust  be  taken  care  of,  not  by  their  former  care-takers  though. 

I  have  read  the  President's  proclamation  of  emancipation,  with  thankful- 
ness and  rejoicing ;  but  upon  a  little  reflection,  I  did  not  feel  quite  satisfied 
with  it ;  three  months  seems  a  long  time  to  be  in  the  power  of  their  angry 
and  cruel  masters,  who,  no  doubt,  will  wreak  all  their  fury  and  vengeance 
upon  them,  killing  and  abusing  them  in  every  way  they  can — and  sell  them 
to  Cuba  if  they  can.  It  makes  me  sad  to  think  of  it.  Slavery,  I  fear, 
will  be  a  long  time  in  dying,  after  receiving  the  fatal  stroke.  What  do 
abolitionists  think  of  it?  and  what  is  thy  opinion?  I  feel  quite  anxious  to 
know  something  more  about  it.  The  "  Daily  Press  "  says,  it  will  end  the 
war  and  its  cause.  How  can  we  be  thankful  enough  if  it  should,  and  soon 
too.  "  Oh,  praise  and  tanks,"  what  a  blessing  for  our  country.  I  never 
expected  to  see  the  happy  day.  If  thee  answers  this,  thee  will  please  tell 
me  all  about  it,  and  what  is  thought  of  it  by  the  wise  ones ;  but  I  ought 
not  to  intrude  on  thy  time,  thee  has  so  much  on  thy  hands,  nor  ask  thee  to 
write.  I  shall  know  in  time,  if  I  can  be  patient  to  wait. 

Enclosed  are  seventeen  dollars;  from  Amy  Reckless,  $1,50;  J.  Bassett, 
$1;  Jesse  Bond,  $1;  Martha  Reeve,  $1 ;  S.  Woodnutt,  $1 ;  Hannah 
Wheeler,  $1;  a  colored  man,  25  cents;  25  cents  thrown  in,  to  make  even  ; 
A.  G.,  $10.  Amy  is  very  good  in  helping,  and  is  collecting  clothing,  which 
she  thinks,  cannot  be  sent  till  next  week.  I  will  attend  to  sending  it,  as 
soon  as  can  be,  by  stage  driver.  May  every  success  attend  thy  labors  for  the 
poor  sufferers. 

With  kind  regards,  thy  friend,  A.  GOODWIN. 

Thus,  until  the  last  fetter  was  broken,  with  singular  persistency,  zeal,  faith 
and  labor,  she  did  what  she  could  to  aid  the  slave,  without  hope  of  reward 
in  this  world.  Not  only  did  she  contribute  to  aid  the  fugitives,  but  was,  for 
years,  a  regular  and  liberal  contributor  to  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery 
Society,  as  well  as  a  subscriber  to  the  Anti-slavery  papers,  The  "Liberator," 
"National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,"  "Pennsylvania  Freeman,"  etc. 

Having  seen  with  joy,  the  desire  of  her  heart,  in  the  final  emancipation 
of  every  bondman  in  the  United  States,  she  departed  in  peace,  November 
2,  1867,  in  the  74th  year  of  her  age. 


ABIGAIL  GOODWIN. 


See  p.  C17. 


THOMAS  GARRETT, 

STATION  MASTER.  See  p.  623. 


DANIEL  GIBBONS, 

STATION*  MASTER.  See  p.  642. 


LUCRETIA  MOTT. 


See  p. 


FAITHFUL  WORKERS  IN  THE  CAUSE. 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  623 

THOMAS  GARRETT. 

The  recent  death  of  Thomas  Garrett,  called  forth  from  the  press,  as  well 
as  from  abolitionists  and  personal  friends,  such  universal  expressions  of 
respect  for  his  labors  as  a  philanthropist,  and  especially  as  an  unswerving 
friend  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  that  we  need  only  reproduce  selec- 
tions therefrom,  in  order  to  commemorate  his  noble  deeds  in  these  pages. 

From  the  "  Wilmington  Daily  Commercial,"  published  by  Jenkins  and 
Atkinson  (men  fully  inspired  with  the  spirit  of  impartial  freedom),  we  copy 
the  following  notice,  which  is  regarded  by  his  relatives  and  intimate  anti- 
slavery  friends  as  a  faithful  portraiture  of  his  character  and  labors : 

Thomas  Garrett,  who  died  full  of  years  and  honor,  this  morning,  at  the 
ripe  age  of  eighty-one,  was  a  man  of  no  common  character.  He  was  an 
abolitionist  from  his  youth  up,  and  though  the  grand  old  cause  numbered 
amongst  its  supporters,  poets,  sages,  and  statesmen,  it  had  no  more  faithful 
worker  in  its  ranks  than  Thomas  Garrett. 

He  has  been  suffering  for  several  years,  from  a  disease  of  the  blad- 
der, which  frequently  caused  him  most  acute  anguish,  and  several  times 
threatened  his  life.  The  severe  pain  attending  the  disease,  and  the  frequent 
surgical  operations  it  rendered  necessary,  undermined  his  naturally  strong 
constitution,  so  that  when  he  was  prostrated  by  his  last  illness,  grave  fears 
were  entertained  of  a  fatal  result.  He  continued  in  the  possession  of  his 
faculties  to  the  last,  and  frequently  expressed  his  entire  willingness  to  die. 

Yesterday  he  was  found  to  be  sinking  very  rapidly.  Just  before  mid- 
night, last  night,  he  commenced  to  speak,  and  some  of  those  in  attendance, 
went  close  to  his  bed-side.  He  was  evidently  in  some  pain,  and  said:  "It 
is  all  peace,  peace,  peace,  but  no  rest  this  side  of  the  river."  He  then 
breathed  calmly  on  for  some  time.  About  half  an  hour  later,  one  of  those 
in  attendance  ceased  to  hear  his  breathing,  and  bending  over  him,  found 
that  his  soul  had  fled. 

He  retained  a  good  deal  of  his  strength  through  his  illness,  and  was  able 
to  get  up  from  his  bed,  every  day,  with  the  assistance  of  one  person. 

He  will  be  buried  in  the  Friends'  grave-yard,  corner  of  Fourth  and  West 
Streets,  on  Saturday  next,  at  three  o'clock,  P.  M.,  and  in  accordance  with 
a  written  memorandum  of  an  agreement  made  by  him  a  year  ago  with  them, 
the  colored  people  will  bear  him  to  his  grave,  they  having  solicited  of  him 
that  honor. 

He  was  born  of  Quaker  parents,  in  Upper  Darby,  Delaware  county,  Pa., 
on  the  21st  of  August,  1789,  on  a  farm  still  in  the  possession  of  the  family. 
His  father,  though  a  farmer,  had  been  a  scythe  and  edge-tool  maker,  and 
Thomas  learned  of  him  the  trade,  and  his  knowledge  of  it  afterwards  proved 
of  the  utmost  advantage  to  him. 

He  grew  up  and  married  at  Darby,  his  wife  being  Sarah  Sharpless,  and 


624  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

in  1820  they  came  to  Wilmington  to  live,  bringing  with  them  several 
children,  most  of  whom  still  live  here. 

Some  years  after  his  arrival  here,  his  wife  died,  and  in  course  of  time,  he 
again  married,  his  second  wife  being  Rachel  Mendenhall,  who  died  in  April, 
1868,  beloved  and  regretted  by  all  who  knew  her. 

His  business  career  was  one  of  vicissitude,  but  generally  and  ultimately 
successful,  for  he  made  the  whole  of  the  comfortable  competence  of  which 
he  died  possessed,  after  he  was  sixty  years  of  age.  While  in  the  beginning 
of  his  business  career,  as  an  iron  merchant  in  this  city,  a  wealthy  rival 
house  attempted  to  crush  him,  by  reducing  prices  of  iron  to  cost,  but  Mr. 
Garrett,  nothing  dismayed,  employed  another  person  to  attend  his  store,  put 
on  his  leather  apron,  took  to  his  anvil,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  his  trade, 
as  an  edge-tool  maker,  prepared  to  support  himself  as  long  as  this  ruinous 
rivalry  was  kept  up.  Thus  in  the  sweat  of  the  brow  of  one  of  the  heroes 
and  philanthropists  of  this  age,  was  laid  the  foundation  of  one  of  the  most 
extensive  business  houses  that  our  city  now  boasts.  His  competitor  saw 
that  no  amount  of  rivalry  could  crush  a  man  thus  self-supporting  and  gave 
up  the  effort. 

Of  course,  Thomas  Garrett  is  best  known  for  his  labors  in  behalf  of  the 
abolition  of  Slavery,  and  as  a  practical  and  effective  worker  for  emancipa- 
tion long  before  the  nation  commenced  the  work  of  liberation  and  justice. 

Born  a  Quaker,  he  held  with  simple  trust,  the  faith  of  the  society  that 
God  moves  and  inspires  men  to  do  the  work  he  requires  of  their  hands,  and 
throughout  his  life  he  never  wavered  in  his  conviction,  that  his  Father  had 
called  him  to  work  in  the  cause  to  which  he  devoted  himself. 

His  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  iniquity  of  Slavery,  while  he  was  a 
young  man  of  twenty-four  or  twenty  five.  He  returned  one  day  to  his 
father's  house,  after  a  brief  absence,  and  found  the  family  dismayed  and 
indignant  at  the  kidnapping  of  a  colored  woman  in  their  employ. 

Thomas  immediately  resolved  to  follow  the  kidnappers,  and  so  started  in 
pursuit.  Some  peculiarity  about  the  track  made  by  their  wagon,  enabled 
him  to  trace  them  with  ease,  and  he  followed  them  by  a  devious  course, 
from  Darby,  to  a  place  near  the  Navy  Yard,  in  Philadelphia,  and  then  by 
inquiries,  etc.,  tracked  them  to  Kensington,  where  he  found  them,  and,  we 
believe,  secured  the  woman's  release. 

During  this  ride,  he  afterwards  assured  his  friends,  he  felt  the  iniquity 
and  abomination  of  the  whole  system  of  Slavery  borne  in  upon  his  mind  so 
strongly,  as  to  fairly  appal  him,  and  he  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  within  him, 
assuring  him  that  his  work  in  life  must  be  to  help  and  defend  this  perse- 
cuted race. 

From  this  time  forward,  he  never  failed  to  assist  any  fugitive  from 
Slavery  on  the  way  to  freedom,  and,  of  course,  after  his  removal  to  this  city, 
his  opportunities  for  this  were  greatly  increased,  and  in  course  of  time,  his 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  625 

house  became  known  as  one  of  the  refuges  for  fugitives.  The  sentiment  of 
this  community  was,  at  that  time,  bitterly  averse  to  any  word  or  effort 
against  Slavery,  and  Mr.  Garrett  had  but  half  a  dozen  friends  who  stood  by 
him.  Nearly  all  others  looked  at  him  with  suspicion,  or  positive  aversion, 
and  his  house  was  constantly  under  the  surveillance  of  the  police,  who  then, 
sad  to  say,  were  always  on  the  watch  for  any  fugitives  from  bondage. 
Thomas  was  not  disheartened  or  dismayed  by  the  lack  of  popular  sympathy 
or  approval.  He  believed  the  Lord  was  on  his  side,  and  cared  nothing  for 
the  adverse  opinion  of  men. 

Many  and  interesting  stories  are  told  of  the  men  and  women  he  helped 
away,  some  of  them  full  of  pathos,  and  some  decidedly  amusing.  He  told 
the  latter  which  related  to  his  ingenious  contrivances  for  assisting  fugitives  to 
escape  the  police  with  much  pleasure,  in  his  later  years.  We  would  repeat 
many  of  them,  but  this  is  not  the  time  or  place.  The  necessity  of  avoiding 
the  police  was  the  only  thing,  however,  which  ever  forced  him  into  any 
secrecy  in  his  operations,  and  in  all  other  respects  he  was  "  without  conceal- 
ment and  without  compromise  "  in  his  opposition  to  Slavery.  He  was  a 
man  of  unusual  personal  bravery,  and  of  powerful  physique,  and  did  not 
present  an  encouraging  object  for  the  bullying  intimidation  by  which  the 
pro-slavery  men  of  that  day  generally  overawed  their  opponents.  He  seems 
to  have  scarcely  known  what  fear  was,  and  though  irate  slave-holders  often 
called  on  him  to  learn  the  whereabouts  of  their  slaves,  he  met  them  placidly, 
never  denied  having  helped  the  fugitives  on  their  way,  positively  refused 
to  give  them  any  information,  and  when  they  flourished  pistols,  or  bowie- 
knives  to  enforce  their  demands,  he  calmly  pushed  the  weapons  aside,  and 
told  them  that  none  but  cowards  resorted  to  such  means  to  carry  their  ends. 
He  continued  his  labors,  thus,  for  years,  helping  all  who  came  to  him, 
and  making  no  concealment  of  his  readiness  to  do  so.  His  firmness  and 
courage  slowly  won  others,  first  to  admire,  and  then  to  assist  him,  and  the 
little  band  of  faithful  workers,  of  which  he  was  chief,  gradually  enlarged 
and  included  in  its  number,  men  of  all  ranks,  and  differing  creeds,  and, 
singular  as  it  may  seem,  even  numbering  some  ardent  Democrats  in  its 
ranks.  He  has,  in  conversation  with  the  present  writer  and  others, 
frequently  acknowledged  the  valuable  services  of  two  Roman  Catholics,  of 
Irish  birth,  still  living  in  this  city,  who  were  ever  faithful  to  him,  and  will 
now  be  amongst  those  who  most  earnestly  mourn  his  decease. 

His  efforts,  of  course,  brought  him  much  persecution  and  annoyance,  but 

never  culminated  in  anything  really  serious,  until  about  the  year  1846  or '47. 

He  then  met,  at  New  Castle,  a  man,  woman,  and  six  children,  from  down 

on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.     The  man  was  free,  the  woman  had 

been  a  slave,  and  while  in  Slavery  had  had  by  her  husband,  two  children. 

She  was  then  set  free,  and  afterwards  had  four  children.     The  whole  party 

ran  away.   They  traveled  several  days,  and  finally  reached  Middletown,  late 

40 


G2G  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

at  night,  where  they  were  taken  in,  fed  and  cared  for,  by  John  Hunn,  a 
wealthy  Quaker,  there.  They  were  watched,  however,  by  some  persons  in 
that  section,  who  followed  them,  arrested  them,  and  sent  them  to  New  Castle 
to  jail.  The  sheriff  and  his  daughter  were  Anti-slavery  people,  and  wrote  to 
Mr.  Garrett  to  come  over.  He  went  over,  had  an  interview,  found  from 
their  statement,  that  four  of  the  party  were  undoubtedly  free,  and  returned 
to  this  city.  On  the  following  day,  he  and  U.  S.  Senator  Wales,  went  over 
and  had  the  party  taken  before  Judge  Booth,  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 
Judge  Booth  decided  that  there  was  no  evidence  on  which  to  hold  them, 
that  in  the  absence  of  evidence  the  presumption  was  always  in  favor  of  free- 
dom and  discharged  them. 

Mr.  Garrett  then  said,  here  is  this  woman  with  a  babe  at  her  breast,  the 
child  suffering  from  a  white  swelling  on  its  leg,  is  there  any  impropriety  in 
my  getting  a  carriage  and  helping  them  over  to  Wilmington  ?  Judge  Booth 
responded  certainly  not. 

Mr.  Garrett  then  hired  the  carriage,  but  gave  the  driver  distinctly  to 
understand  that  he  only  paid  for  the  woman  and  the  young  children  ;  the 
rest  might  walk.  They  all  got  in,  however,  and  finally  escaped,  of  course 
the  two  children  born  in  slavery  amongst  the  rest. 

Six  weeks  afterwards  the  slave-holders  followed  them,  and  incited,  it  is 
said,  by  the  Cochrans  and  James  A.  Bayard,  commenced  a  suit  against  Mr. 
Garrett,  claiming  all  the  fugitives  as  slaves.  Mr.  Garrett's  friends  claim 
that  the  jury  was  packed  to  secure  an  adverse  verdict.  The  trial  came  on 
before  Chief  Justice  Taney  and  Judge  Hall,  in  the  May  term  (1848)  of  the 
U.  S.  Court,  sitting  at  New  Castle,  Bayard  representing  the  prosecutors,  and 
Wales  the  defendant.  There  were  four  trials  in  all,  lasting  three  days.  We 
have  not  room  here  for  the  details  of  the  trial,  but  the  juries  awarded  even 
heavier  damages  than  the  plaintiffs  claimed,  and  the  judgments  swept  away 
every  dollar  of  his  property. 

When  the  trials  were  concluded,  Mr.  Garrett  arose,  the  court  being  ad- 
journed, made  a  speech  of  an  hour  to  the  large  crowd  in  the  court-room,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  declared  his  intention  to  redouble  his  exertions,  so 
help  him  God.  His  bold  assertion  was  greeted  with  mingled  cheers  and 
hisses,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  one  of  the  jurors  who  had  con- 
victed him  strode  across  the  benches,  grasped  his  hand,  and  begged  his 
forgivenness. 

Mr.  Garrett  kept  his  pledge  and  redoubled  his  exertions.  The  trial  ad- 
vertised him,  and  such  was  the  demand  on  him  for  shelter,  that  he  was 
compelled  to  put  another  story  on  his  back  buildings.  His  friends  helped 
him  to  start  again  in  business,  and  commencing  anew  in  his  sixtieth  year 
with  nothing,  he  again  amassed  a  handsome  competence,  generously  contri- 
buting all  the  while  to  every  work  in  behalf  of  the  down-trodden  blacks  or 
his  suffering  fellow-men  of  any  color. 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  627 

In  time  the  war  came,  and  as  he  remarked,  the  nation  went  into  the 
business  by  the  wholesale,  so  he  quit  his  retail  operations,  having,  after  he 
commenced  to  keep  a  record,  helped  off  over  twenty-one  hundred  slaves,  and 
no  inconsiderable  number  before  that  time. 

In  time,  too,  he  came  to  be  honored  instead  of  execrated  for  his  noble 
efforts.  Wilmington  became  an  abolition  city,  and  for  once,  at  least,  a  pro- 
phet was  not  without  honor  in  his  own  city.  Mr.  Garrett  continued  his 
interest  in  every  reform  up  to  his  last  illness,  and  probably  his  last  appear- 
ance in  any  public  capacity,  was  as  president  of  a  Woman  Suffrage  meeting, 
in  the  City  Hall,  a  few  months  ago,  which  was  addressed  by  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  Lucy  Stone,  and  Henry  B.  Blackwell. 

He  lived  to  see  the  realization  of  his  hopes  for  Universal  Freedom,  and  in 
April  last  on  the  occasion  of  the  great  parade  of  the  colored  people  in  this 
city,  he  was  carried  through  our  streets  in  an  open  barouche,  surrounded  by 
the  men  in  whose  behalf  he  'had  labored  so  faithfully,  and  the  guards  around 
his  carriage  carrying  banners,  with  the  inscription,  "  Our  Moses." 

A  Moses  he  was  to  their  race ;  but  unto  him  it  was  given  to  enter  into 
the  promised  land  toward  which  he  had  set  his  face  persistently  and  almost 
alone  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

He  was  beloved  almost  to  adoration  by  his  dusky -lined  friends,  and  in  the 
dark  days  of  the  beginning  of  the  war,  which  every  Wilmingtonian  will 
remember  with  a  shudder,  in  those  days  of  doubt,  confusion,  and  suspicion, 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  Thomas  Garrett's  house  was  constantly 
surrounded  and  watched  by  faithful  black  men,  resolved  that,  come  weal 
come  woe  to  them,  no  harm  should  oome  to  the  benefactor  of  their  race. 

He  was  a  hero  in  a  life-time  fight,  an  upright,  honest  man  in  his  dealings 
with  men,  a  tender  husband,  a  loving  father,  and  above  all,  a  man  who 
loved  his  neighbor  as  himself,  and  righteousness  and  truth  better  than  ease, 
safety,  or  worldly  goods,  and  who  never  let  any  fear  of  harm  to  person  or 
property  sway  him  from  doing  his  whole  duty  to  the  uttermost. 

He  was  faithful  among  the  faithless,  upright  and  just  in  the  midst  of  a 
wicked  and  perverse  generation,  and  lived  to  see  his  labors  rewarded  and 
approved  in  his  own  life-time,  and  then  with  joy  that  the  Right  had  tri- 
umphed by  mightier  means  than  his  own  ;  with  thankfulness  for  the  past, 
and  with  calm  trust  for  the  future,  he  passed  to  the  reward  of  the  just.  He 
has  fought  a  good  fight,  he  has  finished  his  course,  he  has  kept  the  faith. 

From  the  same  paper,  of  January  30th,  1871,  we  extract  an  account  of 
the  funeral  obsequies  which  took  place  on  Saturday,  January  28th. 

FUNERAL   SERVICE   ON   SATURDAY. 

The  funeral  of  Thomas  Garrett,  which  took  place  on  Saturday,  partook 
almost  of  the  character  of  a  popular  ovation  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased, 


628  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

though  it  was  conducted  with  the  plainness  of  form  which  characterizes  the 
society  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

There  was  no  display,  no  organization,  nothing  whatever  to  distinguish 
this  from  ordinary  funerals,  except  the  outpouring  of  people  of  every  creed, 
condition,  and  color,  to  follow  the  remains  to  their  last  resting-place. 

There  was  for  an  hour  or  two  before  the  procession  started,  a  constant  living 
stream  of  humanity  passing  into  the  house,  around  the  coffin,  and  out  at 
another  door,  to  take  a  last  look  at  the  face  of  the  deceased,  the  features  of 
which  displayed  a  sweetness  and  serenity  which  occasioned  general  remark. 
A  smile  seemed  to  play  upon  the  dead  lips. 

Shortly  after  three  o'clock  the  funeral  procession  started,  the  plain  coffin, 
containing  the  remains,  being  carried  by  the  stalwart  arms  of  a  delegation  of 
colored  men,  and  the  family  and  friends  of  the  deceased  following  in  car- 
riages with  a  large  procession  on  foot,  while  the  sidewalks  along  the  line, 
from  the  house  to  the  meeting-house,  more  than  six  squares,  were  densely 
crowded  with  spectators. 

The  Friends'  Meeting  House  was  already  crowded,  except  the  place  re- 
served for  the  relatives  of  the  deceased,  and,  though  probably  fifteen  hun- 
dred people  crowded  into  the  capacious  building,  a  greater  number  still 
were  unable  to  gain  admission. 

The  crowd  inside  was  composed  of  all  kinds  and  conditions  of  men,  white 
and  black,  all  uniting  to  do  honor  to  the  character  and  works  of  the  deceased. 

The  coffin  was  laid  in  the  open  space  in  front  of  the  gallery  of  ministers 
and  elders,  and  the  lid  removed  from  it,  after  which  there  was  a  period  of 
silence. 

Presently  the  venerable  Lucretia  Mott  arose  and  said  that,  seeing  the 
gathering  of  the  multitude  there  and  thronging  along  the  streets,  as  she  had 
passed  on  her  way  to  the  meeting-house,  she  had  thought  of  the  multitude 
which  gathered  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  remark  of  the  Centurion, 
who,  seeing  the  people,  said  :  "  Certainly  this  was  a  righteous  man."  Look- 
ing at  this  multitude  she  would  say  surely  this  also  was  a  righteous  man. 
She  was  not  one  of  those  who  thought  it  best  always  on  occasions  like  this, 
to  speak  in  eulogy  of  the  dead,  but  this  was  not  an  ordinary  case,  and  seeing 
the  crowd  that  had  gathered,  and  amongst  it  the  large  numbers  of  a  once 
despised  and  persecuted  race,  for  which  the  deceased  had  done  so  much,  she 
felt  that  it  was  fit  and  proper  that  the  good  deeds  of  this  man's  life  should 
be  remembered,  for  the  encouragement  of  others.  She  spoke  of  her  long 
acquaintance  with  him,  of  his  cheerful  and  sunny  disposition,  and  his  firm 
devotion  to  the  truth  as  he  saw  it. 

Aaron  M.  Powell,  of  New  York,  was  the  next  speaker,  and  he  spoke  at 
length  with  great  earnestness  of  the  life-long  labor  of  his  departed  friend  in 
the  abolition  cause,  of  his  cheerfulness,  his  courage,  and  his  perfect  consecra- 
tion to  his  work. 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  629 

He  alluded  to  the  fact,  that  deceased  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  and  held  firmly  to  its  faith  that  God  leads  and  inspires  men  to  do 
the  work  He  requires  of  them,  that  He  speaks  within  the  soul  of  every  man, 
and  that  all  men  are  equally  His  children,  subject  to  His  guidance,  and  that 
all  should  be  free  to  follow  wherever  the  Spirit  might  lead.  It  was  Thomas 
Garrett's  recognition  of  this  sentiment  that  made  him  an  abolitionist,  and 
inspired  him  with  the  courage  to  pursue  his  great  work.  He  cared  little  for 
the  minor  details  of  Quakerism,  but  he  was  a  true  Quaker  in  his  devotion 
to  this  great  central  idea  which  is  the  basis  on  which  it  rests.  He  urged 
the  Society  to  take  a  lesson  from  the  deceased,  and  recognizing  the  respon- 
sibility of  their  position,  to  labor  with  earnestness,  and  to  consecrate  their 
whole  beings  to  the  cause  of  right  and  reform.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to 
give  any  fair  abstract  of  Mr.  Powell's  earnest  and  eloquent  tribute  to  his 
friend,  on  whom  he  had  looked,  he  said,  as  "  a  Father  in  Israel "  from  his 
boyhood. 

William  Howard  Day,  then  came  forward,  saying,  he  understood  that  it 
would  not  be  considered  inappropriate  for  one  of  his  race  to  say  a  few  words 
on  this  occasion,  and  make  some  attempt  to  pay  a  fitting  tribute  to  one  to 
whom  they  owed  so  much.  He  did  not  feel  to-day  like  paying  such  a  tribute, 
his  grief  was  too  fresh  upon  him,  his  heart  too  bowed  down,  and  he  could  do 
no  more,  than  in  behalf  of  his  race,  not  only  those  here,  but  the  host  the 
deceased  has  befriended,  and  of  the  whole  four  millions  to  whom  he  had 
been  so  true  a  friend,  cast  a  tribute  of  praise  and  thanks  upon  his  grave. 

Rev.  Alfred  Cookman,  of  Grace  M.  E.  Church,  next  arose,  and  said  that 
he  came  there  intending  to  say  nothing,  but  the  scene  moved  him  to  a  few 
words.  He  remembered  once  standing  in  front  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  in 
London,  and  seeing  therein  the  name  of  the  architect,  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
inscribed,  and  under  it  this  inscription:  "Stranger,  if  you  would  see  his 
monument  look  about  you."  And  the  thought  came  to  him  that  if  you 
would  see  the  monument  of  him  who  lies  there,  look  about  you  and  see  it 
built  in  stones  of  living  hearts.  He  thanked  God  for  the  works  of  this  man  ; 
he  thanked  Him  especially  for  his  noble  character.  He  said  that  he  felt 
that  that  body  had  been  the  temple  of  a  noble  spirit,  aye  the  temple  of  God 
himself,  and  some  day  they  would  meet  the  spirit  in  the  heavenly  land  be- 
yond the  grave 

Lucretia  Mott  arose,  and  said  she  feared  the  claim  might  appear  to  be 
made  that  Quakerism  alone  held  the  great  central  principle  which  dominated 
this  man's  life;  but  she  wished  it  understood  that  they  recognized  this 
"  voice  within'"  as  leading  and  guiding  all  men,  and  they  probably  meant 
by  it  much  the  same  as  those  differing  from  them  meant  by  the  Third  per- 
son in  their  Trinity.  She  did  not  wish,  even  in  appearance,  to  claim  a 
belief  in  this  voice  for  her  own  sect  alone. 

T.  Clarkson  Taylor  then  said,  that  the  time  for  closing  the  services  had 


630  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

arrived,  and  in  a  very  few  words  commended  the  lesson  of  his  life  to  those 
present,  after  which  the  meeting  dissolved,  and  the  body  was  carried  to  the 
grave-yard  in  the  rear  of  the  meeting-house,  and  deposited  in  its  last  rest- 
ing-place. 

THE   TRIAL  OF   THE   CASES,  1848. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Commercial : 

Your  admirable  and  interesting  sketch  of  the  career  of  the  late  Thomas 
Garrett  contains  one  or  two  statements,  which,  according  to  my  recollection 
of  the  facts,  are  not  entirely  accurate,  and  are  perhaps  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  be  corrected. 

The  proceedings  in  the  TJ.  S.  Circuit  Court  were  not  public  prosecutions 
or  indictments,  but  civil  suits  instituted  by  the  owners  of  the  runaway  slaves, 
who  employed  and  paid  counsel  to  conduct  them.  An  act  of  Congress,  then 
in  force,  imposed  a  penalty  of  five  hundred  dollars  on  any  person  who 
should  knowingly  harbor  or  conceal  a  fugitive  from  labor,  to  be  recovered 
by  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  claimant  of  such  fugitive,  in  any  Court  proper 
to  try  the  same;  saving,  moreover,  to  the  claimant  his  right  of  action  for  or 
on  account  of  loss,  etc. ;  thus  giving  to  the  slave-owner  two  cases  for  action 
for  each  fugitive,  one  of  debt  for  the  penalty,  and  one  of  trespass  for 
damages.  » 

There  were  in  all  seven  slaves,  only  the  husband  and  father  of  the  family 
being  free,  who  escaped  under  the  friendly  help  and  guidance  -of  Mr.  Gar- 
rett, five  of  whom  were  claimed  by  E.  N.  Turner,  and  the  remaining  two  by 
C.  T.  Glanding,  both  claimants  being  residents  of  Maryland. 

In  the  suits  for  the  penalties,  Turner  obtained  judgment  for  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars,  and  Glanding,  one  for  one  thousand  dollars.  In  these 
cases  the  jury  could  give  neither  less  nor  more  than  the  amount  of  the  pen- 
alties, on  the  proper  proof  being  made.  Nor  in  the  trespass  case  did  the 
jury  give  "larger  damages  than  were  claimed/7  A  jury  sometimes  does 
queer  things,  but  it  cannot  make  a  verdict  for  a  greater  sum  than  the 
plaintiff  demands;  in  the  trespass  cases,  Glanding  had  a  verdict  for  one 
thousand  dollars  damages,  but  in  Turner's  case  only  nine  hundred  dollars 
were  allowed,  though  the  plaintiff  sued  for  twenty-five  hundred. 

It  is  hardly  true  to  say  that  any  one  of  the  juries  was  packed,  indeed,  it 
would  have  been  a  difficult  matter  in  that  day  for  the  Marshal  to  summon 
thirty  sober,  honest,  and  judicious  men,  fairly  and  impartially  chosen  from 
the  three  counties  of  Delaware,  who  would  have  found  verdicts  different 
from  those  which  were  rendered.  The  jury  must  have  been  fixed  for  the 
defendant  to  have  secured  any  other  result,  on  the  supposition  that  the  testi- 
mony admitted  of  any  doubt  or  question,  the  anti-slavery  men  in  the  state 
being  like  Virgil's  ship-wrecked  mariners,  very  few  in  number  and  scattered 
over  a  vast  space. 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  631 

What  most  redounds  to  the  honor  and  praise  of  Mr.  Garrett,  in  this  trans- 
action, as  a  noble  and  disinterested  philanthropist  is,  that  after  the  fugitives 
had  been  dischargee!  from  custody  under  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and 
when  he  had  been  advised  by  his  lawyer,  who  was  also  his  personal  friend, 
to  keep  his  hands  off  and  let  the  party  work  their  own  passage  to  a  haven  of 
freedom,  not  then  far  distant,  or  he  might  be  involved  in  serious  trouble,  he 
deliberately  refused  to  abandon  them  to  the  danger  of  pursuit  and  capture. 
The  welfare  and  happiness  of  too  many  human  beings  were  at  stake  to  per- 
mit him  to  think  of  personal  consequences,  and  he  was  ready  and  dared  to 
encounter  any  risk  for  himself,  so  that  he  could  insure  the  safety  of  those 
fljeing  from  bondage.  It  was  this  heroic  purpose  to  protect  the  weak  and 
helpless  at  any  cost,  this  fearless  unselfish  action,  not  stopping  to  weigh  the 
contingencies  of  individual  gain  or  loss,  that  constitutes  his  best  title  to  the 
gratitude  of  those  he  served,  and  to  the  admiration  and  respect  of  all  who 
can  appreciate  independent  conduct  springing  from  pure  and  lofty  motives. 
He  did  what  he  thought  and  believed  to  be  right,  and  let  the  consequences 
take  care  of  themselves.  He  never  would  directly  or  otherwise,  entice  a 
slave  to  leave  his  master  ;  but  he  never  would  refuse  his  aid  to  the  hunted, 
panting  wretch  that  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness  was  seeking  after  liberty. 
And  who  among  us  is  now  bold  enough  to  say,  that  in  all  this  he  did  not 
see  clearly,  act  bravely,  do  justly,  and  live  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  sacred 
text : — "  \V"hatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them  ?"  W. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  one  of  the  sons,  William  Lloyd  Garrison  pays  the 
following  beautiful  and  just  tribute  to  his  faithfulness  in  the  cause  of 
freedom. 

«-  BOSTON,  January  25th,  1871. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : — I  have  received  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of 
your  honored  and  revered  father,  with  profound  emotions.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  inclemency  of  the  weatheu,  and  the  delicate  state  of  my  health,  I 
would  hasten  to  bo  at  the  funeral,  long  as  the  distance  is;  not  indeed  as  a 
mourner,  for,  in  view  of  his  ripe  old  age,  and  singularly  beneficent  life,  there 
is  no  cause  for  sorrow,  but  to  express  the  estimation  in  which  I  held  him,  as 
one  of  the  best  men  who  ever  walked  the  earth,  and  one  of  the  most  beloved 
among  my  numerous  friends  and  co-workers  in  the  cause  of  an  oppressed 
and  down-trodden  race,  now  happily  rejoicing  in  their  heavenly-wrought 
deliverance.  For  to  no  one  was  the  language  of  Job  more  strictly  applicable 
than  to  himself: — "When  the  ear  heard  me,  then  it  blessed  me,  and  when 
the  eye  saw  me,  it  gave  witness  to  me ;  because  I  delivered  the  poor  that 
cried,  and  the  fatherless,  and  him  that  had  none  to  help  him.  The  blessing 
of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  me  ;  and  I  caused  the  widow's 
heart  to  sing  for  joy.  I  put  on  righteousness,  and  it  clothed  me;  my  judg- 
ment was  as  a  robe  and  a  diadem.  I  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  feet  was  I 


632  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

to  the  lame.  I  was  a  father  to  the  poor ;  and  the  cause  which  I  knew  not  I 
searched  out.  And  I  brake  the  jaws  of  the  wicked,  and  plucked  the  spoil 
out  of  his  teeth."  This  is  an  exact  portraiture  of  your  father,  a  most  com- 
prehensive delineation  of  his  character  as  a  philanthropist  and  reformer. 
It  was  his  meat  and  drink. 

"  The  poor  to  feed,  the  lost  to  seek, 

To  proffer  life  to  death, 
Hope  to  the  erring,  to  the  weak 
The  strength  of  his  own  faith. 

"  To  plead  the  captive's  right;  remove 

The  sting  of  hate  from  law  ; 

And  sofWn  in  the  fire  of  lore 

The  hardened  steel  of  war. 

"  He  walked  the  dark  world  in  the  mild, 

Still  guidance  of  the  light; 
In  tearful  tenderness  a  child, 
A  strong  man  in  the  right." 

Did  there  ever  live  one  who  had  less  of  that  "  fear  of  man  which  bringeth 
a  snare,"  than  himself?  Or  who  combined  more  moral  courage  with  exceed- 
ing tenderness  of  spirit?  Or  who  adhered  more  heroically  to  his  convictions 
of  duty  in  the  face  of  deadly  peril  and  certain  suffering?  Or  who  gave  him- 
self more  unreservedly,  or  with  greater  disinterestedness,  to  the  service  of 
bleeding  humanity?  Or  who  took  more  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  his  goods  as 
the  penalty  of  his  sympathy  for  the  hunted  fugitive  ?  Or  who  more  untir- 
ingly kept  pace  with  all  the  progressive  movements  of  the  age,  as  though  in 
the  very  freshness  of  adult  life,  while  venerable  with  years?  Or  who,  as  a 
husband,  father,  friend,  citizen,  or  neighbor,  more  nobly  performed  all  the 
duties,  or  more  generally  distributed  all  the  charities  of  life?  He  will  leave 
a  great  void  in  the  community.  Such  a  stalwart  soul  appears  only  at  rare 
intervals.  Delaware,  enslaved,  treated  him  like  a  felon  ;  Delaware,  redeemed, 
will  be  proud  of  his  memory. 

"  Only  the  actions  of  the  just 

Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the  dust." 

His  rightful  place  is  conspicuously  among  the  benefactors,  saviours,  mar- 
tyrs of  the  human  race. 

His  career  was  full  of  dramatic  interest  from  beginning  to  end,  and 
crowded  with  the  experiences  and  vicissitudes  of  a  most  eventful  nature. 
"What  he  promised  he  fulfilled ;  what  he  attempted,  he  seldom,  or  never 
failed  to  accomplish;  what  he  believed,  he  dared  to  proclaim  upon  the  house- 
top ;  what  he  ardently  desired,  and  incessantly  labored  for,  was  the  reign  of 
universal  freedom,  peace,  and  righteousness.  He  was  among  the  manliest 
of  men.  and  the  gentlest  of  spirits.  There  was  no  form  of  human  suffering 
that  did  not  touch  his  heart;  but  his  abounding  sympathy  was  especially 
drawn  out  towards  the  poor,  imbruted  slaves  of  the  plantation,  and  such  of 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  633 

their  number  as  sought  their  freedom  by  flight.  The  thousands  that  passed 
safely  through  his  hands,  on  their  way  to  Canada  and  the  North,  will  never 
forget  his  fatherly  solicitude  for  their  welfare,  or  the  dangers  he  unflinch- 
ingly encountered  in  their  behalf.  Stripped  of  all  his  property  under  the 
Fugitive  Slave  law,  for  giving  them  food,  shelter,  and  assistance  to  continue 
their  flight,  he  knew  not  what  it  was  to  be  intimidated  or  disheartened,  but 

CJ  '  * 

gave  himself  to  the  same  blessed  work  as  though  conscious  of  no  loss.  Great- 
hearted philanthropist,  what  heroism  could  exceed  thy  own  ? 

"For,  while  the  jurist  sitting  with  the  slave-whip  o'er  him  swung, 
From  the  tortured  truths  of  freedom  the  lie  of  slavery  wrung, 
And  the  solemn  priest  t»  Mo>»ch,  on  each  God-deserted  shrine, 
Broke  the  boudmau'a  heart  for  bread,  poured  the  bondman's  blood  for  wine- 
While  the  multitude  in  blindness  to  a  fur-off  Saviour  knelt, 
And  spurned,  the  while,  the  temple  where  a  present  Saviour  dwelt ; 
Thou  bcheld'st  Him  in  the  task-field,  in  the  prison  shadow  dim, 
And  thy  mercy  to  tho  bondman,  it  was  mercy  unto  Him ! " 

I  trust  some  one,  well  qualified  to  execute  the  pleasing  task,  will  write  his 
biography  for  the  grand  lessons  his  life  inculcated.  Yours,  in  full  sympathy 
and  trust,  \yM.  LLOYD  GARRISON. 

A  cotemporary  who  had  known  him  long  and  intimately — who  had 
appreciated  his  devotion  to  freedom,  who  had  shared  with  him  some  of  the 
perils  consequent  upon  aiding  the  fleeing  fugitives,  and  who  belonged  to  the 
race  with  whom  Garrett  sympathized,  and  for  whose  elevation  and  freedom 
he  labored  so  assiduously  with  an  overflowing  heart  of  tender  regard  and 
sympathy — penned  the  following  words,  touching  the  sad  event : 

CHATHAM,  C.  W.,  January  30,  1871. 

To  MR.  HENRY  GARRETT  : — Dear  Sir : — I  have  just  heard,  through  the 
kindness  of  my  friend,  Mrs.  Graves,  of  the  death  of  your  dear  father;  the 
intelligence  makes  me  feel  sad  and  sorrowful ;  I  sincerely  sympathize  with 
you  and  all  your  brothers  and  sisters,  in  your  mournful  bereavement ;  but 
you  do  not  mourn  without  hope,  for  you  have  an  assurance  in  his  death 
that  your  loss  is  his  infinite  gain.  For  he  was  a  good  Christian,  a  good 
husband,  a  good  father,  a  good  citizen,  and  a  truly  good  Samaritan,  for  his 
heart,  his  hand  and  his  purse,  were  ever  open  to  the  wants  of  suffering 
humanity,  wherever  he  found  it ;  irrespective  of  the  country,  religion,  or 
complexion  of  the  sufferer.  Hence  there  are  many  more  who  mourn  his 
loss,  as  well  as  yourselves ;  and  I  know,  verily,  that  many  a  silent  tear  was 
shed  by  his  fellow-citizens,  both  white  and  colored,  when  he  took  his 
departure;  especially  the  colored  ones;  for  he  loved  them  with  a  brother's 
love,  not  because  they  were  colored,  but  because  they  were  oppressed,  and, 
like  John  Brown,  he  loved  them  to  the  last ;  that  was  manifest  by  his 
request  that  they  should  be  his  bearers.  I  can  better  feel  than  I  have 
language  to  express  the  mournful  and  sorrowing  pride  that  must  have  stirred 


634  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  inmost  souls  of  those  men  of  color,  who  had  the"  honor  conferred  on 
them  of  bearing  his  mortal  remains  to  their  last  resting-place,  when  they 
thought  of  what  a  sacred  trust  was  committed  to  their  hands.  \Ve  are  told 
to  mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man 
is  peace;  and  such  was  the  end  of  your  dear  father,  and  he  has  gone  to  join 
the  innumerable  company  of  the  spirits  of  the  just,  made  perfect  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  where  there  is  a  rest  remaining  for  all  the  children 
of  God.  My  brother,  Abraham  D.  Shadd,  and  my  sister  Amelia,  join  their 
love  and  condolence  with  mine  to  you  all,  hoping  that  the  virtues  of  your 
father  may  be  a  guiding  star  to  you  all,  until  you  meet  him  again  in  that 
happy  place,  where  parting  will  be  no  more,  forever. 

Your  humble  friend,         ELIZABETH  J.  WILLIAMS. 

From  the  learned  and  the  unlearned,  from  those  in  high  places  and  from 
those  in  humble  stations,  many  testimonials  reached  the  family,  respecting 
this  great  friend  of  the  slave,  but  it  is  doubtful,  whether  a  single  epistle  from 
any  one,  was  more  affectingly  appreciated  by  the  bereaved  family,  than  the 
epistle  just  quoted  from  Elizabeth  J.  Williams. 

The  Slave's  most  eloquent  advocate,  Wendell  Phillips,  in  the  "  National 
Standard,"  of  February  4,  1871,  in  honor  of  the  departed,  bore  the  follow- 
ing pertinent  testimony  to  his  great  worth  in  the  cause  of  Liberty. 

"  I  should  not  dare  to  trust  my  memory  for  the  number  of  fugitive  slaves 
this  brave  old  friend  has  helped  to  safety  and  freedom  —  nearly  three 
thousand,  I  believe.  What  a  rich  life  to  look  back  on  !  How  skilful  and 
adroit  he  was,  in  eluding  the  hunters !  How  patient  in  waiting  days  and 
weeks,  keeping  the  poor  fugitives  hidden  meanwhile,  till  it  was  safe  to  ven- 
ture on  the  highway!  What  whole-hearted  devotion,  what  unselfish  giving 
of  time,  means,  and  everything  else  to  this  work  of  brotherly  love!  What 
house  in  Delaware,  so  honorable  in  history,  as  that  where  hunted  men  fled, 
and  were  sure  to  find  refuge.  It  was  the  North  Star  to  many  a  fainting 
heart.  This  century  has  grand  scenes  to  show  and  boast  of  among  its 
fellows.  But  few  transcend  that  auction-block  where  the  sheriff  was  selling 
all  Garrett's  goods  for  the  crime  (!)  of  giving  a  breakfast  to  a  family  of  fugi- 
tive slaves.  As  the  sale  closed,  the  officer  turns  to  Garrett,  saying : 
'  Thomas,  I  hope  you'll  never  be  caught  at  this  again.' 

"'Friend,' was  the  reply,  ' I  haven't  a  dollar  in  the  world,  but  if  thee 
knows  a  fugitive  who  needs  a  brea*kfast,  send  him  to  me.' 

"Over  such  a  scene,  Luther  and  Howard  and  Clarkson  clapped  their  hands. 

"Such  a  speech  redeems  the  long  infamy  of  the  State.  It  is  endurable,  the 
having  of  such  a  blot  as  Delaware  in  our  history,  when  it  has  once  been  the 
home  of  such  a  man.  I  remember  well  the  just  pride  with  which  he  told 
me,  that  after  that  sale,  pro-slavery  as  Wilmington  was,  he  could  have  a 
discount  at  the  bank  as  readily  as  any  man  in  the  city.  Though  the  laws 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  635 

robbed  him,  his  fellow-citizens  could  not  but  respect  and  trust  him,  love  and 
honor  him. 

"  The  city  has  never  had,  we  believe,  a  man  die  in  it  worthy  of  a  statue. 
We  advise  it  to  seize  this  opportunity  to  honor  itself  and  perpetuate  the 
good  name  of  its  worthiest  citizen,  by  immortalizing  some  street,  spot,  shaft 
or  building  with  his  name. 

u  Brave,  generous,  high-souled,  sturdy,  outspoken  friend  of  all  that  needed 
aid  or  sympathy,  farewell  for  these  scenes!  In  times  to  come,  when  friend- 
less men  and  hated  ideas  need  champions,  God  grant  them  as  gallant  and 
successful  ones  as  you  have  been,  and  may  the  State  you  honored  grow 
worthy  of  you.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS." 

Likewise  in  the  "  National  Standard,"  the  editor,  Aaron  M.  Powell,  who 
attended  the  funeral,  paid  the  following  glowing  tribute  to  the  moral,  reli- 
gious, and  anti-slavery  character  of  the  slave's  friend : 

On  the  24th  inst,  Thomas  Garrett,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  passed  on 
to  the  higher  life.  A  week  previous  we  had  visited  him  in  his  sick  cham- 
ber, and,  on  leaving  him  felt  that  he  must  go  hence  ere  long.  He  was  the 
same  strong,  resolute  man  in  spirit  to  the  last.  He  looked  forward  to  the 
welcome  change  with  perfect  serenity  and  peace  of  mind.  And  well  he 
might,  for  he  had  indeed  fought  the  good  fight  and  been  faithful  unto 
the  end. 

He  was  most  widely  known  for  his  services  to  fugitive  slaves.  Twenty- 
five  hundred  and  forty  five  he  had  preserved  a  record  of;  and  he  had  assisted 
somewhat  more  than  two  hundred  prior  to  the  commencement  of  the  record. 
Picture  to  the  mind's  eye  this  remarkable  procession  of  nearly  three 
thousand  men,  women  and  children  fleeing  from  Slavery,  and  finding  in 
this  brave,  large-hearted  man,  a  friend  equal  to  their  needs  in  so  critical  an 
emergency !  No  wonder  he  was  feared  by  the  slave-holders,  not  alone  of  his 
own  State,  but  of  the  whole  South.  If  their  human  chattels  once  reached 
his  outpost,  there  was  indeed  little  hope  of  their  reclamation.  The  friend 
and  helper  of  fugitives  from  Slavery,  truly  their  Moses,  he  was  more  than 
this,  he  was  the  discriminating,  outspoken,  uncompromising  opponent  of 
Slavery  itself.  He  was  one  of  the  strongest  pillars  and  one  of  the  most 
efficient  working-members  of  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society.  He  was 
an  abolitionist  of  the  most  radical  and  pronounced  character,  though  a  resi- 
dent of  a  slave  State,  and  through  all  the  period  wherein  to  be  an  aboli- 
tionist was  to  put  in  jeopardy,  not  only  reputation  and  property,  but  life 
itself.  Though  he  rarely  addressed  public  meetings,  his  presence  imparted 
much  strength  to  others,  was  "weighty  "  in  the  best  Quaker  sense.  He  was 
of  the  rare  type  of  character,  represented  by  Francis  Jackson  and  James 
Mott. 

Thomas  Garrett  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  as  such, 


636  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

served  by  the  striking  contrast  of  his  own  life  and  character,  with  the 
average  of  the  Society,  to  exemplify  to  the  world  the  real,  genuine  Quaker- 
ism. It  is  not  at  all  to  the  credit  of  his  fellow-members,  that  it  must  be 
said  of  them,  that  when  he  was  bearing  the  cross  and  doing  the  work  for 
which  he  is  now  so  universally  honored,  they,  many  of  them,  were  not  only 
not  in  sympathy  with  him,  but  would  undoubtedly,  if  they  had  had  the  requi- 
site vitality  and  courage,  have  cut  him  off  from  their  denominational  fellow- 
ship. He  was  a  sincere,  earnest  believer  in  the  cardinal  point  of  Quakerism, 
the  Divine  presence  in  the  human  soul — this  furnishes  the  key  to  his  action 
through  life.  This  divine  attribute  he  regarded  not  as  the  birth-right  of 
Friends  alone,  not  of  one  race,  sex  or  class,  but  of  all  mankind.  Therefore 
was  he  an  abolitionist;  therefore  was  he  interested  in  the  cause  of  the 
Indians ;  therefore  was  he  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  equal  rights  for  women ; 
therefore  was  he  a  friend  of  temperance,  of  oppressed  and  needy  working- 
men  and  women,  world-wide  in  the  scope  of  his  philanthropic  sympathy, 
and  broadly  catholic,  and  comprehensive  in  his  views  of  religious  life  and 
duty.  He  was  the  soul  of  honor  in  business.  His  experience,  when 
deprived  at  sixty,  of  every  dollar  of  his  property  for  having  obeyed  God 
rather  than  man,  in  assisting  fugitives  from  Slavery,  and  the  promptness 
with  which  his  friends  came  forward  with  proffered  co-operation,  furnishes  a 
lesson  which  all  should  ponder  well.  He  had  little  respect  for,  or  patience 
with  shams  of  any  kind, -in  religious,  political  or  social  life. 

As  we  looked  upon  Thomas  Garrett's  calm,  serene  face,  mature  in  a  ripe 
old  age,  still  shadowing  forth  kindliness  of  heart,  firmness  of  purpose,  dis- 
criminating intelligence,  conscientious,  manly  uprightness,  death  never 
seemed  more  beautiful : 

"  Why,  what  is  Death  but  Life 
In  other  forms  of  being  ?     Life  without 
The  coarser  attributes  of  men,  the  dull 
And  momently  decaying  frame  which  holds 
The  ethereal  spirit  in,  and  binds  it  down 
To  brotherhood  with  brutes  !     There's  no 
Such  thing  as  Death  ;  what's  so-called  is  but 
The  beginning  of  a  new  existence,  a  fresh 

Segment  of  the  eternal  round  of  change." 

A.  M.  P. 

Another  warm  admirer  of  this  Great  Lover  of  humanity,  in  a  letter  to 
George  W.  Stone  thus  alludes  to  his  life  and  death  : 

TATJNTON,  MASS.,  June  25th,  1871. 

DEAR  STONE  : — Your  telegram  announcing  the  death  of  that  old  soldier 
and  saint,  and  my  good  friend,  Thos.  Garrett,  reached  me  last  evening  at 
ten  o'clock. 

My  first  impulse  was  to  start  for  Wilmington,  and  be  present  at  his 
funeral ;  but  when  I  considered  my  work  here,  and  my  engagements  for  the 
next  four  days,  I  found  it  impossible  to  go. 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  637 

I  will  be  there  in  spirit,  and  bow  my  inmost  soul  before  the  All  Loving 
One,  his  Father  and  ours,  in  humble  thankfulness,  that  I  ever  knew  him, 
and  had  the  privilege  of  enjoying  his  friendship  and  witnessing  his  devotion 
to  the  interest  of  every  good  cause  of  benevolence  and  Reform. 

I  could  write  you  many  things  of  interest  which  I  heard  from  him,  and 
which  I  have  noted  on  my  memory  and  heart ;  but  I  cannot  now.  I  think 
he  was  one  of  the  remarkable  men  of  the  times,  in  faith,  in  holy  boldness, 
in  fearless  devotion  to  the  right,  in  uncompromising  integrity,  in  unselfish 
benevolence,  in  love  to  God  and  man,  and  in  unceasing,  life-long  efforts  to 
do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  God.  We  shall  not 
soon  look  upon  his  like  again. 

If  I  was  present  at  his  funeral,  I  should  take  it  as  a  privilege  to  pro- 
nounce his  name,  and  say,  as  I  never  said  before,  u  Blessed  are  the  dead  that 
die  in  the  Lord;  even  so  saith  the  Spirit;  for  they  rest  from  their  labors, 
and  their  works  do  follow  them." 

Do,  at  once,  see  his  children  and  Clarkson  Taylor,  and  give  them  my 
condolence,  no,  my  congratulation,  and  assure  them  that  they  have  a  rich 
legacy  in  his  noble  life,  and  he  has  a  glorious  reward  in  the  bosom  of  God. 

Peace  to  his  memory !  Noble  old  man,  so  pure  and  peaceful,  and  yet  so 
strong,  firm,  and  fearless,  so  gentle,  tender,  and  truthful,  afraid  and  ashamed 
of  nothing  but  sin,  and  in  love  and  labor  with  every  good  work. 

I  could  write  on  and  fill  many  pages.  But  he  desired  no  eulogy,  and  needs 
none.  He  lives,  and  will  live  for  ever  in  many  hearts  and  in  the  heaven  of 
heavens  above.  T.  ISRAEL. 

If  it  were  necessary  we  might  continue  to  introduce  scores  of  editorials, 
communications,  epistles,  etc.,  all  breathing  a  similar  spirit  of  respect  for  the 
rare  worth  of  this  wonderful  man,  but  space  forbids.  In  conclusion,  there- 
fore, with  a  view  of  presenting  him  in  the  light  of  his  own  interesting  letters, 
written  when  absorbed  in  his  peculiar  work,  from  a  large  number  on  file  the 
following  are  submitted  : 

WILMINGTON,  lltb  mo.  21st,  1855. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL  : — Thine  of  this  date,  inquiring  for  -the 
twenty-one,  and  how  they  have  been  disposed  of,  has  just  been  received.  I 
can  only  answer  by  saying,  when  I  parted  with  them  yesterday  forenoon,  I 
gave  the  wife  of  the  person,  in  whose  house  they  were,  money  to  pay  her 
expenses  to  Philadelphia  and  back  in  the  cars  to  pilot  the  four  women  to 
thy  place.  I  gave  her  husband  money  to  pay  a  pilot  to  start  yesterday  with 
the  ten  men,  divided  in  two  gangs ;  also  a  letter  for  thee.  I  hope  they  have 
arrived  safe  ere  this.  I  had  to  leave  town  soon  after  noon  yesterday  to 
attend  a  brother  ill  with  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  and  to-day  I  have  been  very 
much  engaged.  The  place  they  stayed  here  is  a  considerable  distance  off. 
I  will  make  inquiry  to-morrow  morning,  and  in  case  any  other  disposition 


638  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

has  been  made  of  them  than  the  above  I  will  write  thee.  I  should  think 
they  have  stopped  to-day,  in  consequence  of  the  rain,  and  most  likely  will 
arrive  safe  to-morrow.  In  haste,  thy  friend,  THOS.  GAURETT. 

Although  having  "  to  attend  a  brother,  ill  with  an  attack  of  apoplexy," 
Garrett  took  time  to  attend  to  the  interest  of  the  "  twenty-one,"  as  the  above 
letter  indicates.  How  many  other  men  in  the  United  States,  under  similar 
circumstances,  would  have  been  thus  faithful? 

On  another  occasion  deeply  concerned  for  A  FORWARDER  OF  SLAVES,  he 
wrote  thus : 

WILMINGTON,  12th  mo.  26th,  1855. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL,  : — The  bearer  of  this,  George  Wilmer, 
is  a  slave,  whose  residence  is  in  Maryland.  He  is  a  true  man,  and  a  for- 
warder of  slaves.  Has  passed  some  twenty-five  within  four  months.  He 
is  desirous  of  finding  some  of  his  relations,  Wm.  Maun  and  Thomas  Car- 
michael,  they  passed  here  about  a  month  since.  If  thee  can  give  him  any 
information  where  they  can  be  found  thee  will  much  oblige  him,  and  run  no 
risk  of  their  safety  in  so  doing.  I  remain,  as  ever,  thy  sincere  friend, 

THOS.  GAKRETT. 

"  Four  able-bodied  men,"  form  the  subject  of  the  subjoined  correspondence : 

WILMINGTON,   llth  mo.,  4th,  1856. 

ESTEEMED  FRIENDS,  J.  Miller  McKim  and  William  Still : — Captain 
F.,  has  arrived  here  this  day,  with  four  able-bodied  men.  One  is  an 
engineer,  and  has  been  engaged  in  sawing  lumber,  a  second,  a  good  house- 
carpenter,  a  third  a  blacksmith,  and  the  fourth  a  farm  hand.  They  are  now 
five  hundred  miles  from  their  home  in  Carolina,  and  would  be  glad  to  get 
situations,  without  going  far  from  here.  I  will  keep  them  till  to-morrow. 
Please  inform  me  whether  thee  knows  of  a  suitable  place  in  the  country 
where  the  mechanics  can  find  employment  at  their  trades  for  the  winter;  let 
me  hear  to-morrow,  and  oblige  your  friend,  THOMAS  GARRETT.  • 

"  What  has  become  of  Harriet  Tubman  ?"  (agent  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road),  is  made  a  subject  of  special  inquiry  in  the  following  note : 

WILMINGTON,  3d  mo.,  27th,  1857C 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — I  have  been  very  anxious  for 
some  time  past,  to  hear  what  has  become  of  Harriet  Tubman.  The  last  I 
heard  of  her,  she  was  in  the  State  of  New  York,  on  her  way  to  Canada  with 
some  friends,  last  fall.  Has  thee  seen,  or  heard  anything  of  her  lately?  It 
would  be  a  sorrowful  fact,  if  such  a  hero  as  she,  should  be  lost  from  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Ireland, 
making  inquiry  respecting  her.  If  thee  gets  this  in  time,  and  knows  any- 
thing respecting  her,  please  drop  me  a  line  by  mail  to-morrow,  and  I  will 
get  it  next  morning  if  not  sooner,  and  oblige  thy  friend. 


THOMAti  GARRETT.  639 

I  have  heard  nothing  from  the  eighth  man  from  Dover,  but  trust  he 
is  safe.  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

On  being  informed  that  Harriet  was  "all  right,"  the  following  extract 
from  a  subsequent  letter,  expresses  his  satisfaction  over  the  good  news,  and 
at  the  same  time,  indicates  his  sympathy  for  a  "  poor  traveler,"  who 
had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  cold  weather,  and  being  severely  frost-bitten, 
had  died  of  lock-jaw,  as  related  on  page  52. 

"  I  was  truly  glad  to  learn  that  Harriet  Tubman  was  still  in  good  health 
and  ready  for  action,  but  I  think  there  will  be  more  danger  at  present  than 
heretofore,  there  is  so  much  excitement  below  in  consequence  of  the  escape 
of  those  eight  slaves.  I  was  truly  sorry  to  hear  of  the  fate  of  that  poor 
fellow  who  had  periled  so  much  for  liberty.  I  was  in  hopes  from  what  thee 
told  me,  that  he  would  recover  with  the  loss  perhaps  of  some  of  his  toes. 

THOMAS  GARRETT." 

In  the  next  letter,  an  interesting  anecdote  is  related  of  an  encounter  on 
the  Underground  Rail  Road,  between  the  fugitives  and  several  Irishmen, 
and  how  one  of  the  old  countrymen  was  shot  in  the  forehead,  etc.,  which  G. 
thought  would  make  such  opponents  to  the  Road  "  more  cautious..'' 

WILMINGTON,  llth  mo.,  5th,  1857. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — \  have  just  written  a  note  for  the 
bearer  to  William  Murphy  Chester,  who  will  direct  him  on  to  thy  care ;  he 
left  his  home  about  a  week  since.  I  hear  in  the  lower  part  of  this  State,  he 
met  with  a  friend  to  pilot  him  some  twenty-five  miles  last  night.  We  learn 
that  one  party  of  those  last  week  were  attacked  with  clubs  by  several  Irish- 
men, and  that  one  of  them  was  shot  in  the  forehead,  the  ball  entering  to  the 
skuli  bone,  and  passing  under  the  skin  partly  round  the  head.  My  informant 
says  he  is  likely  to  recover,  but  it  will  leave  an  ugly  mark  it  is  thought,  as 
long  as  he  lives.  We  have  not  been  able  to  learn,  whether  the  party  was 
on  the  look  out  for  them,  or  whether  they  were  rowdies  out  on  a  Hnllow-cve 
frolic ;  but  be  it  which  it  may,  I  presume  they  will  be  more  cautious  here- 
after, how  they  trifle  with  such.  Desiring  thee  prosperity  and  happiness,  I 
remain  thy  friend,  THOMAS  GARRETT. 

FOUR  OF  GOD'S  POOR. 

The  following  letter  shows  the  fearless  manner  in  which  he  attended  to 

the  duties  of  his  station  : 

WILMINGTON,  9th  mo.  6th,  1857. 

RESPECTED  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL  : — This  evening  I  send  to  thy  care  four 
of  God's  poor.  Severn  Johnson,  a  true  man,  will  go  with  them  to-night  by 
rail  road  to  thy  house.  I  have  given  Johnson  five  dollars,  which  will  pay 
all  expenses,  and  leave  each  twenty-five  cents.  We  are  indebted  to  Captain 
F-t— n  for  those.  May  success  attend  them  in  their  efforts  to  maintain 


G40  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

themselves.  Please  send  word  by  Johnson  whether  or  no,  those  seven 
arrived  safe  I  wrote  thee  often  days  since.  My  wife  and  self  were  at  Long- 
wood  to-day,  had  a  pleasant  ride  and  good  meeting.  We  are,  as  ever,  thy 
friend,  THOS.  GARRETT. 

Quite  a  satisfactory  account  is  given  in  the  letter  below  of  the  "  Irishman 
who  was  shot  in  the  forehead ;"  also  of  one  of  the  same  kin,  who  in 
meddling  with  Underground  Rail  Road  passengers,  got  his  arm  broken  in 

two  places,  etc. 

WILMINGTON,  llth  mo.  14th,  1857. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL  : — Thy  favor  of  a  few  days  since  came 
to  hand,  giving  quite  a  satisfactory  account  of  the  large  company. 

I  find  in  the  melee  near  this  town,  one  of  the  Irishmen  got  his  arm 
broken  in  two  places.  The  one  shot  in  the  forehead  is  badly  marked,  but 
not  dangerously  injured.  I  learn  to-day,  that  the  carriage  in  that  company, 
owing  to  fast  driving  with  such  a  heavy  load,  is  badly  broken,  and  the  poor 
horse  was  badly  injured;  it  has  not  been  able  to  do  anything  since. 

Please  say  to  my  friend,  Rebecca  Hart,  that  I  have  heretofore  kept  clear 
of  persuading,  or  even  advising  slaves  to  leave  their  masters  till  they  had 
fully  made  up  their  minds  to  leave,  knowing  as  I  do  there  is  great  risk  in  so 
doing,  and  if  betrayed  once  would  be  a  serious  injury  to  the  cause  hereafter. 
I  had  spoken  to  one  colored  man  to  try  to  see  him,  but  he  was  not  willing 
to  risk  it.  If  he  has  any  desire  to  get  away,  he  can,  during  one  night,  be- 
fore they  miss  him,  get  out  of  the  reach  of  danger.  Booth  has  moved  into 
New  Castle,  and  left  the  two  boys  on  the  farm.  If  Rebecca  Hart  will  write 
to  me,  and  give  me  the  name  of  the  boy,  and  the  name  of  his  mother,  I  will 
make  another  effort.  The  man  I  spoke  to  lives  in  New  Castle,  and  thinks 
the  mother  of  the  boy  alluded  to  lives  between  here  and  New  Castle.  The 
young  men's  association  here  wants  "Wendell  Phillips  to  deliver  a  lecture  on 
the  lost  arts,  and  some  of  the  rest  of  us  wish  him  to  deliver  a  lecture  on 
Slavery.  Where  will  a  letter  reach  him  soonest,  as  I  wish  to  write  him  on 
the  subject.  I  thought  he  could  perhaps  deliver  two  lectures,  two  nights  in 
succession.  If  thee  can  give  the  above  information,  thee  will  much  oblige — 

GARRETT  &  SON. 

In  his  business-like  transactions,  without  concealment,  he  places  matters 
in  such  a  light  that  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err,  as  may 

here  be  seen. 

WILMINGTON,  llth  mo.  25th,  1857. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WM.  SITILL  : — I  now  send  Johnson,  one  of  our 
colored  men,  up  with  the  three  men  I  wrote  thee  about.  Johnson  has 
undertook  to  have  them  well  washed  and  cleaned  during  the  day.  And  I 
have  provided  them  with  some  second-hand  clothes,  to  make  them  comfort- 
able, a  new  pair  of  shoes  and  stockings,  and  shall  pay  Johnson  for  taking 
care  of  them.  I  mention  this  so  that  thee  may  know.  Thee  need  not 


THOMAS  GARRETT.  641 

advance  him  any  funds.  In  the  present  case  I  shall  furnish  them  with 
money  to  pay  their  fare  to  Philadelphia,  and  Johnson  home  again.  Hoping 
they  will  get  on  safe,  I  remain  thy  friend,  THOS.  GAREETT. 

FOUR   FEMALES   ON   BOAKD. 

The  fearless  Garrett  communicated  through  the  mail,  as  usual,  the  follow ' 

ing  intelligence : 

WILMINGTON,  8th  mo.  25th,  1859. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND,  WM.  STILL: — The  brig  Alvena,  of  Lewistown,  is  in 
the  Delaware  opposite  here,  with  four  females  on  board.  The  colored  man, 
who  has  them  in  charge,  was  employed  by  the  husband  of  one  of  them  to 
bring  his  wife  up.  When  he  arrived  here,  he  found  the  man  had  left.  As 
the  vessel  is  bound  to  Red  Bank,  I  have  advised  him  to  take  them  there  in 
the  vessel,  and  to-morrow  take  them  in  the  steamboat  to  the  city,  and  to  the 
Anti-slavery  office.  He  says  they  owe  the  captain  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents 
for  board,  and  I  gave  him  three  dollars,  to  pay  the  captain  and  take  them  to 
your  office.  I  have  a  man  here,  to  go  on  to-night,  that  was  nearly  naked ; 
shall  rig  him  out  pretty  comfortably.  Poor  fellow,  he  lias  lost  his  left  hand, 
but  he  says  he  can  take  care  of  himself.  In  haste,  thy  friend, 

THOS.  GARRETT. 

While  Father  Abraham  was  using  his  utmost  powers  to  put  down  the 
rebellion,  in  1864,  a  young  man  who  had  "  been  most  unrighteously  sold  for 
seven  years,"  desirous  of  enlisting,  sought  advice  from  the  wise  and  faithful 
Underground  Rail  Road  manager,  who  gave  him  the  following  letter,  which 
may  be  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  rare  anecdote,  as  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  the  "professed  non-resistant"  in  this  instance,  hoped  to  see  the  poor 
fellow  "snugly  fixed  in  his  regimentals"  doing  service  for  "Father  Abraham." 

WILMINGTON,  1st    mo.  23d,  1861 

RESPECTED  FRIEND,  WILLIAM  STILL  : — The  bearer  of  this,  Win  lock 
Clark,  has  lately  been  most  unrighteously  sold  for  seven  years,  and  is  desir- 
ous of  enlisting,  and  becoming  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  boys;  I  have  advised  him 
to  call  on  thee  so  that  no  land  sharks  shall  get  any  bounty  for  enlisting  him; 
he  has  a  wife  and  several  children,  and  whatever  bounty  the  government  or 
the  State  allows  him,  will  be  of  use  to  his  family.  Please  write  me  when 
he  is  snugly  fixed  in  his  regimentals,  so  that  I  may  send  word  to  his  wife. 
By  so  doing,  thee  will  much  oblige  thy  friend,  and  the  friend  of  humanity, 

THOMAS   GARRETT. 

N.  B.  Am  I  naughty,  being  a  professed  non-resistant,  to  advise  this  poor 
fellow  to  serve  Father  Abraham  ?  T.  G. 

We  have  given  so  many  of  these  inimitable  Underground  Rail  Road 
letters  from  the  pen  of  the  sturdy  old  laborer,  not  only  because  they  will  be 
new  to  the  readers  of  this  work,  but  because  they  so  fittingly  illustrate  his 
practical  devotion  to  the  Slave,  and  his  cheerfulness — in  the  face  of  danger 
and  difficulty — in  a  manner  that  other  pens  might  labor  in  vain  to  describe. 
41 


642  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


DANIEL  GIBBONS. 

A  life  as  uneventful  as  the  one  whose  story  we  are  about  to  tell,  affords  little 
scope  for  the  genius  of  the  biographer  or  the  historian,  but  being  carefully 
studied,  it  cannot  fail  to  teach  a  lesson  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  which 
should  be  learned  and  remembered  by  every  succeeding  age. 

Daniel  Gibbons,  son  of  James  and  Deborah  (Hoopes)  Gibbons,  was  born 
on  the  banks  of  Mill  Greek,  in  Lancaster  county,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  21st 
day  of  the  12th  month  (December),  1775.  He  was  descended  on  his  father's 
side  from  an  English  ancestor,  whose  name  appears  on  the  colonial  records, 
as  far  back  as  1683.  John  Gibbons  evidently  came  with  or  before 
"William  Penn  to  this  "goodly  heritage  of  freedom."  His  earthly  remains 
lie  at  Concord  Friends'  burying-ground,  Delaware  county,  near  where  the 
family  lived  for  a  generation  or  two.  The  grandfather  of  Daniel  Gibbons, 
who  lived  near  where  West  Town  boarding-school  now  is,  in  Chester  county, 
bought  for  seventy  pounds,  "  one  thousand  acres  of  land  and  allowances/'  in 
what  is  now  Lancaster  county,  intending,  as  he  ultimately  did,  to  settle  his 
three  sons  upon  it.  This  purchase  was  made  about  the  year  1715.  In  pro- 
cess of  time,  the  eldest  son,  desiring  to  marry  Deborah  Hoopes,  the 
daughter  of  Daniel  Hoopes,  of  a  neighboring  township  in  Chester  county, 
the  young  people  obtained  the  consent  of  parents  and  friends,  but  it  was 
a  time  of  grief  and  mourning  among  young  and  old.  The  young  Friends 
assured  the  intended  bride,  that  they  would  not  marry  the  best  man  in  the 
Province  and  do  what  she  was  about  to  do ;  and  the  elder  dames,  so  far 
relaxed  the  Puritanic  rigidity  of  their  rules,  as  to  allow  the  invitation  of  an 
uncommonly  large  company  of  guests  to  the  wedding,  in  order  that  a  long 
and  perhaps  last  farewell,  might  be  said  to  the  beloved  daughter,  who,  with 
her  husband,  was  about  to  emigrate  to  the  "  far  West."  Loud  and  long 
were  the  lamentations,  and  warm  the  embraces  of  these  simple-minded 
Christian  rustics,  companions  of  toil  and  deprivation,  as  they  parted  from 
two  of  their  number  who  were  to  leave  their  circle  for  the  West;  the  West 
being  then  thirty-six  miles  distant.  This  was  on  the  sixth  day  of  the  fifth 
month,  1756.  More  than  a  century  has  passed  away;  all  the  good  people, 
eighty-nine  in  number,  who  signed  the  wedding  certificate  as  witnesses,  have 
passed  away,  and  how  vast  is  the  change  wrought  in  our  midst  since 
that  day ! 

Joseph  Gibbons  was  so  much  pleased  with  the  daring  enterprise  of  his  son 
and  daughter-in-law,  that  he  gave  them  one  hundred  acres  of  land  in  his 
Western  possessions  more  than  he  reserved  for  his  other  and  younger  sons, 
and  to  it  they  immediately  emigrated,  and  building  first  a  cabin  and  the 
next  year  a  store-house,  began  life  for  themselves  in  earnest. 

It  is  interesting,  in  view  of  the  long  and  consistent  anti-slavery  course 


DANIEL  GTBBONS.  643 

which  Daniel  Gibbons  pursued,  to  trace  the  influence  that  wrought  upon 
him  while  his  character  was  maturing,  and  the  causes  which  led  him  to 
see  the  wickedness  of  the  system  which  he  opposed. 

The  Society  of  Friends  in  that  day  bore  in  mind  the  advice  of  their  great 
founder,  Fox,  whose  last  words  were :  "  Friends,  mind  the  light."  And 
following  that  guide  which  leads  out  of  all  evil  and  into  all  good,  they 
viewed  every  custom  of  society  with  eyes  undimmed  by  prejudice,  and 
were  influenced  in  every  action  of  life  by  a  belief  in  the  common  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  a  resolve  to  obey  the  command  of  Jesus,  to  love  one 
another.  This  being  the  case,  slavery  and  oppression  of  all  kinds  were  un- 
popular, and  indeed  almost  unknown  amongst  them. 

James  Gibbons  was  a  republican,  and  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  American 
liberty.  Being  a  man  of  commanding  presence,  and  great  energy  and  deter- 
mination, efforts  were  made  during  the  Revolution  to  induce  him  to  enlist  as 
a  cavalry  soldier.  He  was  prevented  from  so  doing  by  the  entreaties  of  his 
wife,  and  his  own  conscientious  scruples  as  a  Friend.  About  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  or  immediately  after,  he  removed  to  the  borough  of  Wilmington, 
Delaware,  where,  being  surrounded  by  slavery,  he  became  more  than  ever 
alive  to  its  iniquities.  He  was  interested  during  his  whole  life  in  getting 
slaves  off.  And  being  elected  second  burgess  of  Wilmington  during  his 
residence  there,  his  official  position  gave  him  great  opportunities  to  assist  in 
this  noble  work.  It  is  related  that  during  his  magistracy  a  slave-holder 
brought  a  colored  man  before  him,  whom  he  claimed  as  his  slave.  There 
being  no  evidence  of  the  alleged  ownership,  the  colored  man  was  set  at 
liberty.  The  pretended  owner  was  inclined  to  be  impudent;  but  James 
Gibbons  told  him  promptly  that  nothing  but  silence  and  good  behaviour  on 
his  part  would  prevent  his  commitment  for  contempt  of  court. 

About  the  year  1790,  James  Gibbons  came  back  to  Lancaster  county, 
where  he  spent  twenty  years  in  the  practice  of  those  deeds  which  will  remain 
"in  everlasting  remembrance;"  dying,  full  of  years  and  honors,  in  1810. 

Born  in  the  first  year  of  the  revolution  and  growing  up  surrounded  by 
such  influences,  Daniel  Gibbons  could  not  have  been  other  than  he  was,  the 
friend  of  the  down-trodden  and  oppressed  of  every  nationality  and  color. 
In  1789  his  father  took  him  to  see  General  Washington,  then  passing 
through  Wilmington.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  retained  a  vivid  recol- 
lection of  this  visit,  and  would  recount  its  incidents  to  his  family  and 
friends.  During  his  father's  residence  in  Wilmington,  he  spent  his  summers 
with  kinsmen  in  Lancaster  county,  learning  to  be  a  farmer,  and  his  winters 
in  Wilmington  going  to  school. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  years  he  was  bound  an  apprentice,  as  was  the  good 
custom  of  the  day,  to  a  Friend  in  Lancaster  county  to  learn  the  tanning 
business.  At  this  he  served  about  six  years,  or  until  his  master  ceased  to 
follow  the  business.  During  this  apprenticeship  he  became  accustomed  to 


644  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

severe  labor,  so  severe  indeed  that  lie  never  recovered  from  the  effects  thereof, 
having  a  difficulty  in  walking  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  which  pre- 
vented him  from  taking  the  active  part  in  Underground  Rail  Road  business 
which  he  otherwise  would  have  done.  His  father's  estate  being  involved 
in  litigation  caused  him  to  be  put  to  this  trade,  farming  being  his  favorite 
employment,  and  one  which  he  followed  during  his  whole  life. 
.  In  1805  he  took  a  pedestrian  tour,  by  way  of  New  York,  Albany,  and 
Niagara  Falls  to  the  State  of  Ohio,  then  the  far  West,  coming  home  by  way 
of  Pittsburg,  and  walking  altogether  one  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty 
miles.  In  this  trip  he  increased  the  injury  to  his  feet,  so  as  to  render  him- 
self virtually  a  cripple.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father,  he  settled  upon  the 
farm,  on  which  he  died. 

About  the  year  1808  on  going  to  visit  some  friends,  who  had  removed  to 
Adams  county,  Pennsylvania,  he  became  acquanted  with  Hannah  Wierman, 
whom  he  married  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  fifth  month,  1815.  At  this  time 
Daniel  Gibbous  was  about  forty  years  old,  and  his  wife  about  twenty-eight, 
she  having  been  born  on  the  ninth  of  the  seventh  month,  1787.  A  life  of 
one  after  their  union,  would  be  incomplete  without  some  notice  of  the  other. 

During  a  married  life  of  thirty-seven  years,  Hannah  Gibbons  was  the 
assistant  of  her  husband  in  every  good  and  noble  work.  Possessed  of  a 
warm  heart,  a  powerful,  though  uncultivated  intellect,  an  excellent  judgment, 
and  great  sweetness  of  disposition,  she  was  fitted  both  by  nature  and  train- 
ing to  endure  without  murmuring  the  inconvenience  and  trouble  incident  to 
the  reception  and  care  of  fugitives  and  to  rejoice  that  to  her  was  given  the  op- 
portunity of  assisting  them  in  their  efforts  to  be  free. 

The  true  measure  of  greatness  in  a  human  soul,  is  its  willingness  to  suffer 
for  its  own  good,  or  the  good  of  its  fellows,  its  self-sacrificing  spirit.  Grant- 
ing the  truth  of  this,  one  of  the  greatest  souls  was  that  of  Hannah  W. 
Gibbons.  The  following  incident  is  a  proof  of  this : 

In  1836,  when  she  was  no  longer  a  young  woman,  there  came  to  her 
home,  one  of  the  poorest,  most  ignorant,  and  filthiest  of  mankind — a  slave 
from  the  great  valley  of  Virginia.  He  was  foot-sore  and  weary,  and  coukl 
not  tell  how  he  came,  or  who  directed  him.  He  seemed  indeed,  a  missive 
directed  and  sent  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty.  Before  he  could  be  cleansed 
or  recruited,  he  was  taken  sick,  and  before  he  could  be  removed  (even  if  he 
could  have  been  trusted  at  the  county  poor  house),  his  case  was  pronounced  to 
be  smnll-pox.  For  six  long  weeks  did  this  good  angel  in  human  form,  attend 
upon  this  unfortunate  object.  Reasons  were  found  why  no  one  else  could  do 
it,  and  with  her  own  hands,  sne  ministered  to  his  wants,  until  he  was 
restored  to  health.  Such  was  her  life.  This  is  merely  one  case.  She  was 
always  ready  to  do  her  duty.  Her  interest  in  good,  never  left  her,  for  when 
almost  dying,  she  aroused  from  her  lethargy  and  asked  if  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  elected  president  of  the  United  States,  which  he  was^a  few  days  after- 


DANIEL  GIBBONS.  645 

wards.  She  always  predicted  a  civil  war,  in  the  settlement  of  the  Slavery 
question. 

During  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  her  life  she  was  an  elder  in  the 
Society  of  Friends,  of  which  she  had  always  been  an  earnest,  consistent,  and 
devoted  member.  Her  patience,  self-denial,  and  warm  affection  were  mani- 
fested in  every  relation  of  life.  As  a  daughter,  wife,  mother,  friend,  and 
mistress  of  a  family  she  was  beloved  by  all,  and  to  her  relatives  and  friends 
who  are  left  behind,  the  remembrance'  of  her  good  deeds  comes  wafted  like  a- 
perfume  from  beyond  the  golden  gates.  She  survived  her  husband  about 
eight  years,  dying  on  the  sixteenth  of  the  tenth  month,  1860.  Three 
children,  sons,  were  born  to  their  marriage,  two  of  whom  died  in  infancy 
and  one  still  (1871)  survives. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  course  pursued  by  Daniel  and  Hannah  Gibbons, 
I  insert  the  following  letter,  containing  an  account  of  events  which  took 
place  in  1821 : 

"  A  short  time  since,  I  learned  that  my  old  friend,  William  Still,  was 
about  to  publish  a  history  of  the  Underground  Kail  Road.  His  own  experi- 
ence in  the  service  of  this  road  would  make  a  large  volume.  I  was  brought 
up  by  Daniel  Gibbons,  and  am  asked  to  say  what  I  know  of  him  as  an 
abolitionist.  From  my  earliest  recollection,  he  was  a  friend  to  the  colored 
people,  and  often  hired  them  and  paid  them  liberal  wages.  His  house  was 
a  depot  for  fugitives,  and  many  hundreds  has  he  helped  on  their  way  to 
freedom.  Many  a  dark  night  he  has  sent  me  to  carry  them  victuals  and 
change  their  places  of  refuge,  and  take  them  to  other  people's  barns,  when 
not  safe  for  him  to  go.  I  have  known  him  start  in  the  night  and  go  fifty 
miles  with  them,  when  they  were  very  hotly  pursued.  One  man  and  his 
wife  lived  with  him  for  a  long  time.  Afterwards  the  man  lived  with 
Thornton  Walton.  The  man  was  hauling  lumber  from  Columbia.  He  was 
taken  from  his  team  in  Lancaster,  and  lodged  in  Baltimore  jail.  Daniel 
Gibbons  went  to  Baltimore,  visited  the  jail  and  tried  hard  to  get  him 
released,  but  failed.  I  would  add  here,  that  Daniel  Gibbons'  faithful  wife, 
one  of  the  best  women  I  ever  knew,  was  always  ready,  day  or  night,  to  do 
all  she  possibly  could,  to  help  the  poor  fugitives  on  their  way  to  freedom. 
Many  interesting  incidents  occurred  at  the  home  of  my  uncle.  I  will  relate 
one.  He  had  living  with  him  at  one  time,  two  colored  men,  Thomas 
Colbert  and  John  Stewart.  The  latter  was  from  Maryland;  John  often 
said  he  would  go  back  and^get  his  wife.  My  uncle  asked  him  if  he  was  not 
afraid  of  his  master's  catching  him.  He  said  no.  for  his  master  knew  if  he 
undertook  to  take  him,  he  would  kill  him.  He  did  go  and  brought  his  wife 
to  my  uncle's. 

While  these  two  large  men,  Tom  and  John,  were  there,  along  came 
Robert  (other  name  unknown),  in  a  bad  plight,  his  feet  bleeding.  Robert 
was  put  in  the  barn  to  thrash,  until  he  could  be.  fixed  up  to  go  again  on  his 


646  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

journey.  But  in  a  few  days,  behold,  along  came  his  master.  He  brought 
with  him  that  notorious  constable,  Haiues,  from  Lancaster,  and  one  other 
man.  They  came  suddenly  upon  Robert ;  as  soon  as  he  saw  them  he  ran 
and  jumped  out  of  the  "  overshoot,"  some  ten  feet  down.  In  jumping,  he 
put  one  knee  out  of  joint.  The  men  ran  around  the  barn  and  seized  him. 
By  this  time,  the  two  colored  men,  Tom  and  John,  came,  together  with  my 
uncle  and  aunt.  Poor  Robert  owned  his  master,  but  John  told  them  they 
should  not  take  him  away,  and  was  going  at  them  with  a  club.  One  of  the 
men  drew  a  pistol  to  shoot  John,  but  uncle  told  him  he  had  better  not  shoot 
him ;  this  was  not  a  slave  State.  Inasmuch  as  Robert  had  owned  his  master, 
Uncle  told  John  he  must  submit,  so  they  put  Robert  on  a  horse,  and  started 
with  him.  After  they  were  gone  John  said  :  "  Mr.  Gibbons,  just  say  the 
word,  and  I  will  bring  Robert  back."  Aunt  said  :  "  Go,  John,  go  !"  So 
John  ran  to  Joseph  Rakestraw's  and  got  a  gun  (without  any  lock),  and  ran 
across  the  fields,  with  Tom  after  him,  and  headed  the  party.  The  men  all 
ran  except  Raines,  who  kept  Robert  between  himself  and  John,  so  that 
John  should  not  shoot  him.  But  John  called  out  to  Robert  to  drop  off  that 
horse,  or  be  would  shoot  him.  This  Robert  did,  and  John  and  Tom  brought 
him  back  in  triumph.  My  aunt  said  :  "  John,  thee  is  a  good  fellow,  thee 
has  done  well/'  Robert  was  taken  to  Jesse  Gilbert's  barn,  and  Dr.  Dingee 
fixed  his  knee.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  travel,  he  took  a  "  bee-line  "  for 
the  North  star. 

My  life  with  my  uncle  and  aunt  made  me  an  abolitionist.  I  left  them  in 
the  winter  of  1824,  and  came  to  Salem,  Ohio,  where  I  kept  a  small  station 
on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  until  the  United  States  government  took 
my  work  away.  I  have  helped  over  two  hundred  fugitives  on  their  way  to 
Canada.  Respectfully,  DANIEL  BONSALL, 

Salem,  Columbiana  county,  Ohio." 
\ 

One  day,  in  the  winter  of  1822,  Thomas  Johnson,  a  colored  man,  living 
with  Daniel  Gibbons,  went  out  early  in  the  morning,  to  set  traps  for  musk- 
rats.  While  he  was  gone,  a  slave-holder  came  to  the  house  and  inquired  for 
his  slave.  Daniel  Gibbons  said :  "  There  is  no  slave  here  of  that  name." 
The  man  replied:  "I  know  he  is  here.  The  man  we're  after,  is  a  miserable, 
worthless,  thieving  scoundrel."  "Oh!  very*  well,  then,"  said  the  good 
Quaker,  "  if  that's  the  kind  of  man  thee's  after,  then  I  know  he  is  not  here. 
We  have  a  colored  man  here,  but  he  is  not  that  kind  of  a  man."  The  slave- 
holder waited  awhile,  the  man  not  making  his  appearance,  then  said:  "Well, 
now,  Mr.  Gibbons,  when  you  see  that  man  next,  tell  him  that  we  were  here, 
and  if  he  will  come  home,  we  will  take  good  care  of  him,  and  be  kind  to 
him."  "Very  well,"  said  Daniel,  "I  will  tell  him  what  thee  says,  but  say 
to  him  at  the  same  time,  that  he  is  a  very  great  fool,  if  he  does  as  thee 
requests."  The  colored  man  sought,  having  caught  sight  of  the  slave- 


DANIEL  GIBBONS.  647 

holders,  and  knowing  who  they  were,  went  off  that  night,  under  Daniel 
Gibbons'  directions,  and  was  never  seen  by  his  master  again.  Afterward, 
Daniel  and  his  nephew,  William  Gibbons,  went  with  this  man  to  Adams 
county.  With  his  master  came  the  master  of  Mary,  a  girl  with  straight  hair, 
and  nearly  white,  who  lived  with  Daniel  Gibbons  and  his  wife.  Poor  Mary 
was '  unfortunate.  Her  master  caught  her,  and  took  her  back  with  him 
into  Slavery.  She  and  a  little  girl,  who  was  taken  away  about  the  year  1830, 
were  the  only  ones  ever  taken  back  from  the  house  of  Daniel  Gibbons. 

Between  the  time  of  his  marriage,  when  he  began  to  keep  a  depot  on  the 
Underground  Rail  Road,  and  the  year  1824,  he  passed  more  than  one  hun- 
dred slaves  through  to  Canada,  and  between  the  latter  time  and  his  death, 
eight  hundred  more,  making,  in  all  nine  hundred  aided  by  him.  He  was 
ever  Mailing  to  sacrifice  his  own  personal  comfort  and  convenience,  in  order 
to  assist  fugitives.  In  1833,  when  on  his  way  to  the  West,  in  a  carriage, 
with  his  friend,  Thomas  Peart,  also  a  most  faithful  friend  of  the  colored  man 
and  interested  in  Underground  Rail  Road  affairs,  he  found  a  fugitive  slave, 
a  woman,  in  Adams  county,  who  was  in  immediate  danger.  He  stopped  his 
journey,  and  sent  his  horse  and  wagon  back  to  his  own  home  with  the 
woman,  that  being  the  only  safe  way  of  getting  her  off.  This  was  but  a 
sample  of  his  self-denial,  in  the  cause  of  human  freedom. 

His  want  of  ability  to  guide  in  person  runaway  slaves,  or  to  travel  with 
them,  prevented  him  from  taking  active  part  in  the  wonderful  adventures 
and  hair-breadth  escapes  which  his  brain  and  tact  rendered  possible  and  suc- 
cessful. It  is  believed  that  no  slave  was  ever  recaptured  that  followed  his 
directions.  Sometimes  the  abolitionists  were  much  annoyed  by  impostors, 
who  pretended  to  be  runaways,  in  order  to  discover  their  plans,  and  betray 
them  to  the  slave-holders.  Daniel  Gibbons  was  possessed  of  much  acute- 
ness  in  detecting  these  people,  but  having  detected  them,  he  never  treated 
them  harshly  or  unkindly. 

Almost  from  infancy,  he  was  distinguished  for  the  gravity  of  his  deport- 
ment, and  his  utter  heedlessness  of  small  things.  The  writer  has  heard 
men  preach  the  doctrine  of  the  trifling  value  of  the  things  of  a  present  time, 
and  of  the  tremendous  importance  of  those  of  a  never-ending  eternity,  but 
Daniel  Gibbons  is  the  only  person  she  ever  knew,  who  lived  that  doctrine. 
He  believed  in  plainness  of  apparel  as  taught  by  Friends,  not  as  a  form  or 
a  rule  of  society,  but  as  a  principle ;  often  quoting  from  some  one  who  said 
that  "  the  adornment  of  a  vain  and  foolish  world,  would  feed  a  starving 
orfe."  He  opposed  extravagant  fashions  and  all  luxury  of  habit  and  life,  as 
calculated  to  produce  effeminacy  and  degrading  sensuality,  and  as  a  bestowal 
of  idolatrous  attention  upon  that  body  which  he  would  often  say  i(  was  here 
but  for  a  short  time." 

Looking  only  upon  that  as  religion,  which  made  men  love  each  other  and 
do  good  to  each  other  in  this  world,  he  was  little  of  a  stickler  for  points  of 


648  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

belief,  and  even  when  he  did  look  into  theological  matters  or  denounce  a 
man's  religious  opinions,  it  was  generally  because  they  were  calculated  to 
darken  the  mind  and  be  entertained  as  a  substitute  for  good  works.  Pur- 
suing the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  he  could  as  easily  lead  the  flying  fugitive 
slave  by  night  out  of  the  way  of  his  powerful  master,  as  one  differently  con- 
stituted could  bestow  his  wealth  upon  the  most  popular  charity  in  the  land. 

His  faith  was  of  the  simplest  kind — the  Parable  of  the  prodigal  son,  con- 
tains his  creed.  Discarding  what  are  commonly  called  "plans  of  salvation," 
he  believed  in  the  light  "  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world,"  and  that  if  people  would  follow  this  light,  they  would  thus  seek 
"  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  and  its  righteousness  and  all  other  things  needful 
would  be  added  thereunto."  He  was  a  devoted  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  in  which  he  held  the  position  of  elder,  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years  of  his  life.  That  peculiar  doctrins  of  the  Society,  which  repudiates 
systematic  divinity  and  with  it  a  paid  ministry,  he  held  in  special  reverence, 
finding  confirmation  of  its  truth  in  the  general  advocacy  of  Slavery,  by  the 
popular  clergy  of  his  day. 

When  he  was  quite  advanced  in  years,  and  the  Anti-slavery  agitation  grew 
warm,  he  was  solicited  to  join  an  anti-slavery  society,  but  on  hearing  the 
constitution  read,  and  finding  that  it  repudiated  all  use  of  physical  force  on 
the  part  of  the  oppressed  in  gaining  their  liberty,  he  said  that  he  could  not 
assent  to  that — that  he  had  long  been  engaged  in  getting  off  slaves,  and  that 
he  had  always  advised  them  to  use  force,  although  remonstrating  against 
going  to  the  extent  of  taking  life,  and  that  now  he  could  not  recede  from 
that  position,  and  he  did  not  see  how  they  could  always  be  got  off  without 
the  use  of  some  force. 

His  faith  in  an  overruling  Providence  was  complete.  He  believed,  even 
in  the  darkest  days  of  freedom  in  our  land,  in  the  ultimate  extinction  of 
Slavery,  and  at  times,  although  advanced  in  years,  thought  he  would  live  to 
witness  that  glorious  consummation.  It  is  only  in  a  man's  own  family  and 
by  his  wife  and  children,  that  he  is  really  known,  and  it  is  by  those  who 
best  knew,  and  indeed,  who  only  knew  this  good  man,  that  his  biographer  is 
most  anxious  that  he  should  be  judged.  As  a  parent,  he  was  not  excessively 
indulgent,  as  a  husband,  one  more  nearly  a  model  is  rarely  found.  But  his 
kindness  in  domestic  life,  his  love  for  his  wife,  his  son  and  his  grand- 
children, and  their  reciprocal  love  and  affection  for  him,  no  words  can 
express. 

It  was  in  his  father's  household  in  his  youth  and  in  his  own  household  in 
his  mature  years,  that  was  fostered  that  wealth  of  love  and  affection,  which, 
extending  and  widening,  took  in  the  whole  race,  and  made  him  the  friend 
of  the  oppressed  everywhere,  and  especially  of  those  whom  it  was  a  danger- 
ous and  unpopular  task  to  befriend. 

The  tenderness  and  thoughtfulness  of  his  disposition  are  well  shown  in 


LUCBETIA  MOTT.  649 

the  following  incident :  Upon  one  occasion,  his  son  received  a  kick  from  a 
horse,  which  he  was  about  to  mount  at  the  door.  When  he  had  recovered 
from  the  shock,  and  it  was  found  that  he  was  not  seriously  injured,  the 
father  still  continued  to  look  serious,  and  did  not  cease  to  shed  tears.  On 
being  asked  why  he  grieved,  his  answer  was :  "  I  was  just  thinking  how  it 
would  have  been  with  thee,  had  that  stroke  proved  fatal."  Such  thoughts 
were  at  once  the  notes  of  his  own  preparation  and  a  warning  to  others  to  be 
also  ready. 

A  life  consistent  with  his  views,  was  a  life  of  humility  and  universal 
benevolence,  and  such  was  his.  It  was  a  life,  as  it  were  in  Heaven,  while 
yet  on  earth,  for  it  soared  above  and  beyond  the  corrupt  and  slavish 
influences  of  earthly  passions. 

His  interest  in  temperance  never  failed  him.  On  his  death-bed  he 
would  call  persons  to  him,  who  needed  such  advice,  and  admonish 
them  on  the  subject  of  using  strong  drinks,  and  his  last  expression  of 
interest  in  any  humanitarian  movement,  was  an  avowal  of  his  belief  in 
the  great  good  to  arise  from  a  prohibitory  liquor  law. 

To  a  friend,  who  entered  his  sick  room,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  he 
said  :  "  Well,  E.,  thee  is  preparing  to  go  to  the  West."  The  friend  replied  : 
"  Yes,  and  Daniel,  I  suppose  thee  is  preparing  to  go  to  eternity."  There 
was  an  affirmative  reply,  and  E.  inquired,  "How  does  thee  find  it?"  Daniel 
said :  "  I  don't  find  much  to  do,  I  find  that  I  have  not  got  a  hard  master  to 
deal  with.  Some  few  things  "which  I  have  done,  I  find  not  entirely  right." 
He  quitted  the  earthly  service  of  the  Master,  on  the  17th  day  of  the  eighth 
month,  1852. 

A  young  physician,  son  of  one  of  his  old  friends,  after  attending  his 
funeral,  wrote  to  a  friend,  as  follows  :  "  To  quote  the  words  of  Webster, 
'  We  turned  and  paused,  and  joined  our  voices  with  the  voices  of  the  air, 
and  bade  him  hail !  and  farewell !'  Farewell,  kind  and  brave  old  man  ! 
The  voices  of  the  oppressed  whom  thou  hast  redeemed,  welcome  thee  to  the 
Eternal  City." 

LUCEETIA  MOTT. 

Of  all  the  women  who  served  the  Anti-slavery  cause  in  its  darkest  days, 
there  is  not  one  whose  labors  were  more  effective,  whose  character  is  nobler, 
and  who  is  more  universally  respected  and  beloved,  than  Lucretia  Mott. 
You  cannot  speak  of  the  slave  without  remembering  her,  who  did  so  much 
to  make  Slavery  impossible.  You  cannot  speak  of  freedom,  without  recall- 
ing that  enfranchised  spirit,  which,  free  from  all  control,  save  that  of 
conscience  and  God,  labored  for  absolute  liberty  for  the  whole  human  race. 
We  cannot  think  of  the  partial  triumph  of  freedom  in  this  country,  without 
rejoicing  in  the  great  part  she  took  in  the  victory.  Lucretia  Mott  is  one  of 


650  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  noblest  representatives  of  ideal  womanhood.  Those  who  know  her,  need 
not  be  told  this,  but  those  who  only  love  her  in  the  spirit,  may  be  sure  that 
they  can  have  no  faith  too  great  in  the  beauty  of  her  pure  and  Chris- 
tian life. 

This  book  would  be  incomplete  without  giving  some  account,  however 
brief,  of  Lucretia  Mott's  character  and  labors  in  the  great  work  to 
which  her  life  has  been  devoted.  To  write  it  fully  would  require  a 
volume.  She  was  born  in  1793,  in  the  island  of  Nantucket,  and  is 
descended  from  the  Coffins  and  Macys,  on  the  father's  side,  and  from  the 
Folgers,  on  the  mother's  side,  and  through  them  is  related  to  Dr.  Benjamin 
Franklin.  Her  maiden  name  was  Lucretia  Coffin. 

During  the  absence  of  her  father  on  a  long  voyage,  her  mother  was 
engaged  in  mercantile  business,  purchasing  goods  in  Boston,  in  exchange 
for  oil  and  candles,  the  staples  of  the  island.  Mrs.  Mott  says  in  reference 
to  this  employment:  "The  exercise  of  women's  talent  in  this  line,  as  well 
as  the  general  care  which  devolved  upon  them  in  the  absence  of  their  hus- 
bands, tended  to  develop  their  intellectual  powers,  and  strengthened  them 
mentally  and  physically." 

The  family  removed  to  Boston  in  1804.  Her  parents  belonged  to  the 
religious  Society  of  Friends,  and  carefully  cultivated  in  their  children,  the 
peculiarities  as  well  as  the  principles  of  that  sect.  To  this  early  training, 
we  may  ascribe  the  rigid  adherence  of  Mrs.  Mott,  to  the  beautiful  but  sober 
costume  of  the  Society. 

When  in  London,  in  1840,  she  visited  the  Zoological  Gardens,  and  a 
gentleman  of  the  party,  pointing  out  the  splendid  plumage  of  some  tropical 
birds,  remarked  :  "  You  see,  Mrs.  Mott,  our  heavenly  Father  believes  in 
bright  colors.  How  much  it  would  take  from  our  pleasure,  if  all  the  birds 
were  dressed  in  drab."  "Yes;"  she  replied,  "but  immortal  beings  do  not 
depend  upon  feathers  for  their  attractions.  With  the  infinite  variety  of  the 
human  face  and  form,  of  thought,  feeling  and  affection,  we  do  not  need 
gorgeous  apparel  to  distinguish  us.  Moreover,  if  it  is  fitting  that  woman 
should  dress  in  every  color  of  the  rainbow,  why  not  man  also  ?  Clergymen, 
with  their  black  clothes  and  white  cravats,  are  quite  as  monotonous  as 
the  Quakers."  Whatever  may  be  the  abstract  merit  of  this  argument,  it  is 
certain  that  the  simplicity  of  Lucretia  Mott's  nature,  is  beautifully  expressed 
by  her  habitual  costume. 

In  giving  the  principal  events  of  Lucretia  Mott's  life,  we  prefer  to  use  her 
own  language  whenever  possible.  In  memoranda  furnished  by  her  to 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  she  says :  "  My  father  had  a  desire  to  make  his 
daughters  useful.  At  fourteen  years  of  age,  I  was  placed,  with  a  younger 
sister,  at  the  Friends'  Boarding  School,  in  Dutchess  county,  State  of  New 
York,  and  continued  there  for  more  than  two  years,  without  return  ing  home. 
At  fifteen,  one  of  the  teachers  leaving  the  school,  I  was  chosen  as  an  assist- 


LUCRETIA  MOTT.  Col 

ant  in  her  place.  Pleased  with  the  promotion,  I  strove  hard  to  give 
satisfaction,  and  was  gratified,  on  leaving  the  school,  to  have  an  offer  of  a 
situation  as  teacher  if  I  was  disposed  to  remain ;  and  informed  that 
my  services  should  entitle  another  sister  to  her  education,  without  charge. 
My  father  was  at  that  time,  in  successful  business  in  Boston,  but  with  hi^ 
views  of  the  importance  of  training  a  woman  to  usefulness,  he  and  my 
mother  gave  their  consent  to  another  year  being  devoted  to  that  institu- 
tion." Here  is  another  instance  of  the  immeasurable  value  of  wise  parental 
influence. 

In  1809  Lucretia  joined  her  family  in  Philadelphia,  whither  they  had 
removed.  "  At  the  early  age  of  eighteen,"  she  says,  "  I  married  James 
Mott,  of  New  York — an  attachment  formed  while  at  the  boarding-school." 
Mr.  Mott  entered  into  business  with  her  father.  Then  followed  commercial 
depressions,  the  war  of  1812,  the  deatli  of  her  father,  and  the  family 
became  involved  in  difficulties.  Mrs.  Mott  was  again  obliged  to  resume 
teaching.  "  These  trials,"  she  says,  "  in  early  life,  were  not  without  their 
good  effect  in  disciplining  the  mind,  and  leading  it  to  set  a  just  estimate  on 
worldly  pleasures." 

To  this  early  training,  to  the  example  of  a  noble  father  and  excellent 
mother,  to  the  trials  which  came  so  quickly  in  her  life,  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  Mrs.  Mott's  intellect  is  no  doubt  greatly  due.  Thus  the  founda- 
tion was  laid,  which  has  enabled  her,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  to  be  one  of 
the  great  workers  in  the  cause  of  suffering  humanity.  These  are  golden 
words  which  we  quote  from  her  own  modest  notes  :  "  I,  however,  always 
loved  the  good,  in  childhood  desired  to  do  the  right,  and  had  no  faith  in  the 
generally  received  idea  of  human  depravity."  Yes,  it  was  because  she 
believed  in  human  virtue,  that  she  was  enabled  to  accomplish  such  a 
wonderful  work.  She  had  the  inspiration  of  faith,  and  entered  her  life- 
battle  against  Slavery  with  a  divine  hope,  and  not  with  a  gloomy  despair. 

The  next  great  step  in  Lucretia  Mott's  career,  was  taken  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  when,  "  summoned  by  a  little  family  and  many  cares,  I  felt 
called  to  a  more  public  life  of  devotion  to  duty,  and  engaged  in  the  ministry 
in  our  Society." 

In  1827  when  the  Society  was  divided  Mrs.  Mott's  convictions  led  her 
"  to  adhere  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  light  within  us,  resting  on  the  truth  as 
authority,  rather  than  '  taking  authority  for  truth.' "  We  may  find  no  bet- 
ter place  than  this  to  refer  to  her  relations  to  Christianity.  There  are -many 
people  who  do  not  believe  in  the  progress  of  religion.  They  are  right  in  one 
respect.  God's  truth  cannot  be  progressive  because  it  is  absolute,  immutable 
and  eternal.  But  the  human  race  is  struggling  up  to  a  higher  comprehen- 
sion of  its  own  destiny  and  of  the  mysterious  purposes  of  God  so  far  as  they 
are  revealed  to  our  finite  intelligence.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  religion  is 
progressive.  The  Christianity  of  this  age  ought  to  be  more  intelligent  than 


652  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  Christianity  of  Calvin.  "The  popular  doctrine  of  human  depravity," 
says  Mrs.  Mott,  "  never  commended  itself  to  my  reason  or  conscience.  I 
searched  the  Scriptures  daily,  finding  a  construction  of  the  text  wholly  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  was  pressed  upon  our  acceptance.  The  highest 
evidence  of  a  sound  faith  being  the  practical  life  of  the  Christian,  I  have 
felt  a  far  greater  interest  in  the  moral  movements  of  our  age  than  in  any 
•theological  discussion."  Her  life  is  a  noble  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  this 
belief.  She  has  translated  Christian  principles  into  daily  deeds. 

That  spirit  of  benevolence  which  Mrs.  Mott  possesses  in  a  degree  far  above 
the  average,  of  necessity 'had  countless  modes  of  expression.  She  was  not  so 
much  a  champion  of  any  particular  cause  as  of  all  reforms.  It  was  said  of 
Charles  Lamb  that  he  could  not  even  hear  the  devil  abused  without  trying 
to  say  something  in  his  favor,  and  with  all  Mrs.  Mott's  intense  hatred  of 
Slavery  we  do  not  think  she  ever  had  one  unkind  feeling  toward  the  slave- 
holder. Her  longest,  and  probably  her  noblest  work,  was  done  in  the  anti- 
1  slavery  cause.  "  The  millions  of  down-trodden  slaves  in  our  land,"  she 
says,  "  being  the  greatest  sufferers,  the  most  oppressed  class,  I  have  felt 
bound  to  plead  their  cause,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  endeavor  to  put 
my  soul  in  their  soul's  stead,  and  to  aid,  all  in  my  power,  in  every  right 
effort  for  their  immediate  emancipation."  When  in  1833,  Wm.  Lloyd 
Garrison  took  the  ground  of  immediate  emancipation  and  urged  the  duty  of 
unconditional  liberty  without  expatriation,  Mrs.  Mott  took  an  active  part  in 
the  movement.  She  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Philadelphia  Female 
Anti-Slavery  Society  in  1834.  "  Being  actively  associated  in  the  efforts  for 
the  slave's  redemption,"  she  says,  "  I  have  traveled  thousands  of  miles  in 
this  country,  holding  meetings  in  some  of  the  slave  states,  have  been  in  the 
midst  of  mobs  and  violence,  and  have  shared  abundantly  in  the  odium 
attached  to  the  name  of  an  uncompromising  modern  abolitionist,  as  well  as 
partaken  richly  of  the  sweet  return  of  peace  attendant  on  those  who  would 
( undo  the  heavy  burdens  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  break  every 
yoke.'"  In  1840  she  attended  the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  in 
London.  Because  she  was  a  woman  she  was  not  admitted  as  a  delegate. 
All  the  female  delegates,  however,  were  treated  with  courtesy,  though  not 
with  justice.  Mrs.  Mott  spoke  frequently  in  the  liberal  churches  of  England, 
and  her  influence  outside  of  the  Convention  had  great  effect  on  the  Anti- 
Slavery  movement  in  Great  Britain. 

But  the  value  of  Mrs.  Mott's  anti-slavery  work  is  not  limited  to  what  she 
individually  did,  great  as  that  labor  was.  Her  influence  over  others,  and 
especially  the  young,  was  extraordinary.  She  made  many  converts,  who 
went  forth  to  spread  the  great  ideas  of  freedom  throughout  the  laud.  No 
one  can  of  himself  accomplish  great  good.  He  must  labor  through  others, 
he  must  inspire  them,  convince  the  unbelieving,  kindle  the  fires  of  faith  in 
doubting  souls,  and  in  the  unequal  fight  of  Right  with  Wrong  make  Hope 


LUCRETIA  MOTT.  653 

take  the  place  of  despair.  This  Lucretia  Mott  has  done.  Her  example  was 
an  inspiration. 

In  the  Temperance  reform  Mrs.  Mott  took  an  early  interest,  and  for  many 
years  she  has  practiced  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks  In  the 
cause  of  Peace  she  has  been  ever  active,  believing  in  the  "  ultra  non-resist- 
ance ground,  that  no  Christian  can  consistently  uphold  and  actively  engage 
in  and  support  a  government  based  on  the  sword."  Yet  this,  we  believe, 
did  not  prevent  her  from  taking  a  profound  interest  in  the  great  war  for  the 
Union ;  though  she  deplored  the  means,  her  soul  must  have  exulted  in  the 
result.  Through  anguish  and  tears,  blood  and  death  America  wrought  out 
her  salvation.  Do  we  not  believe  that  the  United  States  leads  the  cause  of 
human  freedom?  It  follows  then  that  the  abolition  of  the  gigantic  system 
of  human  slavery  in  this  country  is  the  grandest  event  in  modern  history. 
Mrs.  Mott  has  also  been  earnestly  engaged  in  aid  of  the  working  classes,  and 
has  labored  effectively  for  "  a  radical  change  in  the  system  which  makes  the 
rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer."  In  the  Woman's  Rights  question  she  was 
early  interested,  and  with  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  she  organized,  in 
1848,  a  Woman's  Rights'  Convention  at  Seneca  Falls,  New  York.  At  the 
proceedings  of  this  meeting,  "the  nation  was  convulsed  with  laughter."  But 
who  laughs  now  at  this  irresistible  reform  ? 

The  public  career  of  Lucretia  Mott  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  her  private 
life.  "  My  life  in  the  domestic  sphere,"  she  says,  "  has  passed  mueh  as  that 
of  other  wives  and  mothers  of  this  country.  I  have  had  six  children.  Not 
accustomed  to  resigning  them  to  the  care  of  a  nurse,  I  was  much  confined  to 
them  during  their  infancy  and  childhood."  Notwithstanding  her  devotion 
to  public  matters  her  private  duties  were  never  neglected.  Many  of  our 
readers  will  no  doubt  remember  Mrs.  Mott  at  Anti-slavery  meetings,  her 
mind  intently  fixed  upon  the  proceedings,  while  her  hands  were  as  busily 
engaged  in  useful  sewing  or  knitting.  It  is  not  our  place  to  inquire  too 
closely  into  this  social  circle,  but  we  may  say  that  Mrs.  Mott's  history  is  a 
living  proof  that  the  highest  public  duties  may  be  reconciled  with  perfect 
fidelity  to  private  responsibilities.  It  is  so  with  men,  why  should  it  be  dif- 
ferent with  women  ? 

In  her  marriage,  Mrs.  Mott  was  fortunate.  James  Mott  was  a  worthy 
partner  for  such  a  woman.  He  was  born  in  June,  1788,  in  Long  Island. 
He  was  an  anti-slavery  man,  almost  before  such  a  thing  as  anti-slavery  was 
known.  In  1812  he  refused  to  use  any  article  which  was  produced  by  slave 
labor.  The  directors  of  that  greatest  of  all  railway  corporations,  the 
Underground  Rail  Road,  will  never  forget  his  services.  He  died,  January 
26,  1868,  having  nearly  completed  his  80th  year.  "  Not  only  in  regard  to 
Slavery,"  said  the  "Philadelphia  Morning  Post,"  at  the  time,  "  but  in  all 
things  was  Mr.  Mott  a  reformer,  and  a  radical,  and  while  his  principles  were 
absolute,  and  his  opinions  uncompromising,  his  nature  was  singularly  gener- 


654  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ous  and  humane.  Charity  was  not  to  him  a  duty,  but  a  delight;  and  the 
benevolence,  which,  in  most  good  men,  has  some  touch  of  vanity  or  selfish- 
ness, always  seemed  in  him  pure,  unconscious  and  disinterested.  His  life 
was  long  and  happy,  and  useful  to  his  fellow-men.  He  had  been  married 
for  fifty-seven  years,  and  none  of  the  many  friends  of  James  and  Lucretia 
Mott,  need  be  told  how  much  that  union  meant,  nor  what  sorrow  comes  with 
its  end  in  this  world."  Mary  Grew  pronounced  his  fitting  epitaph  when  she 
said :  "  He  was  ever  calm,  steadfast,  and  strong  in  the  fore  front  of  the 
conflict." 

In  her  seventy-ninth  year,  the  energy  of  Lucretia  Mott  is  undiminished, 
and  her  soul  is  as  ardent  in  the  cause  to  which  her  life  has  been  devoted,  as 
when  in  her  youth  she  placed  the  will  of  a  true  woman  against  the  impo- 
tence of  prejudiced  millions.  With  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  and  the  passage 
of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  her  greatest  life-work  ended.  Since  then,  she 
ha«  given  much  of  her  time  to  the  Female  Suffrage  movement,  and  so  late 
as  November,  1871,  she  took  an  active  part  in  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Peace  Society. 

Since  the  great  law  was  enacted,  which  made  all  men,  black  or  white, 
equal  in  political  rights — as  they  were  always  equal  in  the  sight  of  God — 
Mrs.  Mott  has  made  it  her  business  to  visit  every  colored  church  in  Phila- 
delphia. This  we  may  regard  as  the  formal  closing  of  fifty  years  of  work 
in  behalf,  of  a  race  which  she  has  seen  raised  from  a  position  of  abject  ser- 
vitude, to  one  higher  than  that  of  a  monarch's  throne.  But  though  she 
may  have  ended  this  Anti-slavery  work,  which  is  but  the  foundation  of  the 
destiny  of  the  colored  race  in  America,  her  influence  is  not  ended — that 
cannot  die ;  it  must  live  and  grow  and  deepen,  and  generations  hence  the 
world  will  be  happier  and  better  that  Lucretia  Mott  lived  and  labored  for 
the  good  of  all  mankind. 

JAMES  MILLER  McKIM. 

More  vividly  than  it  is  possible  for  the  pen  to  portray,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  recalls  the  struggles  of  the  worst  years  of  Slavery,  when  the  conflict 
was  most  exciting  and  interesting,  when  more  minds  were  aroused,  and  more 
laborers  were  hard  at  work  in  the  field ;  when  more  anti-slavery  speeches 
were  made,  tracts,  papers,  and  books,  were  written,  printed  and  distributed ; 
when  more  petitions  \vere  signed  for  the  abolition  of  Slavery ;  in  a  word, 
when  the  barbarism  of  Slavery  was  more  exposed  and  condemned  than  ever 
before,  in  the  same  length  of  time.  Abolitionists  were  then  intensely  in 
earnest,  and  determined  never  to  hold  their  peace  or  cease  their  warfare, 
until  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation  was  achieved. 

On  the  other  hand,  during  this  same  period,  it  is  not  venturing  too 
much  to  assert  that  the  slave  power  was  more  oppressive  than  ever  before ; 


JAMES  MILLER  McKIM.  655 

slave  enactments  more  cruel ;  the  spirit  of  Slavery  more  intolerant ;  the  fetters 
more  tightly  drawn ;  perilous  escapes  more  frequent ;  slave  captures  and 
slave  hunts  more  appalling ;  in  short,  the  enslavers  of  the  race  had  never 
before  so  defiantly  assumed  that  negro  Slavery  was  sanctioned  by  the 
Divine  laws  of  God. 

Thus,  while  these  opposing  agencies  were  hotly  contesting  the  rights  of 
man,  James  Miller  McKim,  as  one  of  the  earliest,  most  faithful,  and  ablest 
abolitionists  in  Pennsylvania,  occupied  a  position  of  influence,  labor  and 
usefulness,  scarcely  second  to  Mr.  Garrison. 

For  at  least  fourteen  of  the  eventful  years  referred  to,  it  was  the  writer's 
privilege  to  occupy  a  position  in  the  Anti-slavery  office  with  Mr.  McKim, 
and  the  best  opportunity  was  thus  afforded  to  observe  him  under  all  cir- 
cumstances while  battling  for  freedom.  As  a  helper  and  friend  of  the  fleeing 
bondman,  in  numberless  instances  the  writer  has  marked  well  his  kind  and 
benevolent  spirit,  before  and  after  the  formation  of  the  late  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee. At  all  times  when  the  funds  were  inadequate,  his  aid  could  be 
counted  upon  for  sure  relief.  He  never  failed  the  fugitive  in  the  hour  of 
need.  Whether  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road  bound  for  Canada,  or 
before  a  United  States  commissioner  trying  a  fugitive  case,  the  slave  found 
no  truer  friend  than  Mr.  McKim. 

If  the  records  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for  Promoting  the  Abolition 
of  Slavery,  and  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society  were  examined  and 
written  out  by  a  pen,  as  competent  as  Mr.  McKim's,  two  or  three  volumes 
of  a  most  thrilling,  interesting,  and  valuable  character  could  be  furnished  to 
posterity.  But  as  his  labors  have  been  portrayed  for  these  pages,  by  a  hand 
much  more  competent  than  the  writer's,  it  only  remains  to  present  it  as 
follows: 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  November 
14,  1810,  the  oldest  but  one  of  eight  children.  On  his  father's  side,  he  was 
of  Scotch  Irish,  on  his  mother's  (Miller)  of  German  descent.  He  graduated 
at  Dickinson  College  in  1828 ;  and  entering  upon  the  study  of  medicine, 
attended  one  or  more  courses  of  lectures  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Before  he  was  ready  to  take  his  degree,  his  mind  was  powerfully  turned 
towards  religion,  and  he  relinquished  medicine  for  the  study  of  divinity, 
entering  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,  in  the  fall  of  1831,  and  a 
year  later,  being  matriculated  at  Andover.  The  death  of  his  parents,  however, 
and  subsequently  that  of  his  oldest  brother,  made  his  connection  with  both 
these  institutions  a  very  brief  one,  and  he  was  obliged,  as  the  charge  of  the 
family  now  devolved  upon  him,  to  continue  his  studies  privately  at  home, 
under  the  friendly  direction  of  the  late  Dr.  Duffield.  An  ardent  and  pro- 
nounced disciple  of  the  "  New  School "  of  Presbyterians,  belonging  to  a 
strongly  Old  School  Presbytery ;  he  was  able  to  secure  license  and  ordina- 


656  THE  UNDERGRO UND  RAIL  ROAD. 

tion  only  by  transfer  to  another;  and,  in  October,  1335,  he  accepted  a  pulpit 
in  Womelsdorf,  Berks  County,  Pa.,  where  he  preached  for  one  year,  to  a 
Presbyterian  congregation,  to  what  purpose,  and  with  what  views,  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  passage  taken  from  one  of  his  letters,  written 
more  than  twenty  years  afterwards,  to  the  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard. 
"The  first  settled  pastor  of  this  little  flock  was  one  sufficiently  well-known 
to  such  of  your  readers  as  will  be  interested  in  this,  to  make  mention  of  his 
name  unnecessary.  He  had  studied  for  the  ministry  with  a  strong  desire, 
and  a  half  formed  purpose  to  become  a  missionary  in  foreign  lands.  Before 
he  had  proceeded  far  in  his  studies,  however,  he  became  alive  to  the  claims 
of  the 'perishing  heathen' here  at  home.  When  he  received  his  licerisure, 
his  mind  was  divided  between  the  still  felt  impulse  of  his  first  purpose  and 
the  pressure  of  his  later  convictions.  While  yet  unsettled  on  this  point,  the 
case  of  the  little  church  at  Womelsdorf  was  made  known  to  him,  followed 
by  an  urgent  request  from  the  people  and  from  the  Home  Missionary 
Society  to  take  charge  of  it.  He  acceded  to  the  request  and  remained  there 
one  year,  zealously  performing  the  duties  of  his  office  to  the  best  of  his 
knowledge  and  ability.  The  people,  earnest  and  simple-hearted,  desired  the 
'  sincere  milk  of  the  Word/  and  receiving  it  'grew  thereby.'  All  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  became  avowed  abolitionists.  They  showed  their  faith 
by  their  works,  contributing  liberally  to  the  funds  of  the  Anti-slavery 
Society.  Many  a  seasonable  donation  has  our  Pennsylvania  organization 
received  from  that  quarter.  For  though  their  anti-slavery  minister  had  left 
and  had  been  followed  by  others  of  different  sentiments  and  though  he  had 
withdrawn  from  the  church  with  which  they  were  in  common  connected, 
and  that  on  grounds  which  subjected  him  to  the  imputation  and  penalties  af 
heresy,  these  good  people  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  change  their  relations 
of  personal  friendship,  nor  did  they  make  it  a  pretext,  as  others  have  done, 
for  abandoning  the  cause." 

In  October,  1836,  he  accepted  a  lecturing  agency  under  the  American 
Anti-slavery  Society,  as  one  of  the  "seventy,"  gathered  from  all  professions, 
whom  Theodore  D.  Weld  had  by  his  eloquence  inspired  to  spread  the  gos- 
pel of  emancipation.  Mr.  McKim  had  long  before  this  had  his  attention 
drawn  to  the  subject  of  slavery,  in  the  summer  of  1832  ;  and  the  reading  of 
Garrison's  "Thoughts  on  Colonization,"  at  once  made  him  an  aboli/.onist. 
He  was  an  appointed  delegate  to  the  Convention  which  formed  the  Ameri- 
can Anti-slavery  Society,  and  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being  the  youngest 
member  of  that  body.*  Henceforth  the  object  of  the  society,  and  of  his 
ministry  became  inseparable  in  his  mind. 

*  It  may  be  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  state  that  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Senti- 
ments adopted  at  this  meeting,  together  with  the  autographs  of  the  signers,  is  now  in  the  keeping  of 
the  New  York  Historical  Society. 


JAMES  MILLER  McKIM.  657 

In  the  following  summer,  1834,  he  delivered  in  Carlisle  two  addresses  in 
favor  of  immediate  emancipation,  which  excited  much  discussion  and  bitter 
feeling  in  that  border  community,  and  gained  him  no  little  obloquy,  which 
was  of  course  increased  when,  as  a  lecturer,  on  the  regular  stipend  of  eight 
dollars  a  week  and  travelling  expenses,  ("pocket  lined  with  British  gold" 
was  the  current  charge),  he  traversed  his  native  state,  among  a  people  in 
the  closest  geographical,  commercial,  and  social  contact  with  the  system  of 
slavery.  His  fate  was  not  different  from  that  of  his  colleagues,  in  respect 
of  interruptions  of  his  meetings  by  mob  violence,  personal  assaults  with 
stale  eggs  and  other  more  dangerous  missiles,  and  a  public  sentiment  which 
everywhere  encouraged  and  protected  the  rioters. 

Meantime,  a  radical  change  of  opinion  on  theological  questions,  led  Mr. 
McKim  formally  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
ministry.  Being  now  free  to  act  without  sectarian  constraint,  he  was,  in  the 
beginning  of  1840,  made  Publishing  Agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery 
Society,  which  caused  him  to  settle  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  married, 
in  October,  to  Sarah  A.  Speakman,  of  Chester  county.  The  chief  duties  of 
his  office  at  first,  were  the  publication  and  management  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Freeman,  including,  for  an  interval  after  the  retirement  of  John  G.  Whittier, 
the  editorial  conduct  of  that  paper.  In  course  of  time  his  functions  were 
enlarged,  and  under  the  title  of  Corresponding  Secretary,  he  performed  the 
part  of  a  factotum  and  general  manager,  with  a  share  in  all  the  anti-slavery 
work,  local  and  national.  After  the  consolidation  of  the  Freeman  with  the 
Standard,  in  1854,  he  became  the  official  correspondent  of  the  latter  paper, 
his  letters  serving  to  some  extent  as  a  substitute  for  the  discontinued  Free- 
man. The  operations  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  came  under  his  review 
and  partial  control,  as  has  already  appeared  in  these  pages,  and  the  slave 
cases  which  came  before  the  courts  claimed  a  large  share  of  his  attention. 
After  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  in  1851,  his  duties  in  this  re- 
spect were  arduous  and  various,  as  may  be  inferred  from  one  of  his  private 
letters  to  an  English  friend,  which  found  its  way  into  print  abroad,  and 
which  will  be  found  in  another  place.  (See  p.  581). 

During  the  John  Brown  excitement  Mr.  McKim  had  the  privilege  of  ac- 
companying Mrs.  Brown  in  her  melancholy  errand  to  Harper's  Ferry,  to 
take  her  last  leave  of  her  husband  before  his  execution,  and  to  bring  away 
the  body.  His  companions  on  that  painful  but  memorable  journey,  were 
his  wife,  and  Hector  Tyndale,  Esq.,  afterwards  honorably  distinguished  in 
the  war  as  General  Tyndale.  Returning  with  the  body  of  the  hero  and 
martyr,  still  in  company  with  Mrs.  Brown,  Mr.  McKim  proceeded  to  North 
Elba,  where  he  and  Wendell  Phillips,  who  had  joined  him  in  New  York 
with  a  few  other  friends  gathered  from  the  neighborhood,  assisted  in  the 
final  obsequies. 

When  the  war  broke  out,  Mr.  McKim  was  one  of  the  first  to  welcome  it 
42 


658  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

as  the  harbinger  of  the  slave's  deliverance,  and  the  country's  redemption. 
"  A  righteous  war,"  he  said,  "  is  better  than  a  corrupt  peace.  *  *  * 
When  war  can  only  be  averted  by  consenting  to  crime,  then  welcome  war 
with  all  its  calamities."  In  the  winter  of  1862,  after  the  capture  of  Port 
Royal,  he  procured  the  calling  of  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Phila- 
delphia to  consider  and  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  ten  thousand  slaves  who 
had  been  suddenly  liberated.  One  of  the  results  of  this  meeting  was  the 
organization  of  the  Philadelphia  Port  Royal  Relief  Committee.  Bv  request 
he  visited  the  Sea  Islands,  accompanied  by  his  daughter,  and  on  his  return 
made  a  report  which  served  his  associates  as  a  basis  of  operations,  and  which 
was  republished  extensively  in  this  country  and  abroad. 

After  the  proclamation  of  emancipation,  he  advocated  an  early  dissolution 
of  the  anti-slavery  organization,  and  at  the  May  Meeting  of  the  American 
Anti-slavery  Society,  in  1864,  introduced  a  proposition  looking  to  that 
result.  It  was  favorably  received  by  Mr.  Garrison  and  others,  but  no 
action  was  taken  upon  it  at  that  time.  When  the  question  came  up  the  fol- 
lowing year,  the  proposition  to  disband  was  earnestly  supported  by  Mr.  Gar- 
rison, Mr.  Quincy,  Mr.  May,  Mr.  Johnson,  and  others,  but  was  strongly 
opposed  by  Wendell  Phillips  and  his  friends,  among  whom  from  Philadel- 
phia were  Mrs.  Mott,  Miss  Grew,  and  Robert  Purvis,  and  was  decided  by 
a  vote  in  the  negative. 

Mr.  McKim  was  an  early  advocate  of  colored  enlistments,  as  a  means  of 
lifting  up  the  blacks  and  putting  down  the  rebellion.  In  the  spring  of  1863, 
he  urged  upon  the  Philadelphia  Union  League,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
the  duty  of  recruiting  colored  soldiers  ;  as  the  result,  on  motion  of  Thomas 
Webster,  Esq.,  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  which  led  to  the  organization  of 
the  Philadelphia  Supervisory  Committee,  and  the  subsequent  establishment 
of  Camp  William  Penn,  with  the  addition  to  the  national  army,  of  eleven 
colored  regiments. 

When,  in  November,  1863,  the  Port  Royal  Relief  Committee  was  enlarged 
into  the  Pennsylvania  Freedman's  Relief  Association,  Mr.  McKim  was 
made  its  corresponding  secretary.  He  had  previously  resigned  his  place  in 
the  Anti-slavery  Society,  believing  that  that  organization  was  near  the  end 
of  its  usefulness. 

In  the  freedmen's  work,  he  traveled  extensively,  and  worked  hard,  estab- 
lishing schools  at  the  South  and  organizing  public  sentiment  in  the  free 
States.  In  the  spring  of  1865,  he  was  made  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
American  Freedman's  Commission,  which  he  had  helped  to  establish,  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  city  of  New  York.  This  association  was  after- 
wards amplified,  in  name  and  scope,  into  the  American  Freedman's  Union 
Commission,  and  Mr.  McKim  continued  with  it  as  corresponding  secretary, 
laboring  for  reconstruction  by  means  of  Freedman's  schools,  and  impartial 
popular  education.  On  the  1st  of  July,  1869,  the  Commission,  by  unani- 


J.  MILLER  McKIM. 


See  p.  654. 


REV.  WILLIAM  IL  FURNESS. 


See  p.  659. 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON. 


See  p.  665. 


LEWIS  TAPPAN. 


See  p.  680. 


EMINENT  ANTI-SLAVERY  MEN. 


JAMES  MILLER  McKIM.  659 

mous  vote  on  his  motion,  disbanded,  and  handed  over  the  funds  in  its 
treasury  to  its  constituent  State  associations.  Mr.  McKim  retired  from  his 
labors  with  impaired  health,  and  has  since  taken  no  open  part  in  public 
affairs.  He  is  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  New  York  Nation,  in  the 
establishment  of  which,  he  took  an  effective  interest. 

Mr.  McKim's  long  and  assiduous  career  in  the  anti-slavery  cause,  has 
given  evidence  of  a  peculiar  fitness  in  him  for  the  functions  he  successively 
discharged.  His  influence  upon  men  and  the  times,  has  been  less  as  a 
speaker,  than  as  a  writer,  and  perhaps  still  less  as  a  writer  than  as  an  organ- 
izer, a  contriver  of  ways  and  means ;  fertile  in  invention,  prepared  to  take 
the  initiative,  and  bringing  to  the  conversion  of  others,  an  earnestness  of 
purpose  and  a  force  of  language  that  seldom  failed  of  success.  lu  an 
enterprise  where  theory  and  sentiment  were  fully  represented,  and  busi- 
ness capacity,  and  what  is  called  "practical  sense,"  were  comparatively  rare, 
his  talents  were  most  usefully  employed ;  while,  in  periods  of  excitement — 
and  when  were  such  wanting  ?  his  caution,  sound  judgment,  and  mental 
balance  were  qualities  hardly  less  needed  or  less  important. 


WILLIAM  H.  FURNESS,  D.  D. 

Among  the  Abolitionists  of  Pennsylvania  no  man  stands  higher  than 
Dr.  Furness ;  and  no  anti-slavery  minister  enjoys  more  universal  respect. 
For  more  than  thirty  years  he  bore  faithful  witness  for  the  black  man;  in 
season  and  out  of  season  contending  for  his  rights.  When  others  deserted  the 
cause  he  stood  firm  ;  when  associates  in  the  ministry  were  silent  he  spoke  out. 
They  defined  their  position  by  declaring  themselves  "  as  much  opposed  to 
slavery  as  ever,  but  without  sympathy  for  the  abolitionists."  He  defined  his 
by  showing  himself  more  opposed  to  slavery  than  ever,  and  fraternizing 
with  the  most  hated  and  despised  anti-slavery  people. 

Dr.  Furness  came  into  the  cause  when  it  was  in  its  infancy,  and  had  few 
adherents.  From  that  time  till  the  day  of  its  triumph  he  was  one  with  it, 
sharing  in  all  its  trials  and  vicissitudes.  In  the  operations  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee  he  took  the  liveliest  interest.  Though  not  in  form  a  member  he 
was  one  of  its  chief  co-laborers.  He  brought  it  material  aid  continually, 
and  was  one  of  its  main  reliances  for  outside  support.  His  quick  sympa- 
thies were  easily  touched  and  when  touched  were  sure  to  prompt  him  to 
corresponding  action.  He  would  listen  with  moistened  eyes  to  a  tale  of 
outrage,  and  go  away  saying  never  a  word.  But  the  story  of  wrong  would 
work  upon  him ;  and  through  him  upon  others.  His  own  feelings  were 
communicated  to  his  friends,  and  his  friends  would  send  gifts  to  the 
Committee's  treasury.  A  wider  spread  sympathy  would  manifest  itself 
in  the  community,  and  the  general  interests  of  the  cause  be  visibly  pro- 
moted. It  was  in  the  latter  respect,  that  of  moral  co-operation,  that  Dr. 


660  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Furness's  services  were  most  valuable.  After  hearing  a  harrowing  recital, 
whether  he  would  or  not,  it  became  the  burden  of  his  next  Sunday's 
sermon.  Abundant  proof  of  this  may  be  found  in  his  printed  discourses. 
Take  the  following  as  an  illustration.  It  is  an  extract  from  a  sermon  de- 
livered on  the  29th  of  May,  1854,  a  period  when  the  slave  oligarchy  was 
at  the  height  of  its  power  and  was  supported  at  the  North  by  the  most 
violent  demonstrations  of  sympathy.  The  text  was,  "  Feed  my  Lambs : " 

"  And  now  brothers,  sisters,  children,  give  me  your  hearts,  listen  with  a 
will  to  what  I  have  to  say.  As  heaven  is  my  witness,  I  would  not  utter  one 
word  save  for  the  dear  love  of  Christ  and  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  your 
own  souls.  Does  it  require  any  violent  effort  of  the  mind  to  suppose  Christ 
to  address  each  one  of  us  personally  the  same  question  that  He  put  to  Peter, 
'  Lovest  thou  me  ?'  *  *  *  And  at  the  hearing  of  His  brief  command, 
'  Feed  my  lambs/  so  simple,  so  direct,  so  unqualified,  are  we  prompted 
like  the  teacher  of  the  law  who,  when  Christ  bade  him  love  his  neighbor  as 
himself,  asked,  '  And  who  is  my  neighbor  ?'  and  in  the  parable  of  the  good 
Samaritan,  received  an  answer  that  the  Samaritans  whom  he  despised,  just 
as  we  despise  the  African,  was  his  neighbor,  are  we  prompted  in  like  manner 
to  ask,  '  Who  are  the  lambs  of  Christ  ?'  Who  are  His  lambs  ?  Behold  that 
great  multitude,  more  than  three  millions  of  men  and  feeble  women  and 
children,  wandering  on  our  soil ;  no  not  wandering,  but  chained  down,  not 
allowed  to  stir  a  step  at  their  own  free  will,  crushed  and  hunted  with  all  the 
power  of  one  of  the  mightiest  nations  that  the  world  has  yet  seen,  wielded 
to  keep  them  down  in  the  depths  of  the  deepest  degradation  into  which 
human  beings  can  be  plunged.  These,  then  that  we  despise,  are  our  neigh- 
bors, the  poor,  stricken  lambs  of  Christ. 

To  cast  one  thought  towards  them,  may  well  cause  us  to  bow  down  our 
heads  in  the  very  dust  with  shame.  No  wonder  that  professing  to  love 
Christ  and  his  religion,  we  do  not  like  to  hear  them  spoken  of;  for  so  far 
from  feeding  the  lambs  of  Christ,  we  are  exciting  the  whole  associated  power 
of  this  land,  to  keep  them  from  being  fed.  f  Feed  my  lambs.'  We  might 
feed  them  with  fraternal  sympathy,  with  hope,  with  freedom,  the  imperisha- 
ble bread  of  Heaven.  We  might  lead  them  into  green  pastures  and  still 
waters,  into  the  glorious  liberty  wherewith  Christ  died  to  make  all  men  free, 
the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  We  might  secure  to  them  the  exercise 
of  every  sacred  affection  and  faculty,  wherewith  the  Creator  has  endowed 
them.  But  we  do  none  of  those  things.  We  suffer  this  great  flock  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  to  be  treated  as  chattels,  bought  and  sold,  like  beasts  of  burden, 
hunted  and  lacerated  by  dogs  and  wolves.  I  say  we,  we  of  these  Free 
Northern  communities,  because  it  is  by  our  allowance,  signified  as  effectually 
by  silence,  as  by  active  co-operation,  that  such  things  are.  They  could 
continue  so,  scarcely  an  hour,  were  not  the  whole  moral,  religious  and 
physical  power  of  the  North  pledged  to  their  support.  Are  we  not  in 


WILLIAM  II.  FUR2TESS,  D.  D.  661 

closest  league  and  union  with  those  who  claim  and  use. the  right  to  buy  and 
sell  human  beings,  God's  poor,  the  lambs  of  Christ,  a  union,  which  we 
imagine  brings  us  in  as  much  silver  and  gold  as  compensates  for  the  sacri- 
fice of  our  humanity  and  manhood  ?  Nay,  are  we  not  under  a  law  to  do 
the  base  work  of  bloodhounds,  hunting  the  panting  fugitives  for  freedom  ?  I 
utter  no  word  of  denunciation.  There  is  no  need.  For  facts  that  have 
occurred  only  within  the  last  week,  transcend  all  denunciation.  Only  a  few 
hours  ago,  there  was  a  man  with  his  two  sons,  hurried  back  into  the 
inhuman  bondage,  from  which  they  had  just  escaped,  and  that  man,  the 
brother,  and  those  two  sons,  the  nephews  of  a  colored  clergyman  of  New 
York,  of  such  eminence  in  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Church,  that  he 
has  received  the  honors  of  a  European  University,  and  has  acted  as  Mode- 
rator in  one  of  the  Presbyteries  of  the  same  Church,  when  held  in  the  city 
where  he  resides.  Almost  at  the  very  moment  the  poor  fugitive  with  his 
children,  were  dragged  through  our  city,  the  General  Assembly  of  that  very 
branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  now  in  session  here,  after  discussing  for 
days  the  validity  of  Roman  Catholic  baptism,  threw  out  as  inexpedient  to 
be  discussed,  the  subject  of  that  great  wrong  which  was  flinging  back  into 
the  agony  of  Slavery,  a  brother  of  one  of  their  own  ordained  ministers,  and 
could  not  so  much  as  breathe  a  word  of  condemnation  against  the  false  and 
cruel  deed  which  has  just  been  consummated  at  the  capitol  of  the  nation. 

When  such  facts  are  occurring  in  the  midst  of  us,  we  cannot  be  guiltless 
concerning  the  lambs  of  Christ.  It  is  we,  we  who  make  up  the  public 
opinion  of  the  North,  we  who  consent  that  these  free  States  shall  be  the 
hunting-ground,  where  these,  our  poor  brothers  and  sisters,  are  the  game; 
it  is  we  that  withhold  from  them  the  bread  of  life,  the  inalienable  rights  of 
man.  As  we  withhold  these  blessings,  so  is  it  in  our  power  to  bestow  them. 
The  sheep  then  that  Christ  commands  us,  as  we  love.  Him,  to  feed,  are  those 
who  are  famishing  for  the  lack  of  the  food  which  it  is  in  our  power  to 
supply.  And  we  can  help  to  feed  and  relieve  and  liberate  them,  by  giving 
our  hearty  sympathy  to  the  blessed  cause  of  their  emancipation,  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  crying  injustice  with  which  they  are  treated,  by  uttering  our 
earnest  protest  against  the  increasing  and  flagrant  outrages  of  the  oppressor, 
by  withholding  all  aid  and  countenance  from  the  work  of  oppression." 

To  say  that  Dr.  Furness,  in  his  pleadings  for  the  slave,  was  "  instant  in 
season  and  out  of  season,"  is  not  to  exaggerate.  So  palpably  was  this  true, 
that  even  some  of  his  sympathizing  friends  intimated  to  him,  that  his  zeal 
carried  him  beyond  proper  bounds,  and  that  his  discourses  were  needlessly 
reiterative.  To  these  friends, — who,  it  is  needless  to  say,  did  not  fully  com- 
prehend the  breadth  and  bearing  of  the  question, — he  would  reply  as  he  did 
in  the  following  extract  from  a  sermon  delivered  soon  after  the  one  above 
quoted  : 

"Again  and  again,  I  have  had  it  said  to  me,  with  apparently  the  most 


662  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

perfect  simplicity,  '  Why  do  you  keep  saying  so  much  about  the  slaves  ?  Do 
you  imagine  that  there  is  one  among  your  hearers  who  does  not  agree  with 
you  ?  We  all  know  that  Slavery  is  very  wrong.  What  is  the  use  of  harp- 
ing upon  this  subject  Sunday  after  Sunday?  We  all  feel  about  it  just  as 
you  do.'  'Feel  about  it  just  as  I  do.'  Very  likely,  my  friends.  It  is  very 
possible  that  you  all  feel  as  much,  and  that  many  of  you  feel  about  it  more 
than  I  do.  God  knows  that  my  regret  always  has  been  not  that  I  feel  so 
much,  but  that  I  do  not  feel  more.  Would  to  Heaven  that  neither  you  nor 
I  could  eat  or  sleep  for  pity,  pity  for  our  poor  down-trodden  brothers  and 
sisters.  But  the  thing  to  which  I  implore  your  attention  now,  is,  not  what 
•we  know  and  feel,  but  the  delusion  which  we  are  under,  in  confounding 
knowing  with  doing,  in  fancying  that  we  are  working  to  abolish  Slavery 
because  we  know  that  it  is  wrong.  This  is  what  I  would  have  you  now  to 
consider,  the  deception  that  we  practise  on  ourselves,  the  dangerous  error 
into  which  we  fall,  when  we  pass  off  the  knowledge  of  our  duty  for  the  per- 
formance of  it.  These  are  two  very  distinct  things.  If  you  know  what  is 
right,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  it. 

Observe,  my  friends,  what  it  is  to  which  I  am  now  entreating  your  con- 
sideration. It  is  not  the  wrongs  nor  the  rights  of  the  oppressed  upon  which 
I  am  now  discoursing.  It  is  our  own  personal  exposure  to  a  most  serious 
mistake.  It  is  a  danger,  which  threatens  our  own  souls,  to  which  I  would 
that  our  eyes  should  be  open  and  on  the  watch. 

And  here,  by  the  way,  let  me  say  that  one  great  reason  why  I  refer  as 
often  as  I  do,  to  that  great  topic  of  the  day,  which,  in  one  shape  or  another, 
is  continually  shaking  the  land  and  marking  the  age  in  which  we  live,  is  not 
merely  the  righting  of  the  wronged,  but  the  instruction,  the  moral  enlight- 
enment, the  religious  edification  of  our  own  hearts,  which  this  momentous 
topic  affords.  To  me  this  subject  involves  infinitely  more  than  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  humanity.  Its  political  bearing  is  the  very  least  and  most  superficial 
part  of  it,  scarcely  worth  noticing  in  comparison  with  its  moral  and  religious 
relations.  Once,  deterred  by  its  outside,  political  aspect,  I  shunned  it  as 
many  do  still,  but  the  more  it  has  pressed  itself  on  my  attention,  the  more  I 
have  considered  it — the  more  and  more  manifest  has  it  become  to  me,  that 
it  is  a  subject  full  of  light  and  of  guidance,  of  warning  and  inspiration  for 
the  individual  soul.  It  is  the  most  powerful  means  of  grace  and  salvation 
appointed  in  the  providence  of  Heaven,  for  the  present  day  and  generation, 
more  religious  than  churches  and  Sabbaths.  It  is  full  of  sermons.  It  is  a 
perfect  gospel,  a  whole  Bible  of  mind-enlightening,  heart-cleansing,  soul- 
saving  truth.  How  much  light  has  it  thrown  for  me  on  the  page  of  the 
New  Testament !  What  a  profound  significance  has  it  disclosed  in  the  pre- 
cepts and  parables  of  Jesus  Christ !  How  do  His  words  burst  out  with  a 
new  meaning !  How  does  it  help  us  to  appreciate  His  trials  and  the  God- 
like spirit  with  which  He  bore  them  !" 


WILLIAM  H.  FURNESS,  D.  D.  663 

The  dark  winter  of  1860  broke  gloomily  over  all  abolitionists;  perhaps 
upon  none  did  it  press  more  heavily,  than  upon  the  small  band  in  Philadel- 
phia. Situated  as  that  city  is,  upon  the  very  edge  of  Slavery,  and  socially 
bound  as  it  was,  by  ties  of  blood  or  affinity  with  the  slave-holders  of  the 
South,  to  all  human  foresight  it  would  assuredly  be  the  first  theatre  of 
bloodshed  in  the  coming  deadly  struggle.  As  Dr.  Furness  said  in  his 
sermon  on  old  John  Brown  :  "  Out  of  the  grim  cloud  that  hangs  over  the 
South,  a  bolt  has  darted,  and  blood  has  flowed,  and  the  place  where  the 
lightning  struck,  is  wild  with  fear."  The  return  stroke  we  all  felt  must 
soon  follow,  and  Philadelphia,  we  feared,  would  be  selected  as  the  spot 
where  Slavery  would  make  its  first  mortal  onslaught,  and  the  abolitionists 
there,  the  first  victims.  Dr.  Furness  had  taken  part  in  the  public  meeting 
held  on  the  day  of  John  Brown's  execution,  to  offer  prayers  for  the  heroic 
.soul  that  was  then  passing  away,  and  had  gone  with  two  or  three  others,  to 
the  rail-road  station,  to  receive  the  martyr's  body,  when  it  was  brought  from 
the  gallows  by  Mr.  (afterwards  General)  Tyndale  and  Mr.  McKim,  and  it 
was  generally  feared  that  he  and  his  church  would  receive  the  brunt  of 
Slavery's  first  blow.  The  air  was  thick  with  vague  apprehension  and  rumor, 
so  much  so,  that  some  of  Dr.  Furness's  devoted  parishioners,  who  followed 
his  abolitionism  but  not  his  non-resistance,  came  armed  to  church,  uncertain 
what  an  hour  might  bring  forth,  or  in  what  shape  of  mob  violence  or  assas- 
sination the  blow  would  fall.  Few  of  Dr.  Furness's  hearers  will  forget  his 
.sermon  of  December  16,  1860,  so  full  was  it  of  prophetic  warning,  and 
saddened  by  the  thought  of  the  fate  which  might  be  in  store  for  him  and 
his  congregation.  It  was  printed  in  the  "  Evening  Bulletin,"  and  made  a 
deep  impression  on  the  public  outside  of  his  own  church,  and  was  reprinted 
in  full,  in  the  Boston  "  Atlas." 

"  But  the  trouble  cannot  be  escaped.  It  must  come.  But  we  can  put  it 
off.  By  annihilating  free  speech  ;  by  forbidding  the  utterance  of  a  word  in 
the  pulpit  and  by  the  press,  for  the  rights  of  man  ;  by  hurling  back  into  the 
jaws  of  oppression,  the  fugitive  gasping  for  his  sacred  liberty;  by  recog- 
nizing the  right  of  one  man  to  buy  and  sell  other  men ;  by  spreading  the 
blasting  curse  of  despotism  over  the  whole  soil  of  the  nation,  you  may  allay 
the  brutal  frenzy  of  a  handful  of  southern  slave-masters;  you  may  win  back 
the  cotton  States  to  cease  from  threatening  you  with  secession,  and  to  plant 
their  feet  upon  your  necks,  and  so  evade  the  trouble  that  now  menaces  us. 
Then  you  may  live  on  the  few  years  that  are  left  you,  and  perhaps — it  is  not 
certain — we  may  be  permitted  to  make  a  little  more  money  and  die  in  our 
beds.  But  no,  friends,  I  am  mistaken.  We  cannot  put  the  trouble  off. 
Or,  we  put  it  off  in  its  present  shape,  only  that  it  may  take  another  and 
more  terrible  form.  If,  to  get  rid  of  the  present  alarm,  we  concede  all  that 
makes  it  worth  while  to  live — and  nothing  less  will  avail — perhaps  those 
who  can  deliberately  make  such  a  concession,  will  not  feel  the  degradation, 


664  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

but,  stripped  of  all  honor  aiid  manhood,  they  may  eat  as  heartily  and  sleep 
as  soundly  as  ever.  But  the  degradation  is  not  the  less,  but  the  greater,  for 
our  unconsciousness  of  it.  The  trouble  which  we  shall  then  bring  upon  our- 
selves, is  a  trouble  in  comparison  with  which  the  loss  of  all  things  but  honor 
is  a  glorious  gain,  and  a  violent  death  for  right's  sake  on  the  scaffold,  or  by 
the  hands  of  a  mob,  peace  and  joy  and  victory. 

Since  we  are  thus  placed,  and  there  is  no  alternative  for  us  of  the  free 
States,  but  to  meet  the  trouble  that  is  upon  us,  or  by  base  concessions  and 
compromises  to  bring  upon  ourselves  a  far  greater  trouble,  in  the  name  of 
God,  let  us  let  all  things  go,  and  cleave  to  the  right.  Prepared  to  confront 
the  crisis  like  men,  let  us  with  all  possible  calmness  endeavor  to  take  the 
measure  of  the  calamity  that  we  dread.  God  knows  I  have  no  desire  to 
make  light  of  it.  But  I  affirm,  that  never  since  the  world  began,  was  there 
a  grander  cause  for  which  to  speak,  to  suffer  and  to  die,  than  the  cause  of 
these  free  States,  as  against  that  of  the  States  now  rushing  upon  Secession. 
The  great  grievance  of  which  they  complain,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
this :  that  we  endanger  the  right  they  claim  to  treat  human  beings  as  beasts 
of  burden.  And  they  maintain  this  monstrous  claim  by  measures  inhu- 
man and  barbarous,  listening  not  to  the  voice  of  reason  or  humanity,  but 
treating  every  man  who  goes  amongst  them,  suspected  of  not  favoring  their 
cause,  or  of  the  remotest  connection  with  others  who  do  not  favor  it,  with  a 
most  savage  and  fiendish  cruelty.  It  is  the  conflict  between  barbarism  and 
civilization,  between  liberty  and  the  most  horrible  despotism  that  ever  cursed 
this  earth,  in  which  we  are  called  to  take  part. 

And  all  that  is  great  and  noble  in  the  past,  all  the  patriots  and  martyrs 
that  have  suffered  in  man's  behalf,  all  the  sacred  instincts  and  hopes  of  the 
human  soul  are  on  our  side,  and  the  welfare  of  untold  generations  of  men. 
Oh,  if  God,  in  his  infinite  bounty,  grants  us  the  grace  to  appreciate  the  tran- 
scendent worth  of  the  cause  which  is  now  at  stake,  there  is  no  trouble  that 
can  befall  us,  no,  not  the  loss  of  property,  of  idolized  parents  or  children,  or 
life  itself,  that  we  shall  not  count  a  blessed  privilege.  To  serve  this  dear 
cause  of  peace  and  liberty  and  love,  we  have  no  need  to  grasp  the  sword  or 
any  instrument  of  violence  and  death.  But  we  must  be  ready  without 
flinching,  to  confront  the  utmost  that  men  can  do,  and  amidst  all  the  uproar 
and  violence  of  human  passions,  still  calmly  to  assert  and  to  exercise  our 
sacred  and  inalienable  liberties,  let  who  will  frown  and  forbid,  assured  that 
no  just  and  la w-of- God-abiding  people,  will  ever  do  otherwise  than  give  us 
their  sympathy  and  their  aid. 

Death  is  the  worst  that  can  befall  us,  if  so  be  that  we  are  faithful  to  the 
right.  It  is  a  solemn  and  a  fearful  thing  to  die,  and  mortality  shrinks  from 
facing  that  last  great  mystery.  But  we  must  all  die,  my  friends,  and  the 
dying  hour  is  not  far  distant  from  the  youngest  of  us.  To  most  of  us  it  is 
very  near.  To  many,  only  a  few  brief  years  remain.  And  for  the  sake  of 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GAREISON.  665 

these  few  and  uncertain  years,  shall  we  push  off  this  present  trouble  upon 
our  children,  who  have  to  stay  here  a  little  longer  ?  There  is  nothing  that 
can  so  sweeten  the  bitter  cup  of  mortality  when  we  shall  be  called  to  drink 
it,  nothing  that  can  so  cheer  us  in  the  prospect  of  parting  from  all  we  love, 
nothing  that  can  send  such  a  blessed  light  on  before  us  into  the  dark  valley 
which  we  must  enter,  as  the  consciousness  of  fidelity  to  man  and  to  God. 
And  now  in  these  times  of  great  trouble  which  have  come  upon  us,  we  have 
a  peculiar  and  special  opportunity  of  testifying  our  fidelity,  and  of  enjoying 
a  full  experience  of  its  power  to  support  us.  We  may  gather  from  this 
trouble,  a  sweetness  that  shall  take  away  from  all  suffering  its  bitterness. 
We  may  kindle  that  light  in  our  bosoms,  which  shall  make  death  come  to 
us  as  a  radiant  angel." 

Four  months  after  the  above  was  uttered,  on  the  28th  of  April,  1861, 
after  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter,  and  the  whole  North  had  burst  into  a 
flame,  people  of  all  denominations  flocked  to  Dr.  Furness's  church,  as  to 
that  church  which  had  shown  that  it  was  founded  on  a  rock,  and  none  can 
ever  forget  the  long-drawn  breath  with  which  the  sermon  began :  "  The 
long  agony  is  over !"  It  was  the  "  Te  Deum  "  of  a  life-time. 

Dr.  Furness's  words  and  counsels  were  not  wanting  throughout  the  war, 
and  his  sermons  were  constantly  printed  in  the  daily  press  and  in  separate 
pamphlet  form.  And  since  its  close  he  has  continued  his  absorbing  study 
of  the  historical  accounts  of  Jesus. 

Dr.  Furness  was  born  in  Boston,  in  April,  1802,  and  was  graduated  at 
Harvard,  in  1820,  and  five  years  later  became  the  minister  of  the  First 
Congregational  Unitarian  Christians,  in  this  city,  and  is  consequently  the 
senior  clergyman,  here,  on  the  score  of  length  of  pastorate. 

Happy  is  the  man,  and  enviable  the  gospel  minister,  who,  looking  back 
upon  his  course  in  the  great  anti-slavery  contest,  can  recall  as  the  chief 
charge  brought  against  him,  that  of  being  over-zealous!  That  he  spoke 
too  often  and  said  too  much  in  favor  of  the  slave !  There  are  but  few 
men,  and  still  fewer  ministers,  who  have  a  right  to  take  comfort  from  such 
recollections  !  and  yet  it  is  to  this  small  class  that  the  cause  is  most  indebted 
under  God,  for  its  triumph,  and  the  country  for  its  deliverance  from  Slavery. 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON. 

The  character  and  career  of  the  leader  of  the  movement  for  immediate 
emancipation  in  this  country,  are  too  well  known  to  be  dwelt  on  here;  nor, 
in  the  space  at  our  command,  is  it  possible  to  give  in  full  those  facts  of  his 
life  which  have  already  appeared  in  print.  His  earliest  biographer  was 
Mary  Howitt ;  and  another  even  more  famous  authoress,  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe, 
in  "Men  of  Our  Times/'  has  stood  in  the  same  relation  to  him,  while  his 


666  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

life-long  friend,  Oliver  Johnson,  has  writen  the  best  concise  account  of  him, 
in  "Appleton's  New  American  Cyclopaedia." 

Mr.  Garrison  (the  Cyclopaedia  is,  on  this  point,  in  error)  was  born  Decem- 
ber 12,  1804,  in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  his  father,  Abijah  Garrison,  being  a 
ship-captain,  trading  with  the  West  Indies,  and  his  mother,  Fanny  Lloyd,  a 
woman  of  remarkable  beauty,  as  well  as  piety  and  force  of  character. 
Intemperate  habits  led  the  husband  and  father  from  home  to  a  solitary  and 
obscure  end,  leaving  his  family  entirely  dependent.  William  (or  as  he  was 
always  called,  Lloyd),  was  the  youngest  but  one  of  five  children,  and  had 
not  done  with  his  schooling  before  he  began  to  contribute  to  his  own  sup- 
port; at  first  in  Lynn,  where  he  was  set  at  shoemaking,  at  the  age  of  eleven; 
afterwards  in  Newburyport,  and  finally,  in  1818,  at  Haverhill,  where  he 
was  apprenticed  to  a  cabinet  maker.  Not  finding  these  trades  suited  to  his 
taste,  the  same  year  he  was  indentured  to  Ephraim  W.  Allen,  editor  of  the 
"  Newburyport  Herald"  and  in  the  printing-office  he  completed  his  educa- 
tion, so  far  as  he  was  to  have  any,  with  such  early  success,  as  soon  to  be  an 
acceptable  contributor  to  his  employer's  paper,  while  the  authorship  of  his 
articles  was  still  his  own  secret.  As  soon  as  his  apprenticeship  came  to  a  close, 
in  1826,  he  became  proprietor  of  the  "Free  Press"  in  his  native  city,  but  the 
paper  failed  of  support.  Seeking  work  as  a  journeyman,  in  Boston,  he  was 
engaged  in  1827  to  edit,  in  the  interest  of  "total  abstinence,"  the  "National 
Philanthropist"  the  first  paper  of  its  kind  ever  published.  On  a  change  of 
proprietors  in  1828,  he  was  induced  to  join  a  friend  in  Bennington,  Vt,  in 
publishing  the  "Journal  of  the  Times"  which  advocated  the  election  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  for  president,  besides  being  devoted  to  peace,  temperance,  anti- 
slavery  and  other  reforms.  In  this  town,  Mr.  Garrison  began  his  agitation 
of  the  subject  of  Slavery,  "  in  consequence  of  which  there  was  transmitted 
to  Congress  an  anti-slavery  memorial,  more  numerously  signed  than  any 
similar  paper  previously  submitted  to  that  body."  It  was  in  Benningtou, 
too,  that  he  received  from  Benjamin  Lundy,  who  had  met  him  the  previous 
year  at  his  boarding-house  in  Boston,  an  invitation  to  go  to  Baltimore,  and 
aid  him  in  editing  the  "  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation." 

Baltimore  was  no  strange  city  to  Mr.  Garrison.  Thither  he  had  accom- 
panied his  mother,  in  1815,  serving  as  a  chore-boy,  and  he  had  visited  her 
just  before  her  death,  in  1823.  He  took  leave  of  Boston  in  the  fall  of  1829, 
after  having  acted  as  the  orator  of  the  day,  July  4th,  in  Park  Street  church, 
and  surprised  his  hearers  by  the  boldness  of  his  utterances  on  the  subject  of 
Slavery.  The  causes  of  his  imprisonment  at  Baltimore  scarcely  need  to  be 
repeated.  For  an  alleged  "  gross  and  malicious  libel "  on  a  townsman 
(of  Newburyport)  whose  ship  was  engaged  in  the  coastwise  slave-trade, 
and  whom  he  accordingly  denounced  in  the  "  Genius"  he  was  tried  and 
convicted,  and  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  $50  and  costs.  The  cell  in  which 
he  was  confined  for  forty-nine  days,  and  from  which  he  was  liberated  only 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  667 

by  the  spontaneous  liberality  of  Arthur  Tappan,  a  perfect  stranger  to  him, 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  reseeking,  after  the  close  of  the  war,  in  company 
with  Judge  Bond,  but  the  prison  had  been  removed. 

Compelled  to  part  company  with  Lundy,  to  whom  he  has  ever  owned  his 
moral  indebtedness,  Mr.  Garrison  at  length  started  in  Boston,  in  January 
1831,  his  "  Liberator"  with  little  else  besides  his  "dauntless  spirit  and  a 
press."  The  difficulties  which  beset  the  birth  of  this  paper  were  never 
entirely  overcome,  and  its  publication  was  attended,  through  all  the  thirty- 
five  years  of  its  existence,  with  constant  struggle  and  privation,  and  with 
personal  labor,  at  the  printer's  case,  and  over  the  forms,  which  only  an  iron 
constitution  could  have  endured.  The  "  Liberator  "  was  the  organ  of  the 
editor  alone,  and  he  gave  room  in  it  to  the  numerous  reforms  which  were,  in 
his  mind,  only  subordinate  to  abolition.  In  1865  the  last  volume  was 
issued,  Mr.  Garrison  having  already,  in  May,  withdrawn  from  the 
American  Anti-slavery  Society,  which  he  had  helped  to  found,  in  1833, 
and  of  which,  as  he  drew  up  the  Declaration  of  Sentiments,  he  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  known  something  of  the  original  aims  and  proper  duration. 

In  September,  1834,  Mr.  Garrison  was  married  to  Helen  Eliza,  daughter 
of  the  venerable  philanthropist,  George  Benson,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  who 
had,  even  in  the  previous  century,  been  an  active  member  of  a  combined 
anti-slavery  and  freedmen's  aid  society  in  that  city.  In  October,  1835, 
occurred  the  Boston  riot,  led  by  "  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing,"  in 
which  Mr.  Garrison's  life  was  imperilled,  and  which  made  him  once  more 
familiar  with  the  interior  of  a  jail — this  time,  a  place  of  refuge.  In  1832, 
he  went  to  England,  as  an  agent  of  the  New  England  Anti-slavery  Society, 
to  awaken  English  sympathy  for  the  anti-slavery  movement,  and  to  unde- 
ceive Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  and  their  distinguished  associates  as  to  the 
nature  and  object  of  the  Colonization  Society,  as  to  which  he  had  already 
had  occasion  to  undeceive  himself.  His  mission  was  eminently  successful  in 
both  its  aspects,  and  resulted  in  the  subsequent  visits  of  George  Thompson 
to  this  country,  between  whom  and  himself  a  strong  personal  attachment 
had  arisen  and  has  ever  since  continued.  A  second  visit  to  England  he 
made  as  a  delegate  to  the  World's  Anti-slavery  Convention,  in  which  he 
refused  to  sit  after  his  female  colleagues  had  been  rejected.  A  third  visit, 
still  in  behalf  of  the  cause,  took  place  in  1846.  Twenty  years  later — the 
war  over  and  Slavery  abolished — he  again  went  abroad,  to  repair  his  health 
and  renew  old  friendships,  and  for  the  first  time  passed  over  to  the  Conti- 
nent. In  England,  he  was  greeted  with  cordial  appreciation  and  hospitality 
by  all  classes.  Numerous  public  receptions  of  a  most  flattering  character 
were  given  to  him,  but  without  the  effect  of  causing  him  to  magnify  his  own 
merits  or  to  forget  the  honor  due  to  his  associates  in  the  anti-slavery  struggle. 
At  the  London  Breakfast,  where  John  Bright  presided,  and  John  Stuart 
Mill,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  others  spoke,  he  said,  when  called  upon 


668  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

to  reply  :  "  I  disclaim,  with  all  the  sincerity  of  my  soul,  any  special  praise 
for  anything  I  have  done.  I  have  simply  tried  to  maintain  the  integrity  of 
my  soul  before  God,  and  to  do  my  duty."  In  Edinburgh,  the  "  freedom  of 
the  city  "  was  conferred  upon  him  with  impressive  ceremonies — he  being  the 
third  American  ever  thus  honored.  In  Paris  he  was  also  received  with 
distinction,  his  special  mission  to  that  city  being  to  attend  the  International 
Anti-slavery  Convention,  in  the  capacity  of  a  delegate  from  the  American 
Freedman's  Union  Commission,  of  which  he  was  first  vice-president. 

The  justice  of  the  war  on  the  part  of  the  North,  and  its  effect  on  the  fate 
of  Slavery  at  the  South,  were  never  subjects  of  doubt  in  the  mind  of  Mr. 
Garrison,  and  he  quickly  recognized  the  force  of  events  which  had  taken 
from  the  abolitionists  the  helm  of  direction,  and  reunited  them  with  their 
countrymen  in  the  irresistible  flood  which  no  man's  hand  guided,  and  no 
man's  hand  could  stay.  An  agitator  from  conviction  and  not  from  choice, 
he  was  only  too  glad  to  lay  down  the  heavy  burden  of  a  life-time,  and  retire 
to  well-earned  repose,  after  such  a  vision  of  faint  hope  realized  as  certainly 
no  other  reformer  was  ever  blessed  with.  He  had  lived  to  see  the  disunion 
which  he  advocated  on  sacred  principles,  attempted  by  the  South  in  the 
name  of  the  sum  of  all  villauies ;  the  uprising  of  the  North ;  the  grand 
career  of  Lincoln ;  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  ;  the  arming  of  the 
blacks — his  own  son  among  their  officers  ;  the  end  of  the  rebellion ;  and  the 
consummation  of  his  prayers  and  labors  for  the  salvation  of  his  country. 
He  had  taken  part  in  the  ceremonies  at  the  recovery  of  Sumter,  had  walked 
the  streets  of  Charleston,  and  received  floral  tokens  of  the  gratitude  of  the 
emancipated.  To  him  it  seemed  as  if  his  work  was  done,  and  that  he 
might,  without  suspicion  or  accusation,  cease  to  be  conspicuous,  or  to  occupy 
the  public  attention  in  any  way  relating  to  the  past  and  recalling  his  part 
in  the  anti-slavery  struggle.  Notoriety,  no  longer  a  necessity,  was  eagerly 
avoided ;  and  the  physical  rest  which  was  now  enjoined  upon  him  the  libe- 
rality of  his  friends  having  enabled  him  to  secure,  he  settled  down  into  the 
quiet  life  of  a  private  citizen,  whose  great  duty  had  become  to  him  merely 
one  of  the  duties  which  every  man  owes  his  country  and  his  race.  His 
sweet  temper,  his  modesty,  his  unfailing  cheerfulness,  his  rarely  mistaken 
judgment  of  men  and  measures;  his  blameless  and  happy  domestic  life,  and 
his  hospitality ;  his  warm  sympathy  with  all  forms  of  human  suffering — 
these  and  other  qualities  which  cannot  be  enumerated  here,  will  doubtless 
receive  the  just  judgment  of  posterity. 

As  a  fitting  adjunct  to  the  foregoing  sketch,  extracts  from  some  of  the 
speeches  made  at  the  London  breakfast  so  magnanimously  extended  to  Mr. 
Garrison  in  1867,  are  here  introduced.  As  presiding  officer  on  the  occasion, 
John  Bright,  M.  P.  spoke  as  follows : 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  669 


SPEECH   OF   MR.   BRIGHT,    M.    P. 

The  position  in  which  I  am  placed  this  morning  is  one  very  unusual  for 
me,  and  one  that  I  find  somewhat  difficult;  bat  I  consider  it  a  signal  distinc- 
tion to  be  permitted  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  proceedings  of  this  day, 
which  are  intended  to  commemorate  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  great  triumphs 
of  freedom,  and  to  do  honor  to  a  most  eminent  instrument  in  the  achieve- 
ment of  that  freedom.  (Hear,  hear.)  There  may  be,  perhaps,  those  who 
ask  what  is  this  triumph  of  which  I  speak  ?  To  put  it  briefly,  and,  indeed, 
only  to  put  one  part  of  it,  I  may  say  that  it  is  a  triumph  which  has  had  the 
effect  of  raising  4,000,000  of  human  beings  from  the  very  lowest  depths  of 
social  and  political  degradation  to  that  lofty  height  which  men  have  attained 
when  they  possess  equality  of  rights  in  the  first  country  on  the  globe. 
(Cheers.)  More  than  this,  it  is  a  triumph  which  has  pronounced  the  irre- 
versible doom  of  slavery  in  all  countries  and  for  all  time.  (Renewed  cheers.) 
Another  question  suggests  itself — how  has  this  great  matter  been  accom- 
plished ?  The  answer  suggests  itself  in  another  question.  How  is  it  that 
any  great  matter  is  accomplished  ?  By  love  of  justice,  by  constant  devotion 
to  a  great  cause,  and  by  an  unfaltering  faith  that  that  which  is  right  will  in 
the  end  succeed.  (Hear,  hear.) 

When  I  look  at  this  hall,  filled  with  such  an  assembly ;  when  I  partake 
of  the  sympathy  which  runs  from  heart  to  heart  at  this  moment  in  welcome 
to  our  guest  of  to-day,  I  cannot  but  contrast  his  present  position  with  that 
which,  not  so  far  back  but  that  many  of  us  can  remember,  he  occupied  in 
his  own  country.  It  is  not  forty  years  ago,  I  believe  about  the  year  1829, 
when  the  guest  whom  we  honor  this  morning  was  spending  his  solitary  days 
in  a  prison  in  the  slave-owning  city  of  Baltimore.  I  will  not  say  that  he 
was  languishing  in  prison,  for  that  I  do  not  believe ;  he  was  sustained  by  a 
hope  that  did  not  yield  to  the  persecution  of  those  who  thus  maltreated  him; 
and  to  show  that  the  effect  of  that  imprisonment  was  of  no  avail  to  suppress 
or  extinguish  his  ardor,  within  two  years  after  that  he  had  the  courage,  the 
audacity — I  dare  say  many  of  his  countrymen  used  even  a  stronger  phrase 
than  that — he  had  the  courage  to  commence  the  publication,  in  the  city  of 
Boston,  of  a  newspaper  devoted  mainly  to  the  question  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  The  first  number  of  that  paper,  issued  on  the  1st  January,  1831, 
contained  an  address  to  the  public,  one  passage  of  which  I  have  often  read 
with  the  greatest  interest,  and  it  is  a  key  to  the  future  life  of  Mr.  Garrison. 
He  had  been  complained  of  for  having  used  hard  language,  which  is  a  very 
common  complaint  indeed,  and  he  said  in  his  first  number :  "  I  am  aware 
that  many  object  to  the  severity  of  my  language,  but  is  there  not  cause  for 
such  severity  ?  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth,  and  as  uncompromising  as 
justice.  I  am  in  earnest,  I  will  not  equivocate,  I  will  not  excuse,  I  will  not 


670  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

retract  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be  heard."     (Cheers.)     And  that,  after  all, 
expresses  to  a  great  extent  the  future  course  of  his  life. 

But  what  was  at  that  time  the  temper  of  the  people  amongst  whom  he 
lived,  of  the  people  who  are  glorying  now,  as  they  well  may  glory,  in  the 
abolition  of  slavery  throughout  their  country  ?  At  that  time  it  was  very 
little  better  in  the  North  than  it  was  in  the  South.  I  think  it  was  in  the 
year  1835  that  riots  of  the  most  serious  character  took  place  in  some  of  the 
northern  cities ;  during  that  time  Mr.  Garrison's  life  was  in  the  most  immi- 
nent peril ;  and  he  has  never  ascertained  to  this  day  how  it  was  that 
he  was  left  alive  on  the  earth  to  carry  on  his  great  work.  Turning  to 
the  South,  a  State  that  has  lately  suffered  from  the  ravages  of  armies,  the 
State  of  Georgia,  by  its  legislature  of  House,  Senate,  and  Governor,  if  my 
memory  does  not  deceive  me,  passed  a  bill,  offering  ten  thousand  dollars 
reward,  (Mr.  Garrison  here  said  five  thousand)  well,  they  seemed  to  think 
there  were  people  who  would  do  it  cheap,  (laughter)  offered  five  thousand 
dollars,  and  zeal,  doubtless,  would  make  up  the  difference,  for  the  capture  of 
Mr.  Garrison,  or  for  adequate  proof  of  his  death.  Now,  these  were  menaces 
and  perils  such  as  we  have  not  in  our  time  been  accustomed  to  in  this 
country  in  any  of  our  political  movements,  (hear,  hear)  and  we  shall  take  a 
very  poor  measure  indeed  of  the  conduct  of  the  leaders  of  the  emancipation 
party  in  the  United  States  if  we  estimate  them  by  any  of  those  who  have 
been  concerned  in  political  movements  amongst  us.  But,  notwithstanding 
all  drawbacks,  the  cause  was  gathering  strength,  and  Mr.  Garrison  found 
himself  by  and  by  surrounded  by  a  small  but  increasing  band  of  men  and 
•women  who  were  devoted  to  this  cause,  as  he  himself  was.  We  have  in  this 
country  a  very  noble  woman,  who  taught  the  English  people  much  upon 
this  question,  about  thirty  years  ago;  I  allude  to  Harriet  Martineau. 
(Cheers.)  I  recollect  well  the  impression  with  which  I  read  a  most  power- 
ful and  touching  paper  which  she  had  written,  and  which  was  published  in 
the  number  of  the  Westminster  Review  for  December,  1838.  It  was  entitled 
"  The  Martyr  Age  of  the  United  States/'  The  paper  introduced  to  the 
English  public  the  great  names  which  were  appearing  on  the  scene  in  con- 
nection with  this  cause  in  America.  There  was,  of  course  I  need  not  men- 
tion, our  eminent  guest  of  to-day ;  there  was  Arthur  Tappan,  and  Lewis 
Tappan,  and  James  G.  Birney  of  Alabama,  a  planter  and  slave-owner,  who 
liberated  his  slaves  and  came  north,  and  became,  as  I  think,  the  first  presi- 
dential candidate  upon  abolition  principles  in  the  United  States.  (Hear, 
hear.)  There  were  besides  them,  Dr.  Channing,  John  Quincy  Adams,  a 
statesman  and  President  of  the  United  States,  and  father  of  the  eminent  man 
who  is  now  Minister  from  that  people  amongst  us.  (Cheers.)  Then  there 
was  Wendell  Phillips,  admitted  to  be  by  all  who  know  him  perhaps  the 
most  powerful  orator  who  speaks  the  English  language.  (Hear,  hear.) 
I  might  refer  to  others,  to  Charles  Sumner,  the  well-known  statesman,  and 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  671 

Horace  Greeley,  I  think  the  first  of  journalists  in  the  United  States,  if  not 
the  first  of  journalists  in  the  world.  (Hear,  hear.)  But  besides  these,  there 
were  of  noble  women  not  a  few.  There  was  Lydia  Maria  Child  ;  there  were 
the  two  sisters,  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  ladies  who  came  from  South 
Carolina,  who  liberated  their  slaves,  and  devoted  all  they  had  to  the  service 
of  this  just  cause;  and  Maria  Weston  Chapman,  of  whom  Miss  Marti  neau 
speaks  in  terms  which,  though  I  do  not  exactly  recollect  them,  yet  I  know 
described  her  as  noble-minded,  beautiful  and  good.  It  may  be  that  there 
are  some  of  her  family  who  are  now  within  the  sound  of  my  voice.  If  it  be 
so,  all  I  have  to  say  is,  that  I  hope  they  will  feel,  in  addition  to  all  they 
have  felt  heretofore  as  to  the  character  of  their  mother,  that  we  who  are  here 
can  appreciate  her  services,  and  the  services  of  all  who  were  united  with  her 
as  co-operators  in  this  great  and  worthy  cause.  But  there  was  another  whose 
name  must  not  be  forgotten,  a  man  whose  name  must  live  for  ever  in  his- 
tory, Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  who  in  the  free  State  of  Illinois  laid  down  his  life 
for  the  cause.  (Hear,  hear.)  When  I  read  that  article  by  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau,  and  the  description  of  those  men  and  women  there  given,  I  was  led, 
I  know  not  how,  to  think  of  a  very  striking  passage  which  I  am  sure  must 
be  familiar  to  most  here,  because  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews. After  the  writer  of  that  epistle  has  described  the  great  men  and 
fathers  of  the  nation,  he  says :  "  Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  Gideon,  of 
Barak,  of  Samson,  of  Jephtha,  of  David,  of  Samuel,  and  the  Prophets,  who 
through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight, 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens."  I  ask  if  this  grand  passage  of  the 
inspired  writer  may  not  be  applied  to  that  heroic  band  -who  have  made 
America  the  perpetual  home  of  freedom?  (Enthusiastic  cheering.) 

Thus,  in  spite  of  all  that  persecution  could  do,  opinion  grew  in  the  North 
in  favor  of  freedom;  but  in  the  South,  alas!  in  favor  of  that  most  devilish 
delusion  that  slavery  was  a  Divine  institution.  The  moment  that  idea  took 
possession  of  the  South  war  was  inevitable.  Neither  fact  nor  argument,  nor 
counsel,  nor  philosophy,  nor  religion,  could  by  any  possibility  affect  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  when  once  the  Church  leaders  of  the  South  had 
taught  their  people  that  slavery  was  a  Divine  institution ;  for  then  they 
took  their  stand  on  other  and  different,  and  what  they  in  their  blindness 
thought  higher  grounds,  and  they  said,  "  Evil !  be  thou  my  good  ;"  and  so 
they  exchanged  light  for  darkness,  and  freedom  for  bondage,  and  good  for 
evil,  andrif  you  like,  heaven  for  hell.  *  *  *  * 

There  was  a  universal  feeling  in  the  North  that  every  care  should  be 
taken  of  those  who  had  so  recently  and  marvellously  been  enfranchised. 
Immediately  we  found  that  the  privileges  of  independent  labor  were  open 
to  them,  schools  were  established  in  which  their  sons  might  obtain  an  edu- 


672  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

cation  that  would  raise  them  to  an  intellectual  position  never  reached  by 
their  fathers  ;  and  at  length  full  political  rights  were  conferred  upon  those 
who  a  few  short  years,  or  rather  months,  before,  had  been  called  chattels, 
and  things  to  be  bought  and  sold  in  any  market.  (Hear,  hear.)  And  we 
may  feel  assured,  that  those  persons  in  the  Northern  States  who  befriended 
the  negro  in  his  bondage  will  not  now  fail  to  assist  his  struggles  for  a  higher 
position.  ******  if 

To  Mr.  Garrison  more  than  any  other  man  this  is  due ;  his  is  the  creation 
of  that  opinion  which  has  made  slavery  hateful,  and  which  has  made  free- 
dom possible  in  America.  (Hear,  hear.)  His  name  is  venerated  in  his  own 
country,  venerated  where  not  long  ago  it  was  a  name  of  obloquy  and  re- 
proach. His  name  is  venerated  in  this  country  and  in  Europe  wheresoever 
Christianity  softens  the  hearts  and  lessens  the  sorrows  of  men ;  and  I  venture 
to  say  that  in  time  to  come,  near  or  remote  I  know  not,  his  name  will  be- 
come the  herald  and  the  synonym  of  good  to  millions  of  men  who  will  dwell 
on  the  now  almost  unknown  continent  of  Africa.  (Loud  cheers.)  *  *  * 

To  Mr.  Garrison,  as  is  stated  in  one  of  the  letters  which  has  just  been 
read,  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison  it  has  been  given,  in  a  manner  not  often 
permitted 'to  those  who  do  great  things  of  this  kind,  to  see  the  ripe  fruit  of 
his  vast  labors.  Over  a  territory  large  enough  to  make  many  realms,  he 
has  seen  hopeless  toil  supplanted  by  compensated  industry ;  and  where  the 
bondman  dragged  his  chain,  there  freedom  is  established  for  ever.  (Loud 
cheers.)  We  now  welcome  him  amongst  us  as  a  friend  whom  some  of  us 
have  known  long ;  for  I  have  watched  his  career  with  no  common  interest, 
even  when  I  was  too  young  to  take  much  part  in  public  affairs ;  and  I  have 
kept  within  my  heart  his  name,  and  the  names  of  those  who  have  been 
associated  with  him  in  every  step  which  he  has  taken ;  and  in  public  debate 
in  the  halls  of  peace,  and  even  on  the  blood-soiled  fields  of  war,  my  heart 
has  always  been  with  those  who  were  the  friends  of  freedom.  (Renewed 
cheering.)  We  welcome  him  then  with  a  cordiality  which  knows  no  stint 
and  no  limit  for  him  and  for  his  noble  associates,  both  men  and  women. 
******** 

After  this  eloquent  and  able  speech  by  the  chairman,  the  honor  of  pro- 
posing an  address  to  Mr.  Garrison  devolved  upon  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  who 
introduced  the  subject  in  the  following  glowing  speech  : 


SPEECH   OF  THE   DTIECE   OF  ARGYLL. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — It  is  hard  to  follow  an 
address  of  such  extraordinary  beauty,  simplicity  and  power;  but  it  now 
becomes  my  duty  at  your  command,  sir,  to  move  an  address  of  hearty  con- 
gratulation to  our  distinguished  guest,  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  (Cheers.) 
Sir,  this  country  is  from  time  to  time  honored  by  the  presence  of  many 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  673 

distinguished,  and  of  a  few  illustrious  men ;  but  for  the  most  part  we  are 
contented  to  receive  them  with  that  private  cordiality  and  hospitality  with 
which,  I  trust,  we  shall  always  receive  strangers  who  visit  our  shores. 
The  people  of  this  country  are  not  pre-eminently  an  emotional  people ;  they 
are  not  naturally  fond  of  public  demonstrations ;  and  it  is  only  upon  rare 
occasions  that  we  give,  or  can  give,  such  a  reception  as  that  we  see  here 
this  day.  There  must  be  something  peculiar  in  the  cause  which  a  man  has 
served,  in  the  service  which  he  has  rendered,  and  in  our  own  relations 
with  the  people  whom  he  represents,  to  justify  or  to  account  for  such  a 
reception.  (Hear,  hear.)  As  regards  the  cause,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  cause  of  negro  emancipation  in  the  United  States  of  America  has 
been  the  greatest  cause  which,  in  ancient  or  in  modern  times,  has  been 
pleaded  at  the  bar  of  the  moral  judgment  of  mankind.  (Cheers.)  I  know 
that  to  some  this  will  sound  as  the  language  of  exaggerated  feeling ;  but  T 
can  only  say  that  I  have  expressed  myself  in  language  which  I  believe  con- 
veys the  literal  truth.  (Hear,  hear.) 

.  I  have,  indeed,  often  heard  it  said  in  deprecation  of  the  amount  of  interest 
which  was  bestowed  in  this  country  on  the  cause  of  negro  emancipation  in 
America,  that  we  are  apt  to  forget  the  forms  of  suffering  which  are  imme- 
diately at  our  own  doors,  over  which  we  have  some  control,  and  to  express 
exaggerated  feeling  as  to  the  forms  of  suffering  with  which  we  have  nothing 
to  do,  and  for  which  we  are  not  responsible.  I  have  never  objected  to  that 
language  in  so  far  as  it  might  tend  to  recall  us  to  the  duties  which  lie  imme- 
diately around  us,  and  in  so  far  as  it  might  tend  to  make  us  feel  the  forgetful- 
ness  of  which  we  are  sometimes  guilty,  of  the  misery  and  poverty  in  our  own 
country ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  will  never  admit,  for  I  think  it  would 
be  confounding  great  moral  distinctions,  that  the  miseries  which  arise  by 
way  of  natural  consequence  out  of  the  poverty  and  the  vices  of  mankind, 
are  to  be  compared  with  those  miseries  which  are  the  direct  result  of  positive 
law  and  of  a  positive  institution,  giving  to  man  property  in  man.  (Loud 
cheers.)  It  is  true,  also,  that  there  have  been  forms  of  servitude,  meaning 
thereby  compulsory  labor,  against  which  we  do  not  entertain  the  same  feel- 
ings of  hostility  and  horror  with  which  we  have  regarded  slavery  in  America. 
******** 

It  was  a  system  of  which  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  it  was  twice  cursed. 
It  cursed  him  who  served,  and  it  cursed  him  that  owned  the  slave.  (Hear, 
hear.)  When  we  recollect  the  insuperable  temptations  which  that  system 
held  out  to  maintain  in  a  state  of  degradation  and  ignorance  a  whole  race  of 
mankind ;  the  horrors  of  the  internal  slave-trade,  more  widely  demoralizing, 
in  my  opinion,  than  the  foreign  slave-trade  itself;  the  violence  which  was 
done  to  the  sanctities  of  domestic  life ;  the  corrupting  effect  which  it  was 
1  inving  upon  the  very  churches  of  Christianity,  when  we  recollect  all  these 
tilings,  we  can  fully  estimate  the  evil  from  which  my  distinguished  friend 
43 


674  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

and  his  coadjutors  have  at  last  redeemed  their  country.  (Cheers.)  It  was 
not  only  the  Slave  states  which  were  concerned  in  the  guilt  of  slavery ;  it 
had  struck  its  roots  deep  in  the  free  States  of  North  America.  *  *  * 

We  honor  Mr.  Garrison,  in  the  first  place,  for  the  immense  pluck  and 
courage  he  displayed.  (Cheers.)  Sir,  you  have  truly  said  that  there  is  no 
comparison  between  the  contests  in  which  he  had  to  fight  and  the  most  bit- 
ter contests  of  our  own  public  life.  In  looking  back,  no  doubt,  to  the  con- 
test which  was  maintained  in  this  country  some  thirty-five  years  ago  against 
slavery  in  our  colonies,  we  may  recollect  that  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce 
were  denounced  as  fanatics,  and  had  to  encounter  much  opprobrium;  but  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that,  so  far  as  regards  the  entwining  of  the  roots  of 
slavery  into  the  social  system,  in  the  opinions  and  interests  of  mankind, 
there  was  no  comparison  whatever  between  the  circumstances  of  that  contest 
here  and  those  which  attended  it  in  America.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  number 
of  persons  who  in  this  country  were  enlisted  on  the  side  of  slavery  by  per- 
sonal interest  was  always  comparatively  few;  whilst,  in  attacking  slavery  at 
its  head-quarters  in  the  United  States,  Mr.  Garrison  had  to  encounter  the 
fiercest  passions  which  could  be  roused.  *  *  * 

Thank  God,  Mr.  Garrison  appears  before  us  as  the  representative  of  the 
United  States ;  freedom  is  now  the  policy  of  the  government  and  the  assured 
policy  of  the  country,  and  we  can  to-day  accept  and  welcome  Mr.  Garrison, 
not  merely  as  the  liberator  of  the  slaves,  but  as  the  representative  also  of  the 
American  Government.  (Cheers.)  *  * 

THE   ADDRESS  TO   WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON,    ESQ. 

"  SIR  : — We  heartily  welcome  you  to  England  in  the  name  of  thousands 
of  Englishmen  who  have  watched  with  admiring  sympathy  your  labors  for 
the  redemption  of  the  negro  race  from  slavery,  and  for  that  which  is  a  higher 
object  than  the  redemption  of  any  single  race,  the  vindication  of  the  uni- 
versal principles  of  humanity  and  justice ;  and  who,  having  sympathized 
with  you  in  the  struggle,  now  rejoice  with  you  in  the  victory. 

"  Forty  years  ago,  when  you  commenced  your  efforts,  slavery  appeared 
to  be  rapidly  advancing  to  complete  ascendency  in  America.  Not  only  was 
it  dominant  in  the  Southern  States,  but  even  in  the  Free  States  it  had  bowed 
the  constituencies,  society,  and,  in  too  many  instances,  even  the  churches  to 
its  will.  Commerce,  linked  to  it  by  interest,  lent  it  her  support.  A  great 
party,  compactly  organized  and  vigorously  wielded,  placed  in  its  hands  the 
power  of  the  state.  It  bestowed  political  offices  and  honors,  and  was  thereby 
enabled  to  command  the  apostate  homage  of  political  ambition.  Other  nations 
felt  the  prevalence  in  your  national  councils  of  its  insolent  and  domineering 
spirit.  There  was  a  moment,  most  critical  in  the  history  of  America  and  of 
the  world,  when  it  seemed  as  though  that  continent,  with  all  its  resources 
and  all  its  hopes,  was  about  to  become  the  heritage  of  the  slave  power. 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  675 

"  But  Providence  interposes  to  prevent  the  permanent  triumph  of  evil. 
It  interposes,  not  visibly  or  by  the  thunderbolt,  but  by  inspiring  and  sus- 
taining high  moral  effort  and  heroic  lives. 

"  You  commenced  your  crusade  against  slavery  in  isolation,  in  weakness, 
and  in  obscurity.  The  emissaries  of  authority' with  difficulty  found  the 
office  of  the  Liberator  in  a  mean  room,  where  its  editor  was  aided  only  by  a 
negro  boy,  and  supported  by  a  few  insignificant  persons  (so  the  officers 
termed  them)  of  all  colors.  You  were  denounced,  persecuted,  and  hunted 
down  by  mobs  of  wealthy  men  alarmed  for  the  interests  of  their  class.  You 
were  led  out  by  one  of  these  mobs,  and  saved  from  their  violence  and  the 
imminent  peril  of  death,  almost  by  a  miracle.  You  were  not  turned  from 
your  path  of  devotion  to  your  cause,  and  to  the  highest  interests  of  your 
country,  by  denunciation,  persecution,  or  the  fear  of  death.  You  have  lived 
to  stand  victorious  and  honored  in  the  very  stronghold  of  slavery ;  to  see  the 
flag  of  the  republic,  now  truly  free,  replace  the  flag  of  slavery  on  Fort 
Su  niter ;  and  to  proclaim  the  doctrines  of  the  Liberator  in  the  city,  and  be- 
side the  grave  of  Calhoun. 

"  Enemies  of  war;  we  most  heartily  wish,  and  doubt  not  that  you  wish  as 
heartily  as  we  do,  that  this  deliverance  could  have  been  wrought  out  by 
peaceful  means.  But  the  fierce  passions  engendered  by  slavery  in  the  slave- 
owner, determined  it  otherwise;  and  we  feel  at  liberty  to  rejoice,  since  the 
struggle  was  inevitable,  that  its  issue  has  been  the  preservation,  not  the  ex- 
tinction, of  all  that  we  hold  most  dear.  We  are,  however,  not  more  thankful 
for  the  victories  of  freedom  in  the  field  than  for  the  moderation  and  mercy 
shown  by  the  victors,  which  have  exalted  and  hallowed  their  cause  and  ours 
in  the  eyes  of  all  nations. 

"  We  shall  now  watch  with  anxious  hope  the  development,  amidst  the 
difficulties  which  still  beset  the  regeneration  of  the  South,  of  a  happier  order 
of  things  in  the  States  rescued  from  slavery,  and  the  growth  of  free  commu- 
nities, in  which  your  name,  with  the  names  of  your  fellow-workers  in  the  same 
cause,  will  be  held  in  grateful  and  lasting  remembrance. 

"  Once  more  we  welcome  you  to  a  country  in  which  you  will  find  many 
sincere  admirers  and  warm  friends." 

EARL  EUSSELL  and  JOHN  STUART  MILL,  M.  P.,  at  the  close  of  the 
address,  followed  with  most  eloquent  speeches,  conferring  on  the  honored 
guest  the  highest  praise  for  his  life-long  and  successful  labors  in  the  cause 
of  freedom.  After  these  gentlemen  had  taken  their  seats,  the  Chairman 
proposed  that  the  address  should  be  passed  unanimously.  • 

The  Chairman's  call  was  responded  to  by  the  whole  assemblage  lifting  up 
their  hands ;  and  Mr.  Garrison,  presenting  himself  in  front  of  the  platform, 
was  received  with  an  enthusiastic  burst  of  cheering,  hats  and  handkerchiefs 
being  waved  by  nearly  all  present. 


676  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 


SPEECH   OF   ME.    GAEEISOIT. 

Mr.  Garrison  said : — Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — For  this 
marked  expression  of  your  personal  respect,  and  appreciation  of  my  labors 
in  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  and  of  your  esteem  and  friendship  for  the 
land  of  my  nativity,  I  offer  you,  one  and  all,  my  grateful  acknowledgments. 
But  I  am  so  profoundly  impressed  by  the  formidable  array  of  rank,  genius, 
intellect,  scholarship,  and  moral  and  religious  worth  which  I  see  before  me, 
that  I  fear  I  shall  not  be  able  to  address  you,  except  with  a  fluttering  pulse 
and  a  stammering  tongue.  For  me  this  is,  indeed,  an  anomalous  position. 
Assuredly,  this  is  treatment  with  which  I  have  not  been  familiar.  For 
more  than  thirty  years,  I  had  to  look  the  fierce  and  unrelenting  hostility  of 
my  countrymen  in  the  face,  with  few  to  cheer  me  onward.  In  all  the  South 
I  was  an  outlaw,  and  could  not  have  gone  there,  though  an  American  citizen 
guiltless  of  wrong,  and  though  that  flag  (here  the  speaker  pointed  to  the 
United  States  ensign)  had  been  over  my  head,  except  at  the  peril  of  my 
life ;  nay,  with  the  certainty  of  finding  a  bloody  grave. '  (Hear,  hear.)  In 
all  the  North  I  was  looked  upon  with  hatred  and  contempt.  The  whole 
nation,  subjugated  to  the  awful  power  of  slavery,  rose  up  in  mobocratic 
tumult  against  any  and  every  effort  to  liberate  the  millions  held  in  bondage 
on  its  soil.  And  yet  I  demanded  nothing  that  was  not  perfectly  just  and 
reasonable,  in  exact  accordance  with  the  Declaration  of  American  Indepen- 
dence and  the  Golden  Rule.  I  was  not  the  enemy  of  any  man  living.  I 
cherish  no  personal  enmities;  I  know  nothing  of  them  in  my  heart.  Even 
whilst  the  Southern  slave-holders  were  seeking  my  destruction,  I  never  for  a 
moment  entertained  any  other  feeling  toward  them  than  an  earnest  desire, 
under  God,  to  deliver  them  from  a  deadly  curse  and  an  awful  sin.  (Hear, 
hear.)  It  was  neither  a  sectional  nor  a  personal  matter  at  all.  It  had  ex- 
clusive reference  to  the  eternal  law  of  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  the 
rights  of  human  nature  itself. 

Sir,  I  always  found  in  America  that  a  shower  of  brickbats  had  a  re- 
markably tonic  effect,  materially  strengthening  to  the  back-bone.  (Laughter.) 
But,  sir,  the  shower  of  compliments  and  applause  which  has  greeted  me  on 
this  occasion  would  assuredly  cause  my  heart  to  fail  me,  were  it  not  that  this 
generous  reception  is  only  incidentally  personal  to  myself.  (Hear,  hear.) 
You,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  are  here  mainly  to  celebrate  the  triumph  of 
humanity  over  its  most  brutal  foes ;  to  rejoice  that  universal  emancipation 
has  at  last  been  proclaimed  throughout  the  United  States :  and  to  express, 
as  you  have  already  clone  through  the  mouths  of  the  eloquent  speakers  who 
have  preceded  me,  sentiments  of  peace  and  of  good-will  toward  the  American 
Republic.  Sure  I  am  that  these  sentiments  will  be  heartily  reciprocated  by 
ruy  countrymen.  (Cheers.) 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  677 

I  must  here  disclaim,  with  all  sincerity  of  soul,  any  special  praise  for  any- 
thing that  I  have  done.  I  have  simply  tried  to  maintain  the  integrity  of 
my  soul  before  God,  and  to  do  my  duty.  (Cheers.)  I  have  refused  to  go 
with  the  multitude  to  do  evil.  I  have  endeavored  to  save  my  country  from 
ruin.  I  have  sought  to  liberate  such  as  were  held  captive  in  the  house  of 
bondage.  But  all  this  I  ought  to  have  done. 

And  now,  rejoicing  here  with  you  at  the  marvellous  change  which  has 
taken  place  across  the  Atlantic,  I  am  unable  to  express  the  satisfaction  I  feel 
in  believing  that,  henceforth,  my  country  will  be  a  mighty  power  for  good 
in  the  world.  While  she  held  a  seventh  portion  of  her  vast  population  in  a 
state  of  chattelisra,  it  was  in  vain  that  she  boasted  of  her  democratic  princi- 
ples and  her  free  institutions ;  ostentatiously  holding  her  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence in  one  hand,  and  brutally  wielding  her  slave-driving  lash  in 
the  other.  Marvellous  inconsistency  and  unparalleled  assurance.  But  now, 
God  be  praised,  she  is  free,  free  to  advance  the  cause  of  liberty  throughout 
the  world.  (Loud  cheers.) 

Sir,  this  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  been  in  England.  I  have  been  here 
three  times  before  on  anti-slavery  missions ;  and  wherever  I  traveled,  I  was 
always  exultantly  told,  "  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England  !"  Now,  at  last, 
I  am  at  liberty  to  say,  and  I  came  over  with  the  purpose  to  say  it,  "  Slaves 
cannot  breathe  in  America!"  (Cheers.)  And  so  England  and  America 
stand  side  by  side  in  the  cause  of  negro  emancipation ;  and  side  by  side  may 
they  stand  in  all  that  is  just  and  noble  and  good,  leading  the  way  gloriously 
in  the  .world's  redemption.  (Loud  cheers.) 

I  came  to  this  country  for  the  first  time  in  1833,  to  undeceive  Wilber- 
force,  Clarkson,  and  other  eminent  philanthropists,  in  regard  to  the  real 
character,  tendency,  and  object  of  the  American  Colonization  Society.  I  am 
happy  to  say  that  I  quickly  succeeded  in  doing  so.  Before  leaving,  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  receiving  a  protest  against  that  Society  as  an  obstruction  to 
the  cause  of  freedom  throughout  the  world,  and,  consequently,  as  undeserv- 
ing of  British  confidence  and  patronage,  signed  by  William  Wilberforce, 
Thomas  Fowell  Buxton,  Zachary  Macaulay,  and  other  illustrious  philan- 
thropists. On  arriving  in  London  I  received  a  polite  invitation  by  letter 
from  Mr.  Buxton  to  take  breakfast  with  him.  Presenting  myself  at  the 
appointed  time,  when  my  name  was  announced,  instead  of  coming  forward 
promptly  to  take  me  by  the  hand,  he  scrutinized  me  from  head  to  foot,  and 
then  inquired,  somewhat  dubiously,  "  Have  I  the  pleasure  of  addressing  Mr. 
Garrison,  of  Boston,  in  the  United  States  ?  "  "  Yes,  sir,"  I  replied,  "  I  am 
he ;  and  I  am  here  in  accordance  with  your  invitation."  Lifting  up  his 
hands  he  exclaimed,  "  Why,  my  dear  sir,  I  thought  you  were  a  black  man. 
And  I  have  consequently  invited  this  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  to 
be  present  to  welcome  Mr.  Garrison,  the  black  advocate  of  emancipation 
from  the  United  States  of  America."  (Laughter.)  I  have  often  said,  sir, 


678  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

that  that  is  the  only  compliment  I  have  ever  had  paid  to  me  that  I  care  to 
remember  or  tell  of.  For  Mr.  Buxton  had  somehow  or  other  supposed  that 
no  white  American  could  plead  for  those  in  bondage  as  1  had  done,  and 
therefore  I  must  be  black.  (Laughter.) 

It  is  indeed  true,  sir,  that  I  have  had  no  other  rule  by  which  to  be  guided 
than  this.  I  never  cared  to  know  precisely  how  many  stripes  were  inflicted 
on  the  slaves.  I  never  deemed  it  necessary  to  go  down  into  the  Southern 
States,  if  I  could  have  gone,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  exact  dimensions 
of  the  slave  system.  I  made  it  from  the  start,  and  always,  my  own  case, 
thus :  Did  I  want  to  be  a  slave  ?  No.  Did  God  make  me  to  be  a  slave  ? 
No.  But  I  am  only  a  man,  only  one  of  the  human  race ;  and  if  not  created 
to  be  a  slave,  then  no  other  human  being  was  made  for  that  purpose.  My 
wife  and  children,  dearer  to  me  than  my  heart's  blood,  were  they  made  for 
the  auction-block  ?  Never !  And  so  it  was  all  very  easily  settled  here 
(pointing  to  his  breast).  (Great  cheering.)  I  could  not  help  being  an  un- 
compromising abolitionist. 

Here  allow  me  to  pay  a  brief  tribute  to  the  American  abolitionists.  Put- 
ting myself  entirely  out  of  the  question,  I  believe  that  in  no  land,  at  any 
time,  was  there  ever  a  more  devoted,  self-sacrificing,  and  uncompromising 
band  of  men  and  women.  Nothing  can  be  said  to  their  credit  which  they 
do  not  deserve.  With  apostolic  zeal,  they  counted  nothing  dear  to  them  for 
the  sake  of  the  slave,  and  him  dehumanized.  But  whatever  has  been 
achieved  through  them  is  all  of  God,  to  whom  alone  is  the  glory  due. 
Thankful  are  we  all  that  we  have  been  permitted  to  live  to  see  this  day.  for 
our  country's  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  mankind.  Of  course,  we  are  glad 
that  our  reproach  is  at  last  taken  away  ;  for  it  is  very  desirable,  if  possible, 
to  have  the  good  opinions  of  our  fellow-men ;  but  if,  to  secure  these,  we 
must  sell  our  manhood  and  sully  our  souls,  then  their  bad  opinions  of  us 
are  to  be  coveted  instead. 

Sir,  my  special  part  in  this  grand  struggle  was  in  first  unfurling  the  ban- 
ner of  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation,  and  attempting  to  make  a 
common  rally  under  it.  This  I  did,  not  in  a  free  State,  but  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore,  in  the  slave-holding  State  of  Maryland.  It  was  not  long  before 
I  was  arrested,  tried,  condemned  by  a  packed  jury,  and  incarcerated  in 
prison  for  my  anti-slavery  sentiments.  This  was  in  1830.  In  1864  I  went 
to  Baltimore  for  the  first  time  since  my  imprisonment.  I  do  not  think  that 
I  could  have  gone  at  an  earlier  period,  except  at  the  peril  of  my  life ;  and 
then  only  because  the  American  Government  was  there  in  force,  holding  the 
rebel  elements  in  subserviency.  I  was  naturally  curious  to  see  the  old  prison 
again,  and,  if  possible,  to  get  into  my  old  cell;  but  when  I  went  to  the  spot, 
behold !  the  prison  had  vanished ;  and  so  I  was  greatly  disappointed, 
(Laughter.)  On  goins:  to  Wnshinorton,  I  mentioned  to  President  Lincoln, 
the  disappointment  I  had  met  with.  With  a  smiling  countenance  and  a 


WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON.  679 

ready  wit,  he  replied,  "  So,  Mr.  Garrison,  the  difference  between  1830  and 
1864  appears  to  bo  this:  iii  1830  you  could  not  get  out,  and  in  1864  you 
could  not  get  in !"  (Great  laughter.)  This  was  not  only  wittily  said,  but  it 
truthfully  indicated  the  wonderful  revolution  that  had  taken  place  in  Mary- 
land ;  for  she  had  adopted  the  very  doctrine  for  which  she  imprisoned  me, 
and  given  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation  to  her  eighty  thousand 
slaves.  (Cheers.) 

I  commenced  the  publication  of  the  "  Liberator  "  in  Boston,  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1831.  At  that  time  I  was  very  little  known,-  without  allies, 
without  means,  without  subscribers  j  yet  no  sooner  did  that  little  sheet  make 
its  appearance,  than  the  South  was  thrown  into  convulsions,  as  if  it  had 
suddenly  been  invaded  by  an  army  with  banners !  Notwithstanding,  the 
whole  country  was  on  the  side  of  the  slave  power — the  Church,  the  State, 
all  parties,  all  denominations,  ready  to  do  its  bidding !  O  the  potency  of 
truth,  and  the  inherent  weakness  and  conscious  insecurity  of  great  wrong ! 
Immediately  a  reward  of  five  thousand  dollars  was  offered  for  my  apprehen- 
sion, by  the  State  of  Georgia.  When  General  Sherman  was  making  his 
victorious  march  through  that  State,  it  occurred  to  me,  but  too  late,  that  I 
ought  to  have  accompanied  him,  and  in  person  claimed  the  reward — (laugh- 
ter)— but  I  remembered,  that,  had  I  done  so,  I  should  have  had  to  take  my 
pay  in  Confederate  currency,  and  therefore  it  would  not  have  paid  traveling 
expenses.  (Renewed  laughter.)  Where  is  Southern  Slavery  now  ?  (Cheers.) 
Henceforth,  through  all  coming  time,  advocates  of  justice  and  friends  of 
reform,  be  not  discouraged ;  for  you  will,  and  you  must  succeed,  if  you  have 
a  righteous  cause.  No  matter  at  the  outset  how  few  may  be  disposed  to  rally 
round  the  standard  you  have  raised — if  you  battle  unflinchingly  and  with- 
out compromise — if  yours  be  a  faith  that  cannot  be  shaken,  because  it  is 
linked  to  the  Eternal  Throne — it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  victory 
shall  come  to  reward  your  toils.  Seemingly,  no  system  of  iniquity  was  ever 
more  strongly  intrenched,  or  more  sure  and  absolute  in  its  sway,  than  that 
of  American  Slavery ;  yet  it  has  perished. 

"  In  the  earthquake  God  has  spoken ; 
He  hag  smitten  with  His  thunder 
The  iron  walls  asunder, 
And  the  gates  of  brass  are  broken." 

So  it  has  been,  so  it  is,  so  it  ever  will  be  throughout  the  earth,  in  every 
conflict  for  the  right.     (Great  cheering.)  *  *         * 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  began  my  advocacy  of  the  Anti-slavery  cause  at 
the  North  in  the  midst  of  brickbats  and  rotten  eggs.  I  ended  it  on  the  soil 
of  South  Carolina,  almost  literally  buried  beneath  the  wreaths  and  flowers 
which  were  heaped  upon  me  by  her  liberal  bondmen.  (Cheers.) 


680  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


LEWIS  TAPPAN 

Was  one  of  the  warmest  friends  of  the  slave  and  of  the  colored  man.  He 
was  very  solicitous  for  their  welfare,  and  that  the  colored  people  who  were 
free  should  be  enlightened  and  educated.  He  opened  a  Sunday-school  for 
colored  adults,  which  was  numerously  attended,  in  West  Broadway,  New 
York,  and  with  a  few  others,  devoted  the  most  of  the  Sabbath  to  their  teach- 
ing. When  he  and  his  brother  Arthur,  assembled  the  seventy  anti-slavery 
agents,  who  were  thereafter,  like  "  firebrands,"  scattered  all  over  the  land, 
they  held  their  meetings  in  this  room.  These  agents  were  entertained  by 
abolitionists  in  the  city,  and  many  of  us  had  two  or  three  of  them  in  each 
of  our  families  for  a  couple  of  weeks.  They  went  out  all  over  the  land,  and 
were  instrumental  in  diffusing  more  truth,  perhaps,  about  the  dreadful 
system  of  American  Slavery,  than  was  accomplished  in  any  other  way.  He 
also  aided  in  establishing  several  periodicals,  brimful  of  anti-slavery  truth ; 
among  which,  were  the  "  Anti-Slavery  Record"  the  "  Emancipator"  the 
"Slave's  Friend;"  the  latter,  to  indoctrinate  the  children  in  Anti-slavery. 
The  American  Missionary  Society,  originally  begun  for  the  support  of  a 
mission  in  Africa,  on  the  occasion  of  the  return  of  the  Amistad  captors  to 
their  native  land,  and  now  doing  so  much  for  the  freedmen  of  the  South, 
was  almost  entirely  established  by  his  efforts.  During  the  continuance  of 
Slavery,  much  was  done  by  this  Society  for  the  diffusion  of  an  anti-slavery 
gospel. 

The  "Vigilance  Committee,"  for  aiding  and  befriending  fugitives,  of 
which  I  was  treasurer  for  many  years,  had  no  better  or  warmer  friend  than 
he.  He  was  almost  always  at  their  meetings,  which  were  known  only  to  "  the 
elect,"  for  we  dared  not  hold  them  too  publicly,  as  we  almost  always  had 
some  of  the  travelers  toward  the  "  north  star "  present,  whose  masters  or 
their  agents  were  frequently  in  the  city,  in  hot  pursuit.  At  first,  we  sent 
them  to  Canada,  but  after  a  while,  sent  them  only  to  Syracuse,  and  the 
centre  of  the  State. 

In  1834,  I  think,  was  the  first  rioting,  the  sacking  of  Mr.  Tappan's 
house,  in  Rose  Street.  The  mob  brought  all  his  furniture  out,  and  piling  rt 
up  in  the  street,  set  it  on  fire.  The  family  were  absent  at  the  time.  Soon 
after,  they  stoned  Rev.  Mr.  LudloW's,  and  Dr.  Cox's  church,  and  the  house 
of  the  latter.  They  threatened  Arthur  Tappan  &  Go's,  store,  in  Pearl 
Street,  but  hearing  that  there  were  a  few  loaded  muskets  there,  they  took  it 
out  in  threats.  But  their  mercantile  establishment  was  almost  ostracised  at 
this  time,  by  the  dry  goods  merchants ;  and  country  merchants  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  north  as  well  as  south,  did  not  dare  to  have  it  knoAvn  that 
they  bought  goods  of  them ;  and  when  they  did  so,  requested  particularly, 
that  the  bundles  or  boxes,  should  not  be  marked  "  from  A.  Tappan  &  Co.," 


LEWIS  TAPPAN.  681 

as  was  customary.  Southern  merchants  especially,  avoided  them,  and  when, 
two  or  three  years  later,  there  was  a  general  insolvency  among  them,  occa- 
sionally large  losses  to  New  York  merchants,  and  in  some  cases  failure  j  the 
Tappans  were  saved  by  having  no  Southern  debts  ! 

Through  Mr.  Tappan 's  influence  and  extensive  correspondence  abroad, 
many  remittances  came  for  the  help  of  the  "  Vigilance  Committee/'  from 
England  and  Scotland,  and  at  one  time,  an  extensive  invoice  of  useful  and 

O  '  " 

fancy  articles,  in  several  large  boxes,  was  received  from  the  Glasgow  ladies, 
sufficient  to  furnish  a  large  bazaar  or  fair,  which  was  held  in  Brooklyn,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Committee. 

Although  lately  afflicted  by  disease,  Mr.  Tappan  still  lives -in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  all  his  faculties,  and  a  good  measure  of  health,  and  in  his  advanced 
years,  sees  now  some  of  the  great  results  of  his  life-long  efforts  for  the 
restoration  and  maintenance  of  human  rights. 

Although  still  suffering  under  many  of  the  evils  which  Slavery  has 
inflicted  upon  him,  the  American  slave  no  longer  exists !  Instead  stands  up 
in  all  our  Southern  States  the  freedman,  knowing  his  rights,  and,  as  a  rule, 
enjoying  them.  Original  American  abolitionists,  who  met  the  scorn  and 
odium,  the  imputed  shame  and  obloquy,  the  frowns  and  cold-shoulders 
which  they  bore  through  all  the  dark  days  of  Slavery,  now  see  and  feel 
their  reward  in  some  measure  ;  to  be  completed  only,  when  they  shall  hear 
the  plaudit:  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  to  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  ANTHONY  LANE. 

New  York,  Nov.  8, 1871. 

Mr.  Lane,  Mr.  Tappan's  personal  friend  who  labored  with  him  in  the 
Anti-Slavery  Cause,  and  especially  in  the  Vigilance  Committee  for  many 
years,  from  serious  affection  of  his  eyes  was  not  prepared  to  furnish  as  full 
a  sketch  of  his  (Mr.  T.'s)  labors  as  was  desirable.  Mr.  Tappan  was,  there- 
fore, requested  to  furnish  a  few  reminiscences  from  his  own  store-house, 
which  he  kindly  did  as  follows : 

WILLIAM  STILL,  ESQ.,  My  dear  Sir : — In  answer  to  your  request,  that  I 
would  furnish  an  article  for  your  forthcoming  book,  giving  incidents  within 
my  personal  knowledge,  relating  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road ;  I  have 
already  apprized  you  of  my  illness  and  my  consequent  inability  to  write 
such  an  article  as  would  be  worthy  of  your  publication.  However,  feeling 
somewhat  relieved  to-day,  from  my  paralysis,  owing  to  the  cheering  sunshine 
and  the  favor  of  my  Almighty  Preserver,  I  will  try  to  do  what  I  can,  in 
dictating  a  few  anecdotes  to  my  amanuensis,  which  may  afford  you  and  your 
readers  some  gratification. 

These  facts  I  must  give  without  reference  to  date,  as  I  will  not  tax  my 
memory  with  perhaps  a  vain  attempt  to  narrate  them  in  order. 

As  mentioned  in  my  "Life  of  Arthur  Tappan,"  some  abolitionists  (myself 


682  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

among  the  number),  doubted  the  propriety  of  engaging  in  such  measures  as 
wore  contemplated  by  the  conductors  of  the  "  Underground  Rail  Road," 
fearing  that  they  would  not  be  justified  in  aiding  slaves  to  escape  from  their 
masters ;  but  reflection  convinced  them  that  it  was  not  only  right  to  assist 
men  in  efforts  to  obtain  their  liberty,  when  unjustly  held  in  bondage,  but  a 

DUTY. 

Abolitionists,  white  and  colored,  both  in  slave  and  free  States,  entered 
into  extensive  correspondence,  set  their  wits  at  work  to  devise  various  expe- 
dients for  the  relief  from  bondage  and  transmission  to  the  free  States  and  to 
Canada,  of  many  of  the  most  enterprising  bondmen  and  bondwomen.  They 
vied  with  each  other  in  devising  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
object.  Those  who  had  money  contributed  it  freely,  and  those  who  were 
destitute  of  money,  gave  their  time,  saying  with  the  Apostle :  "  Silver  and 
gold  have  I  none ;  but  such  as  I  have,  give  I  thee." 

1.  I   recollect   that   one   morning   on   reaching    my  office   (that  of   the 
treasurer  of  the  American  Missionary  Association),  my  assistant  told  me 
that  in  the  inner  room  were  eighteen  fugitives,  men,  women  and  children, 
who  had  arrived  that  morning  from  the  South  in  one  company.     On  going 
into  the  room,  I  saw  them  lying  about  on  the   bales  and  boxes  of  clothing 
destined  for  our  various  missionary  stations,  fatigued,  as  they  doubtless  were, 
after  their  sleepless  and  protracted  struggle  for  freedom. 

On  inquiry,  I  learned  that  they  had  come  from  a  southern  city.  After 
most  extraordinary  efforts,  it  seemed  that  they  had  while  in  Slavery,  secretly 
banded  together,  and  put  themselves  under  the  guidance  of  an  intrepid  con- 
ductor, whom  they  had  hired  to  conduct  them  without  the  limits  of  the  city, 
in  the  evening,  when  the  police  force  was  changed.  They  came  through 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  to  my  office.  The  agent  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  in  New  York,  took  charge  of  them,  and  forwarded  them  to 
Albany,  and  by  different  agencies  to  Canada. 

2.  I  well  remember  that  one  morning  as  I  entered  the  Sabbath-school,* 
one  of  the  scholars,  a  Mrs.  Mercy  Smith,  beckoned  to  me  to  come  to  her 
class,  and  there  introduced  to  me  a  young  girl  of  about  fifteen,  as  a  fugitive, 
who  had  arrived  the  day  before.     In  answer  to  my  inquiries,  this  girl  told 
me  the  name  of  the  southern  city,  and  the  names  of  the  persons  who  had 
held  her  as  a  slave,  and  the  mode  of  her  escape,  etc.     "  I  was  walking  near 
the  water,"  she  said,  "  when  a  white  sailor  spoke  to  me,  and  after  a  fc\v 
questions,  offered  to  hide  me  on  board  his  vessel   and   conduct  me   safely  to 
New  York,  if  I  would  come  to  him  in  the  evening.     I  did  so,  and  was  hid 
and  fed  by  him,  and  on  landing  at  New  York,  he  conducted  me  to  Mrs. 
Smith's  house,  where  I  am  now  staying." 

*  For  thrco  years  I  superintended  a  Sabbath-school  mostly  composed  of  colored  children  and 
adults.  Most  of  the  tcnchers  were  warm-hearted  abolitionists,  and  the  whole  number  taught  in  this 
school  during  this  period,  was  seven  or  eight  hundred. 


LEWIS  TAPPAX.  683 

To  iny  inquiry,  have  you  parents  living,  and  also  brothers  and  sisters, 
she  replied  :  "  There  is  no  child  but  myself."  "  Were  not  your  parents 
kind  to  you,  and  did  you  not  love  them  ?"  "  Yes  I  love  them  very  much." 

"  How  were  you  treated  by  your  master  and  mistress  ?"  "  They  treated 
me  very  well."  "How  then,"  said  I,  ''could  you  put  yourself  in  the  care  of 
that  sailor,  who  was  a  stranger  to  you,  and  leave  your  parents  ?"  I  shall 
never  forget  her  heart- felt  reply  :  "  He  told  me  I  should  be  free  !" 

* . 
3.  One  Sunday  morning,  I  received  a  letter,  informing  me  that  an  officer 

belonging  to  Savannah,  Ga.,  had  started  for  New  York,  in  pursuit  of  two 
young  men,  of  nineteen  or  twenty,  who  had  been  slaves  of  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal physicians  of  the  place,  and  who  had  escaped  and  were  supposed  to  be 
in  New  York.  The  letter  requested  me  to  find  them  and  give  them  warn- 
ing. As  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  I  concluded  to  go  over  to  New  York, 
notwithstanding  the  doubtfulness  of  attempting  to  find  them  in  so  large  a 
city.  I  wrote  notices  to  be  read  in  the  colored  churches  and  colored  Sabbath- 
schools,  which  I  delivered  in  person.  I  then  went  to  the  colored  school, 
superintended  by  Rev.  C.  B.  Bay.  I  stated  my  errand  to  him,  with  a 
description  of  the  young  men.  "Why,"  said  he,  "I  must  have  one  of  them 
in  my  School."  He  took  me  to  a  class  where  I  found  one  of  the  young 
men,  to  whom  I  gave  the  needful  information. 

He  told   me  that  his  father  was  Dr. ,  of  Savannah,  and  that  he 

had  five  children  by  the  young  man's  mother,  who  was  his  slave.  On  his 
marriage  to  a  white  woman,  he  sent  his  five  colored  children  and  their 
mother  to  auction,  to  be  sold  for  cash  to  the  highest  bidder.  On  being  put 
upon  the  auction-block,  this  young  man  addressed  the  bystanders,  and  told 
them  the  circumstances  of  the  case ;  that  his  mother  had  long  lived  in  the 
family  of  the  doctor,  that  it  was  cruel  to  sell  her  and  her  children,  and  he 
warned  the  people  not  to  bid  for  him,  for  he  would  no  longer  be  a  slave  to 
any  man,  and  if  any  one  bought  him,  he  would  lose  his  money.  He  added, 
"  I  thought  it  right  to  say  this."  I  then  spoke  to  the  crowd.  "My  father," 
said  I,  "  has  long  been  one  of  your  first  doctors,  and  do  you  think  it  right 
for  him  to  sell  my  mother  and  his  children  in  this  way?" 

"  I  was  sold,  and  my  brother  also,  and  the  rest,  although  my  brother  said 
to  the  crowd  what  I  had  said.  We  soon  made  our  escape,  and  are  now  both 
in  the  city.  I  am  a  blacksmith,  and  have  worked  six  months  in  one  shop, 
in  New  York,  with  white  journeymen,  not  one  of  whom  believes,  I  suppose, 
that  I  am  a  colored  man." 

It  was  not  surprising,  for  so  fair  was  his  complexion,  that  with  the  aid  of 
a  brown  wig,  after  he  had  cut  off  his  hair,  he  was  completely  disguised. 
He  soon  notified  his  brother,  who  lived  in  another  part  of  the  city,  and  both 
put  themselves  out  of  harm's  way.  They  were  remarkably  fine  young  men, 
and  it  seemed  a  special  Providence  that  I  should  find  them  in  such  a  large 


684  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

city,  and  direct  them  to  escape  from  their  pursuer,  within  one  hour  after  I 
left  my  house  in  Brooklyn.     I  felt  it  to  be  an  answer  to  prayer. 

4.  One  day,  when  I  lived  in  New  York  City,  a  colored  man  came  running 
to  my  honse,  and  in  a  hurried  manner,  said :     "  Is  this  Mr.  Tappan  ?"     On 
reply  ing  in  the  affirmative,  he  said :    "  I  have  driven  my  master  from  Balti- 
more.    He  has  just  arrived,  and  the  servants  are  taking  off  the  baggage  at 
the  Astor  House.     I  inquired  of  a  person  passing  by,  where  you  lived.     He 
said,  80,  White  Street,  and  I  have  run  here,  to  tell  you  that  you  may  give 
notice  to  a  man  who  has  escaped  from  my  master,  to  this  city,  that  the  object 
of  this  journey  is  to  find  him  and  take  him  back  to  Slavery." 

The  man  hurried  back,  so  that  he  need  not  be  missed  by  his  master,  wrho 
believed  that  this  coachman,  who  had  lived  years  with  him,  was  his  confi- 
dential servant,  and  would  be  true  to  his  interest. 

I  went  immediately  to  the  house  of  a  colored  friend,  to  describe  the  fugi- 
tive and  see  if  we  could  not  concert  measures  to  protect  him.  "  I  think," 
said  he,  "  that  I  know  the  man,  by  your  description,  and  that  he  boards  in 
this  house.  He  will  soon  come  in  from  South  Street,  where  he  has  worked 
to-day."  While  we  were  consulting  together,  sure  enough,  the  man  came 
in,  and  was  most  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  thus  afforded,  of  secreting 
himself. 

I  have  not  strength  to  dictate  much  more,  although  many  other  instances 
occur  to  me  of  most  remarkable  providential  occurrences,  of  ihe  escape  of 
fugitives  within  my  knowledge.  I  used  to  say  that  I  was  the  owner  of 
haJf-a-horse  that  was  in  active  service,  near  the  Susquehanna  River.  This 
horse  I  owned  jointly  with  another  friend  of  the  slave,  dedicating  the  animal 
to  the  service  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 

It  was  customary  for  the  agent  at  Havre  de  Grace,  bringing  a  fugitive  to 
the  river,  to  kindle  a  fire  (as  it  was  generally  in  the  night),  to  give  notice  to 
a  person  living  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  This  person  well  under- 
stood the  signal,  and  would  come  across  in  his  boat  and  receive  the  fugitive. 

5.  An  aged  colored  couple,  residing  in  Brooklyn,  came  over  to  my  office, 
in  New  York  City,  and  said  that  they  had  just  heard  from  Wilmington, 
N.  C.,  that  their  two  sons  (about  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years  of  age), 
who  were  slaves,  were  about  to  be  sold,  for  one  thousand  dollars  each  ;   and 
they  hoped  I  should  be  able  and  willing  to  assist  them  in  raising  the  money. 

I  told  them  that  I  had  scruples  about  putting  money  into  the  hands  of 
slave-holders,  but  I  would  give  them  something  that  might  be  of  as  much 
value.  I  then  pointed  out  a  way  by  which  their  sons  might  reach  the  city. 

In  about  three  weeks,  one  of  the  young  men  came  to  my  office.  Give  me, 
said  I,  some  particulars  of  your  escape.  "  I  am,"  said  he,  "  a  builder,  and 
planned  and  erected  the  hotel  at  Wilmington,  and  some  other  houses.  I 
used  to  hire  my  time  of  my  master,  and  was  accustomed  to  ride  about  the 


LEWIS  TAPPAN.  685 

country  attending  to  ray  business.  I  borrowed  a  pass  from  a  man  about  my 
size  and  complexion.  I  then  went  to  the  rail  road  office,  and  asked  for  a 
ticket  for  Fredericksburg.  From  there  I  came  on  directly  to  Washington. 
I  had  not  been  questioned  before ;  but  here,  I  was  taken  up  and  carried 
before  a  magistrate.  He  examined  me  by  the  description  in  my  pass ;  com- 
plexion, height,  etc.,  then  read  '  and  a  soar  under  his  left  knee.'  When  I 
heard  that,  my  heart  sank  within  me;  for  I  had  no  scar  there  that  I  knew. 
'  Pull  up  the  boy's  trowsers,'  said  the  justice  to  the  constable.  He  did  so, 
and  said  'here's  a  scar  !'  'All  right/  said  the  justice,  'no  mistake,  let  him 
go.'  Glad  was  I.  I  got  a  ticket  for  Baltimore,  and  there  for  another  town, 
and  finally  reached  here." 

You  asked  me  to  give  an  account  of  the  sums  that  I  have  expended  for 
the  Underground  Rail  Road,  etc.  I  must  be  excused  from  doing  this,  as  if 
I  could  now  ascertain,  I  should  not  think  it  worth  while  to  mention.  I  must 
now  conclude  my  narrative,  by  giving,  with  some  additions,  an  account  of 
an  interesting  escape  from  Slavery,  which  was  written  by  my  wife,  more 
than  fifteen  years  ago,  for  Frederic  Douglass'  paper. 

[On  page  177  the  narrative  of  "The  Fleeing  Girl  of  Fifteen  "  is  so  fully 
written  out,  that  it  precludes  the  necessity  of  reproducing  a  large  portion  of 
this  story.] 

In  the  evening  a  friend  arrived,  bringing  with  him  a  bright,  handsome 
JOT/,  whom  he  called  Joe.  Most  heartily  was  "  Joe  "  welcomed,  and  deep 
was  the  thrill  which  we  felt,  as  we  looked  upon  him  and  thought  of  the 
perils  he  had  escaped.  The  next  day  was  Thanksgiving-day,  and  my  house 
was  thronged  with  guests.  In  an  upper  room,  with  a  comfortable  fire,  and 
the  door  locked,  sat  "  Joe,"  still  in  boy's  clothes,  to  be  able  to  escape  at  the 
first  intimation  of  danger,  but  with  a  smile  and  look  of  touching  gratitude, 
whenever  any  one  of  the  family  who  was  in  the  secret,  left  the  festive  group 
to  look  in  upon  the  interesting  stranger.  Not  one  of  us  can  ever  forget 
the  deep  abhorrence  of  Slavery,  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God,  that 
we  felt  that  day  as  we  moved  among  the  guests,  who  were  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  occupant  of  that  upper  room.  Some  curiosity  was  indeed 
excited  among  the  little  grandchildren,  who  saw  slices  of  turkey  and 
plum  pudding  sent  up  stairs.  It  was  "  Joe's "  first  Thanksgiving  dinner 
in  a  free  State. 

As  she  brought  nothing  away  with  her,  it  was  necessary,  the  next  day,  to 
procure  a  complete  wardrobe  for  a  girl,  which  was  carefully  packed  for  her 
to  take  with  her. 

The  second  day  after  "Joe's"  arrival,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Freeman,  pastor  of 
a  colored  church  in  Brooklyn,  agreed  to  accompany  her  to  her  uncle  Brown's 
in  Canada  West,  and  we  saw  them  depart,  knowing  the  danger  that  would 
beset  both  on  the  way.  The  following  is  part  of  a  letter  from  Mr.  F., 
giving  an  account  of  their  journey.  After  stating  that  they  left  New  York, 


G8G  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

in  the  cars  at  five  o'clock,  P.  M.,  and  through  the  providence  of  God,  went 
on  their  way  safely  and  speedily,  with  none  to  molest  or  to  make  them 
afraid,  he  says : 

"On  reaching  Rochester,  I  began  to  ask  myself  'how  shall  we  get  over 
Niagara  Falls?'  I  was  not  sure  that  the  cars  ran  across  the  Suspension 
Bridge;  besides,  I  felt  that  we  were  in  more  danger  here,  than  we  had  been 
at  any  other  place.  Knowing  that  there  was  a  large  reward  oifered  for  Joe's 
apprehension,  I  feared  there  might  be  some  lurking  spy  ready  to  pounce 
upon  us.  But  when  we  arrived  at  the  Bridge,  the  conductor  said  :  '  Sit 
still ;  this  car  goes  across.'  You  may  judge  of  my  joy  and  relief  of  mind, 
when  I  looked  out  and  was  sure  that  we  were  over !  Thank  God,  I 
exclaimed,  we  are  safe  in  Canada ! 

Having  now  a  few  minutes  before  the  cars  would  start  again,  I  sat  down 
and  hastily  wrote  a  few  lines,  to  inform  friends  at  home  of  our  safe  arrival. 
As  soon  as  possible,  I  ran  to  the  post-office  with  my  letter,  paid  the  postage, 
and  while  I  was  waiting  for  my  change,  the  car  bell  rang.  I  quickly 
returned,  and  in  a  few  minutes,  we  were  on  our  way  to  Chatham  (200  miles 
West).  That  place  we  reached  between  seven  and  eight  o'clock,  Saturday 
evening.  When  we  got  out,  we  met  a  gentleman  who  asked  me  if  I  wanted 
a  boarding-house.  I  said  yes  ;  and  he  invited  me  to  go  with  him.  I  asked 
him  if  there  was  any  way  for  us  to  get  to  Dresden  that  night.  He  answered, 
'  No,  it  is  a  dark  night,  and  a  muddy  road,  and  no  conveyance  can  be  got  to- 
night.' I  soon  found  that  we  must  stay  in  Chatham  until  Monday  morning. 

On  our  way  to  the  boarding-house,  the  gentleman  said  to  me  :  'Is  this 
your  son  with  you  ?'  I  answered,  no ;  and  then  I  asked  him,  if  he  knew  a 
man  living  in  D.,  by  the  name  of  Bradley.  He  replied  that  he  was  very 
well  acquainted  with  him,  and  then  inquired  if  that  young  man  was  Mr. 
Bradley's  brother.  I  said,  no — not  exactly  a  brother.  He  must  have 
thought  it  strange  that  I  did  not  give  him  a  more  definite  answer  to  his 
question. 

When  we  reached  the  house,  we  found  several  boarders  in  the  sitting- 
room  and  a  few  neighbors.  I  had  already  told  him  my  name,  but  with 
regard  to  Joe,  I  had  not  yet  had  a  chance  to  explain.  I,  of  course,  was 
introduced  to  those  who  were  in  the  room,  but  Joe — well,  Joe  took  a  seat, 
and  did  not  seem  to  be  troubled  about  an  introduction.  As  the  landlord 
was  going  out  of  the  room,  I  asked  permission  to  speak  with  him  alone. 
He  took  me  into  another  room,  and  I  said  to  him  :  '  That  young  man,  as 
you  call  him,  is  a  young  woman,  and  has  come  dressed  in  this  manner,  all 
the  way  from  Washington  City.  She  would  be  very  glad  now  to  be  able  to 
change  her  clothes.' 

He  was  greatly  surprised,  and  would  hardly  believe  that  it  was  so  ;  but 
said,  '  I  will  call  my  wife.'  She  came,  and  I  guess  all  the  women  in  the 
house  came  with  her.  They  soon  disappeared,  and  Joe  with  them,  who, 


LEWIS  TAPPAN.  G87 

after  being  absent  a  while,  returned,  and  was  introduced  as  Miss  Ann  Maria 
Weems.  The  whole  company  were  on  their  feet,  shook  hands,  laughed,  and 
rejoiced  ,  declaring  that  this  beat  all  they  had  ever  seen  before.  Chatham 
contains,  I  was  told,  more  than  three  thousand  fugitives.  The  weacher 
there,  is  not  colder  than  in  New  York. 

The  next  morning  was  the  Sabbath,  but  this  I  must  pass  and  hasten  to 
D.,  the  residence  of  Mr.  Bradley.  We  started  early  Monday  morning.  As 
a  part  of  the  road  was  very  bad,  we  did  not  reach  there  till  a  late  hour.  As 
•we  were  passing  along,  and  getting  near  to  the  place,  we  met  two  colored 
men  who  were  talking  together — one  on  horseback,  and  the  other  on  foot. 
I  inquired  of  them,  if  they  could  tell  me  how  far  it  was  to  Mr.  Bradley's. 
The  man  on  horseback  said  it  was  about  a  mile  further,  and  then  proceeded 
to  give  directions.  After  he  had  done  this,  he  said  :  'I  reckon  I  am  the  one 
that  you  want  to  find,  my  name  is  Bradley.'  Well,  I  replied,  probably  you  are 
the  man.  Just  then  Ann  Maria  turned  her  head  around.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  her  face,  he  exclaimed  :  '  My  Lord  !  Maria,  is  that  you  ?  Is  that  you  ? 
My  child,  is  it  you  ?  We  never  expected  to  see  you  again !  We  had  given 
you  up ;  O,  what  will  your  aunt  say  ?  It  will  kill  her  !  She  will  die !  It 
will  kill  her/ 

I  told  him,  that  as  I  was  obliged  to  leave  again  soon,  I  must  proceed. 
'  Well,'  said  he,  'you  go  on ;  I  am  just  going  over  to  M.,  and  will  be  back  in 
a  few  minutes.'  We  started  for  his  house,  and  he  towards  M.,  but  we  had 
only  gone  a  short  distance,  when  he  overtook  us,  exclaiming:  'I  can't  go  to 
M.,'  and  began  talking  to  Ann  Maria,  asking  her  all  about  her  friends  and 
relatives,  whom  they  had  left  behind,  and  about  his  old  master,  and  his 
wife's  master,  from  whom  they  had  run  away  four  years  before.  As  we 
approached  the  house,  he  said  :  '  I  will  go  and  open  the  gate,  and  have  a 
good  fire  to  warm  you.'  When  he  came  up  to  the  gate,  he  met  his  wife, 
who  was  returning  from  a  store  or  neighbor's  house,  and  he  said  to  her, 
"That's  Ann  Maria  coming  yonder.'  She  stopped  until  we  came  to  the  gate; 
the  tears  were  rolling  from  her  eyes,  and  she  exclaimed :  'Ann  Maria,  is  it 
you  ?'  The  girl  leaped  from  the  wagon,  and  they  fell  on  each  other's  necks, 
weeping  and  rejoicing.  Such  a  scene  I  never  before  witnessed.  She,  who 
had  been  given  up  as  lost,  was  now  found  !  She,  who  but  a  short  time 
before,  had  been,  as  they  supposed,  a  slave  for  life,  was  now  free. 

We  soon  entered  the  house,  and  after  the  first  gush  of  feeling  had  some- 
what subsided,  they  both  began  a  general  inquiry  about  the  friends  they  had 
left  behind.  Every  now  and  then,  the  aunt  would  break  out:  '  My  child, 
you  are  here !  Thank  God,  you  are  free  !  We  were  talking  about  you  to- 
day, and  saying,  we  shall  never  see  you  again ;  and  now  here  you  are 
with  us.'  I  remained  about  an  hour  and  a  half  with  them,  took  dinner, 
and  then  started  for  home,  rejoicing  that  I  had  been*  to  a  land  where  colored 
men  are  free. 


688  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

This  Mr.  Bradley,  who  ran  away  with  himself  and  wife  about  four  years 
ago  from  the  land  of  whips  and  chains,  is  the  owner  of  two  farms,  and  is 
said  to  be  worth  three  thousand  dollars.  Can  slaves  take  care  of  them- 
selves?" 

You  may  well  suppose  that  the  receipt  of  this  letter  gave  us  great 
pleasure,  and  called  forth  heartfelt  thanksgiving  to  Him,  who  had  watched 
over  this  undertaking,  and  protected  all  concerned  in  it.  A  bright  and 
promising  girl  had  been  rescued  from  the  untold  miseries  of  a  slave  woman's 
life,  and  found  a  good  home,  where  she  would  have  an  opportunity  to 
acquire  an  education  and  be  trained  for  a  useful  and  happy  life.  Mr. 
Bradley  intended  to  send  for  her  parents,  and  hoped  to  prevail  on  them  to 

come  and  live  with  him.  m    i  T  m 

Truly  yours,        LEWIS  TAPPAN. 


ELIJAH  F.  PENNYPACKER, 

"Whose  name  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  owed 
his  peculiarly  fine  nature  to  a  mother  of  large  physical  proportions,  and  cor- 
respondingly liberal  mental  and  spiritual  endowments.  She  was  a  natural 
sovereign  in  the  sphere  in  which  she  moved,  and  impressed  her  son  with  the 
qualities  which  made  his  Anti-slavery  life  nothing  but  an  expression  of  the 
rules  of  conduct  which  governed  him  in  all  other  particulars.  Believing  in 
his  inmost  soul  in  principles  of  rectitude,  all  men  believed  in  him,  his 
"  yea,"  or  "  nay,"  passing  current  wherever  he  went.  Tall,  dignified,  and 
commanding,  he  had  that  in  his  face  which  inspired  immediate  confidence. 
Said  one  who  looked :  "  If  that  is  not  a  good  man,  there  is  no  use  in  the 
Lord  writing  His  signature  on  human  countenances."  Even  in  early  youth, 
honors  which  he  never  sought,  were  pressed  upon  him,  as  he  gave  assurance 
of  ability  commensurate  with  his  worth.  He  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  for  five  sessions,  where  he  became  the  personal  friend  of  the 
Governor,  Joseph  Ritner,  and  also  of  Thaddeus  Stevens.  At  the  request 
of  the  latter,  he  consented  to  occupy  the  position  of  Secretary  to  the  Board 
of  Canal  Commissioners,  and  two  years  after,  by  the  wishes  of  Mr.  Ritner, 
took  a  seat  in  the  Canal  Board,  becoming  a  co-worker  with  Thaddeus 
Stevens.  Here  ripened  a  friendship,  which  afterward  became  of  national 
importance,  for  although  a  nature  so  positive  as  that  of  Thaddeus  Stevens 
could  scarcely  be  said  to  be  under  the  influence  of  any  other  mind,  still,  if 
there  were  those  who  exercised  a  moral  sway,  sustaining  this  courageous 
republican  leader,  at  a  higher  level  than  he  might  otherwise  have  attained, 
Elijah  F.  Pennypacker  was  surely  amongst  them.  Almost  antipodal  as  they 
were  in  certain  respects,  each  recognized  the  genuine  ring  of  the  other,  and 
admired  and  respected  that  which  was  most  true  and  noble.  The  purity, 
simplicity  and  high-minded  honor  which  distinguished  the  younger,  had  its 


ELIJAH  F.   PENNYPACKER.  689 

effect  on  the  elder,  even  while  he  smiled  at  the  inflexibility  which  would  not 
swerve  one  hair's  breadth  from  the  line  of  right.  The  story  is  often  told, 
how,  when  this  young  man's  conscience  stood  bolt  upright  in  the  way  of 
what  was  deemed  a  desirable  arrangement,  Stevens  one  day  exclaimed :  "  It 

don't  do,  Pennypacker,  to  be  so  d d  honest."  Peunypacker  stood  his 

ground,  and  the  life-long  respect  which  Stevens  ever  after  awarded,  proved 
that  he  at  least,  thought  it  did  do. 

When  it  became  clear  to  his  mind,  that  a  great  battle  was  to  be  fought 
between  Liberty  and  Slavery  in  America,  Mr.  Pennypacker  felt  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  turn  aside  from  the  sunny  paths  of  political  preferment,  into  the 
shadows  of  obscure  life,  and  ally  himself  with  the  misrepresented,  despised 
and  outcast  Abolitionists,  ever  after  devoting  himself  assiduously  to  the  pro- 
motion of  the  cause  of  Freedom.  Notwithstanding  his  natural  modesty,  here 
as  elsewhere,  he  took  a  conspicuous  position.  At  home,  in  the  local  Anti- 
slavery  Society  of  his  neighborhood,  he  was  for  many  years  chosen  president, 
as  he  was  also  of  the  Chester  county  Anti-slavery  Society,  and  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Anti-slavery  Society. 

Soon  after  his  retirement  from  public  life,  he  united  himself  with  the 
Society  of  Friends,  but  was  much  too  radical  to  be  an  acceptable  addition. 
For  a  long  time  he  was  endured  rather  than  endorsed,  and  it  was  only  when 
such  anti-slavery  feelings  as  he  cherished  became  generally  diffused  through- 
out the  Society,  that  he  found  the  unity  he  desired  and  expected.  Whatever 
may  have  been  his  trials  here  or  elsewhere,  he  found  a  rich  reward  for  his 
faithfulness  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  growth  which  he  attained  by  asso- 
ciation with  the  most  advanced  minds  of  the  time,  and  he  has  often  been 
heard  to  say  that  no  part  of  his  life  has  been  more  fully  and  generously 
compensated  than  that  devoted  to  the  Anti-slavery  cause. 

His  home,  near  Phcenixville,  Chester  county,  Pa.,  was  an  important 
station  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  the  majority  of  fugitives  proceeding 
through  the  southern  rural  districts  of  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  passing 
through  his  hands.  At  all  times  he  was  deeply  interested  in  their  welfare, 
and  in  his  hospitality  towards  them,  had  the  entire  sympathy  and  co-opera- 
tion of  his  family,  they,  like  himself,  being  earnest  abolitionists,  but  his 
more  important  duty  of  influencing  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  freedom, 
overshadowed  his  labors  in  this  department.  In  steadfastness  and  integrity 
he  stood  beside  Findley  Coates  and  Thomas  Whitson,  a  trio  who  will  long 
be  remembered  in  their  native  State. 

So  long  as  Dr.  B.  Fussell  resided  in  the  northern  section  of  Chester 
county,  he  and  Elijah  F.  Pennypacker,  were  companions  in  Anti -slavery  and 
other  reform  labors,  as  well  as  in  business  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
Differing  widely  in  temperament  and  mental  structure,  these  two  men  were 
harmonious  in  spirit,  and  a  close  bond  of  sympathy  and  affection  existed 
between  them.  It  was  a  mutual  pleasure  to  work  as  brothers,  and  after- 
44 


690  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ward  to  rejoice  together  in  labor  accomplished.  One  of  the  last  visits 
which  roused  the  flickering  animation  of  the  dying  physician,  was  from  this 
friend  of*  more  vigorous  years,  and  the  voice  which  gave  fitting  expression  to 
the  worth  of  the  departed,  at  his  funeral,  was  that  of  Elijah  F.  Penny- 
packer. 

Like  that  of  the  highest  grade  of  men  everywhere,  his  appreciation  of 
woman  has  ever  been  keen  and  true,  and  demanding  the  full  rights  of 
humanity,  he  makes  no  distinction,  either  on  account  of  sex  or  color.  In 
his  own  family,  he  has  always  encouraged  the  pursuit  of  any  occupation 
congenial  to  the  person  choosing  it ;  whether  or  not,  it  were  a  departure 
from  the  routine  of  custom,  and  in  educational  advantages  he  has  ever 
demanded  the  widest  possible  culture  for  all.  Wherever  known,  he  is  esti- 
mated as  a  pillar  in  the  temperance  cause.  Gentle,  modest,  courteous  and 
benignant,  he  combines,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  strength  and  tenderness, 
courage  and  sympathy.  At  one  time,  holding  at  bay  the  powers  of  evil  and 
baffling  the  most  determined  opponents  by  his  manly  adherence  to  right;  at 
another  he  may  be  found  yielding  to  impressions  bidding  him  to  seek  the 
source  of  some  hidden  private  sorrow,  and  with  delicate  touch,  binding  up  a 
flowing  wound,  or  offering  himself  as  the  defender  and  protector  of  such  as 
may  need  his  brotherly  care.  Obedient  to  these  impressions,  he  rarely  errs 
in  his  ministrations,  and  whether  his  errand  be  to  remonstrate  with  the  evil 
doer,  setting  his  sins  clearly  and  vividly  before  him,  or  to  strengthen  and 
encourage  suffering  innocence,  he  is  alike  successful.  Men,  whom  he  has 
warned  in  reproof  when  it  cost  the  utmost  bravery  to  do  so,  have  become 
his  confiding  friends,  and  have  been  known  afterward  to  entrust  him  with 
heavy  pecuniary  responsibilities,  and  to  point  him  out  to  their  children  as  an 
example  worthy  of  imitation.  Those  whose  griefs  he  has  frequently  soft- 
ened, have  laid  upon  his  head  a  crown  of  blessing  whiter  than  the  honors 
which  come  with  his  silver  hairs,  and  all  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact  in 
business,  in  duty,  or  in  social  intercourse,  acknowledge  the  presence,  the 
wide  usefulness  and  influence  of  the  upright  man. 

The  memories  of  the  choice  spirits  he  used  to  meet  in  the  Anti-slavery 
gatherings ;  their  mutual  and  kindly  greetings ;  the  holy  resolves  which 
animated  them  and  made  the  time  hours  of  exaltation,  now  serve  to 
brighten  the  pathway  of  his  declining  years,  and  to  throw  a  halo  around 
the  restfulness  of  his  home,  as  in  peace  of  mind  he  looks  abroad  over  his 
beloved  country,  to  see  millions  of  enfranchised  men  beginning  to  avail 
themselves  of  its  pecuniary,  educational  and  political  advantages,  and 
beholds  them  starting  on  a  career  of  material  and  spiritual  prosperity,  with 
a  rapidity  commensurate  with  the  expansive  force  of  the  repressed  energies 
of  a  race. 


ELIJAH  F.  PENNYPACKER. 


See  p.  688 


WILLIAM  WRIGHT. 


gee  p.  (i'Jl. 


DR.  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL. 


Sec  p.  6'JO. 


ROBERT  PURVIS. 


See  p.  711 


STATION  MASTERS  ON  THE  ROAD, 


WILLIAM    WRIGHT.  G91 


WILLIAM  WRIGHT. 

MEMORIAL. 

WILLIAM  WRIGHT,  a  distinguished  abolitionist  of  Adams  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, was  born  on  the  21st  of  December,  1788.  Various  circumstances 
conspired  to  make  this  unassuming  Quaker  an  earnest  Abolitionist  and 
champion  of  the  oppressed  in  every  land  and  of  every  nationality  and  color. 
His  uncle,  Benjamin  Wright,  and  cousin,  Samuel  13.  Wright,  were  active 
members  of  the  old  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  this  state  were  often  engaged  in  lawsuits  with 
slave-holders  to  compel  them  to  release  their  bondmen,  according  to  the 
requirements  of  the  law.  William  Wright  grew  up  under  the  influence  of 
the  teachings  of  these  relatives.  Joined  to  this,  his  location  caused  him  to 
take  an  extraordinary  interest  in  Underground  Rail  Road  affairs.  He 
lived  near  the  foot  of  the  southern  slope  of  the  South  Mountain,  a  spur  of 
the  Alleghenies  which  extends,  under  various  names,  to  Chattanooga, 
Tennessee.  This  mountain  was  followed  in  its  course  by  hundreds  of  fugi- 
tives until  they  got  into  Pennsylvania,  and  were  directed  to  William 
Wright's  house. 

In  November,  1817,  William  Wright  married  Phebe  Wierman,  (born  on 
the  8th  of  February,  1790,)  daughter  of  a  neighboring  farmer,  and  sister  of 
Hannah  W.  Gibbons,  wife  of  Daniel  Gibbons,  a  notice  of  whom  appears 
elsewhere  in  this  work.  Phebe  Wright  was  the  assistant  of  her  husband  in 
every  good  work,  and  their  married  life  of  forty-eight  years  was  a  long 
period  of  united  and  efficient  labor  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  She  still  (1 871) 
survives  him.  William  and  Phebe  Wright  began  their  Underground  Rail 
Road  labors  about  the  year  1819.  Hamilton  Moore,  who  ran  away  from 
Baltimore  county,  Maryland,  was  the  first  slave  aided  by  them.  His  mas- 
ter came  for  him,  but  William  Wright  and  Joel  Wierman,  Phebe  Wright's 
brother,  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  rescued  him  and  sent  him  to 
Canada. 

In  the  autumn  of  1828,  as  Phebe  Wright,  surrounded  by  her  little 
children,  came  out  upon  her  back  porch  in  the  performance  of  some  house- 
hold duty,  she  saw  standing  before  her  in  the  shade  of  the  early  November 
morning,  'a  colored  man  without  hat,  shoes,  or  coat.  He  asked  if  Mr. 
Wright  lived  there,  and  upon  receiving  an  affirmative  reply,  said  that  he 
wanted  work.  The  good  woman,  comprehending  the  situation  at  a  glance, 
told  him  to  come  into  the  house,  get  warm,  and  wait  till  her  husband  came 
home.  He  was  shivering  with  cold  and  fright.  When  William  Wright 
came  home  the  fugitive  told  his  story.  He  came  from  Hagerstown,  Mary- 
land, having  been  taught  the  blacksmith's  trade  there.  In  this  business 
it  was  his  duty  to  keep  an  account  of  all  the  work  done  by  him,  which 


692  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

record  he  showed  to  his  master  at  the  end  of  the  week.  Knowing  no  written 
character  but  the  figure  5  he  kept  this  account  by  means  of  a  curious  system 
of  hieroglyphics  in  which  straight  marks  meant  horse  shoes  put  on,  circles, 
cart-wheels  fixed,  etc.  One  day  in  happening  to  see  his  master's  book  he 
noticed  that  wherever  five  and  one  were  added  the  figure  6  was  used. 
Having  practiced  this  till  he  could  make  it  he  ever  after  used  it  in  his  ac- 
counts. As  his  master  was  looking  over  these  one  day,  he  noticed  the  new 
figure  and  compelled  the  slave  to  tell  how  he  had  learned  it.  He  flew  into  a 
rage,  and  said,  "  I'll  teach  you  how  to  be  learning  new  figures,"  and  picking 
up  a  horse-shoe  threw  it  at  him,  but  fortunately  for  the  audacious  chattel, 
missed  his  aim.  Notwithstanding  his  ardent  desire  for  liberty,  the  slave 
considered  it  his  duty  to  remain  in  bondage  until  he  was  twenty-one  years 
old  in  order  to  repay  by  his  labor  the  trouble  and  expense  which  his  master 
had  had  in  rearing  him.  On  the  evening  of  his  twenty-first  anniversary  he 
turned  his  face  toward  the  North  star,  and  started  for  a  land  of  freedom. 
Arriving  at  Reisterstown,  a  village  on  the  Westminster  turnpike  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Baltimore  and  thirty-five  miles  from  Mr.  Wright's 
house,  he  was  arrested  and  placed  in  the  bar-room  of  the  country  tavern  in 
care  of  the  landlady  to  wait  until  his  captors,  having  finished  some  work  in 
which  they  were  engaged,  could  take  him  back  to  his  master.  The  land- 
lady, being  engaged  in  getting  supper,  set  him  to  watch  the  cakes  that  were 
baking.  As  she  was  passing  back  and  forth  he  ostentatiously  removed  his 
hat,  coat,  and  shoes,  and  placed  them  in  the  bar-room.  Having  done  this, 
he  said  to  her,  "  I  will  step  out  a  moment."  This  he  did,  she  sending  a 
boy  to  watch  him.  When  the  boy  came  out  he  appeared  to  be  very  sick 
and  called  hastily  for  water.  The  boy  ran  in  to  get  it.  Now  was  his 
goldeu  opportunity.  Jumping  the  fence  he  ran  to  a  clump  of  trees  which 
occupied  low  ground  behind  the  house  'and  concealing  himself  in  it  for  a 
moment,  ran  and  continued  to  run,  he  knew  not  whither,  until  he  found 
himself  at  the  toll  gate  near  Petersburg,  in  Adams  county.  Before  this  he 
had  kept  in  the  fields  and  forests,  but  now  found  himself  compelled  to  come 
out  upon  the  road.  The  toll-gate  keeper,  seeing  at  once  that  he  was  a  fugi- 
tive, said  to  him,  u  I  guess  you  don't  know  the  road."  "  I  guess  I  can  find 
it  myself,"  was  the  reply.  "  Let  me  show  you,"  said  the  man.  "  You  may 
if  you  please,"  replied  the  fugitive.  Taking  him  out  behind  his  dwelling, 
he  pointed  across  the  fields  to  a  new  brick  farm-house,  and  said,  "  Go  there 
and  inquire  for  Mr.  Wright."  The  slave  thanked  him  and  did  as  he  was 
directed. 

He  remained  with  William  Wright  until  April,  1829.  During  this  short 
time  he  learned  to  read,  write,  and  cipher  as  far  as  the  single  rule  of  three, 
as  it  was  then  called,  or  simple  proportion.  During  his  residence  with 
William  Wright,  nothing  could  exceed  his  kindness  or  gratitude  to  the 
whole  family.  He  learned  to  graft  trees,  and  thus  rendered  great  assistance 


WILLIAM  WEIGHT.  693 

to  William  Wright  in  his  necessary  business.  When  working  in  the  kitchen 
during  the  winter  he  would  never  allow  Phebe  Wright  to  perform  any  hard 
labor,  always  scrubbing  the  floor  and  lifting  heavy  burdens  for  her.  Before 
he  went  away  in  the  spring  he  assumed  a  name  which  his  talents,  persever- 
ance, and  genius  have  rendered  famous  in  both  hemispheres,  that  of  James 
W.  C.  Pennington.  The  initial  W.  was  for  his  benefactor's  family,  and  C. 
for  the  family  of  his  former  master.  From  William  Wright's  he  went  to 
Daniel  Gibbons',  thence  to  Delaware  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  from  there 
to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  where,  while  performing  the  duties  of  janitor  at  Yale 
College,  he  completed  the  studies  of  the  college  course.  After  a  few  years, 
he  went  to  Heidelberg,  where  the  degree  of  D.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him. 
He  never  forgot  William  Wright  and  his  family,  and  on  his  return  from 
Europe  brought  them  each  a  present.  The  story  of  his  escape  and  wonder- 
ful abilities  was  spread  over  England.  An  American  acquaintance  of  the 
Wright  family  was  astonished,  on  visiting  an  Anti-slavery  fair  in  London 
many  years  ago,  to  see  among  the  pictures  for  sale  there,  one  entitled, 
"  William  and  Phebe  Wright  receiving  James  W.  C.  Pennington."  The 
Dr.  died  in  Florida,  in  1870,  where  he  had  gone  to  preach  and  assist  in 
opening  schools  amongst  the  Freemen. 

In  1842  a  party  of  sixteen  slaves  came  to  York,  Pa.,  from  Baltimore 
county,  Md.  Here  they  were  taken  in  charge  by  William  Wright,  Joel 
Fisher,  Dr.  Lewis,  and  William  Yocum.  The  last  named  was  a  constable, 
and  used  to  assist  the  Underground  Rail  Road  managers  by  pretending  to 
hunt  fugitives  with  the  kidnappers.  Knowing  where  the  fugitives  were  he 
was  enabled  to  hunt  them  in  the  opposite  direction  from  that  in  which  they 
had  gone,  and  thus  give  them  time  to  escape.  This  constable  and  a  colored 
man  of  York  took  this  party  one  by  one  out  into  Samuel  Willis'  corn-field, 
near  York,  and  hid  them  under  the  shocks.  The  following  night  Dr. 
Lewis  piloted  them  to  near  his  house,  at  Lewisburg,  York  county,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Conewago.  Here  they  were  concealed  several  days,  Dr.  Lewis 
carrying  provisions  to  them  in  his  saddle-bags.  When  the  search  for  them 
had  been  given  up  in  William  Wright's  neighborhood,  he  went  down  .to 
Lewisburg  and  in  company  with  Dr.  Lewis  took  the  whole  sixteen  across  the 
Conewago,  they  fording  the  river  and  carrying  the  fugitives  across  on  their 
horses.  It  was  a  gloomy  night  in  November.  Every  few  moments  clouds 
floated  across  the  moon,  alternately  lighting  up  and  shading  the  river,  which, 
swelled  by  autumn  rains,  ran  a  flood.  William  Wright  and  Dr.  Lewis 
mounted  men  or  women  behind  and  took  children  in  their  arms.  When  the 
last  one  got  over,  the  doctor,  who  professed  to  be  an  atheist,  exclaimed,  "Great 
God !  is  this  a  Christian  laud,  and  are  Christians  thus  forced  to  flee  for  their 
liberty?"  William  Wright  guided  this  party  to  his  house  that  night  and 
concealed  them  in  a  neighboring  forest  until  it  was  safe  for  them  to  pro- 
ceed on  their  way  to  Canada. 


694  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Just  in  the  beginning  of  harvest  of  the  year  1851,  four  men  came  off  from 
Washington  county,  Maryland.  They  were  almost  naked  and  seemed  to 
have  come  through  great  difficulties,  their  clothing  being  almost  entirely 
torn  off.  As  soon  as  they  came,  William  Wright  went  to  the  store  and  got 
four  pair  of  shoes.  It  was  soon  heard  that  their  masters  and  the  officers  had 
gone  to  Harrisburg  to  hunt  them.  Two  of  them,  Fenton  and  Tom,  were 
concealed  at  William  Wright's,  and  the  other  two,  Sam  and  one  whose  name 
has  been  forgotten,  at  Joel  Wiermau's.  In  a  day  or  two,  as  William 
Wright,  a  number  of  carpenters,  and  other  workmen,  among  whom  were 
Fenton  and  Tom,  were  at  work  in  the  barn,  a  party  of  men  rode  up 
and  recognized  the  colored  men  as  slaves  of  one  of  their  number.  The 
colored  men  said  they  had  left  their  coats  at  the  house.  William  Wright 
looked  earnestly  at  them  and  told  them  to  go  to  the  house  and  get  their 
coats.  They  went  off,  and  one  of  them  was  observed  by  one  of  the  family  to 
take  his  coat  hastily  down  from  where  it  hung  in  one  of  the  outhouses,  a  few 
moments  afterward.  After  conversing  a  few  moments  at  the  barn,  William 
Wright  brought  the  slave-holders  down  to  the  house,  where  he,  his  wife 
and  daughters  engaged  them  in  a  controversy  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
which  lasted  about  an  hour.  One  of  them  seemed  very  much  impressed, 
and  labored  hard  to  convince  his  host  that  he  was  a  good  master  and  would 
treat  his  men  well.  Finally  one  of  the  party  asked  William  Wright  to  pro- 
duce the  men.  He  replied  that  he  would  not  do  that,  that  they  might 
search  his  premises  if  they  wished  to,  but  they  could  not  compel  him  to 
bring  forth  the  fugitives.  Seeing  that  they  had  been  duped,  they  became 
very  angry  and  proceeded  forthwith  to  search  the  house  and  all  the  out- 
houses immediately  around  it,  without,  however,  finding  those  whom  they 
sought.  As  they  left  the  house  and  went  toward  the  barn,  William  Wright, 
waving  his  hand  toward  the  former,  said,  "  You.  see  they  are  not  anywhere 
there."  They  then  went  to  the  barn  and  gave  it  a  thorough  search.  Between 
it  and  the  house,  a  little  away  from  the  path,  but  in  plain  sight,  stood  the 
carriage-house,  which  they  passed  by  without  seeming  to  notice.  After  they 
had  gone,  poor  Tom  was  found  in  this  very  house,  curled  up  under  the  seats 
of  the  old-fashioned  family  carriage.  He  had  never  come  to  the  house 
at  all,  but  had  heard  the  voices  of  his  hunters  from  his  hiding-place,  during 
their  whole  search.  About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Fenton  was  found 
by  William  Wright  out  in  the  field.  He  had  run  along  the  bed  of  a  small 
water  course,  dry  at  that  time  of  year,  until  he  came  to  a  rye  field  amid 
whose  high  grain  he  hid  himself  until  he  thought  the  danger  was  past. 
From  William  Wright's  the  slave-catchers  went  to  Joel  Wierman's,  where, 
despite  all  that  could  be  done,  they  got  poor  Sam,  took  him  off  to  Maryland 
and  sold  him  to  the  traders  to  be  taken  far  south. 

In  1856  William  Wright  was  a  delegate  from  Adams  county  to  the 
Convention  at  Philadelphia  which  nominated  John  C.  Fremont  for  Presi- 


DR.  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL.  695 

dent  of  the  United  States.  As  the  counties  were  called  in  alphabetical 
order,  he  responded  first  among  the  Pennsylvania  delegation.  It  is  thought 
that  he  helped  away  during  his  whole  life,  nearly  one  thousand  slaves. 
During  his  latter  years,  he  was  aided  in  the  good  work  by  his  children,  who 
never  hesitated  to  sacrifice  their  own  pleasure  in  order  to  help  away 
fugitives. 

His  convictions  on  the  subject  of  slavery  seem  to  have  been  born  with 
him,  to  have  grown  with  his  growth,  and  strengthened  with  his  strength. 
He  could  not  remember  when  he  first  became  interested  in  the  subject. 

William  Wright  closed  his  long  and  useful  life  on  the  25th  of  October, 
1865.  More  fortunate  than  his  co-laborer,  Daniel  Gibbons,  he  lived  to  see 
the  triumph  of  the  cause  in  which  he  had  labored  all  his  life.  His  latter 
years  were  cheered  by  the  remembrance  of  his  good  deeds  in  the  cause  of 
human  freedom.  Modest  and  retiring,  he  would  not  desire,  as  he  does  not 
need,  a  eulogy.  His  labors  speak  for  themselves,  and  are  such  as  are 
recorded  upon  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life. 


DR.  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL. 

Dr.  Fussell,  whose  death  occurred  within  the  current  year,  was  no  ordi- 
nary man.  He  was  born  in  Chester  county,  Pa.,  in  1794,  his  ancestors 
being  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  principally  of  English  origin, 
who  arrived  in  America  during  the  early  settlement  of  Pennsylvania,  some 
being  of  the  number  who,  with  William  Penn,  built  their  homes  on  the 
unbroken  soil,  where  Philadelphia  now  stands. 

He  inherited  all  the  bravery  of  these  early  pioneers,  who  left  their  homes 
for  the  sake  of  religious  freedom,  the  governing  principle  of  his  life  being  a 
direct  antagonism  to  every  form  of  oppression.  Removing  in  early  man- 
hood, to  Maryland,  where  negro  Slavery  was  legally  protected,  he  became 
one  of  the  most  active  opponents  of  the  system,  being  a  friend  and  co-laborer 
of  Elisha  Tyson,  known  and  beloved  as  "  Father  Tyson,"  by  all  the  slaves 
of  the  region,  and  to  the  community  at  large,  as  one  of  the  most  philan- 
thropic of  men. 

While  teaching  school  during  the  week,  as  a  means  of  self-education,  and 
reading  medicine  at  night,  the  young  student  expended  his  surplus  energy 
in  opening  a  Sabbath-school  for  colored  persons,  teaching  them  the  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge,  not  for  a  few  hours  only,  but  for  the  whole  day,  and 
frequently  finding  as  many  as  ninety  pupils  collected  to  receive  the  inestima- 
ble boon  which  gave  them  the  power  of  reading  the  Bible  for  themselves. 
,To  the  deeply  religious  nature  of  these  Africans,  this  was  the  one  blessing 
they  prized  above  all  others  in  his  power  to  bestow,  and  the  overflowing 
gratitude  they  gave  in  return,  was  a  memory  he  cherished  to  the  latest  years 
of  his  life. 


696  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

After  his  graduation  in  medicine,  being  at  one  time  called  upon  to  deliver 
an  address  before  the  Medical  Society  of  Baltimore,  in  the  midst  of  a  pro- 
slavery  audience,  and  before  slave-holding  professors  and  men  of  authority, 
Dr.  Fussell,  with  a  courage  scarcely  to  be  comprehended  at  this  late  day, 
denounced  "  the  most  preposterous  and  cruel  practice  of  Slavery,  as  replete 
with  the  causes  of  disease,"  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the  day  would  come 
"  when  Slavery  and  cruelty  should  have  no  abiding  place  in  the  whole 
habitable  earth ;  when  the  philosopher  and  the  pious  Christian  could  use  the 
salutation  of  f  brother/  and  the  physician  and  divine  be  as  one  man ;  when 
the  rich  and  the  poor  should  know  no  distinction ;  the  great  and  the  small 
be  equal  in  dominion,  and  the  arrogant  master  and  his  menial  slave  should 
make  a  truce  of  friendship  with  each  other,  all  following  the  same  law  of 
reason,  all  guided  by  the  same  light  of  Truth  ! " 

As  a  matter  of  course,  a  spirit  so  thoroughly  awake  to  the  welfare  of 
humanity,  would  hail  with  joy  and  welcome  as  a  brother,  the  appearance  of 
such  a  devoted  advocate  of  freedom,  as  Benjamin  Lundy ;  and,  with  all  the 
warmth  of  his  nature,  would  give  love,  admiration,  and  reverence  to  the 
later  apostle  of  immediate  emancipation,  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

It  was  one  of  the  pleasures  of  Dr.  Fussell's  life  that  he  had  been  enabled 
to  take  the  first  number  of  the  "  Liberator"  and  to  continue  a  subscriber 
without  intermission,  until  the  battle  being  ended,  the  last  number  was 
announced. 

He  was  himself,  one  of  the  most  earnest  workers  in  the  Anti-slavery 
cause,  never  omitting  in  a  fearless  manner,  to  embrace  an  opportunity 
to  protest  against  the  encouragement  of  a  pro-slavery  spirit. 

Returning  to  Pennsylvania,  to  practice  his  profession,  his  home  became 
one  of  the  havens  where  the  hunted  fugitive  from  Slavery  found  food, 
shelter  and  rest.  Laboring  in  connection  with  the  late  Thomas  Garrett,  of 
Wilmington,  Del.,  and  with  many  others,  at  available  points,  about  two 
thousand  fugitives  passed  through  his  hands,  on  their  way  to  freedom,  and 
amongst  these,  he  frequently  had  the  delight  of  welcoming  some  of  his  old 
Sabbath-school  pupils.  The  mutual  recognition  was  sometimes  touching  in 
the  extreme. 

In  later  life,  his  anecdotes  and  reminiscences,  told  in  the  vivid  style, 
resulting  from  a  remarkably  retentive  memory,  which  could  recall  word,  tone, 
and  gesture,  brought  to  life,  some  of  the  most  interesting  of  his  experiences 
with  these  fleeing  bondmen,  whose  histories  no  romance  could  ever  equal. 

Being  one  of  the  signers  of  the  "  Declaration  of-  Sentiments/'  issued  by 
the  American  Anti-slavery  Society  in  1833,  he  had  also  the  gratification 
of  attending  the  last  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society, 
called  to  celebrate  the  downfall  of  Slavery  in  America,  and  the  dissolution 
of  an  organization  whose  purpose  was  effected.  There  are  those,  who  may 
remember  how  at  that  time,  in  perfect  forgetfulness  of  self,  the  relation  of 


DR.  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL.  697 

the  heroism  of  his  friend,  Elisha  Tyson,  seemed  to  recall  for  a  moment,  the 
vigor  of  youth  to  render  the  decrepitude  of  age  almost  majestic. 

But  it  was  not  Slavery  alone,  which  occupied  the  thoughts  and  attention 
of  this  large-hearted  man.  He  was  well  known  as  an  advocate  of  common 
school  education,  of  temperance,  and  of  every  other  interest,  which,  in  his 
view,  pertained  to  the  welfare  of  man. 

Unfortunately,  he  was  addicted  to  the  use  of  tobacco  from  his  youth. 
Having  become  convinced  that  it  was  an  evil,  he,  for  the  sake  of  consistency 
and  as  an  example  to  others,  resolutely  abandoned  the  habit,  at  the  age  of 
seventy.  He  was  fond  of  accrediting  his  resolve  to  a  very  aged  relative, 
who,  in  remonstrating  with  him  upon  the  subject,  replied  to  his  remark,  that 
a  sudden  cessation  from  a  practice  so  long  indulged  in,  might  result  in  his 
death  :  "  Well,  die,  then,  and  go  to  heaven  decently." 

As  a  practitioner  of  medicine,  he  was  eminently  successful,  his  intense 
sympathy  with  suffering,  seeming  to  elevate  his  faculties  and  give  them 
unwonted  vigor  in  tracing  the  hidden  causes  of  disease,  and  in  suggesting  to 
his  mind  alleviating  agencies.  His  patients  felt  an  unspeakable  comfort  in 
his  presence,  well  knowing  that  the  best  possible  remedy  which  his  know- 
ledge, his  judgment  or  his  experience  suggested,  would  be  selected,  let  the 
difficulty  and  inconvenience  to  himself  be  what  it  would.  In  cases  where 
life  hung  trembling  in  the  balance,  he  would  watch  night  after  night,  feed- 
ing the  flickering  flame  until  he  perceived  it  brighten,  and  this  in  the  abode 
of  misery  just  as  freely  as  in  the  home  of  wealth.  The  life-long  affection 
of  those  whom  he  recalled,  was  his  reward  where  often  none  was  sought 
or  expected. 

He  believed  in  woman  as  only  a  thoroughly  good  man  can,  and  from  early 
youth,  he  had  been  impressed  with  her  peculiar  fitness  for  the  practice  of 
medicine.  The  experience  of  a  physician  confirmed  him  in  his  sentiments, 
and  it  became  one  of  his  most  earnest  aspirations  to  open  to  her  all  the 
avenues  to  the  study  of  medicine.  In  the  year  1840,  he  gave  regular 
instruction  to  a  class  of  ladies,  and  it  was  through  one  of  these  pupils,  that 
the  first  female  graduate  in  America  was  interested  in  the  study  of  medicine. 
In  1846  he  communicated  to  a  few  liberal-minded  professional  men,  a  plan 
for  the  establishment  of  a  college  of  the  highest  grade  for  the  medical  educa- 
tion of  women.  This  long-cherished  plan,  hallowed  to  him  by  the  approba- 
tion of  a  beloved  wife,  was  well  received.  Others,  with  indomitable  zeal, 
took  up  the  work,  and  finally,  after  a  succession  of  disappointments  and 
discouragements  from  causes  within  and  without,  the  Woman's  College,  on 
North  College  avenue,  Philadelphia,  starting  from  the  germ  of  his  thought, 
entered  on  the  career  of  prosperity  it  is  so  well  entitled  to  receive.  Though 
never  at  any  time  connected  with  the  college,  he  regarded  its  success  with 
the  most  affectionate  interest,  considering  its  proposition  as  one  of  the  most 
important  results  of  his  life. 


698  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Happy  in  having  lived  to  see  Slavery  abolished,  and  believing  in  the 
speedy  elevation  of  woman  to  her  true  dignity  as  joint  sovereign  with  man, 
and  in  the  mitigation  of  the  evils  of  war,  intemperance,  poverty,  and  crime, 
which  might  be  expected  to  follow  such  a  result,  he  rested  from  his  labors, 
and  died  in  peace. 

THOMAS   SHIPLEY.* 

Thomas  Shipley,  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  early  generation  of  philan- 
thropists who  devoted  their  lives  to  the  extinction  of  human  slavery,  was 
born  in  Philadelphia  on  the  second  of  Fourth  month,  1787.  He  was  the 
youngest  of  five  children  of  William  and  Margaret  Shipley,  his  father 
having  emigrated  from  Uttoxeter,  in  Staffordshire,  England,  about  the  year 
1750.  From  a  very  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
his  ancestors  had  been  members  of  that  body,  and  he  inherited  from  them 
the  strong  sense  of  personal  independence,  and  the  love  of  toleration  and 
respect  for  the  rights  of  others  which  have  ever  characterized  that  body  of 
people. 

Soon  after  his  birth,  his  mother  died,  and  he  was  thus  early  deprived  of 
the  fostering  care  of  a  pious  and  devoted  parent,  whose  counsels  are  so 
important  in  forming  the  youthful  mind,  and  in  giving  a  direction  to  future 
life. 

A  few  years  after  the  death  of  his  mother,  his  father  was  removed,  and 
Thomas  was  left  an  orphan  before  he  had  attained  his  sixth  year.  After 
this  affecting  event  he  was  taken  into  the  family  of  Isaac  Bartram,  who  had 
married  his  eldest  sister.  Here  he  remained  for  several  years,  acquiring  the 
common  rudiments  of  education,  and  at  a  suitable  age  was  sent  to  West- 
town  school ;  after  remaining  there  for  a  little  more  than  a  year,  he  met 
with  an  accident,  which  rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  return  home ;  and 
the  effects  of  which  prevented  him  from  proceeding  with  his  education.  He 
fell  from  the  top  of  a  high  flight  of  steps  to  the  ground,  and  received  an 
injury  of  the  head,  followed  by  convulsions,  which  continued  at  intervals  for 
a  considerable  time,  and  rendered  him  incapable  of  any  effort  of  mind  or 
body. 

He  was,  during  childhood,  remarkably  fond  of  reading,  and  was  distin- 
guished among  his  friends  and  associates  for  uncommon  perseverance  in 
accomplishing  anything  he  undertook,  a  trait  which  peculiarly  marked  him 
through  life ;  his  disposition  is  said  to  have  been  unusually  amiable  and 
docile,  so  as  to  endear  him  very  strongly  to  his  relatives  and  friends. 

After  his  removal  from  Westtown,  he  was  again  taken  into  the  family  of 
his  brother-in-law,  and  remained  under  the  care  of  his  sister,  who  was  very 

*  This  account  of  the  Life  of  Thomas  Shipley  is  abridged  from  a  Memoir  by  Dr.  Isaac  Parrish, 
published  in  1S37, 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  699 

much  attached  to  him,  until  he  was  placed  as  an  apprentice  to  the  hardware 
business.  While  here,  he  was  entirely  relieved  of  the  affliction  caused  by 
the  fall,  and  was  restored  to  sound  health.  About  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
he  entered  upon  the  pursuits  of  the  business  he  had  selected. 

Tlie  exact  time  at  which  his  attention  was  turned  to  the  subject  of  slavery 
cannot  be  ascertained,  but  it  is  probable  that  a  testimony  against  it  was 
among  his  earliest  impressions  as  a  member  of  the  religious  Society  of 
Friends.  He  joined  the  "  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Promoting  the 
Abolition  of  Slavery,"  etc.,  in  1817,  and  the  ardent  interest  which  he  took 
in  its  objects,  was  evinced  on  many  occasions  within  the  recollection  of  many 
now  living.  He  was  for  many  years  an  active  member  of  its  Board  of 
Education,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  extending  the  benefits  of  learning 
to  colored  children  and  youth. 

The  career  of  Thomas  Shipley,  as  it  was  connected  with  the  interests  of 
the  colored  community,  abounds  in  incidents  which  have  rarely  occurred  in 
the  life  of  any  individual.  Being  universally  regarded  as  their  adviser  and 
protector,  he  was  constantly  solicited  for  his  advice  on  questions  touching 
their  welfare.  This  led  him  to  investigate  the  laws  relating  to  this  class 
of  persons,  in  all  their  extended  ramifications.  The  knowledge  he  thus 
acquired,  together  with  his  practical  acquaintance  with  the  business  and 
decisions  of  our  courts,  rendered  his  opinion  peculiarly  serviceable  on  all 
matters  affecting  their  rights.  Never  did  a  merchant  study  more  closely 
the  varied  relations  of  business,  and  their  influence  on  his  interests,  than  did 
Thomas  Shipley  all  those  questions  which  concerned  the  well-being  of*  those 
for  whom  he  was  so  warmly  interested.  He  had  volunteered  his  services  as 
their  advocate,  and  they  could  not  have  been  more  faithfully  served  had 
they  poured  out  the  wealth  of  Croesus  at  the  feet  of  the  most  learned 
counsel. 

On  every  occasion  of  popular  commotion  where  the  safety  of  the  colored 
people  was  threatened,  he  was  found  at  his  post,  fearlessly  defending  their 
rights,  and  exerting  his  influence  with  those  in  authority  to  throw  around 
them  the  protection  of  the  laws.  In  the  tumultuous  scenes  which  disgraced 
Philadelphia,  in  the  summer  of  1835,  in  which  the  fury  of  the  mob  was 
directed  against  the  persons  and  property  of  the  colored  inhabitants,  he  acted 
with  an  energy  and  prudence  rarely  found  combined  in  the  same  individual. 

The  mob  had  collected  and  organized  to  the  number  of  several  hundred, 
and  were  marching  through  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  dealing  destruction 
in  their  course ;  the  houses  of  respectable  and  worthy  colored  citizens  were 
broken  in  upon,  the  furniture  scattered  to  the  winds,  all  they  possessed 
destroyed  or  plundered,  and  they  themselves  subjected  to  the  most  brutal 
and  savage  treatment.  Defenceless  infancy  and  decrepid  age  were  alike 
disregarded  in  the  general  devastation  which  these  ruffians  had  decreed 
should  attend  their  course.  The  color  of  the  skin  was  the  mark  by  which 


700  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

their  vengeance  was  directed,  and  the  cries  and  entreaties  of  their  innocent 
and  defenceless  victims  were  alike  disregarded  in  the  accomplishment  of  their 
ends.  Already  had  several  victims  fallen  before  the  fury  of  the  ruthless 
band.  Law  and  order  were  laid  waste,  and  the  officers  of  justice  looked  on, 
some  perhaps  with  dismay,  and  others  with  indifference,  while  the  rights  of 
citizens  were  prostrated,  and  their  peaceful  and  quiet  homes  invaded  by  the 
hand  of  violence.  At  such  a  time  the  voice  of  remonstrance  or  entreaty, 
would  have  been  useless,  and  had  the  avowed  friends  of  the  colored  man  in- 
terfered in  any  public  manner,  the  effect  would  probably  have  been  to 
increase  the  fury  of  the  storm,  and  to  have  directed  the  violence  of  the  mob 
upon  themselves* 

Under  these  perilous  circumstances,  Thomas  Shipley  was  determined  to 
attempt  an  effort  for  their  relief.  He  could  not  look  on  and  see  those  for 
whom  he  was  so  deeply  interested  threatened  almost  with  extermination 
without  an  effort  for  their  preservation,  and  yet  he  was  aware  that  his 
presence  amongst  the  mob  might  subject  him  to  assassination,  without  add- 
ing to  the  security  of  the  objects  of  his  solicitude.  He,  therefore,  determined 
to  disguise  himself  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  be  recognized,  and  to  mingle 
amongst  the  rioters  in  order  to  ascertain  their  objects,  and  if  possible  to  con- 
vey such  information  to  the  proper  authorities  as  might  lead  to  the  arrest  of 
those  most  active  in  fomenting  disorder.  Accordingly  he  left  his  house  late 
in  the  evening,  attired  so  as  to  be  completely  disguised,  and  repaired  to  the 
scene  of  tumult.  By  this  time  much  mischief  had  been  done,  and  to  add 
fresh  fury  to  the  multitude,  and  to  incite  them  to  new  deeds  of  blood,  nothing 
was  wanting  but  some  act  of  resistance  on  the  part  of  their  victims,  who, 
during  the  whole  period,  had  conducted  themselves  with  a  forbearance  and 
patience  highly  creditable  to  them  as  good  citizens  and  upright  Christians. 
Such  an  occasion  was  about  to  occur,  and  was  prevented  by  the  admirable 
coolness  and  forethought  of  Thomas  Shipley. 

A  number  of  colored  men  who  had  been  driven  to  desperation  by  the  acts 
of  the  mob,  and  who  had  relinquished  the  idea  of  protection  from  the  civil 
authorities,  determined  to  resort  to  arms,  to  defend  themselves  and  their 
families  from  the  further  aggressions  of  their  persecutors.  They  accordingly 
repaired  to  Benezet  Hall,  one  of  their  public  buildings  in  South  Seventh 
Street,  with  a  supply  of  fire  arms  and  ammunition,  determined  to  fire  upon 
the  assailants,  and  maintain  their  post  or  die  in  the  attempt.  This  fact 
became  known  to  the  leaders  of  the  mob,  and  the  cry  was  raised  to  march 
for  the  hall,  and  make  the  attack.  Thomas  Shipley  who  had  mingled 
amongst  the  rioters,  and  apparently  identified  himself  with  them,  was  now 
perfectly  aware  of  all  their  designs  ;  he  knew  their  numbers,  he  had  seen 
the  implements  of  destruction  which  they  were  brandishing  ab'out  them,  and 
he  was  aware  that  the  occurrence  of  such  a  conflict  would  be  attended  with 
the  most  disastrous  results,  and  might  be  the  beginning  of  hostilities  which 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  701 

would  terminate  in  the  destruction  of  the  weaker  party,  or  at  least  in  a 
dreadful  effusion  of  human  blood.  Seeing  the  position  in  which  the  parties' 
were  now  placed,  he  left  the  ranks  of  the  rioters,  and  ran  at  the  top  of  his 
speed  to  the  house  in  which  the  colored  people  were  collected,  awaiting  the 
approach  of  their  enemy.  As  he  drew  near,  they  were  about  coming  out  to 
meet  their  assailants,  highly  excited  by  continued  outrages,  and  determined 
to  defend  themselves  or  die.  At  this  unexpected  moment,  their  protector 
drew  nio-h  ;  he  raised  his  voice  aloud,  and  addressed  the  multitude.  He 

O        f  ' 

deprecated  the  idea  of  a  resort  to  physical  force,  as  being  calculated  to  in- 
crease their  difficulties,  and  to  plunge  them  into  general  distress,  and  entreated 
them  to  retire  from  the  hall.  His  voice  was  immediately  recognized ;  the 
effect  was  electric ;  the  whole  throng  knew  him  as  their  friend  ;  their  fierce 
passions  were  calmed  by  the  voice  of  reason  and  admonition.  They  couM 
not  disregard  his  counsels ;  he  had  come  among  them,  at  the  dead  hour  of 
night,  in  the  midst  of  danger  and  trial,  to  raise  his  warning  voice  against  a 
course  of  measures  they  were  about  to  pursue.  They  listened  to  his  remon- 
strances, and  retreated  before  the  mob  had  reached  the  building.  At  this 
juncture  the  Mayor  and  his  officers  assembled  in  front  of  the  hall,  and  by 
prompt  and  energetic  action  succeeded  in  dispersing  the  mob,  and  through 
the  information  received  from  Thomas  Shipley,  the  ringleaders  were  secured 
and  lodged  in  prison. 

The  part  which  Thomas  Shipley  acted  in  the  trying  scenes  so  often  pre- 
sented in  our  courts,  during  this  unhappy  period,  has  invested  his  character 
with  a  remarkable  degree  of  interest.  It  is  probable  that  his  connection 
with  the  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society  was  the  means  of  enlisting  his 
talents  and  exertions  in  this  important  service. 

The  energy  and  zeal  of  our  friend  in  his  efforts  for  the  relief  of  those 
about  to  be  deprived  of  their  dearest  rights,  soon  distinguished  him  as  the 
most  efficient  member  of  the  Society,  in  this  department  of  its  duties.  So 
intense  was  his  interest  in  all  cases  where  the  liberty  of  his  fellow-man  was 
at  issue,  that,  during  a  period  of  many  years,  he  was  scarcely  ever  absent 
from  the  side  of  the  unhappy  victim,  as  he  sat  before  our  judicial  tribunals, 
trembling  for  his  fate.  The  promptings  of  interest,  the  pleasures  and  allure- 
ments of  the  world,  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  a  peaceful  home,  were  all 
cheerfully  sacrificed,  when  his  services  were  demanded  in  these  distressing 
cases.  Often  has  he  left  the  business,  in  which  his  pecuniary  interests 
were  materially  involved,  to  stand  by  the  unhappy  fugitive  in  the  hour  of 
his  extremity,  with  an  alacrity  and  a  spirit  which  could  only  be  displayed 
by  one  animated  by  the  loftiest  principles  and  the  purest  philanthropy. 

Who,  that  has  ever  witnessed  one  of  these  trying  scenes,  can  forget  his 
manly  and  honest  bearing,  as  he  stood  before  the  unrelenting  and  arrogant 
claimant,  watching  with  an  eagle  eye,  every  step  of  the  process  by  which  he 
hoped  to  gain  his  victim  ?  Who  has  not  been  struck  with,  his  expressive 


702  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

glances  toward  the  judge,  when  a  doubtful  point  arose  in  the  investigation 
of  the  case  ?  Who  has  not  caught  the  lively  expression  of  delight  which 
beamed  from  his  countenance,  when  a  fact  was  disclosed  which  had  a  favor- 
able bearing  on  the  liberty  of  the  captive  ?  Who  has  not  admired  the 
sagacity  with  which  his  inquiries  were  dictated,  and  the  tact  and  acumen 
with  which  he  managed  every  part  of  his  cause?  His  principle  was 
unhesitatingly  to  submit  to  existing  laws,  however  unjust  their  decrees  might 
be,  but  to  scan  well  the  bearing  of  the  facts  and  principles  involved  in  each 
case,  and  to  see  that  nothing  was  wanting  in  the  chain  of  evidence,  or  in  the 
legal  points  in  question,  fully  to  satisfy  the  requisitions  of  law.  If  a  doubt- 
ful point  arose,  he  was  unwearied  in  investigating  it,  and  devoted  hours, 
days,  and  even  weeks,  in  the  collection  of  testimony  which  he  thought  would 
have  a  favorable  influence  on  the  prisoner. 

Through  his  untiring  vigilance,  many  victims  have  escaped  from  the 
hand  of  the  oppressor,  whose  title  to  freedom,  according  to  the  laws  of  this 
commonwealth,  was  undoubted,  and  many  others,  whose  enslavement  was  at 
least  questionable. 

The  time  and  labor  expended  by  Thomas  Shipley  in  protecting  the 
interests  of  his  colored  clients,  would  be  almost  incredible  to  those  who 
were  not  aware  of  his  extraordinary  devotion  to  the  cause.  The  only  notice 
which  can  be  found  among  his  papers,  of  the  various  slave  cases  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  is  contained  in  a  memorandum  book,  which  he  commenced 
in  the  summer  of  1835.  In  this  book  he  has  noted,  in  the  order  of  their 
occurrence,  such  instances  of  difficulty  or  distress  as  demanded  his  inter- 
ference, almost  without  a  comment.  I  find  from  this  book,  that  his  advice 
and  assistance  were  bestowed  in  twenty-five  cases,  from  Seventh  mo.  IGth,  to 
Eighth  mo.  24th,  1836,  a  period  of  little  more  than  a  month.  A  number  of 
these  cases  required  the  writing  of  letters  to  distant  places  ;  in  some  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  visit  the  parties  interested ;  and  others  demanded  his 
personal  attendance  at  court.  This  perhaps,  may  be  considered  as  a  fair 
average  of  the  amount  of  labor  which  he  constantly  expended  in  this  depart- 
ment of  his  benevolent  efforts ;  and  when  we  consider  the  time  occupied  in 
the  necessary  duties  of  his  ordinary  avocations,  it  must  be  evident  that  he 
possessed  not  only  extraordinary  humanity,  but  uncommon  activity  and 
energy,  to  have  accomplished  so  much. 

In  the  memorandum  book  referred  to,  under  date  of  Twelfth  mo.,  1835,  I 
find  the  following  note :  Spent  eighteen  days  in  the  trial  of  A.  Hemsley, 
and  his  wife  Nancy,  and  her  three  children,  arrested  at  Mount  Holly,  the 
husband  claimed  by  Goldsborough  Price,  executor  of  Isaac  Boggs,  of  Queen 
Ann's  county,  Maryland,  and  the  wife  and  children  by  Richard  D.  Cooper, 
of  the  same  county.  John  Willoughby,  agent  for  both  claimants.  B.  R. 
Brown  and  B.  Clarke,  attorneys  for  the  claimant,  and  D.  P.  Brown,  J.  R. 
Slack,  E.  B.  Cannon,  and  G.  "VV.  Camblos,  for  defendants.  After  a  full 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  703 

argument,  in  which  a  manumission  was  produced  for  Nancy,  from  R.  D. 
Cooper's  father,  she  and  her  children  were  discharged,  but  her  husband  was 
remanded ;  on  which  a  certiorari  was  served  on  the  judge,  and  a  habeas  corpus 
placed  in  the  sheriff's  hands." 

"  Alexander  was  discharged  by  the  Supreme  Court,  at  Trenton,  Third 
mo.  5th.  The  circumstances  of  the  case,  were  briefly  the  following :  The 
woman  and  children  had  been  regularly  manumitted  in  Delaware  by  the 
father  of  the  claimant,  while  the  title  of  the  father  to  freedom  was  less  posi- 
tive, though  sufficiently  clear  to  warrant  a  vigorous  effort  on  his  behalf. 

The  first  object  of  the  counsel  on  the  part  of  the  alleged  fugitive,  was  to 
prove  the  manumission  of  the  mother  and  children,  and,  as  it  was  thought, 
the  necessary  documents  for  that  purpose  were  collected  and  arranged.  After 
the  trial  had  proceeded,  however,  for  a  short  time,  the  attorney  for  the 
defendants  discovered  a  defect  in  the  testimony  on  this  point ;  the  necessary 
papers,  duly  authenticated  by  the  Governor  or  Chief  Justice  of  Delaware, 
were  missing,  and  without  them  it  was  impossible  to  make  out  the  case. 
The  fact  was  immediately  communicated  to  Thomas  Shipley — he  saw  that 
the  papers  must  be  had,  and  that  they  could  not  be  procured  without  a  visit 
to  Dover,  in  Delaware.  He  at  once  determined  to  repair  thither  in  person, 
and  obtain  them.  Without  the  knowledge  of  the  claimant's  counsel,  who 
might  have  taken  advantage  of  the  omission,  and  hurried  the  case  to  a  deci- 
sion ;  he  started  .  on  the  evening  of  the  sixth  day,  and  traveled  as  fast  as 
possible  to  Dover,  in  the  midst  of  a  season  unusually  cold  and  inclement. 
On  the  next  morning  inquiries  were  made  in  all  directions  for  friend 
Shipley  ;  it  was  thought  strange  that  he  should  desert  his  post  in  the  midst 
of  so  exciting  and  momentous  a  trial,  and  at  a  time  when  his  presence 
seemed  to  be  particularly  required.  The  counsel  for  the  prisoners,  who  were 
aware  of  his  movements,  proceeded  with  the  examination  of  witnesses  as 
slowly  as  possible,  in  order  to  allow  time  for  procuring  this  important  link 
in  the  chain  of  testimony,  and  thus  to  procrastinate  the  period  when  they 
should  be  called  upon  to  sum  up  the  case. 

Fortunately,  on  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  Thomas  Shipley  set  out 
upon  his  journey,  it  was  proposed  to  adjourn,  and  farther  proceedings 
were  postponed  until  Second  day  morning.  At  the  meeting  of  the  court, 
in  the  morning,  the  expected  messenger  was  not  there,  and  the  ingenuity  ox 
the  counsel  was  taxed  still  farther  to  procrastinate  the  important  period. 
After  three  hours  had  been  consumed  in  debate  upon  legal  points,  he,  who 
was  so  anxiously  looked  for,  came  hurrying  through  the  crowd,  making  his 
way  toward  the  bench.  His  countenance  and  his  movements  soon  convinced 
the  wondering  spectators  that  he  was  the  bearer  of  gratifying  news,  and  in 
a  few  minutes,  the  mystery  of  his  absence  was  revealed,  by  the  production 
of  a  document  which  was  the  fruit  of  his  effort.  The  papers  completely 
established  the  legal  title  of  the  mother  and  children  to  their  freedom,  and 


704  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

placed  them  out  of  the  reach  of  farther  persecution.  An  attack  of  illness 
was  the  result  of  the  extreme  exertion  and  fatigue  endured  by  this  devoted 
man,  in  his  earnest  advocacy  of  the  rights  of  these  friendless  beings. 

The  freedom  of  the  husband  and  father,  was,  however,  still  in  jeopardy. 
If  the  decision  of  the  court  should  be  against  him,  he  would  be  torn  from 
the  bosom  of  his  now  joyful  and  emancipated  family,  and  consigned  to  a  life 
of  bondage.  To  avert  this  calamity,  the  counsel  for  the  prisoner  suggested 
an  expedient  as  humane  as  it  was  ingenious.  He  proposed  that  a  writ  of 
certiorari  which  would  oblige  the  judge  to  remove  the  case  to  the  Supreme 
Court  and  a  habeas  corpus  from  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  State,  should  both 
be  in  readiness  when  the  decision  of  the  judge  should  be  pronounced,  in  case 
that  if  it  should  be  unfavorable,  the  writs  might  be  at  once  served,  and  the 
prisoner  remanded  to  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  to  be  brought  up  before  the 
Supreme  Court  at  Trenton  for  another  trial. 

To  procure  these  writs,  it  was  necessary  to  obtain  the  signature  of  the 
chief  justice  of  New  Jersey,  who  resided  at  Newark,  and  again  Thomas 
Shipley  was  ready  to  enter  with  alacrity  into  the  service.  He  saw  the  im- 
portance of  the  measure,  and  that  it  would  require  prompt  action,  inasmuch 
as  the  decision  of  the  judge  would  probably  be  pronounced  on  the  following 
day.  It  fortunately  happened  that  a  friend  was  just  about  leaving  for 
Newark,  in  his  own  conveyance,  and  feeling  an  interest  in  the  case,  he 
kindly  invited  friend  Shipley  to  accompany  him.  They  .left  in  the  after- 
noon, traveled  all  night,  and  arrived  at  Newark  by  daylight  the  following 
morning.  The  weary  traveler  was  unwilling,  however,  to  retire  to  bed, 
although  the  night  was  exceedingly  cold  and  tempestuous,  but  he  proceeded 
at  once  to  the  house  of  the  chief  justice.  He  called  the  worthy  judge  from 
his  bed,  offering  the  importance  of  his  business,  and  the  necessity  of  speedy 
action,  as  an  apology  for  so  unseasonable  a  visit.  Chief  Justice  Hornblower, 
on  being  informed  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  expressed  his  pleasure  at 
having  it  in  his  power  to  accede  to  his  wishes  and  treated  him  with  a  respect 
and  kindness  which  the  disinterested  benevolence  of  his  mission  was  calcu- 
lated to  inspire. 

Having  obtained  the  necessary  papers,  he  left  at  once  for  Mount  Holly, 
where  he  arrived  on  the  following  day,  in  time  to  place  the  writs  in  the 
hands  of  the  sheriff,  just  before  the  decision  of  Judge  H.  was  pronounced. 
Had  he  consulted  his  ease  or  convenience,  and  deferred  his  visit  to  Newark 
a  few  hours,  or  had  he,  as  most  men,  under  similar  circumstances  would 
have  done,  reposed  his  weary  limbs,  after  a  cold  and  dreary  ride  of  eighty 
miles,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  return  with  renewed  strength,  he  would 
have  arrived  too  late  to  render  this  meritorious  effort  effectual.  As  it  was, 
he  was  there  in  time.  The  judge,  according  to  the  expectation  of  the  friends 
of  the  colored  man,  gave  his  decision  iu  favor  of  the  slave-holders,  and 
ordered  poor  Alexander  to  be  given  up  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  exaspe- 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  705 

rated  claimant.  The  decision  sent  a  thrill  of  indignation  through  the 
anxious  and  excited  multitude,  which  perhaps,  was  never  equalled  amongst 
the  inhabitants  of  that  quiet  town.  The  friends  of  humanity  had  assembled 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  witness  the  proceedings  in  the  case.  Many 
of  them  were  personally  acquainted  with  the  prisoner ;  they  knew  him  to  be 
a  man  of  intelligence  and  integrity ;  he  was  an  industrious  and  orderly 
citizen,  and  was  universally  respected  in  the  neighborhood.  He  was  now 
about  to  be  made  a  slave,  and  was  declared  to  be  the  property  of  another. 
The  father  was  about  to  be  torn  from  his  helpless  children;  the  husband  in 
defiance  of  the  Divine  command,  was  to  be  wrested  from  the  fond  embrace 
of  his  sorrowing  wife,  to  spend  his  days  in  misery  and  toil.  And  this  was 
to  be  done  before  the  eyes  of  those  who  had  a  just  regard  for  human  rights, 
a  hearty  hatred  of  oppression.  Is  it  wonderful,  that  under  such  circum- 
stances, there  should  have  been  a  deep  abhorrence  for  the  perpetrators  of 
this  outrage  upon  humanity,  and  a  general  sympathy  for  the  innocent 
captive  ? 

But  it  was  decreed  that  those  feelings  of  honest  indignation  should  be 
speedily  supplanted  by  the  warm  outpouring  of  public  gratitude  and  joy. 
While  the  feeling  of  the  spectators  was  in  this  state  of  intense  interest  and 
excitement,  the  judge,  stern  and  inflexible  in  his  purposes,  and  the  clan  of 
greedy  claimants  ready  to  seize  upon  their  prey,  the  sheriff  produced  his 
writ  of  certiorari  and  handed  it  to  the  court.  It  was  instantly  returned,  and 
the  judge  who  sat  unmoved,  by  a  scene  to  which  he  was  not  unaccustomed, 
and  conceiving,  perhaps,  that  his  official  dignity  was  impugned,  persisted  in 
his  determination  that  the  prisoner  should  be  handed  over  to  the  claimant. 
The  prudence  and  foresight  of  Thomas  Shipley  and  his  friends  had  pro- 
vided, however,  for  this  anticipated  difficulty.  Happily  for  the  prisoner,  he 
was  yet  embraced  under  the  provision  of  that  constitution,  which  secured  to 
him  the  protection  of  a  habeas  corpus,  and  this  threw  around  him  a  shield 
which  his  enemies  could  not  penetrate.  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  signed  by 
the  chief  justice  of  the  State  and  demanding  the  body  of  the  prisoner,  before 
the  Supreme  Court  at  its  next  terra,  was  now  produced ! 

The  astonished  judge  found  himself  completely  foiled.  He  had  exercised 
his  authority  to  its  utmost  limit,  in  support  of  the  claims  of  his  slave-hold- 
ing friends,  and  had  given  the  influence  of  his  station  and  character,  to 
bolster  up  the  "patriarchal  institution;"  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  Just  as 
they  supposed  they  had  achieved  a  victory,  they  were  obliged  with  fallen 
crests,  to  succumb  to  the  dictates  of  a  higher  tribunal,  and  to  see  their 
victim  conveye<f  beyond  their  reach  in  the  safe  keeping  of  the  sheriff. 

In  the  Third  month,  (March,)  the  case  was  brought  up  before  the  Supreme 

Court  for  final   adjudication.     In   the  meantime,  Thomas  Shipley   adopted 

vigorous  measures  to  have  the  facts  collected  and  arranged.     He  procured 

the  aid  of  an  intelligent  and  humane  friend  of  the  cause,  who  resided  near 

45 


706  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Trenton,  to  attend,  personally  to  the  case,  and  secured  the  legal  services  of 
Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  well  known  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  virtuous 
statesmen  of  the  age,  and  as  a  warm  and  zealous  friend  of  the  oppressed. 
Under  these  happy  auspices,  the  case  came  before  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
gave  rise  to  a  highly  interesting  and  important  argument ;  in  which  the  dis- 
tinguished Frelinghuysen  appeared  as  the  disinterested  advocate  of  the 
prisoner,  and  urged  upon  the  court  his  claim  to  liberty,  under  the  laws  of 
New  Jersey,  in  a  speech  which  was  one  of  his  most  brilliant  and  eloquent 
efforts,  and  added  another  to  the  many  laurels  which  his  genius  and  philan- 
thropy have  achieved. 

The  opinion  of  Chief  Justice  Hornblower  was  given  at  length,  and  is 
said  to  have  displayed  a  soundness  and  extent  of  legal  knowledge,  with  a 
spirit  of  mildness  and  humanity,  well  worthy  of  the  highest  judicial  tribunal 
of  New  Jersey. 

By  this  decision,  Alexander  Helmsley  was  declared  to  be  a  freeman,  and 
returned  with  rejoicing  into  the  bosom  of  his  family,  and  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a  free  citizen. 

Thus  terminated  this  interesting  case,  which  for  several  months  agitated 
the  public  mind  of  Burlington  county,  to  an  extent  almost  unequalled. 

Such  disinterested  devotion  to  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  oppressed, 
had  it  been  displayed  only  in  the  instance  recited,  would  be  sufficient  to 
enroll  the  name  of  Thomas  Shipley  on  the  list  of  the  benefactors  of  his  race; 
but  when  we  consider  that,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  his  history  abounds 
in  similar  incidents,  and  that  he  uniformly  stood  forth  as  the  unflinching 
advocate  of  the  oppressed,  regardless  of  the  sacrifices  which  he  was  obliged 
to  make  on  their  behalf,  we  are  disposed  to  view  him  as  one  of  that  noble 
band  whose  lives  have  been  consecrated  to  deeds  of  charity  and  benevolence, 
and  whose  names  will  illumine  the  moral  firmament,  so  long  as  virtue  and 
truth  shall  command  the  homage  of  mankind. 

Thomas  Shipley  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  and  was  an  active  agent  in  those  stirring  movements  which  soon 
aroused  the  nation  to  a  full  consideration  of  the  enormities  of  Slavery.  He 
was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Anti-slavery  Convention,  which  assembled 
in  this  city  in  1833,  and  a  signer  of  their  declaration  of  sentiments. 

During  the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  he  was  more  devotedly  engaged  in 
his  abolition  labors  than  at  any  previous  period.  It  was  his  constant  desire 
to  diffuse  the  principles  which  had  been  so  fearlessly  proclaimed  by  the  Con- 
vention, and  to  encourage  the  formation  of  Anti-slavery  societies  throughout 
the  sphere  of  his  influence.  He  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  members 
of  the  Philadelphia  Anti-slavery  Society,  which  was  formed  through  much 
opposition,  in  1835,  and  he  steadily  adhered  to  its  meetings,  notwithstand- 
ing the  threats  which  were  so  loudly  made  by  the  enemies  of  public  order. 

In  the  midst  of  the  popular  commotions  and  tumults,  which  marked  the 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  707 

progress  of  Anti-slavery  principles,  he  stood  calm  and  unmoved.  Having 
been  long  known  as  a  firm  friend  of  the  rights  of  the  colored  man,  and 
being  amongst  the  most  efficient  public  advocates  of  his  cause,  he  was  of 
course  subjected  to  the  revilings*  which  were  so  liberally  heaped  upon  the 
Abolitionists  at  that  time.  His  name  was  associated  with  that  of  Tappan, 
Birney,  Green,  Jay,  Garrison,  and  other  leading  Abolitionists,  who  were 
singled  out  by  slave-holders  and  their  abettors  as  fit  subjects  for  the  merci- 
less attacks  of  excited  mobs. 

In  several  attempts  which  were  made  in  this  city  to  stir  up  the  passions 
of  the  ignorant  against  the  advocates  of  human  rights,  his  person  and 
property  were  openly  threatened  with  assault.  Such  menaces  failed,  however, 
to  deter  him  from  the  steady  performance  of  what  he  believed  to  be  a  solemn 
duty.  Being  fully  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the  principles  which  he  had 
espoused,  he  relied  with  unwavering  confidence  upon  Divine  power  for  their 
ultimate  triumph,  and  for  the  protection  of  those  who  advocated  them. 
When  his  friends  expressed  their  anxiety  for  his  safety,  he  always  allayed 
their  apprehensions,  and  evinced  by  the  firmness  and  benignity  of  his 
manner  that  he  was  divested  of  the  fear  of  man,  and  acted  under  the  influ- 
ence of  that  spirit  which  is  from  above. 

The  active  part  which  Thomas  Shipley  took  in  Anti-slavery  move- 
ments, did  not  diminish  his  interest  in  the  prosperity  and  usefulness  of  the 
old  Pennsylvania  Society.  He  was  a  steady  attendant  on  its  meetings,  and 
exercised  his  wonted  care  on  all  subjects  connected  with  its  interests. 

A  short  time  previous  to  his  death,  his  services  were  acknowledged  by  his 
fellow-members,  by  his  election  to  the  office  of  president. 

The  incessant  and  fatiguing  labors  in  which  he  was  engaged,  had  sensibly 
affected  the  vigor  of  a  constitution  naturally  delicate,  and  rendered  him 
peculiarly  liable  to  the  inroads  of  disease.  He  was  seized  in  the  autumn  of 
1836,  with  an  attack  of  intermittent  fever,  which  confined  him  to  the  house 
for  ten  or  twelve  days,  and  very  much  reduced  his  strength ;  while  recover- 
ing from  this  attack,  he  experienced  an  accession  of  disease  which  termi- 
nated his  life  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours.  But  a  few  hours  before  his 
death,  he  inquired  of  bis  physicians  as  to  the  probable  issue  of  his  case ; 
when  informed  of  his  critical  condition,  he  received  the  intelligence  with 
composure,  and  immediately  requested  Dr.  Atlee,  who  was  by  his  side,  to 
take  down  some  directions  in  regard  to  his  affairs,  on  paper.  In  a  few 
minutes  after  this,  he  quietly  lapsed  into  the  sleep  of  death,  in  the  morning, 
on  the  17th  of  Ninth  month,  1836. 

His  last  words  were,  "  I  die  at  peace  with  all  mankind,  and  hope  that  my 
trespasses  may  be  as  freely  forgiven,  as  I  forgive  those  who  have  trespassed 
against  me." 

To  all  who  knew  him  well,  of  whatever  class  in  the  community,  the 
tidings  of  this  unexpected  event  brought  a  personal  sorrow.  It  was  felt  that 


708  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 

a  man  of  rare  probity  and  virtue  had  gone  to  his  reward.  But  to  the 
colored  people  the  intelligence  of  his  death  was  at  once  startling  and  con- 
founding. Their  whole  community  was  bowed  down  in  public  lamentation, 
for  their  warmest  and  most  steadfast  friend  was  gone. 

They  repaired  in  large  numbers  to  the  house  of  their  benefactor  to  obtain 
a  last  glance  at  his  lifeless  body.  Parents  brought  their  little  ones  to  the 
house  of  mourning,  and  as  they  gazed  upon  the  features  of  the  departed, 
now  inanimate  in  death,  they  taught  their  infant  minds  the  impressive 
lesson,  that  before  them  were  the  mortal  remains  of  one  who  had  devoted 
his  energies  to  the  disenthral  men  t  of  their  race,  and  whose  memory  they 
should  ever  cherish  with  gratitude  and  reverence.  When  the  day  arrived 
for  committing  his  remains  to  the  grave  the  evidence  of  deep  and  pervading 
sorrow  among  these  wronged  and  outraged  people  was  strikingly  apparent. 

Thousands,  whose  serious  deportment  and  dejected  countenances  evinced 
that  they  were  fully  sensible  of  their  loss,  collected  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
dwelling,  anxious  to  testify  their  respect  for  his  memory.  Theirs  was  not  the 
gaze  of  the  indifferent  crowd,  which  clusters  around  the  abodes  of  fashion 
and  splendor,  to  witness  the  pomp  and  circumstance  attendant  on  the  interment 
of  the  haughty  or  the  rich.  It  was  a  solemn  gathering,  brought  together  by 
the  impulse  of  feeling,  to  mingle  their  tears  and  lamentations  at  the  grave 
of  one  whom  they  had  loved  and  revered  as  a  protector  a»d  a  friend. 

When  the  hearse  arrived  at  the  quiet  burial  place  in  Arch  street,  where 
the  Friends  for  many  generations  have  buried  their  dead,  six  colored  men 
carried  the  body  to  its  last  resting-place,  and  the  silent  tear  of  the  son  of 
Africa  over  the  grave  of  his  zealous  friend,  was  more  expressive  of  real  affec- 
tion than  all  the  parade  which  is  sometimes  brought  so  ostentatiously  before 
the  public  eye.  In  the  expressive  words  of  the  leading  newspaper  of  the 
day,  "  Aaron  Burr  was  lately  buried  with  the  honors  of  war.  Thomas 
Shipley  was  buried  with  the  honors  of  peace.  Let  the  reflecting  mind  pause 
in  the  honorable  contrast." 

As  a  public  speaker  Thomas  Shipley  was  clear,  cogent,  sometimes  eloquent, 
and  always  impressive.  He  never  attempted  oratorical  effect,  or  studied 
harangues.  He  generally  spoke  extemporaneously,  on  the  spur  of  the  occa- 
sion, and  what  he  said  came  warm  from  the  heart.  It  was  the  simple  and 
unadorned  expression  of  his  sentiments  and  feelings.  He  was,  however, 
argumentative  and  even  logical,  when  the  occasion  required  it.  When 
intensely  interested,  his  eye  was  full  of  deep  and  piercing  expression. 

Although  his  education  had  been  limited,  and  his  pursuits  afforded  him 
but  little  leisure  time,  yet  he  indulged  his  fondness  for  reading,  and  exhibited 
a  refined  literary  taste  in  his  selections.  He  has  left  amongst  his  books  and 
papers  eight  manuscript  volumes  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pages  each, 
filled  with  selections,  copied  in  his  own  handwriting,  and  culled  from  the 
writings  of  many  of  the  most  gifted  authors,  both  in  poetry  and  prose. 


THOMAS  SHIPLEY.  709 

These  extracts  are  generally  of  a  moral  and  religious  caste,  and  include 
scraps  from  Young,  Milton,  Addison,  Burns,  Cowper,  Watts,  Akenside, 
Pope,  Byron,  Hemans,  and  many  others. 

In  the  domestic  and  social  circle,  his  conversation  was  animated  and  in- 
structive, and  always  tempered  by  that  kindness  and  amenity  of  manners 
which  endeared  him  to  his  family  and  friends. 

He  was  no  bigot  in  religion.  While  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel  as  maintained  by  the  orthodox  Society  of  Friends,  he  yet  held 
that  religion  was  an  operative  principle  producing  the  fruits  of  righteousness 
and  peace,  in  all  of  whatever  name,  who  are  sincere  followers  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  In  conclusion  we  may  add,  that  more  than  most  men  he  bore 
about  with  him  the  sentiment  of  that  old  Roman,  "  Nihil  humanum  alienum 
a  me  puto,"  while  he  added  to  it  the  higher  thought  of  the  Christian,  that 
he  who  loveth  God  loveth  his  brother  also.  We  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
life  of  such  a  man.  To-day,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  generation,  his 
memory  is  fresh  and  green  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him,  and  who 
still  survive  to  hand  down  to  their  children  the  story  of  the  trials  of  that 
eventful  period  in  our  history. 

To  the  Memory  of 
THOMAS   SHIPLEY, 

President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society, 
Who  died  on  the  17th  of  Ninth  mo.,  1836,  a  devoted  Christian  and  Philanthropist. 

BY  JOHN  G.  WHITTIEE. 

Gone  to  thy  Heavenly  Father's  rest — 

The  flowers  of  Eden  round  thee  blowing! 
And,  on  thine  ear,  the  murmurs  blest 

Of  Shiloah's  waters  softly  flowing ! 
Beneath  that  tree  of  life  which  gives 
To  all  the  earth  its  healing  leaves — 
In  the  white  robe  of  angels  clad, 

And  wandering  by  that  sacred  river, 
Whose  streams  of  holiness  make  glad 

The  city  of  our  God  forever  I 

Gentlest  of  spirits ! — not  for  thee 

Our  tears  are  shed,  our  sighs  are  given : 
Why  mourn  to  know  thou  art  a  free 
„  Partaker  of  the  joys  of  Heaven  ? 
Finished  thy  work,  and  kept  thy  faith 
In  Christian  firmness  unto  death — 
And  beautiful  as  sky  and  earth, 

When  Autumn's  sun  is  downward  going, 
The  blessed  memory  of  thy  worth 

Around  thy  place  of  slumber  glowing  I 


710  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

But,  wo  for  us !— who  linger  still 

With  feebler  strength  and  hearts  less  lowly, 
And  minds  less  steadfast  to  the  will 

Of  Him,  whose  every  work  is  holy ! 
For  not  like  thine,  is  crucified 
The  spirit  of  our  human  pride: 
And  at  the  bondman's  tale  of  woe, 

And  for  the  outcast  and  forsaken, 
Not  warm  like  thine,  but  cold  and  slow, 

Our  weaker  sympathies  awaken ! 

Darkly  upon  our  struggling  way 

The  storm  of  human  hate  is  sweeping; 
Hunted  and  branded,  and  a  prey, 

Our  watch  amidst  the  darkness  keeping ! 
Oh  !  for  that  hidden  strength  which  can 
Nerve  unto  death  the  inner  man  I 
Oh — for  thy  spirit  tried  and  true 

And  constant  in  the  hour  of  trial — 
Prepared  to  suffer  or  to  do 

In  meekness  and  in  self-denial. 

Oh,  for  that  spirit  meek  and  mild, 

Derided,  spurned,  yet  uncomplaining — 
By  man  deserted  and  reviled, 

Yet  faithful  to  its  trust  remaining. 
Still  prompt  and  resolute  to  save 
From  scourge  and  chain  the  hunted  slave  I 
Unwavering  in  the  truth's  defence 

E'en  where  the  fires  of  hate  are  burning, 
The  unquailing  eye  of  innocence 

Alone  upon  the  oppressor  turning ! 

Oh,  loved  of  thousands !   to  thy  grave, 

Sorrowing  of  heart,  thy  brethren  bore  thee  I 
The  poor  man  and  the  rescued  slave 

Wept  as  the  broken  earth  closed  o'er  thee — 
And  grateful  tears,  like  summer  rain, 
Quickened  its  dying  grass  again ! — 
And  there,  as  to  some  pilgrim  shrine, 

Shall  come  the  outcast  and  the  lowly, 
Of  gentle  deeds  and  words  of  thine 

Recalling  memories  sweet  and  holy ! 

Oh,  for  the  death  the  righteous  die ! 

An  end,  like  Autumn's  day  declining, 
On  human  hearts,  as  on  the  sky, 

With  holier,  tenderer  beauty  shining ! 
As  to  the  parting  soul  were  given 

The  radiance  of  an  opening  heaven ! 
As  if  that  pure  and  blessed  light 

From  off  the  eternal  altar  flowing, 
Were  bathing  in  its  upward  flight 

The  spirit  to  its  worship  going ! 


ROBER  T  PUR  VIS.  711 

ROBERT  PURVIS 

"Was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  on  the  4th  day  of  August,  1810.  His 
father,  William  Purvis,  was  a  native  of  Ross  county,  in  Northumberland, 
England.  His  mother  was  a  free-born  woman,  of  Charleston.  His  mater- 
nal grandmother  was  a  Moor;  and  her  father  was  an  Israelite,  named  Baron 
Judah.  Robert  Purvis  and  his  two  brothers  were  brought  to  the  North  by 
their  parents  in  1819.  In  Pennsylvania  and  New  England  he  received  his 
scholastic  education,  finishing  it  at  Amherst  College.  Since  that  time  his 
home  has  been  in  Philadelphia,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  that  city. 

His  interest  in  the  Anti-slavery  cause  began  in  his  childhood,  inspired  by 
such  books  as  "  Sandfbrd  and  Merton,"  and  Dr.  Toney's  "  Portraiture  of 
Slavery,"  which  his  father  put  into  his  hands.  His  father,  though  resident 
in  a  slave  state,  was  never  a  slaveholder;  but  was  heartily  an  Abolitionist  in 
principle.  It  was  Robert  Purvis'  good  fortune,  before  he  attained  his 
majority,  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  that  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  pio- 
neer of  freedom,  Benjamin  Lundy ;  and  in  conjunction  with  him,  was  an 
early  laborer  in  the  anti-slavery  field.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Conven- 
tion held  in  Philadelphia  in  1833,  which  formed  the  American  Anti-slavery 
Society;  and  among  the  signatures  to  its  Declaration  of  Sentiments,  the 
name  of  Robert  Purvis  is  to  be  seen  ;  a  record  of  which  his  posterity  to  the 
latest  generation  may  be  justty  proud.  During  the  whole  period  of  that 
Society's  existence  he  was  a  member  of  it ;  and  was  also  an  active  member 
and  officer  of  The  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society.  To  the  cause  of  the 
slave's  freedom  he  gave  with  all  his  heart  his  money,  his  time,  his  talents. 
Fervent  in  soul,  eloquent  in  speech,  most  gracious  in  manner,  he  was  a 
favorite  on  the  platform  of  Anti-slavery  meetings.  High-toned  in  moral 
nature,  keenly  sensitive  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  justice  and  integrity,  he 
was  a  most  valuable  coadjutor  with  the  leaders  of  an  unpopular  reform;  and 
throughout  the  Anti-slavery  conflict,  he  always  received,  as  he  always 
deserved,  the  highest  confidence  and  warm  personal  regard  of  his  fellow- 
laborers. 

His  faithful  labors  in  aiding  fugitive  slaves  cannot  be  recorded  within  the 
limits  of  this  sketch.  Throughout  that  long  period  of  peril  to  all  who  dared 
to  "remember  those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,"  his  house  was  a  well-known 
station  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road ;  his  horses  and  carriages,  and  his 
personal  attendance,  were  ever  at  the  service  of  the  travelers  upon  that  road. 
In  those  perilous  duties  his  family  heartily  sympathized  wfth  him,  and  cheer- 
fully performed  their  share. 

He  has  lived  to  witness  the  triumph  of  the  great  cause  to  which  he 
devoted  his  youth  and  his  manhood ;  to  join  in  the  jubilee  song  of  the 
American  slave ;  and  the  thanksgiving  of  the  Abolitionists ;  and  to  testify 
that  the  work  of  his  life  has  been  one  "  whose  reward  is  in  itself." 


712  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

JOHN  HUNN. 

Almost  within  the  lions'  den,  in  daily  sight  of  the  enemy,  in  the  little 
slave-holding  State  of  Delaware,  lived  and  labored  the  freedom-loving, 
earnest  and  whole-souled  Quaker  abolitionist,  John  Hunn.  H,is  headquarters 
were  at  Cantwell's  Bridge,  but,  as  an  engineer  of  the  Underground  Rail 
Road,  his  duties,  like  those  of  his  fellow-laborer  Thomas  Garrett,  were  not 
confined  to  that  section,  but  embraced  other  places,  and  were  attended  with 
great  peril,  constant  care  and  expense.  He  was  well-known  to  the  colored 
people  far  and  near,  and  was  especially  sought  with  regard  to  business  per- 
taining to  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  as  a  friend  who  would  never  fail  to 
assist  as  far  as  possible  in  every  time  of  need.  Through  his  agency  many 
found  their  way  to  freedom,  both  by  land  and  water. 

The  slave-holders  regarding  him  with  much  suspicion,  watched  him 
closely,  and  were  in  the  habit  of  "breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter" 
very  fiercely  at  times.  -But  Hunn  was  too  plucky  to  be  frightened  by  their 
threats  and  menaces,  and  as  one,  commissioned  by  a  higher  power  to  remem- 
ber those  in  bonds  as  bound  .with  them  he  remained  faithful  to  the  slave. 
Men,  women  or  children  seeking  to  be  unloosed  from  the  fetters  of  Slavery, 
could  not  make  their  grievances  known  to  John  Hunn  without  calling  forth 
his  warmest  sympathies.  His  house  and  heart  were  always  open  to  all  such. 
The  slave-holders  evidently  concluded  that  Hunn  could  not  longer  be  tole- 
rated, consequently  devised  a  plan  to  capture  him,  on  the  charge  of  aiding 
off  a  woman  with  her  children. 

[John  Hunn  and  Thomas  Garrett  were  conjointly  prosecuted  in  this  case, 
and  in  the  sketch  of  the  latter,  the  trial,  conviction,  etc.,  are  so  fully  referred 
to,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  allude  to  it  here]. 

These  noted  Underground  Rail  Road  offenders  being  duly  brought  before 
the  United  States  District  Court,  in  May,  1848,  Judge  Taney,  presiding, 
backed  by  a  thoroughly  pro-slavery  sentiment,  obviously  found  it  a  very 
easy  matter  to  convict  them,  and  a  still  easier  matter  to  fine  them  to  the 
extent  of  every  dollar  they  possessed  in  the  world.  Thousands  of  dollars 
were  swept  from  Hunn  in  an  instant,  and  his  family  left  utterly  destitute ; 
but  he  was  by  no  means  conquered,  as  he  deliberately  gave  the  court  to 
understand  in  a  manly  speech,  delivered  while  standing  to  receive  his  sen- 
tence. There  and  then  he  avowed  his  entire  sympathy  with  the  slave,  and 
declared  that  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  by  the  help  of  God,  he  would 
never  withhold  a  helping  .hand  from  the  down-trodden  in  the  hour  of  dis- 
tress. That  this  pledge  was  faithfully  kept  by  Hunn,  there  can  be  no 
question,  as  he  continued  steadfast  at  his  post  until  the  last  fetter  was  broken 
by  the  great  proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

He  was  not  without  friends,  however,  for  even  near  by,  dwelt  a  few  well- 
tried  Abolitionists.  Ezekiel  Jenkins,  Mifflin  Warner,  and  one  or  two  others, 


JOHN  HUNN.  713 

whole-souled  workers  in  the  same  cause  with  Hunn ;  he  was  therefore  not 
forgotten  in  the  hour  of  his  extremity. 

Wishing  to  produce  a  sketch  worthy  of  this  veteran,  we  addressed  him  on 
the  subject,  but  failed  to  obtain  all  the  de'sired  material.  His  reasons, 
however,  for  withholding  the  information  which  we  desired  were  furnished, 
and,  in  connection  therewith,  a  few  anecdotes  touching  Underground  Rail 
Road  matters  coming  under  his  immediate  notice,  which  we  here  take  great 
pleasure  in  transcribing. 

BEAUFORT,  S.C.  llth.mo.  7th,  1871. 

WM.  STILL,  DEAR  FRIEXD: — In  thy  first  letter  thee  asked  for  my 
photograph  as  well  as  for  an  opinion  of  the  book  about  to  be  edited  by  thy- 
self. I  returned  a  favorable  answer  and  sent  likeness,  as  requested.  I  in- 
cidentally mentioned  that,  probably  some  of  my  papers  might  be  of  service 
to  thee.  The  papers  alluded  to  had  no  reference  to  myself;  but  consisted 
of  anecdotes  and  short  histories  of  some  of  the  fugitives  from  the  hell  of 
American  Slavery,  who  gave  me  a  call,  as  engineer  of  the  Underground 
Rail  Road  in  the  State  of  Delaware,  and  received  the  benefit  of  my  advice 
and  assistance. 

I  was  twenty-seven  years -old  when  I  engaged  in  the  Underground  Rail 
Road  business,  and  I  continued  therein  diligently  until  the  breaking  up  of 
that  business  by  the  Great  Rebellion  I  then  came  to  South  Carolina  to 
witness  the  uprising  of  a  nation  of  slaves  into  the  dignity  and  privileges  of 
mankind. 

Nothing  can  possibly  have  the  same  interest  to  me.  Therefore,  I  propose 
to  remain  where  this  great  problem  is  in  the  process  of  solution  ;  and  to  give 
my  best  efforts  to  its  successful  accomplishment.  In  this  matter  the  course 
that  I  have  pursued  thus  far  through  life  has  given  me  solid  satisfaction.  I 
ask  no  other  reward  for  any  efforts  made  by  me  in  the  cause,  than  to  feel 
that  I  have  been  of  use  to  my  fellow-men. 

No  other  course  would  have  brought  peace  to  my  mind ;  then  why  should 
any  credit  be  awarded  to  me ;  or  how  can  I  count  any  circumstance  that 
may  have  occurred  to  me,  in  the  light  of  a  sacrifice?  If  a  man  pursues  the 
only  course  that  will  bring  peace  to  his  own  mind,  is  he  deserving  of  any 
credit  therefor?  Is  not  the  reward  worth  striving  for  at  any  cost?  Indeed 
it  is,  as  I  well  know. 

Would  it  be  well  for  me,  entertaining  such  sentiments,  to  sit  down  and 
write  an  account  of  my  sacrifices  ?  I  think  not.  Therefore  please  hold  me 
excused.  I  am  anxious  to  see  thy  book,  and  will  forward  the  price  of  one 
as  soon  as  I  can  ascertain  what  it  is. 

Please  accept  my  thanks  for  thy  kind  remembrance  of  me.  I  am  now 
fifty-three  years  old,  but  I  well  remember  thy  face  in  the  Anti-slavery  Office 
in  Fifth  street,  when  I  called  on  business  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road. 
Our  mutual  friend,  S.  D.  Burris,  was  the  cause  of  much  uneasiness  to  us  in 


714  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

those  times.  It  required  much  trouble,  as  well  as  expense  to  save  him  from 
the  slave-traders.  I  stood  by  him  on  the  auction-block ;  and  when  I  stepped 
down,  they  thought  they  had  him  sure.  Indeed  he  thought  so  himself  for 
a  little  while.  But  we  outwitted  them  at  last,  to  their  great  chagrin.  Those 
were  stirring  times,  and  the  people  of  Dover,  Delaware,  will  long  remember 
the  time  when  S.  D.  Burris  was  sold  at  public  sale  for  aiding  slaves  to 
escape  from  their  masters,  and  was  bought  by  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery 
Society.  I  remain  very  truly  thy  friend,  JOHN  HUNN. 

THE  CASE  OF  MOLLY,  A  SLAVE,  BELONGING  TO  R B ,  OP  SMYRNA,  DELAWARE. 

BY  JOHN  HUNN,  ENGINEER  OF  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

Molly  escaped  from  her  master's  farm,  in  Cecil  county,  Maryland,  and 
found  a  place  of  refuge  in  the  house  of  my  cousin,  John  Alston,  near  Mid- 
dletown,  Delaware.  The  man-hunters,  headed  by  a  constable  with  a  search 
warrant,  took  her  thence  and  lodged  her  in  New  Castle  Jail.  This  fact 
was  duly  published  in  the  county  papers,  and  her  master  went  after  his 
chattel,  and  having  paid  the  expenses  of  her  capture  took  immediate  posses- 
sion thereof. 

She  was  hand-cuffed,  and,  her  feet  being  tied  together,  she  was  placed  in 
the  wagon.  Before  she  left  the  jail,  the  wife  of  the  sheriff  gave  her  a  piece 
of  bread  and  butter,  which  her  master  kicked  out  of  her  hand,  and  swore  that 
bread  and  butter  was  too  good  for  her.  After  this  act  her  master  took  a 
drink  of  brandy  and  drove  off. 

He  stopped  at  a  tavern  about  four  miles  from  New  Castle  and  took 
another  drink  of  brandy.  He  then  proceeded  to  Odessa,  then  called  Cant- 
well's  Bridge,  and  got  his  dinner  and  more  brandy,  for  the  day  was  a  cold 
one.  He  had  his  horse  fed,  but  gave  no  food  to  his  human  chattel,  who 
remained  in  the  wagon  cold  and  hungry.  After  sufficient  rest  for  himself 
and  horse  he  started  again.  He  was  now  twelve  miles  from  home,  on  a 
good  road,  his  horse  was  gentle,  and  he  himself  in  a  genial  mood  at  the 
recovery  of  his  bond-woman.  He  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  liquor  he 
had  imbibed  and  fell  into  a  sound  sleep.  Molly  now  determined  to  make 
another  effort  for  her  freedom.  She  accordingly  worked  herself  gradually 
over  the  tail  board  of  the  wagon,  and  fell  heavily  upon  the  frozen  ground. 
The  horse  and  wagon  passed  on,  and  she  rolled  into  the  bushes,  and  waited 
for  deliverance  from  her  bonds.  This  came  from  a  colored  man  who  was 
passing  that  way.  As  he  was  neither  a  priest  nor  a  Levite,  he  took  the  rope 
from  her  feet  and  guided  her  to  a  cabin  near  at  hand,  where  she  was  kindly 
received.  Her  deliverer  could  not  take  the  hand-cuffs  off,  but  promised  to 
bring  a  person,  during  the  evening,  who  could  perform  that  operation.  He 
fulfilled  his  promise,  and  brought  her  that  night  to  my  house,  which  was  in 
sight  of  the  one  whence  she  had  been  taken  to  New  Castle  Jail. 

I  had  no  fear  for  her  safety,  as  I  believed  that  her  master  would  not  think 


JOHN  HUNN.  715 

of  looking  for  her  so  near  to  the  place  where  she  had  been  arrested. 
Molly  remained  with  us  nearly  a  month ;  but,  seeing  fugitives  coming  and 
going  continually,  she  finally  concluded  to  go  further  North  1  I  wrote  to 
my  friend,  Thomas  Garrett,  desiring  him  to  get  a  good  home  for  Molly. 
This  he  succeeded  in  doing,  and  a  friend  from  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania, 
came  to  my  house  and  took  Molly  with  him.  She  remained  in  his  family 
more  than  six  months. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  passed  by  Congress,  and 
several  fugitives  were  arrested  in  Philadelphia  and  sent  back  to  their  masters. 
Molly,  hearing  of  these  doings,  became  uneasy,  and  finally  determined  to  go 
to  Canada.  She  arrived  safely  in  the  Queen's  Dominions,  and  felt  at  last 
that  she  had  escaped  from  the  hell  of  American  Slavery. 

Molly  described  her  master  as  an  indulgent  one  when  sober,  but  when  he 
was  on  a  "  spree  "  he  seemed  to  take  great  delight  in  tormenting  her.  He 
would  have  her  beaten  unmercifully  without  cause,  and  then  have  her  stripes 
washed  in  salt  water,  then  he  would  have  her  dragged  through  the  horse 
pond  until  she  was  nearly  dead.  This  last  operation  seemed  to  afford  him 
much  pleasure.  When  he  became  sober  he  would  express  regret  at  having 
treated  her  so  cruelly.  I  frequently  saw  this  master  of  Molly's,  and  was 
always  treated  respectfully  by  him.  He  would  have  his  " sprees "  after 
Molly  left  him. 

AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ESCAPE  FROM  SLAVERY  OF  SAMUEL  HAWKINS  AND  FAMILY, 
OF  QUEEN  ANNE'S  COUNTY,  MARYLAND,  ON  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD, 
IN  THE  STATE  OF  DELAWARE.  BY  JOHN  HUNN. 

On  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  12th  month  (December),  1845,  as  I  was 
washing  my  hands  at  the  yard  pump  of  my  residence,  near  Middletown,  New 
Castle  county,  Delaware,  I  looked  down  the  lane,  and  saw  a  covered  wagon 
slowly  approaching  my  house.  The  sun  had  just  risen,  and  was  shining 
brightly  (after  a  stormy  night)  on  the  snow  which  covered  the  ground  to  the 
depth  of  six  inches.  My  house  was  situated  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from 
the  road  leading  from  Middletown  to  Odessa,  (then  called  Cantwell's  Bridge.) 
On  a  closer  inspection  I  noticed  several  men  walking  beside  the  wagon. 
This  seemed  rather  an  early  hour  for  visitors,  and  I  could  not  account  for 
the  circumstance.  When  they  reached  the  yard  fence  I  met  them,  and  a 
colored  man  handed  me  a  letter  addressed  to  Daniel  Corbit,  John  Alston  or 
John  Hunn  ;  I  asked  the  man  if  he  had  presented  the  letter  to  either  of  the 
others  to  whom  it  was  addressed ;  he  said,  no,  that  he  had  not  been  able  to 
see  either  of  them.  The  letter  was  from  my  cousin,  Ezekiel  Jenkins,  of 
Camden,  Delaware,  and  stated  that  the  travelers  were  fugitive  slaves,  under 
the  direction  of  Samuel  D.  Burris  (who  handed  me  the  note).  The  party 
consisted  of  a  man  and  his  wife,  with  their  six  children,  and  four  fine-look- 
ing colored  men,  without  counting  the  pilot,  S.  D.  Burris,  who  was  a  free 
man,  from  Kent  county,  Delaware. 


716  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

This  was  the  first  time  that  I  ever  saw  Burns,  and  also  the  first  time  that 
I  had  ever  been  called  upon  to  assist  fugitives  from  the  hell  of  American 
Slavery.  The  wanderers  were  gladly  welcomed,  and  made  as  comfortable 
as  possible  until  breakfast  was  ready  for  them.  One  man,  in  trying  to  pull 
his  boots  off,  found  they  were  frozen  to  his  feet ;  he  went  to  the  pump  and 
filled  them  with  water,  thus  he  was  able  to  get  them  off  in  a  few  minutes. 

This  increase  of  thirteen  in  the  family  was  a  little  embarrassing,  but  after 
breakfast  they  all  retired  to  the  barn  to  sleep  on  the  hay,  except  the  woman 
and  four  children,  who  remained  in  the  house.  They  were  all  very  weary, 
as  they  had  traveled  from  Camden  (twenty-seven  miles),  through  a  snow- 
storm ;  the  woman  and  four  children  in  the  wagon  with  the  driver,  the 
others  walking  all  the  way.  Most  of  them  were  badly  frost-bitten,  before 
they  arrived  at  my  house.  In  Camden,  they  were  sheltered  in  the  houses 
of  their  colored  friends.  Although  this  was  my  first  acquaintance  with  S. 
D.  Burris,  it  was  not  my  last,  as  he  afterwards  piloted  them  himself,  or  was 
instrumental  in  directing  hundreds  of  fugitives  to  me  for  shelter. 

About  two  o'clock  of  the  day  on  which  these  fugitives  arrived  at  my 
house,  a  neighbor  drove  up  with  his  daughter  in  a  sleigh,  apparently  on  a 
friendly  visit.  I  noticed  his  restlessness  and  frequent  looking  out  of  the 
window  fronting  the  road  ;  but  did  not  suppose,  that  he  had  come  "  to  spy 
out  the  land." 

The  wagon  and  the  persons  walking  with  it,  had  been  observed  from  his 
house,  and  he  had  reported  the  fact  in  Middletown.  Accordingly,  in  half 
an  hour,  another  sleigh  came  up,  containing  a  constable  of  Middletown, 
William  Hardcastle,  of  Queen  Ann's  county,  Maryland,  and  William 
Chesnut,  of  the  same  neighborhood.  I  met  them  at  the  gate,  and  the  con- 
stable handed  me  an  advertisement,  wherein  one  thousand  dollars  reward 
was  offered  for  the  recovery  of  three  runaway  slaves,  therein  described. 

The  constable  asked  me  if  they  were  in  my  house  ?  I  said  they  were  not ! 
He  then  asked  me  if  he  might  search  the  house?  I  declined  to  allow  him 
this  privilege,  unless  he  had  a  warrant  for  that  purpose.  While  we  stood 
thus  conversing,  the  husband  of  the  woman  with  the  six  children,  came  out 
of  a  house  near  the  barn,  and  ran  into  the  woods.  The  constable  and  his 
two  companions  immediately  gave  chase,  with  many  halloos  !  After  running 
more  than  a  mile  through  the  snow,  the  fugitive  came  toward  the  house ;  I 
went  to  meet  him,  and  found  him  with  his  back  against  the  barn-yard  fence, 
with  a  butcher's  knife  in  his  hand.  The  man  hunters  soon  came  up,  ami  the 
constable  asked  me  to  get  the  knife  from  the  fugitive.  This  I  declined, 
unless  the  constable  should  first  give  me  his  pistol,  with  which  he  was 
threatening  to  shoot  the  man.  He  complied  with  my  request,  and  the  fugi- 
tive handed  me  the  knife.  Then  he  produced  a  pass,  properly  authenticated, 
and  signed  by  a  magistrate  of  Queen  Ann's  county.  Maryland,  certifying 
that  this  man  was  free !  and  that  his  name  was  Samuel  Hawkins. 


JOHN  HUNN.  717 

"William  Hardcastle  now  advanced,  and  said  that  he  knew  the  man  to  be 
free;  but  that  he  was  accused  of  running  away  with  his  wife  and  children 
who  were  slaves.  He  also  said,  that  this  man  had  two  boys  with  him,  who 
belonged  to  a  neighbor  of  his,  named  Charles  Wesley  Glanding,  and  that 
the  four  other  children  and  mother  belonged  to  Catharine  Turner,  of  Queen 
Ann's  county,  Maryland.  Hardcastle  further  expressed  his  belief,  that  this 
man  knew  where  his  wife  and  children  were  at  that  time,  and  insisted  that 
he  should  go  before  a  magistrate  in  Middletown,  and  be  examined  in  regard 
thereto.  He  also  expressed  doubts  as  to  the  genuineness  of  this  pass,  and 
wished  the  man  to  go  to  Middletown  on  that  account  also.  As  there  was  no 
other  course  to  pursue  under  the  circumstances,  I  had  my  sleigh  brought  out, 
and  we  all  went  to  Middletown,  before  my  friend,  William  Streets,  who  was 
then  in  commission  as  a  magistrate.  It  was  now  after  dark  of  this  short 
winter's  day.  Soon  after  our  arrival  at  the  office  of  William  Streets,  Hard- 
castle put  his  arm  very  lovingly  around  the  neck  of  the  colored  man,  Samuel 
Hawkins,  and  drew  him  into  another  room.  In  a  short  time,  Samuel  came 
out,  and  told  me  that  Hardcastle  had  agreed,  that  if  he,  Hawkins,  would 
give  up  his  two  older  boys,  who  belonged  to  Charles  Wesley  Glanding; 
then  he  might  pursue  his  journey  with  his  wife  and  four  children.  I  asked 
him  if  he  believed  Hardcastle  would  keep  his  promise?  He  replied:  "Yes! 
I  do  not  think  master  William  would  cheat  me."  I  assured  him  that  he 
would  cheat  him,  and  that  the  offer  was  made  for  the  purpose  of  not  only 
getting  the  two  older  boys  (fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age),  but  his  wife 
and  other  children  to  the  office,  when  all  of  them  would  be  taken  together 
to  the  jail,  in  New  Castle.  Samuel  thought  differently,  and  at  his  request, 
I  wrote  to  my  wife  for  the  delivery  of  the  family  of  Samuel  Hawkins  to  the 
constable.  They  were  soon  forthcoming,  and  on  their  arrival  at  the  office,  a 
commitment  was  made  out  for  the  whole  party.  Samuel  and  his  two  older 
sons  were  hand-cuffed,  amidst  many  tears  and  lamentations,  and  they  all 
went  off  under  charge  of  the  man-hunters,  to  New  Castle  jail,  a  distance  of 
eighteen  miles. 

William  Streets  committed  the  whole  party  as  fugitives  from  Slavery, 
while  the  husband  (Samuel),  was  a  free  man.  This  was  done  on  account  of 
the  detestation  of  the  wicked  business,  as  much  as  on  account  of  his  friend- 
ship for  me. 

On  their  arrival  at  the  jail,  about  midnight,  the  sheriff  was  aroused,  and 
the  commitment  shown  to  him ;  after  reading  it,  he  asked  Samuel  if  he  was 
a  slave  ?  He  said  no,  and  showed  his  pass  (which  had  been  pronounced 
genuine  by  the  magistrate).  The  sheriff  hereupon  told  them,  that  the  com- 
mitment was  not  legal,  and  would  not  hold  them  lawfully.  It  was  now 
tirst  day  (Sunday),  and  the  man- hunters  were  in  a  quandary. 

The  constable  finally  agreed  to  go  back  and  get  another  commitment,  if 
the  sheriff  would  take  the  party  into  the  jail  until  his  return  ;  Hardcastle 


718  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

also  urged  the  sheriff  to  adopt  this  plan.  Accordingly  they  were  taken  into 
the  jail. 

The  sheriff's  daughter  had  heard  her  father's  conversation  with  the  con- 
stable, accordingly  she  sent  word  on  First-day  morning,  to  my  revered 
friend,  Thomas  Garrett,  of  Wilmington,  five  miles  distant,  in  regard  to  the 
matter,  inviting  him  to  see  the  fugitives.  Early  on  Second  day  morning 
(Monday),  Thomas  went  over  with  John  Wales,  attorney  at  law.  The 
latter  soon  obtained  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  from  Judge  Booth  of  New 
Castle,  which  was  served  upon  the  sheriff;  who,  therefore,  brought  the 
whole  party  before  Judge  Booth,  who  discharged  them  at  once,  as  being 
illegally  detained  by  the  sheriff.  Thomas  Garrett,  with  the  consent  of  the 
judge,  then  hired  a  carriage  to  take  the  woman  and  four  children  over  to 
Wilmington,  Samuel  and  the  two  older  boys  walked,  so  they  all  escaped 
from  the  man-hunters.  They  went  from  Wilmington  to  Byberry,  and 
settled  near  the  farm  of  Kobert  Purvis.  Samuel  Hawkins  and  wife  have 
since  died,  but  their  descendants  still  live  in  that  neighborhood,  under  the 
name  of  Hackett. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  fugitives  from  New  Castle  jail,  the  consta- 
ble arrived  with  new  commitments  from  William  Streets,  and  presented 
them  in  due  form  to  the  sheriff;  who  informed  him  that  they  had  been 
liberated  by  order  of  Judge  Booth  !  A  few  hours  after,  William  Hardcastle 
arrived  from  Philadelphia,  expecting  to  take  Samuel  Hawkins  and  his 
family  to  Queen  Ann's  county,  Maryland.  Judge  of  his  disappointment  at 
finding  they  were  beyond  his  control — absolutely  gone !  They  returned  to 
Middletown  in  great  anger,  and  threatened  to  prosecute  William  Streets  for 
his  participation  in  the  affair. 

A.fter  the  departure  of  the  Hawkins  family  from  Middletown,  I  returned 
home  to  see  what  had  become  of  S.  D.  Burris  and  his  four  men.  I  found 
them  taking  some  solid  refreshment,  preparatory  to  taking  a  long  walk  in 
the  snow.  They  left  about  nine  P.  M.,  for  Wilmington.  I  sent  by  S.  D. 
Burris  a  letter  to  Thomas  Garrett,  detailing  the  arrest  and  commitment  of  S. 
Hawkins  and  family  to  New  Castle  jail.  They  all  arrived  safely  in  Wil- 
mington before  daylight  next  morning.  Burris  waited  to  hear  the  result  of 
the  expedition  to  New  Castle  ;  and  actually  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  S. 
Hawkins  and  family  arrive  in  Wilmington. 

Samuel  Burris  returned  to  my  house  early  on  Third  day  morning,  with  a 
letter  from  Thomas  Garrett,  giving  me  a  description  of  the  whole  transac- 
tion. My  joy  on  this  occasion  was  great !  and  I  returned  thanks  to  God  for 
this  wonderful  escape  of  so  many  human  beings  from  the  charnel-house  of 
Slavery. 

Of  course,  this  circumstance  excited  the  ire  of  many  pro-slavery  editors 
in  Maryland.  I  had  copies  of  several  papers  sent  me,  wherein  I  was 
described  as  a  man  unfit  to  live  in  a  civilized  commnnity,  and  calling  upon 


JOHN  HUNN, 

CHIEF  ENGINEER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  END.      gee  p.  712 


SAMUEL  RHOADS, 

STOCKHOLDER. 


See  p.  719. 


WILLIAM   WUIPPER, 

CONDUCTOR    AT   COLUMBIA.  gee  p.  73o. 


SAMUEL  D.  BURRIS, 

CONDUCTOR.  gee  p.  74G. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  ROAD. 


SAMUEL   RHOADS.  719 

the  inhabitants  of  Middletown  to  expel  such  a  dangerous  person  from  that 
neighborhood !  They  also  told  exactly  where  T  lived,  which  enabled  many 
a  poor  fugitive  escaping  from  the  house  of  bondage,  to  find  a  hearty  welcome 
and  a  resting-place  on  the  road  to  liberty.  Thanks  be  to  God !  for  His 
goodness  to  me  in  this  respect. 

The  trial  which  ensued  from  the  above,  came .  off  before  Chief  Justice 
Taney,  at  New  Castle.  My  revered  friend,  Thomas  Garrett,  and  myself, 
were  there  convicted  of  harboring  fugitive  slaves,  and  were  fined  accord- 
ingly, to  the  extent  of  the  law ;  Judge  Taney  delivering  the  sentence.  A 
detailed  account  of  said  trial,  will  fully  appear  in  the  memoirs  of  our 
deceased  friend,  Thomas  Garrett. 


SAMUEL  RHOADS 

Was  born  in  Philadelphia,  in  1806,  and  was  through  life  a  consistent 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  His  parents  were  persons  of  great  re- 
spectability and  integrity.  The  son  early  showed  an  ardent  desire  for 
improvement,  and  was  distinguished  among  his  young  companions  for  warm 
affections,  amiable  disposition,  and  genial  manners,  rare  purity  and  refine- 
ment of  feeling,  and  a  taste  for  literary  pursuits.  Preferring  as  his  associates 
those  to  whom  he  looked  for  instruction  and  example,  and  aiming  at  a  high 
standard,  he  won  a  position,  both  mentally  and  socially,  superior  to  his 
early  surroundings.  With  a  keen  sense  of  justice  and  humanity,  he  could 
not  fail  to  share  in  the  traditional  opposition  of  his  religious  society  to 
slavery,  and  to  be  quickened  to  more  intense  feeling  as  the  evils  of  the 
system  were  more  fully  revealed  in  the  Anti-slavery  agitation  which  in  his 
early  manhood  began  to  stir  the  nation. 

A  visit  to  England,  in  1834,  brought  him  into  connection  and  friendship 
with  many  leading  Friends  in  that  country,  who  were  actively  engaged  in  the 
Anti-slavery  movement,  and  probably  had  much  to  do  with  directing  his 
attention  specially  to  the  subject.  Once  enlisted,  he  never  wavered,  but  as 
long  as  slavery  existed  by  law  in  our  country  his  influence,  both  publicly 
and  privately,  was  exerted  against  it.  He  was  strengthened  in  his  course  by 
a  warm  friendship  and  frequent  intercourse  with  the  late  Abraham  L. 
Pennock,  a  man  whose  unbending  integrity  and  firm  allegiance  to  duty  were 
equalled  only  by  his  active  benevolence,  broad  charity,  and  rare  clearness  of 
judgment.  Samuel  Rhoads,  like  him,  while  sympathizing  with  other  phases 
of  the  Anti-slavery  movement,  took  especial  interest  in  the  subject  of  abstain- 
ing from  the  use  of  articles  produced  by  slave  labor.  Believing  that  the 
purchase  of  such  articles,  by  furnishing  to  the  master  the  only  possibility  of 
pecuniary  profit  from  the  labor  of  his  slaves,  supplied  one  motive  for  hold- 
ing them  in  bondage,  and  that  the  purchaser  thus  became,  however  unwitt- 


720  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ingly,  a  partaker  in  the  guilt,  he  felt  conscientiously  bound  to  withhold  his 
individual  support  as  far  as  practicable,  and  to  recommend  the  same  course 
to  others. 

His  practical  action  upon  these  views  began  about  the  year  1841,  and  was 
persevered  in,  at  no  small  expense  and  inconvenience,  till  slavery  ceased  in 
this  country  to  have  a  legal  existence.  About  this  time  he  united  with  the 
American  Free  Produce  Association,  which  had  been  formed  in  1838,  and 
in  1845  took  an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  the  Free  Produce  Associa- 
tion of  Friends  of  Philadelphia,  Y.  M. ;  both  associations  having  the  object 
of  promoting  the  production  by  free  labor  of  articles  usually  grown  by  slaves, 
particularly  of  cotton.  Agents  were  sent  into  the  cotton  States,  to  make 
arrangements  with  small  planters,  who  were  growing  cotton  by  the  labor  of 
themselves  and  their  families  without  the  help  of  slaves,  to  obtain  their 
.  crops,  which  otherwise  went  into  the  general  market,  and  could  not  be  dis- 
tinguished. A  manufactory  was  established  for  working  this  cotton,  and  a 
limited  variety  of  goods  were  thus  furnished.  In  all  these  operations  Samuel 
Rhoads  aided  efficiently  by  counsel  and  money. 

In  1846,  "The  Non-slave-holder,"  a  monthly  periodical,  devoted  mainly 
to  the  advocacy  of  the  Free  Produce  cause,  was  established  in  Philadelphia, 
edited  by  A.  L.  Pennock,  S.  Rhoads,  and  George  W.  Taylor.  It  was  con- 
tinued five  years,  for  the  last  two  of  which  Samuel  Rhoads  conducted  it 
alone.  He  wrote  also  a  pamphlet  on  the  free  labor  question.  From  July, 
1856  to  January,  1867  he  was  Editor  of  the  "Friends'  Review,"  a  weekly 
paper,  religious  and  literary,  conducted  in  the  interest  of  his  own  religious 
society,  and  in  this  position  he  gave  frequent  proofs  of  interest  in  the  slave, 
keeping  his  readers  well  advised  of  events  and  movements  bearing  upon  the 
subject. 

While  thus  awake  to  all  forms  of  anti-slavery  effort,  his  heart  and  hand 
were  ever  open  to  the  fugitive  from  bondage,  who  appealed  to  him,  and  none 
such  were  ever  sent  away  empty.  Though  not  a  member  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee,  he  rendered  it  frequent  and  most  efficient  aid,  especially  during 
the  dark  ten  years  after  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

A  second  visit  to  England,  in  1847,  had  enlarged  his  connection  and  cor- 
respondence with  anti-slavery  friends  there,  and  in  addition  to  his  own 
contributions,  very  considerable  sums  of  money  were  transmitted  to  him, 
especially  through  A.  H.  Richardson,  for  the  benefit  of  the  fugitives.  Often 
when  the  treasury  of  the  Committee  ran  low,  he  came  opportunely  to  their 
relief  with  funds  sent  by  his  English  friends,  while  his  sympathy  and  encourage- 
ment never  failed.  The  extent  of  his  assistance  in  this  direction  was  known 
to  but  few,  but  by  them  its  value  was  gratefully  acknowledged.  None 
rejoiced  more  than  he  in  the  overthrow  of  American  slavery,  though  its  end 
came  in  convulsion  and  bloodshed,  at  which  his  spirit  revolted,  not  by  the 
peaceful  means  through  which  he  with  others  had  labored  to  bring  it  about 


GEORGE  CORSON.  721 

He  had  some  years  before  been  active  in  preparing  a  memorial  to  Con- 
gress, asking  that  body  to  make  an  effort  to  put  an  end  to  slavery  in  the 
States,  by  offering  from  the  national  treasury,  to  any  State  or  States  which 
would  emancipate  the  slaves  therein,  and  engage  not  to  renew  the  system, 
compensation  for  losses  thus  sustained.  This  proposition  was  made,  not  as 
admitting  any  right  of  the  masters  to  compensation;  but  on  the  ground  that 
the  whole  nation,  having  shared  in  the  guilt  of  maintaining  slavery,  might 
justly  share  also  in  whatever  pecuniary  loss  might  follow  its  abandonment. 

This  memorial  was  sent  to  Congress,  but  elicited  no  response  ;  and  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  the  nation  paid  even  in  money  many  times  any  possible 
price  that  could  have  been  demanded  under  this  plan.  Samuel  Rhoads 
died  in  1868. 

GEORGE  CORSON 

V 

Was  born  in  Plymouth  township,  Montgomery  county,  Pennsylvania, 
January  24th,  1803.  He  was  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Hannah  Corson.  He 
was  married  January  24th,  1832,  to  Martha,  daughter  of  Samuel  and 
Susanna  Maulsby. 

There  were  perhaps  few  more  devoted  men  than  George  Corson  to  the 
interests  of  the  oppressed  everywhere.  The  slave,  fleeting  from  his  master, 
ever  found  a  home  with  him,  and  felt  while  there  that  no  slave-hunter  would 
get  him  away  until  every  means  of  protection  should  fail.  He  was  ever 
ready  to  send  his  horse  and  carriage  to  convey  them  on  the  road  to  Canada, 
or  elsewhere  towards  freedom.  His  home  was  always  open  to  entertain  the 
anti-slavery  advocates,  and  being  warmly  supported  in  the  cause  by  his  ex- 
cellent wife,  everything  which  they  could  do  to  make  their  guests  comfort- 
able was  done.  The  Burleighs,  J.  Miller  McKim,  Miss  Mary  Grew,  F. 
Douglass,  and  others  will  not  soon  forget  that  hospitable  home.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  he  died  before  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  which  he  had 
so  long  labored  for,  arrived.  In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  improper  to 
state  that  simultaneously  with  his  labors  in  the  Anti-slavery  cause,  he  was 
also  laboring  with  zeal  in  the  cause  of  Temperance.  Of  his  efforts  in  that 
direction  through  nearly  thirty  years,  our  space  will  not  allow  us  to  speak. 
His  life  and  labors  were  a  daily  protest  against  the  traffic  of  rum.  There  is 
also  another  phase  of  his  character  which  should  be  mentioned.  Whenever 
he  saw  animals  abused,  horses  beaten,  he  instantly  interfered,  often  at  great 
risk  of  personal  harm  from  the  brutal  drivers  about  the  lime  quarries  and 
iron  ore  diggings.  So  firm,  so  determined  was  he,  that  the  cruellest  ruffian 
felt  that  he  must  yield  or  confront  the  law.  Take  him  all  for  all,  there 
will  rarely  be  found  in  one  man  more  universal  benevolence  and  justice  than 
was  possessed  by  the  subject  of  this  notice/ 

Hiram  Corson,  brother  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  and  a  faithful  co- 
46 


722  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

laborer  in  the  cause,  in  response  to  a  request  that  he  would  furnish  a 
reminiscence  touching  his  brother's  agency  in  assisting  fugitives,  wrote  as 
follows : 

November  1st,  1871. 

DEAR  ROBERT: — Wm.  Still  wishes  some  account  of  the  case  of  the  negro 
slave  taken  from  our  neighborhood  some  years  ago,  after  an  attempt  by  my 
brother  George  to  release  him.  (About  thirty  years  ago.)  George  had  been 
on  a  visit  to  our  brother  Charles,  living  at  the  fork  of  the  Skippack  and  Per- 
kiomen  Creeks,  in  this  county,  and  on  his  return,  late  in  the  afternoon,  while 
coming  along  an  obscure  road,  not  the  main  direct  road,  he  came  up  to  a 
man  on  horseback,  who  was  followed  at  a  distance  of  a  few  feet  by  a  colored 
man  with  a.  rope  tied  around  his  neck,  and  the  other  end  held  by  the  person 
on  horseback. 

George  had  had  experience  with  those  slave-drivers  before,  as  in  the  case 
of  John  and  James  Lewis,  and  withal  had  become  deeply  interested  in  the 
Anti-slavery  cause.  He,  therefore,  inquired  of  the  mounted  man,  what  the 
other  had  done  that  he  was  to  be  thus  treated.  He  quietly  remarked  that 
he  was  his  slave  and  had  run  away.  He  then  asked  by  what  authority  he 
held  him.  He  said  by  warrant  from  Esquire  Vanderslice.  Indignant  at 
this  great  outrage,  my  brother  hurried  on  to  Norristown,  and  waited  his 
arrival  with  a  process  to  arrest  him.  The  slave-master,  confident  in  his 
rights,  bold  in  the  country  of  those  pretended  freemen,  who  were  ever  ready 
to  kiss  the  rod  of  Slavery,  came  slowly  riding  into  Norristown,  just  before 
sunset,  with  the  rope  still  fast  to  the  slave's  neck.  He  was  immediately 
taken  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  whose  name  I  do  not  now  remember. 
The  people  gathered  around ;  anxious  inquiries  were  made  as  to  the  person 
who  had  the  audacity  to  question  the  right  of  this  quiet,  peaceable  man  to 
do  with  his  slave  as  he  pleased.  Great  scorn  was  expressed  for  the  busy 
Abolitionists.  Much  sympathy  given  to  the  abused  slave  owner.  It  was  soon 
decided,  by  the  aid  of  a  volunteer  lawyer,  whose  sons  have  since  fought  the 
battle  for  freedom,  that  the  slave-owner  had  a  right  to  take  his  slave  where- 
ever,  and  in  whatever  way  he  pleased,  through  the  country,  and  not  only 
that,  but  at  his  call  for  help  it  was  the  bounden  duty  of  every  man,  called 
upon,  to  aid  him ;  and  the  person  who  had  the  audacity  to  stop  him  was 
threatened  with  punishment. 

But  George's  blood  was  up,  so  pained  was  he  at  the  sight  of  a  man,  a  poor 
man,  a  helpless  man,  being  dragged  through  from  Pennsylvania  with  a 
halter  around  his  neck,  that,  amidst  the  jeers  and  insults  of  the  debased 
crowd,  he  denounced  Slavery,  its  aiders  and  abettors,  in  tones  of  scorn  and 
loathing.  But  the  man  thief  was  left  with  his  prey.  Through  the  advice 
of  those  who  stood  by  the  slave  laws  and  who  knelt  before  the  slave  power, 
as  personified  by  that  hunter  of  slaves,  the  rope  was  taken  from  the  neck, 


CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND.  723 

and  the  man  guarded  while  the  master  regaled  himself.  That  night  he  dis- 
appeared with  his  man. 

I  can  also  give  a  few  particulars  of  the  escape  of  the  Gorsuch  murderers, 
from  Norristown  on  their  way  to  Canada.  There  should  be  a  portrait  of 
Daniel  Ross,  and  a  history  of  his  labors  during  twenty  or  more  years. 
Hundreds  were  entertained  in  his  humble  home,  and  it  was  in  his  home  that 
the  Gorsuch  murderer  was  secreted.  He  must  not  be  left  out.  I  can  also 
get  the  whole  history,  escape,  capture,  trial,  conviction  and  redemption  of 
James  and  John  Lewis,  and  one  other.  They  were  captured  here  within 
sight  of  our  house.  George  Corson,  Esq.,  published  it  all,  about  ten  years 
ago.  Respectfully, 

ROBERT  R.  CORSON.  HIRAM  CORSON. 


CHARLES  D.   CLEVELAND. 

Mr.  Still  has  asked  me  to  record  the  part  that  my  father  bore  in  the  Anti- 
slavery  enterprise,  as  it  began  and  grew  in  this  city.  I  comply,  because 
the  history  of  that  struggle  would  be  very  incomplete,  if  from  it  were 
omitted  the  peculiar  work  which  my  father's  position  here  shaped  for  him. 
Yet  I  can  only  indicate  his  work,  not  portray  it ;  tell  some  of  its  elements, 
and  then  leave  them  to  the  moral  sympathies  of  the  reader  to  upbuild.  For, 
first,  his  labor  for  the  love  of  man  was  evenly  distributed  through  the 
mould  and  movements  of  his  entire  life ;  and  from  a  perpetual  current  of 
nourishing  blood,  one  cannot  name  those  particular  atoms  that  are  busiest  or 
richest  to  sustain  vitality.  And,  further,  if  I  could  hear  his  voice,  it  would 
forbid  any  detailed  account  of  what  he  accomplished  and  endured.  It  was 
all  done  unobtrusively  in  his  life ;  bravely,  defiantly,  in  regard  of  the  evil 
to  be  met  and  mastered,  but  as  unconsciously  in  regard  of  himself  as  every 
conviction  works,  when  it  is  as  broad  as  the  entire  spiritual  life  of  a  man 
and  has  his  entire  spiritual  force  to  give  it  expression.  I  know,  therefore, 
that  while  I  should  be  permitted  to  mention  so  much  of  his  service  as  the 
history  of  the  conflict  might  demand,  I  should  be  forbidden  all  tale  of  sacrifice 
and  labor  that  mere  personal  narrative  would  include ;  and  I  ask  now  only 
this  :  What  peculiar  influence  did  he  exert  for  the  furtherance  of  the  cause 
which  so  largely  absorbed  his  labor  and  life  ?  Did  he  contribute  anything 
to  it  stamped  with  the  signature  of  so  clear  an  individuality  that  no  other 
man  could  have  contributed  quite  the  same?  To  this  I  maintain  an  affirma- 
tive answer  ;  and  in  witness  of  its  truth,  I  sketch  the  general  course  of  his 
life,  that  through  it  we  may  find  those  elements  of  his  character  which  intui- 
tively ranged  him  on  the  side  of  the  slave. 

When  my  father  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1834,  his  sentiments  in  regard 
to  Slavery  were  those  held  generally  in  the  North — an  easy-going  wish  to 
avoid  direct  issue  with  the  South  on  a  question  supposed  to  be  peculiarly 


724  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

theirs.  But  the  winds  of  Heaven  owned  to  no  decorous  limit  in  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line;  and  there  were  larger  winds  blowing  than  these — winds  rising 
in  the  vast  laboratories  of  the  general  human  heart,  and  destined  to  sweep 
into  all  the  vast  spaces  of  human  want  and  woe.  The  South  was  finding, 
through  her  blacks'  perpetual  defiance  of  torture  and  death  for  freedom,  that 
there  was  perhaps  something,  even  in  a  negro,  which  most  vexatiously 
refused  to  be  counted  in  with  the  figures  of  the  auctioneer's  bill  of  sale; 
and  now  the  North's  lesson  was  coming  to  her  —  that  the  soul  of  a 
century's  civilization  was  still  less  purchasable  than  the  soul  of  a  slave. 
A  growing  feeling  of  humanity  was  stirring  through  the  northern  States. 
It  was  not  the  work,  I  think,  of  any  man  or  body  of  men ;  it  was  rather 
itself  a  creative  force,  and  made  men  and  bodies  of  men  the  results  of  its 
awakening  influence.  To  such  a  power,  my  father's  nature  was  quickly 
responsive.  Both  his  head  and  his  heart  recognized  the  terrible  wrongs  of 
the  enslaved,  and  the  urgency  with  which  they  pressed  for  remedy ;  but 
where  was  the  means?  From  the  first,  he  felt  that  the  movement  which 
brought  Freedom  and  Slavery  fairly  into  the  field  and  squarely  against  each 
other,  threw  unnecessary  obstacles  in  its  own  way  by  the  violence  with  which 
it  was  begun  and  prosecuted.  If  he  were  to  work  at  all  in  the  cause,  he 
determined  to  work  within  the  limits  of  recognized  law.  The  Colonization 
Society  held  out  a  good  hope ;  at  least,  he  could  see  no  other  as  close  to  the 
true  but  closer  to  the  feasible ;  and,  after  connecting  himself  with  it,  he 
seems  to  have  been  content  for  a  while  on  the  score  of  political  matters,  and 
to  have  devoted  himself  to  what  he  had  adopted  as  his  chief  purpose  in  life. 
This  was,  enlarging  the  sphere  of  female  education,  and  giving  it  a  more 
vigorous  tone.  To  this  he  tasked  all  his  abilities.  His  convictions  on  the 
subject  were  very  earnest ;  his  strength  of  character  sufficient  to  bear  them 
out;  so  that,  in  a  short  time,  he  was  able  to  establish  his  school  so  firmly  in 
the  respect  of  this  community,  that,  for  twenty-five  years,  all  the  odium  that 
his  activity  in  the  Anti-slavery  cause  drew  upon  him  did  not  for  a  moment 
abate  the  public  confidence  accorded  to  his  professional  power. 

It  was  in  1836,  in  one  of  his  vacations,  that  his  mind  was  violently 
turned  inwards  to  re-examine  his  status  upon  the  Anti-slavery  question.  He 
happened  to  be  visiting  his  old  college-friend,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  at  Cincin- 
nati, and,  fortunately  for  the  spiritual  life  of  both  men,  it  was  at  the  time  of 
the  terrible  riots  that  broke  up  the  press  of  John  G.  Birney.  Both  being 
known  as  already  favoring  the  cause  of  the  slave,  they  stood  in  much  peril 
for  several  days ;  but  when  the  dark  time  was  passed,  the  clearness  that 
defined  their  sentiments  was  seen  to  be  worth  all  the  personal  danger  that 
had  bought  it.  Self-delusion  on  the  subject  was  no  longer  possible.  The 
deductions  from  the  facts  were  as  plain  as  the  facts  themselves.  The  two 
friends  took  counsel  together,  and  adopted  the  policy  from  which  thencefor- 
ward neither  ever  swerved.  A  great  cloud  was  rolled  from  their  eyes.  In 


CHARLES  D.   CLEVELAND.  725 

all  this  turmoil  of  riot,  they  saw  on  the  one  side,  indeed,  a  love  of  man  great 
in  its  devotion ;  but  on  the  other,  a  moral  deadness  in  the  North  so  profound 
and  determined  that  it  threatened  thus  brutally  any  voice  that  would  disturb 
it  Their  duty,  then,  was  evident:  to  fling  all  the  forces  of  their  lives,  and 
by  all  social  and  political  means,  right  against  this  inertness,  and  shatter  it 
if  they  could.  To  Mr.  Chase,  the  course  of  things  gave  the  larger  political 
work  ;  to  my  father,  the  larger  social.  His  diary  records  how  amazed  he 
was,  when  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  at  his  former  blindness,  and  how 
thankful  to  the  spirit  of  love  that  had  touched  and  cleansed  his  eyes  that  he 
might  see  God's  image  erect.  He  knew  now  that  his  lot  had  been  cast  in 
the  very  stronghold  of  apathy,  the  home  of  a  lukewarm  spirit,  which,  not  con- 
taining anything  positive  to  keep  it  close  to  the  right,  let  its  sullen  negative- 
ness  gravitate  towards  the  wrong.  It  will  be  difficult  to  make  coming 
generations  understand,  not  the  flaming  antagonism  to  humanity,  but  the 
more  brutal  avoidance  of  it  that  ruled  the  political  tone  in  this  latitude,  from 
1836  to  1861.  I  have  thought  of  the  word  bitterness,  as  expressing  it;  but 
though  that  might  convey  somewhat  of  its  recoil  when  disturbed,  it  pictures 
nothing  of  its  inhuman  solicitude  against  all  disturbance.  Conservatism,  it 
was  called;  and  certainly  it  did  conserve  the  devil  admirably.  At  the 
South,  one  race  of  men  were  so  basely  wielding  a  greater  physical  power 
over  another  race  of  men,  as  to  crush  from  them  the  attributes  of  self-respon- 
sible creatures;  Philadelphia,  the  city  of  the  North  nearest  the  wrong,  made 
no  plea  for  humanity's  claims.  It  went  on,  this  monstrous  abrogation  of 
everything  that  lends  sanctity  to  man's  relations  on  earth,  till  slaves  were 
beasts,  with  instincts  annihilated,  and  masters  demons,  with  instincts  re- 
versed; Philadelphia  made  no  plea  for  the  violated  rhythm  of  life  on 
either  side.  Even  the  Church  betrayed  its  mission,  and  practically  aided 
in  stamping  out  from  millions  the  spirit  that  related  them  to  the  Divine; 
still  Philadelphia  made  no  plea  for  God's  love  in  his  humanity.  Utterly 
insensible  to  the  most  piercing  appeals  that  man  can  make  to  man,  she  loved 
her  hardness,  clung  to  it ;  and  if,  now  and  then,  a  voice  from  the  North  blewv 
down,  warningly  as  a  trumpet,  the  great  city  turned  sluggishly  in  her  bed 
of  spiritual  and  political  torpor,  and  cried :  Let  be,  let  be !  a  little  more 
slumber  !  a  little  more  folding  of  the  hands  to  my  moral  death-sleep ! 

This  souring  of  faith,  this  half-paralysis  of  the  heart's  beating,  this 
blurring  of  the  intuitions  that  make  manhood  possible,  were  what  my 
father^found  here  in  that  year  of  our  Lord's  grace,  1836.  It  will  be  worth 
while  to  watch  him  move  into  the  fight  and  bear  his  part  in  its  thickest,  just 
to  learn  how  largely  history  lays  her  humanitarian  advances  on  a  few  will- 
ing souls. 

The  means  which  lay  readiest  to  his  use  for  rousing  the  dormant  spirit 
of  the  city  was  his  social  position.  And  yet  how  hard,  one  would  think, 
it  must  have  been  to  make  this  sacrifice.  He  came  accredited  by  all 


726  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

the  claims  of  finished  culture,  a  man  consecrated  to  the  scholar's  life.*  Then, 
with  the  sensitiveness  that  springs  from  intellectual  breeding,  one  will  look 
to  see  him  shrink  from  conflict  with  the  callous  condition  of  feeling  around 
him.  The  glamour  of  book-lore  will  spread  over  it,  and  hide  it  from  his 
sight.  He  has  a  noble  enough  mission,  at  all  events :  to  raise  the  standard 
of  educational  culture  in  a  city  that  hardly  knows  the  meaning  of  the  term ; 
and  if  any  glimpse  should  come  to  him  of  the  lethargic  inhumanity  around 
him,  he  can  afford  to  let  it  pass  as  a  glimpse — his  look  being  fixed  on  the 
sacred  heights  which  the  scholar's  feet  must  tread. 

Ah,  how  his  course,  so  different,  proves  to  us  that  the  true  scholar  is 
always  a  scholar  of  truth.  No  matter  what  element  of  the  public  sentiment 
he  met — the  listlessuess  of  pampered  wealth  ;  the  brutal  prejudice  of  some 
voting  savage;  the  refined  sneer  of  lettered  dilettanteism ;  the  purposed 
aversion  of  trade  or  pulpit  fearing  disturbed  markets  or  pews ; — he  beat 
lustily  and  incessantly  at  all  the  parts  of  the  iron  image  of  wrong  sitting 
stolidly  here  with  close-shut  eyes.  No  matter  when  it  was,  on  holiday  or 
working-day  or  Sabbath ;  at  home  and  abroad  ;  in  the  parlor,  the  street,  the 
counting-room;  in  his  school  and  in  the  Church; — he  bore  down  on  this 
apathy  and  its  brood  of  scorns  like  a  west  wind  that  sweeps  through  a 
city  dying  under  weight  of  miasma.  And  the  wind  might  as  well  cease 
blowing  yet  not  cease  to  be  wind,  as  my  father's  influence  stop  and  himself 
live.  It  scattered  the  good  seed  everywhere.  How  often  have  I  heard  him 
say,  "  I  know  nothing  of  what  the  harvest  will  be ;  I  am  responsible  only 
for  the  sowing."  And  bravely  went  the  sowing  on,  with  the  broadcast  lar- 
gesse of  love.  There  was  no  breeze  of  talk  that  did  not  carry  the  seeds ; — 
to  the  wayside,  for  from  those  that  even  chance  upon  the  truth  the  fowls  of 
the  air  cannot  take  it  all ;  to  thin  soil  and  among  thorns,  for  no  heart  so 
feeble  or  choked  that  will  not  find  in  a  single  day's  growth  of  truth  germi- 
nation for  eternity;  to'stony  places,  for  no  cranny  in  the  rocks  that  can  hold 
a  seed  but  can  be  a  home  for  riving  roots; — "And  other  fell  on  good  ground 
and  did  bring  forth  fruit." 

Thus  it  was  primarily  to  rouse  those  of  his  own  class  that  he  labored,  to 
gall  them  into  seeing  (though  they  should  turn  again  and  renc]  him)  that 
moral  supineness  is  moral  decay,  that  the  soul  shrivels  into  nothingness 
when  wrong  is  acquiesced  in,  as  surely  as  it  is  torn  and  scattered  by  the  furies 
let  loose  within  it,  when  wrong  is  done.  But  just  there  lay  the  difficulty 
and  pain  of  his  mission  :  that,  from  his  acknowledged  standing  in  the 
literary  world,  and  as  a  leader  in  the  interests  of  higher  education,  his  path 
brought  him  into  contact  mainly  with  the  cultured,  and  it  was  among  these 

*  All  that  I  here  write  of  nay  father,  I  write  equally  of  his  co-laborer  in  the  same  sphere  of  work — 
Rev.  W.  H.  Furness ;  and  it  it  is  true  of  others  whom  1  did  not  know,  th^n  to  their  memory  also  I 
bear  this  record  of  the  two  whose  labors  and  characters  it  has  been  the  deepest  privilege  of  my  life  to 
know  so  well 


CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND.  727 

that  the  pro-slavery  spirit  ruled  with  its  bitterest  stringency.  NoL  cultured: 
let  us  unsay  the  word ;  rather,  with  the  gloss  and  hard  polish  which  read- 
ing and  wealth  and  the  finer  appointments  of  living  can  throw  over  spiritual 
arrest  or  decay.  Culture  is  a  holy  word,  and  dare  be  used  of  intellectual 
advance  only  when  the  moral  sympathies  have  kept  equal  step.  It  includes 
something  beyond  an  amateur  sentiment  in  favor  of  what  we  favor.  If  it 
does  not  open  the  ear  to  every  cry  of  humanity,  struggling  up  or  slipping 
back,  it  is  no  culture  properly  so  called,  but  a  sham,  a  mask  of  wax,  a  varnish 
with  cruel  glitter;  and  what  a  double  wrath  will  be  poured  on  him  who 
cracks  the  wax  and  the  varnish,  not  only  because  of  the  rude  awakening, 
but  because  the  crack  shows  the  sham. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  now  to  realize  what  revenge  this  class  dealt  to  my 
father  for  twenty-five  years.  Consider  their  power  of  revenge.  They  could 
not  force  a  loss  of  property  or  of  life,  it  is  true  ;  they  made  no  open  assault 
in  the  street;  their  'delicacy'  held  itself  above  common  vituperation.  But 
they  wielded  a  greater  power  than  all  these  over  a  man  whose  every  accom- 
plishment made  him  their  equal,  and  they  used  it  without  stint.  They 
doomed  him  to  the  slow  martyrdom  of  social  scorn.  They  shut  their  doors 
against  him.  They  elbowed  him  from  every  position  to  which  he  had  a 
wish  or  a  right,  except  public  respect,  and  they  could  not  elbow  him  from 
that  unless  they  pushed  his  character  from  its  poise.  They  cut  him  off  from 
every  friendly  regard  which  would  else  have  been  devotedly  his,  on  that 
level  of  educated  life,  and  limited  him  to  'solitary  confinement'  within 
himself.  They  compelled  him  to  walk  as  if  under  a  ban  or  an  anathema. 
Had  he  been  a  leper  in  Syrian  deserts,  or  a  disciple  of  Jesus  among  Phari- 
sees, he  could  not  have  been  more  utterly  banished  from  the  region  of  homes 
and  self-constituted  piety.  They  showered  ineffable  contempt  upon  him  in 
every  way  consistent  with  their  littleness  and — refinement.  Slight,  sneer, 
insult,  all  the  myriad  indignities  that  only  'good  society'  can  devise,  these 
were  what  my  father  received  in  return  for  his  love  and  his  work  in  love. 

How  little  personal  relation  all  this  obloquy  bore  to  him,  let  this  stand  as 
evidence :  that  he  not  only  continued  his  work,  but  daily  gave  it  more 
caustic  energy  and  wider  scope.  As  I  have  hinted,  he  did  not,  in  political 
matters,  give  in  his  adherence  to  that  class  of  abolitionists  who,  as  he 
thought,  threw  away  their  best  chances  of  success  in  refusing  to  work  within 
constitutional  provisions.  He  was  prouder  that  this  single  community  should 
call  him  "  abolitionist,"  though  it  spat  the  word  at  him,  than  if  the  whole 
earth  should  hail  him  with  the  kingliest  title;  but  he  loved  the  name  too 
well  not  to  make  it  stand  for  some  practical  fact,  some  feasible  and  organized 
effort.  He  believed  that  our  National  Constitution  did,  indeed,  hold  many 
compromises  with  Slavery,  but  was  framed,  in  the  majority  of  its  provisions 
and  certainly  in  the  totality  of  its  spirit,  in  the  interests  of  freedom  ;  and 
that  it  only  needed  enforcement  by  the  choice  of  the  ballot-box  to  bring  the 


728  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

South  either  to  an  amicable  or  a  hostile  settlement  of  the  question.  Which, 
he  did  not  ask  or  care.  The  duty  of  the  present  could  not  be  mis-read ;  it 
was  written  in  the  vote. 

With  these  views,  he  gave  much  time  and  work  to  organizing  in  this 
State,  "  The  National  Liberty  Party,"  in  1840,  and  to  securing  from  Penn- 
sylvania some  of  the  seven  thousand  votes  that  were  cast  for  John  G.  Birney 
in  that  year  throughout  the  Union.  By  the  time  another  election  came,  the 
party  had  swelled  its  numbers  to  seventy  thousand.  To  contribute  his  share 
towards  this  success,  tract  after  tract,  address  after  address,  were  written  and 
sent  broadcast;  meetings  were  convened,  committees  formed,  resolutions 
framed,  speeches  made,  petitions  and  remonstrances  sent,  public  action 
fearlessly  sifted  and  criticised  ;  in  short,  because  he  held  a  steady  faith  in 
men's  humane  promptings  when  ultimately  reached,  he  'cried  aloud'  to 
them  by  every  access,  and  ( spared  not'  to  call  them  from  their  timidity  and 
time-serving  to  manly  utterance  through  the  ballot-box. 

Of  such  appeals,  his  address  of  the  "  Liberty  Party  of  Pennsylvania,  to 
the  people  of  the  State,"  issued  in  1844,  may  stand  as  a  sample.  It  is  a 
vivid  portrayal  of  the  slave  power's  insidious  encroachments,  and  of  its 
monopolized  guidance  of  the  Government.  It  gathers  up  the  national  statistics 
into  groups,  shows  how  new  meaning  is  reflected  from  them  thus  related,  that 
all  unite  to  illustrate  the  single  fact  of  the  South's  steady  increase  of  power, 
her  tightening  grasp  about  the  throat  of  government,  and  her  buffets  of 
threat  to  the  North  when  a  weedling  palm  failed  to  palsy  fast  enough.  It 
warns  northern  voters  of  the  undertow  that  is  drawing  them,  and  adjures 
them,  by  every  consideration  of  political  common  sense,  not  to  cast  their 
ballots  for  either  of  the  pro-slavery  candidates  presented.  The  conclusion 
of  this  address  is  as  follows : 

OUR  OBJECT. 

"And  now,  fellow-citizens,  you  may  ask,  what  is  our  object  in  thus  exhibiting  to  you 
the  alarming  influence  of  the  slave  power?  Do  we  wish  to  excite  in  your  bosoms  feelings 
of  hatred  against  citizens  of  a  common  country?  Do  we  wish,  to  array  the  Free  states 
against  the  Slave  states  in  hostile  strife  ?  No,  fellow-citizens.  But  we  wish  to  show  you 
that,  while  the  slave  states  are  inferior  to  us  in  free  population,  having  not  even  one  half 
of  ours  ;  inferior  in  morals,  being  the  region  of  bowie  knives  and  duels,  of  assassinations 
and  lynch  law  ;  inferior  in  mental  attainments,  having  not  one-fourth  of  the  number  that 
can  read  and  write;  inferior  in  intelligence,  having  not  one-fifth  of  the  number  of  literary 
and  scientific  periodicals ;  inferior  in  the  products  of  agriculture  and  manufactures,  of 
mines,  of  fisheries,  and  of  the  forest ;  inferior,  in  short,  in  everything  that  constitutes 
the  wealth,  the  honor,  the  dignity,  the  stability,  the  happiness,  the  true  greatness  of  a 
nation, — it  is  wrong,  it  is  unjust,  it  is  absurd,  that  they  should  have  an  influence  in  all  the 
departments  of  government  so  entirely  disproportionate  to  our  own.  We  would  arouse 
you  to  your  own  true  interests.  We  would  have  you,  like  men,  firmly  resolved  to  mam- 
tain  your  own  rights.  We  would  have  you  say  to  the  South, — if  you  choose  to  hug  to  your 
bosom  that  system  which  is  continually  injuring  and  impoverishing  you ;  that  system 
which  reduces  two  millions  and  a  half  of  native  Americans  in  your  midst  to  the  most 


CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND.  729 

abject  condition  of  ignorance  and  vice,  withholding  from  them  the  very  key  of  knowledge; 
that  system  which  is  at  war  with  every  principle  of  justice,  every  feeling  of  humanity  ; 
that  system  which  makes  man  the  property  of  man,  and  perpetuates  that  relation  from 
one  generation  to  another ;  that  system  which  tramples,  continually,  upon  a  majority  of 
the  commandments  of  the  Decalogue  ;  that  system  which  could  not  live  a  day  if  it  did  not 
give  one  party  supreme  control  over  the  persons,  the  health,  the  liberty,  the  happiness, 
the  marriage  relations,  the  parental  authority  and  filial  obligations  of  the  other ; — if  you 
choose  to  cling  to  such  a  system,  cling  to  it ;  but  you  shall  not  cross  our  line  ;  you  shall 
not  bring  that  foul  thing  here.  We  know,  and  we  here  repeat  it  for  the  thousandth  time 
to  meet,  for  the  thousandth  time,  the  calumnies  of  our  enemies,  that  while  we  may  present 
to  you  every  consideration  of  duty,  we  have  no  right,  as  well  as  no  power,  to  alter  your 
State  laws.  But  remember,  that  slavery  is  the  mere  creature  of  local  or  statute  law,  and 
cannot  exist  out  of  the  region  where  such  law  has  force.  '  It  is  so  odious/  says  Lord 
Mansfield,  '  that  ndthing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it  but  positive  law.' 

"  We  would,  therefore,  say  to  you  again,  in  the  strength  of  that  Constitution  under  which 
we  live,  and  which  no  where  countenances  slavery,  you  shall  not  bring  that  foul  thing 
here.  You  shall  not  force  the  corrupted  and  corrupting  blood  of  that  system  into  every 
vein  and  artery  of  our  body  politic.  You  shall  not  have  the  controlling  power  in  all  the 
departments  of  our  government  at  home  and  abroad.  You  shall  not  so  negotiate  with 
foreign  powers,  as  to  open  markets  for  the  products  of  slave  labor  alone.  You  shall  not 
so  manage  things  at  home,  as  every  few  years  to  bring  bankruptcy  upon  our  country. 
You  shall  not,  in  the  apportionment  of  public  moneys,  have  what  you  call  your  '  pro- 
perty '  represented,  and  thus  get  that  which,  by  no  right,  belongs  to  you.  You  shall  not 
have  the  power  to  bring  your  slaves  upon  our  free  soil,  and  take  them  away  at  pleasure ; 
nor  to  reclaim  them,  when  they,  panting  for  liberty,  have  been  able  to  escape  your  grasp ; 
for  we  would  have  it  said  of  us,  as  the  eloquent  Curran  said  of  Britain,  the  moment  the 
slave  touches  our  soil,  '  The  ground  on  which  he  stands  is  holy,  and  consecrated  to  the 
Genius  of  UNIVERSAL  EMANCIPATION.' 

"  Thus,  fellow-citizens,  we  come  to  the  great  object  of  the  Liberty  Party:    ABSOLUTE 

AND  UNQUALIFIED  DIVORCE  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT  FROM  ALL  CONNECTION  WITH 

SLAVERY.  We  would  employ  every  constitutional  means  to  eradicate  it  from  our  entire, 
country,  because  it  would  be  for  the  highest  welfare  of  our  entire  country.  We  would 
have  liberty  established  in  the  District,  and  in  all  the  Territories.  *  *  We 

would  have  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  which  the  Constitution  guarantees  to  us. 
We  would  have  the  right  of  petition  most  sacredly  regarded.  We  would  secure  to  every 
man  what  the  Constitution  secures,  '  The  right  of  trial  by  jury.'  We  would  do  what  we 
can  for  the  encouragement  and  improvement  of  the  colored  race,  and  restore  to  them  that 
inestimable  right  of  which  they  have  been  so  meanly,  as  well  as  unjustly,  deprived,  the  RIGHT 
OF  SUFFRAGE.  We  would  look  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  and  the  whole  country, 
and  not  legislate  for  the  good  of  an  Oligarchy,  the  most  arrogant  that  ever  lorded  it  over 
an  insulted  people.  We  would  have  our  commercial  treaties  with  foreign  nations  regard 
the  interests  of  the  Free  states.  We  would  provide  safe,  adequate,  and  permanent  mar- 
kets for  the  produce  of  free  labor.  And,  when  reproached  with  slavery,  we  would  be  able 
to  say  to  the  world,  with  an  open  front  and  a  clear  conscience,  our  General  Government 
has  nothing  to  do  with  it,  either  to  promote,  to  sustain,  to  defend,  to  sanction,  or  to  ap- 
prove. 

"  Thus,  fellow-citizens,  you  see  our  objects.  You  may  now  ask,  by  what  means  we  hope 
to  attain  them.  We  answer,  by.  POLITICAL  ACTION.  What  is  political  action  ?  It  is 
acting  in  a  manner  appropriate  to  those  objects  which  we  wish  to  secure  through  the  agency 
of  the  different  departments  of  Government.  *  The  only  way  in  which 

we  can  act  constitutionally,  is  to  go  to  the  ballot  box,  and  there,  silently  and  unosteuta- 


730  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

tiously,  deposit  a  vote  for  such  men  as  will  do  what  they  can  to  carry  out  those  principles 
which  we  have  so  much  at  heart.  *  *  *  * 

"  Come,  then,  men  of  Pennsylvania,  come  and  join  us  in  this  good  work.  Join  us,  to  use 
such  moral  means  as  to  co:  "ect  public  sentiment  throughout  the  region  where  slavery 
exists,  and  to  impress  upon  the  people  of  the  Free  states  a  manly  sense  of  their  own 
rights.  Join  us,  to  place  "just  men"  in  all  our  public  offices;  men  whose  example  a 
whole  people  may  safely  imitate.  Join  us  to  free  our  General  Government  from  the  ig- 
nomiuious  reproach  of  slavery  ;  to  restore  to  our  country  those  principles  which  our  fathers 
so  labored  to  establish ;  and  to  hand  these  principles  down  afresh  to  successive  genera- 
tions. It  is  the  cause  of  truth,  of  humanity,  and  of  God,  to  which  we  invite  your  aid.  It 
is  a  cause  of  which  you  never  need  be  ashamed.  Living,  you  may  be  thankful,  and  dying, 
you  may  be  thankful,  for  having  labored  in  it.  We  have,  as  co-laborers  with  us,  the 
noblest  allies  that  man  can  wish.  Within,  we  have  the  deepest  convictions  of  conscience, 
the  clearest  deductions  of  reason  ;  and,  all  over  the  world,  wherever  man  is  found,  the  first, 
the  most  ardent  longings  of  the  human  soul.  Without,  we  have  the  happiness  of  nearly 
three  millions  of  the  human  race ;  the  honor,  as  well  as  the  best  interests  of  our  whole 
country ;  and  the  universal  consent  of  all  good  men  whose  moral  vision  is  not  obscured  by 
the  mist  of  a  low,  misguided  selfishness  :  while  we  seem  to  hear,  as  it  were,  the  voices  of 
the  great  and  the  good,  the  patriot  and  the  philanthropist,  of  a  past  generation,  calling  to 
us  and  cheering  us  on.  But,  above  all  these,  and  beyond  all  these,  we  have  with  us  the 
highest  attributes  of  <jod,  Justice  and  Mercy.  With  such  allies,  and  in  such  a  cause,  who 
can  doubt  on  which  side  the  victory  will  ultimately  rest. 

"  May  He  who  guides  the  destinies  of  nations,  and  without  whose  aid  '  they  labor  in 
vain  that  build,'  so  incline  your  hearts  to  exert  your  whole  influence  to  place  in  all  our 
public  offices  just  and  good  men,  that  our  country  may  be  preserved,  her  best  interests 
advanced,  and  her  institutions,  free  in  reality  as  in  name,  handed  down  to  the  latest  pos- 
terity." 

Is  not  the  love  of  God  and  man  ingrained  in  every  line  of  this  writing  ? 
Yet  let  us  see  how  it  was  received  by  the  most  Christian  (?)  body  in 
this  city. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  my  father's  mind  had  been  largely  impressed,  from 
earliest  manhood,  with  the  highest  subject  human  thought  can  touch.  His 
library  records  his  wide  religious  reading;  but  he  could  not  see  an  honest 
path  towards  the  profession  of  any  definite  views  till  1836.  The  change 
wrought  in  him  then,  can  best  be  gathered  from  his  own  simple  words 
(under  date,  1842)  written  in  a  fly-leaf  of  "  The  Unitarian  Miscellany :" 
"Though  I  humbly  trust  that  God  made  my  trials  in  1836  the  means  of 
bringing  me  to  true  repentance,  yet  I  have  kept  these  books  as  monuments 
of  what  I  once  was,  and  to  remind  me  how  grateful  I  should  be  to  Him 
for  having  snatched  me  a§  a  '  brand  from  the  burning.'  "  Such  a  faith  as 
this,  born  of  the  spiritual  travail  of  years,  what  a  life  it  always  has  for  the 
heart  that  forms  it !  It  tells  not  of  a  persuasion,  but  of  a  conviction ;  a 
disproof  of  skepticism  through  the  gathered  forces  of  the  soul ;  a  struggle, 
through  epochs  of  doubt  and  dismay,  into  an  attitude  of  positive  vital  faith. 
Its  process  is  the  only  one  that  gives  real  right  to  ultimate  peace.  In 
comparison  with  the  method  and  measure  of  such  a  conviction,  what 
matters  its  specific  form  ?  Self-truth  is  the  point, — the  fact  for  starting,  the 


CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND.  731 

line  for  guiding;  and  as  for  result,  this  lonely  and  solemn  rally  on  the 
deepest  within  us,  as  it  is  continuously  unfolded,  must  lead  to  a  glad  and 
solemn  union  with  the  Highest  widiout  us.  Who  can  know  unfailing 
inward  energy  except  through  this  new  birth  ?  It  proved  an  ever-fresh 
spring  of  vigor  to  my  father,  and  because  of  it  he  was  chosen,  in  1839,  presi- 
dent of  "The  Philadelphia  Bible  Society."  What  changes  were  wrought  in 
the  policy  of  the  Society,  what  numerous  plans  were  devised  and  executed 
for  multiplying  its  operations,  how  it  was  made  a  cordial  alliance  of  all 
denominations,  will  presently  appear.  This  is  now  to  be  said :  that,  after 
filling  his  office  for  five  years,  he  found  that  his  Anti-slavery  testimony  had 
engendered  in  the  managers  a  bitterness  that  would  seize  the  address  of  1844 
for  pretext,  and  make  retaliation  in  his  sacrifice.  Thankful,  for  the 
thousandth  time,  to  be  a  sacrifice  for  the  cause  he  loved,  he  sent  in  his  resig- 
nation in  a  letter  full  of  Christian  kindness  and  sorrow.  A  short  extract  will 
show  its  tone : 

*'  One  whose  great  heart  wishes  the  best  for  humanity  calls  to  us  from  the  "West : 
'  When  your  Society  propose  to  put  a  Bible  into  every  family,  and  yet  omit  all  reference 
to  the  slaves ;  and  when,  giving  an  account  of  the  destitution  of  the  land,  they  make  no 
mention  of  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people  perishing  in  our  midst  without  the  Scriptures, 
can  we  help  feeling  that  something  is  dreadfully  wrong  ?'  This,  brethren,  is  a  most  solemn 
question.  It  is  a  question  which  I  verily  believe  the  American  Bible  Society,  so  far  as 
they  may  have  yielded,  directly  or  indirectly,  openly  or  silently,  to  a  corrupt  public  senti- 
ment on  this  subject,  will  have  to  answer  at  the  bar  of  Him  who  has  declared,  that,  '  If 
ye  have  respect  to  persons,  ye  commit  sin  ;'  and  that  '  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one 
of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me.'  The  spirit  of  Christianity  is  a  spirit  of  universal 
love  and  philanthropy.  She  looks  down  with  pity,  and,  if  she  could,  she  would  look 
with  scorn  upon  all  the  petty  distinctions  that  exist  among  men.  She  casts  her  be- 
nignant eye  abroad  over  the  earth,  and,  wherever  she  sees  man,  she  sees  him  as  man, 
as  a  being  made  in  the  image  of  God,  whether  an  Indian,  an  African,  or  a  Caucasian 
sun  may  shine  upon  him.  She  stoops  from  heaven  to  raise  the  fallen,  to  bind  up  the  •* 
broken-hearted,  to  release  the  oppressed,  to  give  liberty  to  the  captive,  and  to  break  the 
fetters  of  those  that  are  bound.  She  is  marching  onward  with  accelerated  step,  and, 
wherever  she  leaves  the  true  impress  of  her  heavenly  influence,  the  moral  wilderness  is 
changed  into  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  May  it  never  be  ours  to  do  what  may  seem  to 
be  even  the  slightest  obstacle  to  her  universal  sway.  *  * 

,  "  But  I  have  already  written  more  than  I  intended.  In  bringing  this  communication  to 
a  close,  allow  me  to  express  to  you  individually,  and  as  a  Board,  my  most  sincere  Chris- 
tian attachment.  Whatever  course  any  members  may  have  taken  in  relation  to  this 
matter,  I  must  believe  that  they  have  acted  from  what  has  seemed  to  them  a  sense  of 
duty.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  impeach  their  motives.  Time,  the  great  test  of  truth,  may 
show  them  their  course  in  a  very  different  light  from  that  in  which  they  now  view  it.  I 
may,  as  a  Christian,  lament  that  their  views  of  duty  are  not  more  in  unison  with  my  own. 
I  may,  as  a  man,  feel  heart-sickened  at  the  diseased,  the  deplorably  diseased  state  of  the 
public  mind,  in  relation  to  two  and  a  half  millions  of  my  fellow-men  in  bondage.  I  may, 
as  a  citizen  of  a  Free  state,  blush  at  the  humiliating  fact,  that  not  only  the  tyranny,  but 
the  ubiquity  of  the  slave  power  is  everywhere  so  manifest ;  that  it  has  insinuated  itself 
into  our  free  domain  to  such  a  degree  that  there  seems  to  be  as  much  mental  Slavery  in 
the  Free  states,  as  there  is  personal  in  the  Slave  states.  I  may  feel  all  this,  but  I  must 
not  impeach  the  motives  by  which  others  have  been  governed." 


732  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

There  were  twenty-one  managers  present  at  the  reading  of  this  letter,  and, 
at  its  conclusion,  a  noble  friend  of  the  slave  moved  that  the  resignation  be 
not  accepted  ;  the  motion  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  fourteen  against  seven.  It 
was  then  moved  that  it  be  accepted  f  with  regret :'  this  was  carried  by  the 
same  vote  !  But  'with  regret'  was  not  an  empty  form  for  easing  this  action 
to  its  recipient;  how  much  it  meant  is  seen  in  the  resolution  that  was 
added  by  unanimous  acceptance :  "Resolved, — That  this  Board  are  mainly 
indebted  to  Professor  C.  D.  Cleveland  for  the  prominent  and  influential 
position  it  has  attained  in  the  regards  of  this  Christian  community,  and  that 
they  bear  an  earnest  testimony  to  the  sound  judgment  and  unwearied  zeal 
which  have  ever  characterized  the  discharge  of  his  duties  in  his  responsible 
office."  Let  this  tribute,  coming  from  the  bitterest  personal  opposition  that 
ever  man  encountered,  measure  the  work  that  extorted  it.  Looking  at  it, 
it  will  be  difficult  for  the  reader  to  believe  that  a  sacrifice  was  made  of 
the  man  to  whom  it  refers  by  a  representative  Christian  body,  and  merely  to 
sate  for  a  time  the  inhuman  slave-greed ;  yet  it  is  only  one  fact  out  of  many 
that  might  be  adduced,  and  I  have  brought  it  forward  because  it  is,  in  my 
father's  words,  "a  fair  exponent  of  the  position  of  the  Christian  Church  at 
that  time  upon  the  subject  of  Slavery."  Henceforward,  he  ceased  not  to 
rain  blows,  not  only  at  his  own  (the  Presbyterian)  denomination,  but  at  all 
the  organized  expressions  of  Christian  purpose, — the  Sunday-School  Union, 
the  Tract  Society,  etc. 

While  working  thus  by  voice  and  pen,  he  was  incessantly  busy  in  personal 
rescue  of  the  slave.  Especially  was  this  the  case  when  it  became  the  duty 
of  every  lover  of  his  kind  to  defy  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  How  eagerly 
he  then  sprang  to  aid  the  escape  of  those  against  whom  a  law  of  the  land 
impotently  tried  to  bar  the  law  of  our  common  humanity !  During  the 
years  that  followed  the  passage  of  this  infamous  bill,  the  position  he  had 
attained  here  was  of  particular  service.  Recognized  as  one,  who,  being  a 
sort  of  standing  sacrifice,  might  as  well  continue  to  battle  in  the  front ; 
trusted  implicitly  even  by  his  bitterest  foes;  with  such  a  broad  philanthropy 
to  back  his  appeals ;  pushing  straight  into  every  breach  where  work  was 
needed;  blind  to  everything  but  his  one  light  of  moral  instinct; — he 
became  an  organ  for  the  charities  of  those  whose  softer  natures  longingly 
whispered  the  cry,  but  could  not  do  the  cut  and  thrust  work,  of  deliverance. 
Dr.  Furness  held  the  same  position,  and  others  who,  like  him,  refused  to  be 
enrolled  in  the  '  Underground  Committee,'  or  in  any  definite  Anti-Slavery 
organization.  These  men  knew  that  they  were  of  greater  service  to  the 
cause  by  being  its  body-guard,  by  standing  between  it  and  the  public,  by 
making  the  appeals  and  taking  the  blows,  and  by  affording  access,  pecuniary 
and  other,  of  each  to  each. 

Thus  the  times  moved  on — growing  hotter,  more  difficult  and  dangerous, 
but  always  working  these  two  results:  redoubling  the  labors  of  this  noble 


CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND..  733 

band,  and  shaking  the  city  from  lethargy  into  ferment.  Men  were  compelled 
to  take  sides,  and  but  one  result  could  follow,  (the  result  which  always  follows 
when  human  nature  is  stung  and  quickened  to  find  its  highest  instincts,)  the 
Party  of  Eight  steadily  moved  to  triumph. 


For  a  lesson  to  us  in  courage,  it  is  worth  while  to  ask,  how  these 
Apostles  of  Freedom  stood  the  terrible  strain  put  upon  them  for  so  many 
years.  I  can  answer  for  the  two  of  whom  I  write,  and  do  not  doubt  that 
the  answer  is  true  of  the  rest :  This  self-forgetfulness  was  made  easy  by 
a  love  that  filled  and  overfilled  all  their  moral  energies — the  simple  love 
of  man,  as  God's  highest  creation,  and  of  his  natural  rights,  as  God's  best 
gift.  Their  work  was  not  a  mere  result  of  will,  not  an  outcome  of  faculty, 
not  an  unsupported  impulse  of  heart.  It  was  character  living  itself  out,  an 
utterance  of  its  entire  unity,  something  drawn  from  the  solemn  depths  of 
those  life-convictions  which  all  the  personal  and  impersonal  powers  of  a 
man,  aglow  and  welded,  unite  in  producing.  Hence,  their  work  was  not 
apart  from  them,  even  so  far  as  to  be  called  ahead  of  them ;  nor  parallel  with 
them;  it  was  one  with  them  by  a  necessary  spiritual  inclusion.  Will  and 
Duty  ceased  to  be  separate  powers ;  they  were  transfused  through  the  whole 
breadth  of  their  human  sympathies,  adding  to  their  warmth  a  fixity  of  pur- 
pose that  bore  them  without  a  falter,  through  thirty  years  of  such  bitter 
obloquy,  as,  in  these  latter  days,  only  the  early  Anti-Slavery  disciples  have 
had  to  endure.  These  men  never  said,  in  reference  to  the  Anti-slavery  cause, 
I  ought  or  /  will,  because  they  never  needed  to  say  them.  The  sun  shines 
without  them,  and  life  expands  without  them;  and  here  were  souls  as 
unconsciously  beneficent  as  the  one,  as  spontaneous  in  growth  and  shaping 
as  the  other.  Theirs  was  not  a  force  that  moved  mechanically  in  right  lines, 
with  limited  objects  before  it.  It  did,  indeed,  sweep  with  arrowy  swiftness 
of  assail  on  every  point  that  offered;  but  when  I  remember  that  it  more 
often  pleaded  than  stormed,  that  it  penetrated  into  every  secret  recess  that 
mercy  casually  opened,  and  gently  stirred  into  fuller  life  those  roots  of  human 
feeling  that  can  be  numbed  by  apathy  but  not  killed  even  by  hate,  I  know 
that  it  was  persuasive,  diffusive,  inbreathing  force,  an  influence  vital  in 
others  because  an  effluence  vitalized  from  themselves. 

So  they  stood,  self-consecrated,  enveloped  by  the  love  of  God,  permeated 
by  the  love  of  man, — twin  Perfect  Loves  that  cast  out  all  dream  of  fear. 
And  so  they  walked,  calm  as  if  a  thousand  stabs  of  personal  insult  never 
brought  them  one  of  personal  pain,  passing  through  all  as  if  nothing  but 
the  serenest  skies  were  above  them.  And,  as  I  have  said,  right  there  is  one 
explanation  of  the  anomaly ;  there  were  the  serenest  skies  above  them — 
heaven's  love  perpetually  shining.  Why  should  it  not  shine  ?  all  the  powers 
of  the  men  were  dedicated  to  rescuing  the  imasre  of  God  on  this  earth, — 

O  O  ' 


734  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

not  man  as  he  suffered  physically,  but  the  moral  instinct  threatened  with 
annihilation.  It  was  sacred  to  them,  this  soul  so  sacred  to  redeeming  love, 
but  too  brutalized  to  find  its  way  to  it.  Nor  merely  the  slave.  Their  love 
embraced,  with  yet  more  pitying  fervor,  the  master  compelling  his  spiritual 
nature  into  death,  and  the  northern  apologist  letting  his  die ;  and  this  over- 
mastering love  of  saving  spiritual  integrity,  was  one  power  that  made  them 
and  heart-ease  hold  unfailing  friends  through  the  obloquy  of  those  days ; 
the  other  must  be  found  in  the  fact  mentioned, — that  neither  resolve  nor 
impulse  was  their  spur,  but  personal  character  moving  from  its  depths. 

From  such  a  motive-power  as  this  can  come  no  parade  of  results.  The 
nature  that  works,  proceeds  from  the  necessary  laws  and  forcas  of  its  being, 
and  is  as  simple  and  unconscious  as  any  other  natural  law  or  force.  Hence 
there  are  no  startling  epochs  to  record  in  my  father's  history,  no  supreme 
efforts ;  in  filling  the  measure  of  daily  opportunity  lay  his  chief  work.  I 
cannot  measure  it  by  our  ten  fingers'  counting.  I  can  only  show  a  life 
unfolding,  and,  by  the  essential  laws  of  its  growth,  embracing  the  noblest 
cause  of  its  time.  But  if  action  means  vivifying  public  sentiment  decaying 
under  insidious  poison ;  if  it  includes  the  doing  of  this  amid  a  storm  of 
odium  that  would  quickly  have  shattered  any  soul  irresolute  for  an  instant ; 
if  it  means  incessant  toil  quietly  performed,  vast  sums  collected  and  dis- 
bursed, time  sacrificed,  strength  spent ;  if  it  means  holding  up  a  great 
iniquity  to  loathing  by  a  powerful  pen,  and  nailing  moral  cowardice  where- 
ever  it  showed ;  if  it  be  risking  livelihood  by  introducing  the  cause  of  the 
slave  into  every  literary  work,  and  by  mingling  the  school-culture  of  fifty 
future  mothers,  year  by  year,  with  hatred  of  the  sin  ;  if  it  means  one's  life 
in  one's  hand,  friendships  yielded,  society  defied,  and  position  in  it  cheer- 
fully renounced ;  above  all,  if  action  means  a  wealth  of  goodness  overliving 
all  scorns,  compelling  respect  from  a  community  rebuked,  fellowship  from  a 
Church  charged  with  ungodliness,  and  acknowledgment  of  unstained  repute 
from  a  public  eager  to  blacken  with  scandal ;  if  to  do  thus,  and  bear  thus, 
and  live  thus,  is  action,  then  my  father  did  act  to  the  full  purpose  of  life  in 
the  struggle  that  freed  the  slave. 

S.  M.  C. 


WILLIAM  WHIPPER.  .          735 


WILLIAM  WHIPPER.  • 

The  locality  of  Columbia,  where  Mr.  Whipper  resided  for  many  years, 
was,  as  is  well-known,  a  place  of  much  note  as  a  station  on  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road.  The  firm  of  Smith  and  Whipper  (lumber  merchants), 
was  likewise  well-known  throughout  a  wide  range  of  country.  Who, 
indeed,  amongst  those  familiar  with  the  history  of  public  matters  connected 
with  the  colored  people  of  this  country,  has  not  heard  of  William  Whipper? 
For  the  last  thirty  years,  as  an  able  business  man,  it  has  been  very  generally 
admitted,  that  he  hardly  had  a  superior. 

Although  an  unassuming  man,  deeply  engrossed  with  business — Anti- 
slavery  papers,  conventions,  and  public  movements  having  for  their  aim 
the  elevation  of  the  colored  man,  have  always  commanded  Mr.  Whipper's 
interest  and  patronage.  In  the  more  important  conventions  which  have 
been  held  amongst  the  colored  people  for  the  last  thirty  years,  perhaps  no 
other  colored  man  has  been  so  often  called  on  to  draft  resolutions  and  pre- 
pare addresses,  as  the  modest  and  earnest  William  Whipper.  He  has  worked 
effectively  in  a  quiet  way,  although  not  as  a  public  speaker.  He  is  self- 
made,  and  well  read  on  the  subject  of  the  reforms  of  the  day.  Having  been 
highly  successful  in  his  business,  he  is  now  at  the  age  of  .seventy,  in  posses- 
sion of  a  handsome  fortune ;  the  reward  of  long  years  of  assiduous  labor. 
He  is  also  cashier  of  the  Freedman's  Bank,  in  Philadelphia.  For  the  last 
few  years  he  has  resided  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  although  his 
property  and  business  confine  him  mainly  to  his  native  State,  Pennsylvania. 

Owing  to  a  late  affliction  in  his  family,  compelling  him  to  devote  the  most 
t>f  his  time  thereto,  it  has  been  impossible  to  obtain  from  him  the  material 
for  completing  such  a  sketch  as  was  desired.  Prior  to  this  affliction,  in 
answer  to  our  request,  he  furnished  some  reminiscences  of  his  labors  as  con- 
ductor of  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  and  at  the  same  time,  promised  other 
facts  relative  to  his  life,  but  for  the  reason  assigned,  they  were  not  worked 
up,  which  is  to  be  regretted. 

NEW  BRUNSWICK,  N.  J.,  December  4,  1871. 

MR.  WILLIAM  STILL,  DEAR  SIR: — I  sincerely  regret  the  absence  of 
statistics  that  would  enable  me  to  furnish  you  with  many  events,  that  would 
assist  you  in  describing  the  operations  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road.  I 
never  kept  any  record  of  those  persons  passing  through  my  hands,  nor  did 
I  ever  anticipate  that  the  history  of  that  perilous  period  would  ever  be 
written.  I  can  only  refer  to  the  part  I  took  in  it  from  memory,  and  if  I 
could  delineate  the  actual  facts  as  they  occurred  they  would  savor  so  much 
of  egotism  that  I  should  feel  ashamed  to  make  them  public.  I  willingly 


736  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

refer  to  a  few  incidents  which  you  may  select  and  use  as  you  may  think 
proper. 

You  are  perfectly  cognizant  of  the  fact,  that  after  the  decision  in  York, 
Pa.,  of  the  celebrated  Prigg  case,  Pennsylvania  was  regarded  as  free  terri- 
tory, which  Canada  afterwards  proved  to  be,  and  that  the  Susquehanna  river 
was  the  recognized  northern  boundary  of  the  slave-holding  empire.  The 
borough  of  Columbia,  situated  on  its  eastern  bank,  in  the  county  of  Lancas- 
ter, was  the  great  depot  where  the  fugitives  from  Virginia  and  Maryland 
first  landed.  The  long  bridge  connecting  Wrightsville  with  Columbia,  was 
the  only  safe  outlet  by  which  they  could  successfully  escape  their  pursuers. 
When  they  had  crossed  this  bridge  they  could  look  back  over  its  broad 
silvery  stream  on  its  western  shore,  and  say  to  the  slave  power  :  "  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  come,  and  no  farther."  Previous  to  that  period,  the  line  of  fugi- 
tive travel  was  from  Baltimore,  by  the  way  of  Havre  de  Grace  to  Philadel- 
phia ;  but  the  difficulty  of  a  safe  passage  across  the  river,  at  that  place 
caused  the  route  to  be  changed  to  York,  Pa.,  a  distance  of  fifty-eight  miles, 
the  fare  being  forty  dollars,  and  thence  to  Columbia,  in  the  dead  hour  of 
the  night.  My  house  was  at  the  end  of  the  bridge,  and  as  I  kept  the 
station,  I  was  frequently  called  up  in  the  night  to  take  charge  of  the 
passengers. 

On  their  arrival  they  were  generally  hungry  and  penniless.  I  have 
received  hundreds  in  this  condition ;  fed  and  sheltered  from  one  to  seven- 
teen at  a  time  in  a-  single  night.  At  this  point  the  road  forked ;  some  I  sent 
west  by  boats,  to  Pittsburgh,  and  others  to  you  in  our  cars  to  Philadelphia, 
and  the  incidents  of  their  trials  form  a  portion  of  the  history  you  have  com- 
piled. In  a  period  of  three  years  from  1847  to  1850,  I  passed  hundreds  to 
the  land  of  freedom,  while  others,  induced  by  high  wages,  and  the  feeling 
that  they  were  safe  in  Columbia,  worked  in  the  lumber  and  coal  yards  of 
that  place.  I  always  persuaded  them  to  go  to  Canada,  as  I  had  no  faith  in 
their  being  able  to  elude  the  grasp  of  the  slave-hunters.  Indeed,  the  mer- 
chants had  the  confidence  of  their  security  and  desired  them  to  remain  ; 
several  of  my  friends  told  me  that  I  was  injuring  the  trade  of  the  place  by 
persuading  the  laborers  to  leave.  Indeed,  many  of  the  fugitives  themselves 
looked  upon  me  with  jealousy,  and  expressed  their  indignation  at  my  efforts 
to  have  them  removed  from  peace  and  plenty  to  a  land  that  was  cold  and 
barren,  to  starve  to  death. 

It  was  a  period  of  great  prosperity  in  our  borough,  and  everything  passed 
on  favorably  and  successfully  until  the  passage  of  the  fugitive  slave  bill  in 
]  850.  At  first  the  law  was  derided  and  condemned  by  our  liberty-loving 
citizens,  and  the  fugitives  did  not  fear  its  operations  because  they  asserted 
that  they  could  protect  themselves.  This  fatal  dream  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. A  prominent  man,  by  the  name  of  Baker,  was  arrested  and  taken  to 
Philadelphia,  and  given  up  by  the  commissioner,  and  afterwards  purchased 


WILLIAM  WHIPPER.  737 

by  our  citizens ;  another,  by  the  name  of  Smith,  was  shot  dead  in  one  of 
our  lumber  yards,  because  he  refused  to  surrender,  and  his  pursuer  permitted 
to  escape  without  arrest  or  trial.  This  produced  not  only  a  shock,  but  a 
crisis  in  the  affairs  of  our  little  borough.  It  made  the  stoutest  hearts  quail 
before  the  unjust  sovereignty  of  the  law.  The  white  citizens  fearing  the 
danger  of  a  successful  resistance  to  the  majesty  of  the  law,  began  to  talk  of 
the  insecurity  of  these  exiles.  The  fugitives  themselves,  whose  faith  and 
hope  had  been  buoyed  up  by  the  promises  held  up  to  them  of  protection, 
began  to  be  apprehensive  of  danger,  and  talked  of  leaving,  while  others, 
more  bold,  were  ready  to  set  the  dangers  that  surrounded  them  at  defiance, 
and  if  necessary,  die  in  the  defence  of  their  freedom  and  the  homes  they  had 
acquired. 

At  this  juncture  private  meetings  were  held  by  the  colored  people,  and 
the  discussions  and  resolves  bore  a  peculiar  resemblance  in  sentiment  and 
expression  to  the  patriotic  outbursts  of  the  American  revolution. 

Some  were  in  favor,  if  again  attacked,  of  killing  and  slaying  all  within 
their  reach  ;  of  setting  their  own  houses  on  fire,  and  then  going  and  burning 
the  town.  It  was  the  old  spirit  which  animated  the  Russians  at  Moscow, 
and  the  blacks  of  Hayti.  At  this  point  my  self-interest  mingled  with  my 
sense  of  humanity,  and  I  felt  that  I  occupied  a  more  responsible  position 
than  I  shall  ever  attain  to  again.  I,  therefore,  determined  to  make  the  most 
of  it.  I  exhorted  them  to  peace  and  patience  under  their  present  difficulties, 
and  for  their  own  sakes  as  well  as  the  innocent  sufferers,  besought  them  to 
leave  as  early  as  they  could.  If  I  had  advocated  a  different  course  I 
could  have  caused  the  burning  of  the  town.  The  result  of  our  meeting 
produced  a  calm  that  lasted  only  for  a  few  days,  when  it  was  announced, 
one  evening,  that  the  claimants  of  a  Methodist  preacher,  by  the  name  of 
Dorsey,  were  in  the  borough,  and  that  it  was  expected  that  they  would 
attempt  to  take  him  that  night. 

It  was  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  when  I  went  to  his  house,  but 
was  refused  admittance,  until  those  inside  ascertained  who  I  was.  There 
were  several  men  in  the  house  all  armed  with  deadly  weapons,  awaiting  the 
approach  of  the  intruders.  Had  they  come  the  whole  party  would  have 
been  massacred.  I  advised  Dorsey  to  leave,  but  he  very  pointedly  refused, 
saying  he  had  been  taken  up  once  before  alive,  but  never  would  be  again. 
The  men  told  him  to  stand  his  ground,  and  they  would  stand  by  him  and 
defend  him,  they  had  lived  together,  and  would  die  together.  I  told  them 
that  they  knew  the  strength  of  the  pro-slavery  feeling  that  surrounded 
them,  and  that  they  would  be  overpowered,  and  perhaps  many  lives  lost, 
which  might  be  saved  by  his  changing  his  place  of  residence.  He  said, 
he  had  no  money,  and  would  rather  die  with  his  family,  than  be  killed 
on  the  road.  I  said,  how  much  money  do  you  want  to  start  with,  and  we 
will  send  you  more  if  you  need  it.  Here  is  one  hundred  dollars  in  gold. 
47 


738  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

"  That  is  not  enough."  "  Will  two  hundred  dollars  do  1"  "  Yes."  I  shall 
bring  it  to  you  to-morrow.  I  got  the  money  the  next  morning,  and  when  I 
came  with  it,  he  said,  he  could  not  leave  unless  his  family  was  taken  care 
of.  I  told  him  I  would  furnish  his  family  with  provisions  for  the  next  six 
months.  Then  he  said  he  had  two  small  houses,  worth  four  hundred  and 
seventy-five  dollars.  My  reply  was  that  I  will  sell  them  for  you,  and  give 
the  money  to  your  family.  He  then  gave  me  a  power  of  attorney  to  do  so, 
and  attended  to  all  his  affairs.  He  left  the  next  day,  being  the  Sabbath, 
and  has  never  returned  since,  although  he  has  lived  in  the  City  of  Boston 
ever  since,  except  about  six  months  in  Canada. 

I  wish  to  notice  this  case  a  little  further,  as  the  only  one  out  of  many  to 
which  I  will  refer.  About  the  year  1831  or  1832,  Mr.  Joseph  Purvis,  a 
younger  brother  of  Robert  Purvis,  about  nineteen  or  twenty  years  of  age, 
was  visiting  Mr.  Stephen  Smith,  of  Columbia,  and  while  there  the  claimants 
of  Dorsey  came  and  secured  him,  and  had  proceeded  about  two  miles  with 
him  on  the  way  to  Lancaster.  Young  Purvis  heard  of  it,  and  his  natural 
and  instinctive  love  of  freedom  fired  up  his  warm  southern  blood  at  the  very 
recital.  He  was  one  of  nature's  noblemen.  Fierce,  fiery,  and  impulsive,  he 
was  as  quick  to  decide  as  to  perform.  He  demanded  an  immediate  rescue. 
Though  he  was  advised  of  the  danger  of  such  an  attempt,  his  spirit  and 
determination  made  him  invincible.  He  proceeded  to  a  place  where  some 
colored  men  were  working.  With  a  firm  and  determined  look,  and  a  her- 
culean shout,  he  called  out  to  them,  "  To  arms,  to  arms !  boys,  we  must 
rescue  this  man ;  I  shall  lead  if  you  will  follow."  "  We  will,"  was  the 
immediate  response.  And  they  went  and  overtook  them,  and  dispersed  his 
claimants.  They  brought  Dorsey  back  in  triumph  to  Columbia. 

He  then  gave  Dorsey  his  pistol,  with  the  injunction  that  he  should  use  it 
and  die  in  defence  of  his  liberty  rather  than  again  be  taken  into  bondage. 
He  promised  he  would.  I  found  him  with  this  pistol  on  his  table,  the  night 
I  called  on  him,  and  I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  promise  gave 
to  Mr.  Purvis  was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  his  obstinacy.  The  lesson  he 
had  taught  him  had  not  only  become  incorporated  in  his  nature,  but  had 
become  a  part  of  his  religion. 

The  history  of  this  brave  and  noble  effort  of  young  Purvis,  in  rescuing 
a  fellow-being  from  the  jaws  of  Slavery  has  been  handed  down,  in  Columbia, 
to  a  generation  that  was  born  since  that  event  has  transpired.  He  always 
exhibited  the  same  devotion  and  manly  daring  in  the  cause  of  the  flying 
bondman  that  inspired  his  youthful  ardor  in  behalf  of  freedom.  The  youngest 
of  a  family  distinguished  for  their  devotion  to  freedom,  he  was  without 
superiors  in  the  trying  hour  of  battle.  Like  John  Brown,  he  often  dis- 
carded theories,  but  was  eminently  practical.  He  has  passed  to  another 
sphere.  Peace  to  his  ashes !  I  honor  his  name  as  a  hero,  and  friend  of  man. 
I  loved  him  for  the  noble  characteristics  of  his  nature,  and  above  all  for  his 


WILLIAM  WHIPPER.  739 

noble  daring  in  defense  of  the  right.    As  a  friend  I  admired  him,  and  owe  his 
memory  this  tribute  to  departed  worth. 

At  this  point  a  conscientious  regard  for  truth  dictates  that  I  should  state 
that  my  disposition  to  make  a  sacrifice  for  the  removal  of  Dorsey  and  some 
other  leading  spirits  was  aided  by  my  own  desire  for  self-preservation. 

I  knew  that  it  had  been  asserted,  far  down  in  the  slave  region,  that 
Smith  &  Whipper,  the  negro  lumber  merchants,  were  engaged  in  secreting 
fugitive  slaves.  And  on  two  occasions  attempts  had  been  made  to  set  fire  to 
their  yard  for  the  purpose  of  punishing  them  for  such  illegal  acts.  And  I 
felt  that  if  a  collision  took  place,  we  should  not  only  be  made  to  suffer  the 
penalty,  but  the  most  valuable  property  in  the  village  be  destroyed,  besides 
a  prodigal  waste  of  human  life  be  the  consequence.  In  such  an  event  I  felt 
that  I  should  not  only  lose  all  I  had  ever  earned,  but  peril  the  hopes  and 
property  of  others,  so  that  I  would  have  freely  given  one  thousand  dollars 
to  have  been  insured  against  the  consequences  of  such  a  riot.  I  then  bor- 
rowed fourteen  hundred  dollars  on  my  own  individual  account,  and  assisted 
many  others  to  go  to  a  land  where  the  virgin  soil  was  not  polluted  by  the 
foot-prints  of  a  slave. 

The  colored  population  of  the  Borough  of  Columbia,  in  1850,  was  nine 
hundred  and  forty-three,  about  one-fifth  ^the  whjole  population,  and  in  five 
years  they  were  reduced  to  four  hundred  and  eighty-seven  by  emigration  to 
Canada. 

In  the  summer  of  1853,  I  visited  Canada  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining 
the  actual  condition  of  many  of  those  I  had  assisted  in  reaching  a  land  of 
freedom ;  and  I  was  much  gratified  to  find  them  contented,  prosperous,  and 
happy.  I  was  induced  by  the  prospects  of  the  new  emigrants  to  purchase 
lands  on  the  Sydenham  River,  with  the  intention  of  making  it  my  future 
home. 

In  the  spring  of  1861,  when  I  was  preparing  to  leave,  the  war  broke  out, 
and  with  its  progress  I  began  to  realize  the  prospect  of  a  new  civilization, 
and,  therefore,  concluded  to  remain  and  share  the  fortunes  of  my  hitherto 
ill-fated  country. 

I  will  say  in  conclusion  that  it  would  have  been  fortunate  for  us  if 
Columbia,  being  a  port  of  entry  for  flying  fugitives,  had  been  also  the  seat 
of  great  capitalists  and  freedom-loving  inhabitants ;  but  such  was  not  the 
case.  There  was  but  little  Anti-slavery  sentiment  among  the  whites,  yet 
there  were  many  strong  and  valiant  friends  among  them  who  contributed 
freely;  the  colored  population  were  too  poor  to  render  much  aid,  except  in 
feeding  and  secreting  strangers.  I  was  doing  a  prosperous  business  at  that 
time  and  felt  it  ray  duty  to  contribute  liberally  out  of  my  earnings.  Much 
as  I  loved  Anti-slavery  meetings  I  did  not  feel  that  I  could  afford  to  attend 
them,  as  my  immediate  duty  was  to  the  flying  fugitive. 

Now,  my  friend,  I  have  extended  this  letter  far  beyond  the  limits  in- 


740  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

tended,  not  with  the  expectation  that  it  will  be  published,  but  for  your 
own  private  use  to  select  any  matter  that  you  might  desire  to  use  in  your 
history.  I  have  to  regret  that  I  am  compelled  to  refer  so  often  to  my  own 
exertions. 

I  know  that  I  speak  within  bounds  when  I  say  that  directly  and  indirectly 
from  1847  to  1860,  I  have  contributed  from  my  earnings  one  thousand  dol- 
lars annually,  and  for  the  five  years  during  the  war  a  like  amount  to  put 
down  the  rebellion. 

Now  the  slaves  are  emancipated,  and  we  are  all  enfranchised,  after  strug- 
gling for  existence,  freedom  and  manhood  —  I  feel  thankful  for  having  had 
the  glorious  privilege  of  laboring  with  others  for  the  redemption  of  my  race 
from  oppression  and  thraldom ;  and  I  would  prefer  to-day  to  be  penniless  in 
the  streets,  rather  than  to  have  withheld  a  single  hour's  labor  or  a  dollar 
from  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty,  justice,  and  humanity. 

I  remain  yours  in  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  and  equality, 

WM.  WHIPPER. 

ISAAC  T.  HOPPER. 

The  distinctive  characteristics  of  this  individual  were  so  admirably  por- 
trayed in  the  newspapers  and  other  periodicals  published  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  that  we  shall  make  free  use  of  them  without  hesitation.  He  was 
distinguished  from  his  early  life  by  his  devotion  to  the  relief  of  the  oppressed 
colored  race.  He  was  an  active  member  of  the  old  Pennsylvania  Abolition 
Society,  and  labored  zealously  with  Dr.  Bsnjatnin  Rush,  Dr.  Rogers,  Dr. 
Wistar,  and  other  distinguished  philanthropists  of  the  time.  No  man  at 
that  day,  not  even  eminent  judges  and  advocates,  was  better  acquainted  with 
the  intricacies  of  law  questions  connected  with  slavery.  His  accurate  legal 
knowledge,  his  natural  acuteness,  his  ready  tact  in  avoiding  dangerous  cor- 
ners and  slipping  through  unseen  loop-holes,  often  gave  him  the  victory  in 
cases  that  seemed  hopeless  to  other  minds.  In  many  of  these  cases,  physical 
courage  was  needed  as  much  as  moral  firmness ;  and  he  possessed  these 
qualities  in  a  very  unusual  degree. 

Being  for  many  years  an  inspector  of  the  public  prisons,  his  practical 
sagacity  and  benevolence  were  used  with  marked  results.  His  enlarged 
sympathies  had  always  embraced  the  criminal  and  the  imprisoned,  as  well 
as  the  oppressed ;  and  the  last  years  of  his  life  were  especially  devoted  to  the 
improvement  of  prisons  and  prisoners.  In  this  department  of  benevolence 
he  manifested  the  same  zealous  kindness  and  untiring  diligence  that  had  so 
long  been  exerted  for  the  colored  people,  for  whose  welfare  he  labored  to 
the  end  of  his  days. 

He  possessed  a  wonderful  wisdom  in  furnishing  relief  to  all  who  were  in 
difficulty  and  embarrassment.  This  caused  a  very  extensive  demand  upon 


ISAAC  T.  HOPPER.  741 

his  time  and  talents,  which  were  rarely  withheld  when  honestly  sought,  and 
seldom  applied  in  vain. 

Mrs.  Kirkland  prepared,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Helping  Hand,"  a  small 
volume,  for  the  benefit  of  "  The  Home "  for  discharged  female  convicts, 
containing  a  brief  description  of  the  institution,  and  a  detail  of  facts  illus- 
trating the  happy  results  of  its  operation.  Its  closing  chapter  is  appropri- 
ately devoted  to  the  following  well-deserved  tribute  to  the  veteran 
philanthropist,  to  whose  zeal  and  discretion  that  and  so  many  other  similar 
institutions  owe  their  existence,  or  to  a  large  degree  their  prosperity. 

"  Not  to  inform  the  public  what  it  knows  very  well  already,  nor  to  fore- 
stall the  volume  now  preparing  by  Mrs.  Child,  a  kindred  spirit,  but  to 
gratify  my  own  feelings,  and  to  give  grace  and  sanctity  to  this  little  book,  I 
wish  to  say  a  few  words  of  Mr.  Hopper,  the.  devoted  friend  of  the  prisoner 
as  of  the  slave;  one  whose  long  life,  and  whose  last  thoughts,  were  given  to 
the  care  and  succor  of  human  weakness,  error,  and  suffering.  To  make 
even  the  most  unpretending  book  for  the  benefit  of '  The  Home/  without 
bringing  forward  the  name  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  and  recognizing  the  part 
he  took  in  its  affairs,  from  the  earliest  moment  of  its  existence  until  the  close 
of  his  life,  would  be  an  unpardonable  omission.  A  few  words  must  be  said 
where  a  volume  would  scarcely  suffice. 

"  '  The  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together,  and  the  Lord  is  the  Father  of 
them  all,'  might  stand  for  the  motto  of  Mr.  Hopper's  life.  That  the  most 
remote  of  these  two  classes  stood  on  the  same  level  of  benevolent  interest  in 
his  mind,  his  whole  career  made  obvious ;  he  was  the  last  man  to  represent 
as  naturally  opposite  those  whom  God  has  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  made  mutually  dependent.  He  told  the  simple  truth  to  each  with 
equal  frankness ;  helped  both  with  equal  readiness.  The  palace  owed  him 
no  more  than  the  hovel  suggested  thoughts  of  superiority.  Nothing  human, 
however  grand,  or  however  degraded,  was  a  stranger  to  him.  In  the  light 
that  came  to  him  from  heaven,  all  stood  alike  children  of  the  Great  Father ; 
earthly  distinction  disappearing  the  moment  the  sinking  soul  or  the  suffer- 
ing body  was  in  question.  No  amount  of  depravity  could  extinguish  his 
hope  of  reform ;  no  recurrence  of  ingratitude  could  paralyze  his  efforts. 
Early  and  late,  supported  or  unsupported,  praised  or  ridiculed,  he  went  for- 
ward in  the  great  work  of  relief,  looking  neither  to  the  right  hand,  nor  to 
the  left ;  and  when  the  object  was  accomplished,  he  shrank  back  into  modest 
obscurity,  only  to  wait  till  a  new  necessity  called  for  his  reappearance.  Who 
can  number  the  poor,  aching,  conscious,  despairing  hearts  that  have  felt  new 
life  come  to  them  from  his  kind  words,  his  benignant  smile,  his  helping 
hand.  If  the  record  of  his  long  life  could  be  fully  written,  which  it  can 
never  be,  since  every  day  and  all  day,  in  company,  in  the  family  circle,  with 
children,  with  prisoners,  with  the  insane,  '  virtue  went  out  of  him'  that  no 
human  observation  could  measure  or  describe,  what  touching  interest  would 


742  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

be  added  to  the  history  of  our  poor  and  vicious  population  for  more  than 
half  a  century  past ;  what  new  honor  and  blessing  would  surround  the  ven- 
erated name  of  our  departed  friend  and  leader! 

"But  he  desired  nothing  of  this.  Without  claiming  for  him  a  position 
above  humanity,  which  alone  would  account  for  a  willingness  to  be  wholly 
unrecognized  as  a  friend  of  the  afflicted,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no 
man  was  ever  less  desirous  of  public  praise  or  outward  honor.  He  was 
even  unwilling  that  any  care  should  be  taken  to  preserve  the  remembrance 
of  his  features,  sweet  and  beautiful  as  they  were,  though  he  was  brought 
reluctantly  to  yield  to  the  anxious  wish  of  his  children  and  friends  that  the 
countenance  on  which  every  eye  loved  to  dwell,  should  not  be  wholly  lost 
when  the  grave  should  close  above  it.  He  loved  to  talk  of  interesting  cases 
of  reform  and  recovery,  both  because  those  things  occupied  his  mind,  and 
because  every  one  loved  to  hear  him ;  but  the  hearer  who  made  these  dis- 
closures the  occasion  for  unmeaning  compliment,  as  if  he  fancied  a  craving 
vanity  to  have  prompted  them,  soon  found  himself  rebuked  by  the  straight- 
forward and  plain-spoken  patriarch.  Precious  indeed  were  those  seasons  of 
outpouring,  when  one  interesting  recital  suggested  another,  till  the  listener 
seemed  to  see  the  whole  mystery  of  prison-life  and  obscure  wretchedness 
laid  open  before  him  with  the  distinctness  of  a  picture.  For,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  our  friend  had  under  his  plain  garb — unchanged  in  form  since 
the  days  of  Franklin,  to  go  no  further  back — 3  fine  dramatic  talent,  and 
could  not  relate  the  humblest  incident  without  giving  it  a  picturesque  or 
dramatic  turn,  speaking  now  for  one  character,  now  for  another,  with  a 
variety  and  discrimination  very  remarkable.  This  made  his  company 
greatly  sought,  and  as  his  strongly  social  nature  readily  responded, '  his 
acquaintance  was  very  large.  To  every  one  that  knew  him  personally,  I 
can  appeal  for  the  truth  and  moderation  of  these  views  of  his  character  and 
manners. 

"  A  few  biographical  items  will  close  what  I  venture  to  offer  here. 
.  "  Isaac  T.  Hopper  was  born  December  3,  1771,  in  the  township  of  Dept- 
ford,  Gloucester  county,  New  Jersey,  but  spent  a  large  portion  of  his  life  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  served  his  apprenticeship  to  the  humble  calling  of  a 
tailor.  But  neither  the  necessity  for  constant  occupation  nor  the  temptations 
of  youthful  gaiety,  prevented  his  commencing,  even  then,  the  devotion  of  a 
portion  of  his  time,  to  the  care  of  the  poor  and  needy.  He  had  scarcely 
reached  man's  estate  when  we  find  him  an  active  member  of  a  benevolent 
association,  and  his  volume  of  notes  of  cases,  plans  and  efforts,  date  back  to 
that  early  period.  To  that  time  also,  we  are  to  refer  the  beginning  of  his 
warm  Anti-slavery  sentiment,  a  feeling  so  prominent  and  effective  through- 
out his  life,  and  the  source  of  some  of  his  noblest  efforts  and  sacrifices.  For 
many  years  he  served  as  inspector  of  prisons  in  Philadelphia,  and  thus,  by 
long  and  constant  practical  observation,  was  accumulated  that  knowledge  of 


ISAAC  T.  HOPPER.  743 

the  human  heart  in  its  darkest  windings,  that  often  astonished  the  objects 
of  his  cure,  when  they  thought  they  had  been  able  cunningly  to  blind  his 
eyes  to  their  real  character  and  intentions.  After  his  removal  to  New  York, 
and  when  the  occasion  for  his  personal  labors  in  the  cause  of  the  slave  had 
in  some  measure,  ceased  or  slackened,  he  threw  his  whole  heart  into  the 
Prison  Association,  whose  aims  and  plans  of  action  were  entirely  in  accord- 
ance with  his  views,  and  indeed,  in  a  great  degree,  based  on  his  experience 
and  advice.  The  intent  of  the  Prison  Association  is  threefold :  first  to  pro- 
tect and  defend  those  who  are  arrested,  and  who,  as  is  well  known,  often 
suffer  greatly  from  want  of  honest  and  intelligent  counsel ;  secondly,  to 
attend  to  the  treatment  and  instruction  of  convicts  while  in  prison ;  and 
thirdly,  on  their  discharge  to  render  them  such  practical  aid  as  shall  enable 
the  repentant  to  return  to  society  by  means  of  the  pursuit  of  some  honest 
calling.  The  latter  branch  occupied  Mr.  Hopper's  time  and  attention,  and  he 
devoted  himself  to  it  with  an  affectionate  and  religious  earnestness  that 
ceased  only  with  his  life.  No  disposition  was  too  perverse  for  his  efforts  at 
reform ;  no  heart  was  so  black  that  he  did  not  at  least  try  the  balm  of  heal- 
ing upon  it ;  no  relapses  could  tire  out  his  patience,  which,  without  weak 
waste  of  means  still  apostolically  went  on  *  hoping  all  things/  while  even  a 
dying  spark  of  good  feeling  remained. 

Up  to  February  last  did  this  venerable  saint  continue  his  abundant 
labors ;  when  a  severe  cold,  co-operating  with  the  decay  of  nature,  brought 
him  his  sentence  of  dismissal.  He  felt  that  it  was  on  the  way,  and  with  the 
serious  grace  that  marked  everything  he  did,  he  began  at  once  to  gather  his 
earthly  robes  about  him  and  prepare  for  the  great  change  which  no  one 
could  dread  less.  It  was  hard  for  those  who  saw  his  ruddy  cheek  and 
sparkling  eye,  his  soft  brown  hair,  and  sprightly  movements  to  feel  that  the 
time  of  his  departure  was  drawing  nigh :  but  he  knew  and  felt  it,  with  more 
composure  than  his  friends  could  summon.  It  might  well  be  said  of  this 
our  beloved  patriarch,  that  his  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated. 
To  the  last  of  his  daily  journeyings  through  the  city,  for  which  he  generally 
used  the  rail  road,  he  would  never  allow  the  drivers  to  stop  for  him  to  get 
on  or  off  the  car,  feeling,  as  he  used  smilingly  to  observe,  '  very  jealous  on 
that  point.'  Few  ever  passed  him  in  the  street  without  asking  who  he  was ; 
for  not  only  did  his  primitive  dress,  his  broad-brimmed  hat,  and  his  antique 
shoe  buckles  attract  attention,  but  the  beauty  and  benevolence  of  his  face  was 
sure  to  fix  the  eye  of  ordinary  discernment.  He  was  a  living  temperance 
lecture,  and  those  who  desire  to  preserve  good  looks  could  not  ask  a  more 
infallible  receipt,  than  that  sweet  temper  and  out-flowing  benevolence  which 
made  his  countenance  please  every  eye.  Gay  and  cheerful  as  a  boy,  he  liad 
ever  some  pleasant  anecdote  or  amusing  turn  to  relate,  and  in  all  perhaps 
not  one  without  a  moral  bearing,  not  thrust  forward,  but  left  to  be  picked 
out  by  the  hearer  at  his  leisure.  He  seemed  born  to  show  how  great  strict- 


744  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

ness  in  essentials  could  exist  without  the  least  asceticism  in  trifles.  Anything 
but  a  Simeon  Stylites  in  his  sainthood,  he  could  go  among  '  publicans  and 
sinners '  without  the  least  fear  of  being  mistaken  by  them  for  one  of  them- 
selves. An  influence  radiated  from  him  that  made  itself  felt  in  every  com- 
pany, though  he  would  very  likely  be  the  most  modest  man  present.  More 
gentlemanly  manners  and  address  no  court  in  Christendom  need  require ;  his 
resolute  simplicity  and  candor,  always  under  the  guidance  of  a  delicate  taste, 
never  for  a  moment  degenerated  into  coarseness  or  disregard  even  of  the 
prejudices  of  others.  His  life,  even  in  these  minute  particulars,  showed  how 
the  whole  man  is  harmonized  by  the  sense  of  being 

'  Ever  in  the  Great  Taskmaster's  eye.' 

"  He  died  on  the  7th  of  May,  1852,  in  his  eighty-first  year,  and  ,a  public 
funeral  in  the  Tabernacle  brought  together  thousands  desirous  of  showing 
respect  to  his  memory." 

Mrs.  Child  has  written  a  full,  and  in  many  respects,  an  exceedingly  in- 
teresting biography  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  towards  the  close  of  which 
she  says : 

"  From  the  numerous  notices  in  papers  of  all  parties  and  scots,  I  will 
merely  quote  the  following.  '  The  New  York  Observer '  thus  announces  his 
death: 

"  '  The  venerable  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  whose  'placid,  benevolent  face  has  so 
long  irradiated  almost  every  public  meeting  for  doing  good,  and  whose  name, 
influence,  and  labors,  have  been  devoted  with  an  apostolic  simplicity  and 
constancy  to  humanity,  died  on  Friday  last,  at  an  advanced  age.  He  was  a 
Quaker  of  that  early  sort  illustrated  by  such  philanthropists  as  Anthony 
Benezet,  Thomas  Clarkson,  Mrs.  Fry,  and  the  like. 

"  *  He  was  a  most  self-denying,  patient,  loving  friend  of  the  poor,  and  the 
suffering  of  every  kind;  and  his  life  was  an  unbroken  history  of  beneficence. 
Thousands  of  hearts  will  feel  a  touch  of  grief  at  the  news  of  his  death ;  for 
few  men  have  so  large  a  wealth  in  the  blessings  of  the  poor,  and  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  kindness  and  benevolence,  as  he/ 

" '  The  New  York  Times '  contained  the  following : 

l'f '  Most  of  our  readers  will  call  to  mind,  in  connection  with  the  name  of 
Isaac  T.  Hopper,  the  compact,  well-knit  figure  of  a  Quaker  gentleman, 
apparently  about  sixty  years  of  age,  dressed  in  drab  or  brown  clothes  of  the 
plainest  cut,  ancl  bearing  on  his  handsome,  manly  face  the  impress  of  that 
benevolence  with  which  his  whole  heart  was  filled. 

" '  He  was  twenty  years  older  than  he  seemed.  The  fountain  of  benevo- 
lence within  freshened  his  old  age  with  its  continuous  flow.  The  step  of 
the  octogenarian  was  elastic  as  that  of  a  boy,  his  form  erect  as  a  mountain 
pine. 

" '  His  whole  physique  was  a  splendid  sample  of  nature's  handiwork.    "We 


ISAAC  T.  HOPPER.  745 

see  him  now  with  our  mind's  eye,  but  with  the  eye  of  flesh  we  shall  see  him 
no  more.  Void  of  intentional  offence  to  God  or  man,  his  spirit  has  joined 
its  happy  kindred  in  a  world  where  there  is  neither  sorrow  nor  perplexity.7 

"  I  sent  the  following  communication  to  *  The  New  York  Tribune ' : 

"  In  this  world  of  shadows,  few  things  strengthen  the  soul  like  seeing  the 
calm  and  cheerful  exit  of  a  truly  good  man ;  and  this  has  been  my  privilege 
by  the  bedside  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  remarkable  endowments,  both  of  head  and  heart.  His 
clear  discrimination,  his  unconquerable  will,  his  total  unconsciousness  of  fear, 
his  extraordinary  tact  in  circumventing  plans  he  wished  to  frustrate,  would 
have  made  him  illustrious  as  the  general  of  an  army ;  and  these  qualities 
might  have  become  faults,  if  they  had  not  been  balanced  by  an  unusual  de- 
gree of  conscientiousness  and  benevolence.  He  battled  courageously,  not 
from  ambition,  but  from  an  inborn  love  of  truth.  He  circumvented  as 
adroitly  as  the  most  practiced  politician ;  but  it  was  always  to  defeat  the 
plans  of  those  who  oppressed  God's  poor;  never  to  advance  his  own  self- 
interest. 

" '  Few  men  have  been  more  strongly  attached  to  any  religious  society 
than  he  was  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  which  he  joined  in  the  days  of  its 
purity,  impelled  by  his  own  religious  convictions.  But  when  the  time  came 
that  he  must  either  be  faithless  to  duty  in  the  cause  of  his  enslaved  brethren, 
or  part  company  with  the  Society  to  which  he  was  bound  by  the  strong  and 
sacred  ties  of  early  religious  feeling,  this  sacrifice  he  also  calmly  laid  on  the 
altar  of  humanity. 

"  '  During  nine  years  that  I  lived  in  his  household,  my  respect  and  affec- 
tion for  him  continually  increased.  Never  have  I  seen  a  man  who  so  com- 
pletely fulfilled  the  Scripture  injunction,  to  forgive  an  erring  brother,  'not 
only  seven  times,  but  seventy  times  seven.'  I  have  witnessed  relapse  after 
relapse  into  vice,  under  circumstances  which  seemed  like  the  most  heartless 
ingratitude  to  him  ;  but  he  joyfully  hailed  the  first  symptom  of  repentance, 
and  was  always  ready  to  grant  a  new  probation. 

" '  Farewell,  thou  brave  and  kind  old  Friend  !  The  prayers  of  ransomed 
ones  ascended  to  Heaven  for  thee,  and  a  glorious  company  have  welcomed 
thee  to  the  Eternal  City.' » 


746  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

SAMUEL  D.  BURRIS, 

Referred  to  by  John  Hunn,  was  also  a  brave  conductor  on  the  Under- 
ground Rail  Road  leading  down  into  Maryland  (via  Hunn's  place).  Mr. 
Burris  was  a  native  of  Delaware,  but  being  a  free  man  and  possessing  more 
than  usual  intelligence,  and  withal  an  ardent  love  of  liberty,  he  left  "slave- 
dom  "  and  moved  with  his  family  to  Philadelphia.  Here  his  abhorrence  of 
Slavery  was  greatly  increased,  especially  after  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
Anti-slavery  Office  and  the  Abolition  doctrine.  Under  whose  auspices  or  by 
what  influence  he  was  first  induced  to  visit  the  South  with  a  view  of  aiding 
slaves  to  escape,  the  writer  does  not  recollect;  nevertheless,  from  personal 
knowledge,  prior  to  1851,  he  well  knew  that  Burris  was  an  accredited  agent 
on  the  road  above  alluded  to,  and  that  he  had  been  considered  a  safe,  wise, 
and  useful  man  in  his  day  and  calling.  Probably  the  simple  conviction  that 
he  would  not  otherwise  be  doing  as  he  would  be  done  by  actuated  him  in 
going  down  South  occasionally  to  assist  some  of  his  suffering  friends  to  get 
the  yokes  off  their  necks,  and  with  him  escape  to  freedom.  A  number  were 
thus  aided  by  Burris.  But  finally  he  found  himself  within  the  fatal  snare; 
the  slave-holders  caught  him  at  last,  and  Burris  was  made  a  prisoner  in 
Dover  jail.  His  wife  and  children  were  thereby  left  without  their  protector 
and  head.  The  friends  of  the  slave  in  Philadelphia  and  elsewhere  deeply 
sympathized  with  him  in  this  dreadful  hour.  Being  able  to  use  the 
pen,  although  he  could  not  write  without  having  his  letters  inspected,  he 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence  with  his  friends  both  in  Delaware  and 
Philadelphia.  John  Hunn  and  Thomas  Garrett  were  as  faithful  to  him  as 
brothers.  After  lying  in  prison  for  many  months,  his  trial  came  on  and 
Slavery  gained  the  victory.  The  court  decided  that  he  must  be  sold  in  or 
out  of  the  State  to  serve  for  seven  years.  No  change,  pardon  or  relief,  could  be 
expected  from  the  spirit  and  power  that  held  sway  over  Delaware  at  that  time. 

The  case  was  one  of  great  interest  to  Mr.  McKim,  as  indeed  to  the  entire 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-slavery  Society,  who  felt 
constrained  to  do  all  they  could  to  save  the  poor  man  from  his  threatened  fate, 
although  they  had  not  advised  or  encouraged  him  in  the  act  for  which  he  was 
condemned  and  about  to  suffer.  In  viewing  his  condition,  but  a  faint  ray  of 
hope  was  entertained  from  one  single  direction.  It  was  this:  to  raise  money 
privately  and  have  a  man  at  the  auction  on  the  day  of  sale  to  purchase  him. 

John  Hunn  and  Thomas  Garretfc  were  too  well  known  as  Abolitionists  to 
undertake  this  mission.  A  friend  indeed,  was  desirable,  but  none  other 
would  do  than  such  an  one  as  would  not  be  suspected.  Mr.  McKim  thought 
that  a  man  who  "might  be  taken  for  a  negro  trader  would  be  the  right  kind 
of  a  man  to  send  on  this  errand.  Garrett  and  Hunn  being  consulted 
heartily  acquiesced  in  this  plan,  and  after  much  reflection  and  inquiry,  Isaac 
S.  Flint,  an  uncompromising  abolitionist,  living  in  Wilmington,  Delaware, 


SAMUEL  D.  BURRIS.  747 

was  elected  to  buy  Burris  at  the  sale,  providing  that  he  was  not  run  up  to  a 
figure  exceeding;  the  amount  in  hand. 

O 

Flint's  abhorrence  of  Slavery  combined  with  his  fearlessness,  cool  bearing, 
and  perfect  knowledge  from  what  he  had  read  of  the  usages  of  traders  ;ifc 
slave  sales,  without  question  admirably  fitted  him  to  play  the  part  of  a 
trader  for  the  time  being. 

When  the  hour  arrived,  the  doomed  man  was  placed  on  the  auction-block. 
Two  traders  from  Baltimore  were  known  to  be  present;  how  many  others  the 
friends  of  Burris  knew  not.  The  usual  opportunity  was  given  to  traders 
and  speculators  to  thoroughly  examine  the  property  on  the  block,  and  most 
skillfully  was  Burris  examined  from  the  soles  of  his  feet  to  the  crown  of  his 
head ;  legs,  arms  and  body,  being  handled  as  horse-jockies  treat  horses. 
Flint  watched  the  ways  of  the  traders  and  followed  for  effect  their  example. 
The  auctioneer  began  and  soon  had  a  bid  of  five  hundred  dollars.  A  Baltimore 
trader  was  now  in  the  lead,  when  Flint,  if  we  mistake  not,  bought  off  the 
trader  for  one  hundred  dollars.  The  bids  were  thus  suddenly  checked,  and 
Burris  was  knocked  down  to  Isaac  S.  Flint  (a  strange  trader).  Of  course  he 
had  left  his  abolition  name  at  home  and  had  adopted  one  suited  to  the  occa- 
sion. When  the  crier's  hammer  indicated  the  last  bid,  although  Burris  had 
borne  up  heroically  throughout  the  trying  ordeal,  he  was  not  by  any  means 
aware  of  the  fact  that  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  friends,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  evidently  labored  under  the  impression  that  his  freedom  was  gone. 
But  a  few  moments  were  allowed  to  pass  ere  Flint  had  the  bill  of  sale  for 
his  property,  and  the  joyful  news  was  whispered  in  the  ear  of  Burris  that  all 
was  right ;  that  he  had  been  bought  with  abolition  gold  to  save  him  from 
going  south.  Once  more  Burris  found  himself  in  Philadelphia  with  his 
wife  and  children  and  friends,  a  stronger  opponent  than  ever  of  Slavery. 
Having  thus  escaped  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth,  he  never  again  ventured  South. 

After  remaining  a  year  or  two  in  Philadelphia,  about  the  year  1852  he 
went  to  California  to  seek  more  lucrative  employment  than  he  had  hitherto 
found.  Becoming  somewhat  satisfactorily  situated  he  sent  for  his  family, 
who  joined  him.  In  the  meanwhile,  his  interest  in  the  cause  of  freedom 
did  not  falter ;  he  always  kept  posted  on  the  subject  of  the  Underground 
Kail  Road  and  Anti-slavery  questions ;  and  after  the  war,  when  appeals 
were  made  on  behalf  of  contrabands  who  flocked  into  Washington  daily  in 
a  state  of  utter  destitution,  Burris  was  among  the  first  to  present  the  matter 
to  the  colored  churches  of  San  Francisco,  with  a  view  of  raising  means  to 
aid  in  this  good  work,  and  as  the  result,  a  handsome  collection  was  taken 
up  and  forwarded  to  the  proper  committee  in  Washington. 

About  three  years  ago,  Samuel  D.  Burris  died,  in  the  city  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, at  about  the  age  of  sixty  years.  To  the  slave  he  had  been  a  true 
friend,  and  had  labored  faithfully  for  the  improvement  of  his  own  mind  as 
well  as  the  general  elevation  of  his  race. 


748  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 


MARIANN,  GRACE  ANNA,  AND  ELIZABETH  R.  LEWIS. 

Near  Kimberton,  in  Chester  county,  Pa.,  was  the  birth-place,  and,  till 
within  a  few  years,  the  home  of  three  sisters,  Mariann,  Grace  Anna  and 
Elizabeth  R.  Lewis,  who  were  among  the  most  faithful,  devoted,  and  quietly 
efficient  workers  in  the  Anti-slavery  cause,  including  that  department  of  it 
which  is  the  subject  of  this  volume. 

Birth-right  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  they  were  born  into  more 
than  the  traditional  Anti-slavery  faith  and  feeling  of  that  Society.  A  deep 
abhorrence  of  slavery,  and  an  earnest  will  to  put  that  feeling  into  act,  as  op- 
portunity should  serve,  were  in  the  very  life-blood  which  they  drew  from 
father  and  mother  both. 

Left  fatherless  at  an  early  age,  they  were  taught  by  their  mother  to  re- 
member that  their  father,  on  his  visits  to  their  maternal  grandfather,  living 
then  in  Maryland,  was  wont,  as  he  expressed  it,  to  feel  the  black  shadow  of 
slavery  over  his  spirit,  from  the  time  he  entered,  till  he  left,  the  State ;  and 
that,  on  his  death-bed,  he  had  regretted  having  let  ill-health  prevent  his 
meeting  with,  and  joining  one  of  the  Anti-slavery  Societies  of  that  day.  Of 
the  mother's  share  in  the  transmission  of  their  hereditary  feeling,  it  is 
enough,  to  all  acquainted  with  the  history  of  Anti-slavery  work  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  say  that  she  was  sister,  not  by  blood  alone,  but  in  heart  and  soul, 
to  that  early,  active,  untiring  abolitionist,  Dr.  Bartholomew  Fussell. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  children  of  such  parents,  growing  up  under  the 
influence  of  such  a  mother,  needed  no  conversion,  no  sacrifices  of  prejudice 
or  hostile  opinions,  to  make  them  Anti-slavery ;  but  were  ready,  simply  as 
a  matter  of  course,  to  work  for  the  good  cause  whenever  any  way  appeared 
in  which  their  work  could  serve  it.  What  was  called  "  modern  abolition- 
ism," as  distinguished  from  the  less  aggressive  form  of  opposition  to  slavery, 
which  preceded  the  movement  pioneered  by  Garrison,  they  at  once  accepted, 
as  soon  as  it  was  set  before  them,  through  the  agents  of  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery»Society,  in  the  campaign  in  Pennsylvania,  begun  in  1836.  Regard- 
ing it  but  as  the  next  step  forward  in  the  way  they  had  already  entered, 
they  instinctively  fell  into  line  with  the  new  movement,  assisted  in  forming 
a  society  auxiliary  to  it,  in  their  own  neighborhood,  and  were  constant 
to  the  end  in  working  for  its  advancement. 

Auxiliary  to  the  influences  already  mentioned,  was  a  very  early  recollection 
of  seeing  a  colored  man,  Henry,  bound  with  ropes  and  carried  off  to  slavery. 
Grace  Anna,  not  more  than  four  or  five  years  old  at  the  time,  declared  that 
the  man's  face  of  agony  is  before  her  now ;  nor  is  it  likely  that  her  sisters 
were  impressed  less  deeply.  Of  natures  keenly  sensitive,  they  hated  slavery, 
from  that  hour,  as  only  children  of  such  natures  can  ;  and — as  yet  too  young 
and  immature  for  that  charity  to  have  been  developed  in  them,  which  can 


UK  ACE  ANNE  LEWIS. 


See  p.  748. 


MBS.  FRANCIS  E.  W.  HARPER. 

See  p.  75$. 


JOHN  NEEDLES. 


EARNEST  IN  THE  CAUSE. 


MARIANN,  GRACE  A.,  AND  ELIZABETH  R.  LEWIS.  749 

see  a  brother  even  in  the  evil-doer,  and  pity  while  condemning  him, — they 
even  more  intensely  hated,  while  they  feared,  the  actors  in  the  outrage,  and 
despised  the  girl  who  had  betrayed  the  victim.  Ever  after,  any  one  of  them 
could  be  trusted  to  be  faithful  to  the  hunted  fugitive,  though  an  army  of  kid- 
nappers might  surround  her. 

Another  of  their  early  recollections  was  of  a  white  handkerchief  which  was 
to  be  waved  from  a  back  window,  as  a  signal  of  danger,  to  a  colored  man  at 
work  in  a  wood  near  by.  And,  all  the  while,  the  feelings  aroused  by  such 
events  were  kept  alive  by  little  Anti-slavery  poems,  which  they  were  wont  to 
learn  by  heart  and  recite  in  the  evenings.  Grace  Anna,  on  her  first  visit  to 
Philadelphia,  when  nine  years  old,  bought  a  copy  of  one  of  these,  entitled 
"  Zambo's  Story,"  pleased  to  recognize  in  it  a  favorite  of  her  still  earlier 
childhood. 

By  means  like  these  they  were  unconsciously  preparing  themselves  for 
the  predestined  tasks  of  their  after-life ;  and  if  there  were  danger  that  such 
a  strain  upon  their  sympathies,  as  they  often  underwent,  might  prove  un- 
healthful,  it  was  fully  counteracted  by  ball-playing,  and  all  kinds  of  active 
out-door  amusements  of  childhood,  so  that  it  was  never  known  to  result  in 
harm. 

As  time  passed  on,  their  home,  always  open  to  fugitives,  became  an  im- 
portant centre  of  Underground  Rail  Road  operations  for  the  region  extending 
from  Wilmington,  Del.,  into  Adams  county,  Pa.;  and  they,  grown  to  woman- 
hood, had  glided  into  the  management  of  its  very  considerable  business. 
They  received  passengers  from  Thomas  Garrett,  and  sometimes  others,  per- 
haps, of  Wilmington,  when  it  was  thought  unsafe  to  send  them  thence  directly 
through  Philadelphia;  from  Wm.  and  Phebe  Wright,  in  Adams  county,  and 
from  friends,  more  than  we  have  room  to  name,  in  York,  Columbia,  and  the 
southern  parts  of  Lancaster  and  Chester  counties ;  the  several  lines,  from 
Adams  county  to  Wilmington,  converging  upon  the  house  of  John  Vickers, 
of  Lionville,  whose  wagon,  laden  apparently  with  innocent-looking  earthen 
ware  from  his  pottery,  sometimes  conveyed,  unseen  beneath  the  visible  load, 
a  precious  burden  of  Southern  chattels,  on  their  way  to  manhood. 

[At  a  later  period,  the  trains  from  Adams  county  generally  took  another 
course,  going  to  Harrisburg,  and  on  to  Canada,  by  way  of  the  Susquehanna 
Valley ;  though  still,  when  pursuit  that  way  was  apprehended,  the  former 
course  was  taken.] 

These  passengers,  the  Lewises  forwarded  in  diverse  ways  ;  usually,  in  the 
earlier  times,  by  wagon  or  carriage,  to  Richard  Moore,  of  Quakertown,  in 
Bucks  county,  about  thirty  miles  distant ;  but  later,  when  abolitionists  were 
more  numerous,  and  easier  stages  could  be  safely  made,  either  directly  to 
the  writer,  or  to  one  or  other  of  ten  or  twelve  stations  which  had  become 
established  at  places  less  remote,  in  the  counties  of  Chester  and  Montgomery. 
During  portions  of  the  time,  their  married  sister  Rebecca,  and  her  husband, 


750  THE     UNDERGROUND     RAILROAD. 

Edwin  Fussell,  and  their  uncle,  Dr.  B.  Fussell,  and,  after  him,  his  brother 
William,  lived  on  farms  adjoining  theirs,  and  were  their  active  helpers  in  this 
work. 

The  receiving  and  passing  on  of  fugitives,  was  not  all  they  had  to  do. 
Often  it  was  necessary  to  fit  out  whole  families  with  clothing  suitable  for  the 
journey.  In  cases  of  emergency  they  would  sometimes  gather  a  sewing- 
circle  from  such  neighboring  families  as  could  be  trusted;  and,  with  its 
help,  accomplish  rapidly  the  needed  work.  One  instance  is  remembered, 
of  a  woman,  with  her  little  boy,  whom  they  put  into  girls'  attire ;  and, 
changing  also  the  woman's  dress,  sent  both,  by  cars,  to  Canada,  accom- 
panied by  a  friend.  In  this  kind  of  work,  too,  they  hud  generous  aid  from 
friends  at  neighboring  stations.  From  Lawrenceville  and  Limerick,  and 
Pottstown  and  Pughtown,  came  contributions  of  clothing;  at  one  time  a 
supply  which  filled  compactly  three  three-bushel  bags,  and  of  which  a  small 
remainder,  still  on  hand  when  slavery  was  abolished,  was  sent  South  to  the 
freedmen. 

The  prudence,  skill,  and  watchful  care  with  which  the  business  was  con- 
ducted, are  well  attested  by  the  fact  that,  so  far  as  can  be  remembered,  during 
all  the  many  years  of  their  connection  with  the  Underground  Rail  Road,  not 
a  plan  miscarried,  and  not  a  slave  that  reached  their  station  was  retaken  ; 
although  among  their  neighbors  there  were  bitter  adversaries  of  the  "Anti- 
slavery  cause,  eager  to  find  occasion  for  hostile  acts  against  any  abolitionist ; 
and,  at  times,  especially  vindictive  agaitfst  the  noble  sisters,  because  of  their 
effective  co-operation  with  other  friends  of  Temperance,  in  preventing  the 
licensing  of  a  liquor-selling  tavern  in  the  neighborhood.  On  one  occasion, 
when,  within  a  week,  they  had  passed  on  to  freedom  no  less  than  forty 
fugitives,  eleven  of  whom  had  been  in  the  house  at  once,  they  were  amused 
at  hearing  a  remark  by  some  of  their  pro-slavery  neighbors,  to  the  effect 
that  "  there  used  to  be  a  pretty  brisk  trade  of  running  off  niggers,  but  there 
was  not  much  of  it  done  now." 

Though  parties  of  four,  five  or  six  sometimes  arrived  in  open  day,  they 
seldom  sent  any  away  till  about  nightfall  or  later,  and,  whenever  the  danger 
was  greater  than  usual,  the  coming  was  also  at  night.  The  fugitives,  in 
attempting  to  capture  whom,  Gorsuch  was  killed,  near  Christiana,  were 
brought  to  them  at  midnight,  by  Dr.  Fussell ;  and  in  this  case  such  caution 
was  observed,  that  not  even  the  hired  girl  knew  of  the  presence  of  persons  not 
of  the  family. 

For  one  reason  or  another, — perhaps  to  let  a  hot  pursuit  go  by ;  perhaps 
to  allow  opportunity  for  recovering  from  fatigue  and  recruiting  exhausted 
strength,  or  for  earning  means  to  pursue  the  journey  by  the  common  rail- 
roads,—  it  was  often  thought  advisable  that  passengers  should  remain 
with  them  for  a  considerable  period;  and  numbers  of  these  were,  at  different 
times,  employed  as  laborers  in  some  capacity.  Grace  Anna  testifies  that  some 


MAR1ANN,  GRACE  A.,  AND  ELIZABETH  R.  LEWIS.  751 

of  the  best  assistants  they  ever  had  in  the  house  or  on  the  farm,  were  these 
escaped  slaves;  that  in  general  they  were  thrifty  and  economical,  one  man,  for 
instance,  who  spent  several  years  with  them,  having  accumulated  five  hundred 
dollars  before  he  went  on  to  Canada ;  and  another,  enough  to  furnish  au  old 
coat  with  a  full  set  of  buttons,  each  of  which  was  a  golden  half-eagle,  covered 
with  cloth,  and  firmly  sewed  on,  besides  an  ample  supply  of  good  clothing 
for  himself  and  his  wife;  and  that,  almost  without  exception,  they  were 
honest  and  loyal  to  their  benefactors,  and  only  too  happy  to  find  opportuni- 
ties of  showing  their  gratitude.  One  man  sent  back  to  the  sisters  a  letter  of 
thanks,  through  a  gentleman  in  England,  whither  he  had  gone.  And  once, 
when  Grace  Anna  was  passing  an  elegant  mansion  in  Philadelphia,  a  colored 
woman  rushed  out  upon  her  with  such  an  impetuous  demonstration  of  affec- 
tion, joy,  and  thankfulness — all  thought  of  fitness  of  time  and  place  swept 
away  by  the  swell  of  strong  emotion — as  might  well  have  amused,  or  slightly 
astonished,  the  passers  in  the  street,  who  knew  not  that  in  her  arms  the  wo- 
man's child  had  died.  But  it  is  no  marvel  that  to  her  the  memory  of  that 
poor  runaway  slave-woman's  true  affection  is  more  than  could  have  been  the 
warmest  welcome  from  her  educated  and  refined  mistress. 

One  case,  of  which  the  sisters  for  a  time  had  charge,  seems  worthy  of  a 
somewhat  more  extended  mention.  In  the  fall  of  1855  a  slave  named  John- 
son, who,  in  fleeing  from  bondage,  had  come  as  far  as  Wilmington,  thinking 
he  saw  his  master  on  the  train  by  which  he  was  journeying  northward, 
sprang  from  the  car  and  hurt  his  foot  severely.  The  Kennett  abolitionists 
having  taken  him  in  hand,  and  fearing  that  suspicious  eyes  were  on  him  in 
their  region,  felt  it  necessary  to  send  him  onward  without  waiting  for  his 
wound  to  heal.  He  was  therefore  taken  to  the  Lewises,  suffering  very  much 
in  his  removal,  and  arriving  in  a  condition  which  required  the  most  assidu- 
ous care.  For  more  than  four  months  he  remained  with  them,  patient  and 
gentle  in  his  helplessness  and  suffering,  and  very  thankful  for  the  ministra- 
tions of  kindness  he  received.  He  was  nursed  as  tenderly  as  if  his  own  sis- 
ters had  attended  him,  instead  of  strangers,  and  was  so  carefully  concealed 
that  the  nearest  neighbors  knew  not  of  his  being  with  them.  Their  cousin, 
Morris  Fussell,  who  lived  near,  being  a  physician,  they  had  not  to  depend 
for  even  medical  advice  upon  the  outside  world. 

As  the  sufferer's  wound,  in  natural  course,  became  offensive,  the  care  of  it 
could  not  but  have  been  disagreeable  as  well  as  toilsome ;  and  the  feeble 
health  of  one  of  the  sisters  at  that  time  must  have  made  heavier  the  burden 
to  be  borne.  But  it  was  borne  with  a  cheerful  constancy.  In  a  letter  which 
Grace  Anna  wrote  after  she  had  attended  for  some  time  in  person  to  the  pa- 
tient, with  the  care  and  sympathy  which  his  condition  demanded,  and  begun 
to  feel  her  strength  unequal  to  the  task,  in  addition  to  her  household  duties, 
she  asked  a  friend  in  Philadelphia  to  procure  for  her  a  trusty  colored  woman 
fit  to  be  a  helper  in  the  work,  offering  higher  wages  than  were  common  in 


752  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

that  region  for  the  services  required,  and  adding  that,  indeed,  they  could  not 
stand  upon  the  amount  of  pay,  but  must  have  help,  if  it  could  be  obtained, 
though  not  in  a  condition  to  bear  undue  expenditure.  But,  she  said,  the 
man  "  is  unable  to  be  removed ;  and  if  he  were  not,  I  know  of  no  place 
where  the  charge  would  not  be  equally  severe."  So,  in  perfect  keeping  with 
her  character,  she  just  quietly  regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  it  should 
still  continue  where  it  was.  And  there  it  did  continue  until  spring,  when  the 
man,  now  able  to  bear  removal,  was  conveyed  to  the  writer,  and,  after  a 
time,  went  thence  to  Boston.  There  his  foot,  pronounced  incurable,  was 
amputated,  and  the  abolitionists  supplied  him  with  a  wooden  limb.  He 
then  returned  and  spent  another  winter  with  the  Lewises,  assisting  in  the 
household  work,  and  rendering  services  invaluable  at  a  time  when  it  was  al- 
most impossible  to  obtain  female  help.  The  next  spring,  hoping  vainly  to 
recover  in  a  warmer  climate  from  the  disease  induced  by  the  drain  his 
wounded  foot  had  made  upon  his  system,  he  went  to  Hayti,  and  there  died ; 
happy,  we  may  well  believe,  to  have  escaped  from  slavery,  though  only  to 
have  won  scarely  two  years  of  freedom  as  an  invalid  and  a  cripple. 

The  sisters  were  so  thoroughly  united  in  their  work,  as  well  as  in  all  the 
experiences  of  life,  that  this  brief  sketch  has  not  attempted  what  indeed  it 
could  not  have  achieved — a  separation  of  their  spheres  of  beneficent  activity. 
Yet  they  had  each  her  individual  traits  and  adaptations  to  their  common 
task ;  "  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  spirit."  Elizabeth,  although  for 
many  years  shut  out  by  feeble  health  from  any  part  requiring  much  bodily 
exertion,  was  ever  a  wise  counsellor,  as  well  as  ready  with  such  help  as  her 
state  of  health  would  warrant.  Though  weak  in  body,  in  spirit  she  was 
strong  and  calm  and  self-reliant,  with  a  clear,  discriminating  intellect,  a  keen 
sense  of  right,  and  a  certain  solidity  and  balanced  symmetry  of  the  spiritual 
nature  which  made  her  an  appreciable  power  wherever  she  was  known.  Of 
Mariann,  Grace  Anna  says,  that  if  a  flash  of  inspiration  was  required,  it  usu- 
ally came  from  her.  Taught  by  her  love  for  others,  and  by  a  sensitiveness 
almost  preternaturally  quick,  "  she  always  knew  exactly  the  right  thing  to 
do,"  and  put  all  the  poetry  of  a  nature  exquisitely  fine  into  her  efforts  to 
diffuse  around  her  purity  and  peace  and  happiness.  Her  constant,  utterly 
unselfish  endeavors  to  this  end  contributed  in  ample  measure  to  the  blessed- 
ness of  a  delightful  home,  rich  in  the  virtues,  charities  and  graces  which 
make  home  blessed.  Veiled  by  her  modest  and  retiring  disposition,  to  few 
beyond  the  circle  of  her  home  were  known  the  beauty  and  beneficence  of  her 
noiseless  life  ;  but  those  who  did  look  in  upon  it  testified  her  worth  in  terms 
so  strong  as  showed  how  deeply  it  impressed  them.  "Just  the  best  woman 
I  ever  knew,"  said  a  young  man  for  whom  she  had  long  cared  like  a  mother. 
"  I  cannot  remember,"  said  another,  "  ever  hearing  from  her  one  ungentle 
word  ;"  and  it  may  be  safely  doubted  whether  she  was  ever  heard  to  utter 
such.  And  one  who  "  knew  her  every  mood  "  cannot  recall  an  instance  of 


CUNNINGHAM'S  RACHE.  753 

selfishness  in  her,  even  when  a  child.  "The  most  wofnanly  woman  I  ever 
knew,"  declared  a  friend  long  closely  intimate  with  her,  "  and  such  as  would 
have  been  adored,  if  found  by  any  man  worthy  of  her." 

The  ideal  element  in  her  was  chastened  by  sound  sense  and  blended  with 
a  quick  sagacity ;  but  her  shrinking  sensitiveness,  too  keen  to  be  quite  healthy, 
and  an  extreme  of  self-forgetful  ness,  amounting  possibly  to.  a  defect  in  one 
sojourning  amid  this  world's  diverse  dispositions  and  experiences,  rendered 
her,  on  the  whole,  less  balanced  and  complete  than  her  younger  sisters,  and 
not  well  fitted  for  rough  encounter  with  life's  trials.  So  it  became  Grace 
Anna's  province,  especially  after  their  mother's  death,  to  stand  a  shelter  be- 
tween her  and  whatever  would  unpleasantly  affect  her  by  its  contact ;  to  be 
in  some  sort  as  a  brother  to  her,  seeing  there  was  no  brother  in  the  house. 
But  from  this  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  Grace  Anna  is  less  gifted  with  the 
distinctive  qualities  of  her  sex.  For  the  native  fineness  of  her  spiritual  tex- 
ture, her  gentle  dignity  and  feminine  delicacy  and  grace,  mark  her  as  "every 
inch  "  a  true  and  noble  woman.  In  her  combine  in  happy  union  the  calm 
strength  of  soul  and  self-reliance  of  her  younger,  with  the  poetic  ideality  and 
a  just  degree  of  the  quick  sensibility  of  her  elder  sister,  with  better  health 
than  either,  making  her  foremost  of  the  three  in  that  executive  efficiency 
which  did  so  much  to  give  their  plans  the  uniform  success  already  mentioned. 
Kindness  and  warm  affection,  clearness  of  moral  vision,  and  purity  of  heart, 
with  a  lively  relish  for  quiet  intellectual  pleasures,  for  society  and  books 
adapted  to  refine,  improve  and  elevate,  were  among  the  characteristics  com- 
mon to  them  all. 

Mariann  and  Elizabeth,  having  lived  to  see  the  triumph  of  the  Right,  in 
the  Presidential  Proclamation  of  Freedom  to  the  slaves,  have  gone  from, 
their  earthly  labors  to  their  heavenly  rest;  which,  we  may  well  believe,  is 
that  whereof  the  poet  speaks : 

"  Rest  in  harmonious  action  like  the  stars, 
Doing  the  deeds  which  make  heaven  musical, 
The  earth  a  heaven,  and  brothers  of  us  all." 

Grace  Anna  still  continues  here,  working  for  human  welfare  in  such  fields 
as  still  demand  the  laborer's  toil ;  and  finding  mental  profit  and  delight  in 
the  pursuit  of  natural  science. 

CUNNINGHAM'S  RACHE. 

BY  MISS  GRACE   A.   LEWIS. 

Among  the  many  fugitives  whose  stories  were  full  of  interest,  was  that  of 
a  woman  named  Rachel.  She  was  tall,  muscular,  slight,  with  an  extremely 
sensitive  nervous  prganization,  a  brain  of  large  size,  and  an  expression  of 
remarkable  sagacity  and  quickness.  She  was  living  in  West  Chester, 
Chester  county,  Pa.,  when  attempts  were  made  to  retake  her  to  Slavery. 
48 


754  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

With  wonderful  swiftness  and  adroitness  she  eluded  pursuit,  and  was  soon 
hurried  away.  Speedily  reaching  our  house,  she  hid  herself  away  during 
the  day,  and  in  the  evening,  as  a  place  of  greater  safety,  she  was  transferred 
to  the  house  of  our  uncle,  Dr.  Fussell,  then  residing  on  an  adjoining  farm. 
As  was  his  wont,  this  kind-hearted  mau  soon  entered  into  a  conversation 
with  her,  and  in  a  few  minutes  discovered  that  she  had  once  been  a  pupil  of 
his  during  his  residence  in  Maryland  many  years  before. 

At  the  moment  of  recognition  she  sprang  up,  overwhelming  him  with  her 
manifestations  of  delight,  crying:  "You  Dr.  Fussell?  You  Dr.  Fussell? 
Don't  you  remember  me?  I'm  Rache — Cunningham's  Rache,  down  at  Bush 
River  Neck."  Then  receding  to  view  him  better,  "  Lord  bless  de  child  ! 
how  he  is  grown  !" 

Her  tongue  once  loosened,  she  poured  forth  her  whole  history,  expressing 
in  every  lineament  her  concentrated  abhorrence  of  her  libertine  master, 
"  Mort  Cunningham."  Over  that  story,  it  is  needful  to  pass  lightly,  simply 
saying,  she  endured  all  outraged  nature  could  endure  and  survive.  For  the 
sake  of  humanity  we  may  trust  there  were  few  such  fiends  even  among 
southern  masters  as  this  monster  in  human  shape.  Cunningham  finally  sold 
her  to  go  further  South,  with  a  master  whose  name  cannot  no^y  be  recalled. 
This  man  was  in  ill  health,  and  after  a  time  he  and  his  wife  started  north- 
ward, bringing  Rache  with  them.  On  the  voyage  the  master  grew  worse, 
and  one  night  when  he  was  about  to  die,  a  fearful  storm  arose,  which  Rache 
devoutly  believed  was  sent  from  Heaven.  In  describing  this  scene,  she 
impersonated  her  surroundings  with  wonderful  vividness  and  marvellous 
power.  At  one  moment  she  was  the  howling  wind ;  at  another  the  tumul- 
tuous sea — then  the  lurching  ship — the  bellowing  cow  frightened  by  the 
storm — the  devil,  who  came  to  carry  away  her  master's  soul,  and  finally  the 
weak,  dying  man,  as  he  passed  to  eternity. 

They  proceeded  on  their  voyage  and  landed  at  their  place  of  destination. 
Rache  sees  the  cow  snuffing  the  land  breeze  and  darting  off  through  the 
crowd.  The  captain  of  the  vessel  points  to  the  cow  and  motions  her  to 
follow  its  example.  She  needs  nothing  more.  Again  she  is  acting — she  is 
now  the  cow ;  but  human  caution,  shrewdness,  purpose,  are  lent  to  animal 
instinct.  She  looks  around  her  with  wary  eye — scents  the  air — a  flash,  and 
she  is  hidden  from  the  crowd  which  you  see  around  her — she  is  free ! 
Making  her  way  northward,  she  finally  arrived  at  the  house  of  Emmer 
Kimber,  Kimberton,  Chester  county,  Pa.,  and  proving  a  remarkably  capable 
woman,  she  remained  a  considerable  time  in  his  family,  as  a  cook.  She 
finally  married,  and  settled  in  West  Chester,  where  the  pair  prospered  and 
were  soon  surrounded  by  the  comforts  of  a  neat  home.  After  several  years 
of  peaceful  life  there,  she  was  one  day  alarmed,  not  by  the  heirs  of  her  dead 
master,  but  by  the  loathed  "  Mort  Cunningham,"  who,  without  the  shadow 
of  legal  right,  had  come  to  carry  her  back  to  Slavery.  Fear  lent  her  wings, 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  755 

She  darted  into  a  hatter's  shop  and  out  through  the  back  buildings,  springing 
over  a  dye  kettle  in  her  way,  and  cleared  a  board  fence  at  a  bound.  On  her 
way  to  a  place  of  safety  she  looked  back  to  see,  with  keen  enjoyment,  "  Mort 
Cunningham  "  falling  backward  from  the  fence  she  had  leaped.  Secure  in 
a  garret,  she  looked  down  into  the  streets  below,  to  see  his  vacant,  dazed 
look  as  he  sought,  unable  to  find  her.  Her  rendering  of  the  expression  of  his 
face  at  this  time,  was  irresistibly  ludicrous,  as  was  that  of  his  whole  bearing 
while  searching  for  her.  "Mort  Cunningham  "  did  not  get  her,  but  whether 
or  not  she  ever  returned  to  the  enjoyment  of  her  happy  home,  in  West 
Chester,  we  never  knew,  as  this  sudden  flight  was  the  last  we  ever  heard  of 
her.  She  was  one  of  the  most  wide-awake  of  human  beings,  and  the  world 
certainly  lost  in  the  uneducated  slave,  an  actor  of  great  dramatic  power. 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER. 

The  narratives  and  labors  of  eminent  colored  men  such  as  Banneker, 
Douglass,  Brown,  Garnet,  and  others,  have  been  written  and  sketched  very 
fully  for  the  public,  and  doubtless  with  advantage  to  the  cause  of  freedom. 
But  there  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  written  work  portraying  the  Anti-Slavery 
struggle,  (except  in  the  form  of  narratives,)  as  we  are  aware  of,  a  sketch  of 
the  labors  of  any  eminent  colored  woman.  We  feel,  therefore,  not  only 
glad  of  the  opportunity  to  present  a  sketch  not  merely  of  the  leading  colored 
poet  in  the  United  States,  but  also  of  one  of  the  most  liberal  contributors, 
as  well  as  one  of  the  ablest  advocates  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and 
of  the  slave. 

No  extravagant  praise  of  any  kind, — only  simple  facts  are  needed  to  por- 
tray the  noble  deeds  of  this  faithful  worker. 

The  want  of  space  forbids  more  than  a  brief  reference  to  her  early  life. 

Frances  Ellen  Watkins  Harper  (Watkins  being  her  maiden  name)  was 
born  in  the  City  of  Baltimore  in  1825,  not  of  slave  parentage,  but  sub- 
jected of  course  to  the  oppressive  influence  which  bond  and  free  alike  en«- 
dured  under  slave  laws.  Since  reaching  her  majority,  in  looking  back,  the 
following  sentences  from  her  own  pen  express  the  loneliness  of  her 
childhood  days.  "  Have  I  yearned  for  a  mother's  love?  The  grave  was 
my  robber.  Before  three  years  had  scattered  their  blight  around  my  path, 
death  had  won  my  mother  from  me.  Would  the  strong  arm  of  a  brother 
have  been  welcome?  I  was  my  mother's  only  child."  Thus  she  fell  into 
the  hands  of  an  aunt,  who  watched  over  her  during  these  early  helpless  years. 
Rev.  William  Watkins,  an  uncle,  taught  a  school  in  Baltimore  for  free  co- 
lored children,  to  which  she  was  sent  until  she  was  about  thirteen  years  of 
age.  After  this  period,  she  was  put  out  to  work  to  earn  her  own  living. 


756  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

She  had  many  trials  to  endure  which  she  would  fain  forget;  but  in  the  midst 
of  them  all  she  had  an  ardent  thirst  for  knowledge  and  a  remarkable  talent 
for  composition,  as  she  evinced  at  the  age  of  fourteen  in  an  article  which 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  lady  in  whose  family  she  was  employed,  and 
others.  In  this  situation  she  was  taught  sewing,  took  care  of  the  chil- 
dren, &c.;  and  at  the  same  time,  through  the  kindness  of  her  employer,  her 
greed  for  books  was  satisfied  so  far  as  was  possible  from  occasional  half-hours 
of  leisure.  She  was  noted  for  her  industry,  rarely  trifling  away  time  as 
most  girls  are  wont  to  do  in  similar  circumstances.  Scarcely  had  she 
reached  her  majority  ere  she  had  written  a  number  of  prose  and  poetic 
pieces  which  were  deemed  of  sufficient  merit 'to  publish  in  a  small  volume 
called  "  Forest.  Leaves."  Some  of  her  productions  found  their  way  into 
newspapers  and  attracted  attention.  The  ability  exhibited  in  some  of 
her  productions  was  so  remarkable  that  some  doubted  and  others  denied 
their  originality.  Of  this  character  we  here  copy  an  extract  from  one  of 
her  early  prose  productions: 

CHRISTIANITY. 

"  Christianity  is  a  system  claiming  God  for  its  author,  and  the  welfare  of  man  for  its 
object.  It  is  a  system  so  uniform,  exalted  and  pure,  that  the  loftiest  intellects  have  ac- 
knowledged its  influence,  and  acquiesced  in  the  justness  of  its  claims.  Genius  has  bent 
from  his  erratic  course  to  gather  fire  from  her  altars,  and  pathos  from  the  agony  of  Geth- 
semane  and  the  sufferings  of  Calvary.  Philosophy  and  science  have  paused  amid  their 
speculative  researches  and  wondrous  revelations  to  gain  wisdom  from  her  teachings  and 
knowledge  from  her  precepts.  Poetry  has  culled  her  fairest  flowers  and  wreathed  her 
softest  to  bind'  her  Author's  '  bleeding  brow.'  Music  has  strung  her  sweetest  lyr?s  and 
breathed  her  noblest  strains  to  celebrate  his  fame ;  whilst  Learning  has  bent  from  her 
lofty  heights  to  bow  at  the  lowly  cross.  The  constant  friend  of  man,  she  has  stood  by 
him  in  his  hour  of  greatest  need.  She  has  cheered  the  prisoner  in  his  cell,  and  strength- 
ened the  martyr  at  the  stake.  She  has  nerved  the  frail  and  shrinking  heart  of  woman  for 
high  and  holy  deeds.  The  worn  and  weary  have  rested  their  fainting  heads  vipon  her 
bosom,  and  gathered  strength  from  her  words  and  courage  from  her  counsels.  She  has 
been  the  staff  of  decrepit  age  and  the  joy  of  manhood  in  its  strength.  She  has  bent  over 
the  form  of  lovely  childhood,  and  suffered  it  to  have  a  place  in  the  Pvedeemer's  arms.  She 
has  stood  by  the  bed  of  the  dying,  and  unveiled  the  glories  of  eternal  life,  gilding  the 
darkness  of  the  tomb  with  the  glory  of  the  resurrection." 

Her  mind  being  of  a  strictly  religious  caste,  the  effusions  from  her  pen  all 
savor  of  a  highly  moral  and  elevating  tone. 

About  the  year  1851  she  left  Baltimore  to  seek  a  home  in  a  Free  State, 
and  for  a  short  time  resided  in  Ohio,  where  she  was  engaged  in  teaching. 
Contrary  to  her  expectations,  her  adopted  home  and  calling  not  proving 
satisfactory,  she  left  that  State  and  came  to  Pennsylvania  as  a  last  resort, 
and  again  engaged  in  teaching  at  Little  York.  Here  she  not  only  had  to 
encounter  the  trouble  of  dealing  with  unruly  children,  she  was  sorely 
oppressed  with  the  thought  of  the  condition  of  her  people  in  Maryland. 
Not  unfrequently  she  gave  utterance  to  such  expressions  as  the  following  : 


JFItANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  757 

"  Not  that  we  have  not  a  right  to  breathe  the  air  as  freely  as  anybody 
else  here  (in  Baltimore),  but  we  are  treated  worse  than  aliens  among  a  people 
whose  language  we  speak,  whose  religion  we  profess,  and  whose  blood 
flows  and  mingles  in  our  veins.  *  *  *  Homeless  in  the  land  of  our 
"birth  and  worse  off  than  strangers  in  the  home  of  our  nativity."  During 
her  stay  in  York  she  had  frequent  opportunities  of  seeing  passengers  on  the 
Underground  Rail  Road.  In  one  of  her  letters  she  thus  alluded  to  a  travel- 
er: "I  saw  a  passenger  per  the  Underground  Rail  Road  yesterday;  did  lie 
arrive  safely?  Notwithstanding  that  abomination  of  the  nineteenth  century 
— the  Fugitive  Slave  Law — men  still  determine  to  be  free.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  the  darkness  in  which  they  keep  the  slaves,  it  seems  that  somehow 
light  is  dawning  upon  their  minds.  *  These  poor  fugitives  are  a 

property  that  can  walk.  Just  to  think  that  from  the  rainbow-crowned  Ni- 
agara to  the  swollen  waters  of  the  Mexican  Gulf,  from  the  restless  murmur 
of  the  Atlantic  to  the  ceaseless  roar  of  the  Pacific,  the  poor,  half-starved,  fly- 
ing fugitive  has  no  resting-place  for  the  sole  of  his  foot!" 

Whilst  hesitating  whether  or  not  it  would  be  best  to  continue  teaching, 
she  wrote  to  a  friend  for  advice  as  follows:  "What  would  you  do  if  you 
were  in  my  place  ?  Would  you  give  up  and  go  back  and  work  at  your 
trade  (dress-making)?  There  are  no  people  that  need  all  the  benefits  re- 
sulting from  a  well-directed  education  more  than  we  do.  The  condition 
of  our  people,  the  wants  of  our  children,  and  the  welfare  of  our  race 
demand  the  aid  of  every  helping  hand,  the  God-speed  of  every  Christian 
heart.  It  is  a  work  of  time,  a  labor  of  patience,  to  become  an  effective 
school  teacher;  and  it  should  be  a  work  of  love  in  which  they  who  engage 
should  not  abate  heart  or  hope  until  it  is  done.  And  after  all,  it  is  one  of 
woman's  most  sacred  rights  to  have  the  privilege  of  forming  the  symmetry 
and  rightly  adjusting  the  mental  balance  of  an  immortal  mind."  "I  have 
written  a  lecture  on  education,  and  I  am  also  writing  a  small  book." 

Thus,  whilst  filling  her  vocation  as  a  teacher  in  Little  York,  was  she 
deeply  engrossed  in  thought  as  to  how  she  could  best  promote  the  welfare 
of  her  race.  But  as  she  was  devoted  to  the  work  in  hand,  she  soon  found 
that  fifty-three  untrained  little  urchins  overtaxed  her  naturally  delicate 
physical  powers;  it  also  happened  just  about  this  time  that  she  was  further 
moved  to  enter  the  Anti-Slavery  field  as  a  lecturer  substantially  by  the 
following  circumstance:  About  the  ypar  1853,  Maryland,  her  native  State, 
had  enacted  a  law  forbidding  free  people  of  color  from  the  North  from  coming 
into  the  State  on  pain  of  being  imprisoned  and  sold  into  slavery.  A  free 
man,  who  had  unwittingly  violated  this  infamous  statute,  had  recently  been 
sold  to  Georgia,  and  had  escaped  thence  by  secreting  himself  behind  the 
wheel-house  of  a  boat  bound  northward  ;  but  before  he  reached  the  desired 
haven,  he  was  discovered  and  remanded  to  slavery.  It  was  reported  that 
he  died  soon  after  from  the  effects  of  exposure  and  suffering.  In  a  letter  to 


758  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

a  friend  referring  to  this  outrage,  Mrs.  Harper  thus  wrote:  "Upon  that 
grave  I  pledged  myself  to  the  Anti-Slavery  cause." 

Having  thus  decided,  she  wrote  in  a  subsequent  letter,  "It  may  be  that 
God  himself  has  written  upon  both  my  heart  and  brain  a  commission  to  use 
time,  talent  and  energy  in  the  cause  of  freedom."  In  this  abiding  faith  she* 
came  to  Philadelphia,  hoping  that  the  way  would  open  for  usefulness, 
and  to  publish  her  little  book  (above  referred  to).  She  visited  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Office  and  read  Anti-Slavery  documents  with  great  avidity;  in  the 
mean  time  making  her  home  at  the  station  of  the  Underground  Rail  Road, 
where  she  frequently  saw  passengers  and  heard  their  melting  tales  of  suffer- 
ing and  wrong,  which  intensely  increased  her  sympathy  in  their  behalf. 
Although  anxious  to  enter  the  Anti-Slavery  field  as  a  worker,  her  modesty 
prevented  her  from  pressing  her  claims;  consequently  as  she  was  but 
little  known,  being  a  young  and  homeless  maiden  (an  exile  by  law),  no 
especial  encouragement  was  tendered  her  by  Anti-Slavery  friends  in 
Philadelphia. 

During  her  stay  in  Philadelphia  she  published  some  verses  entitled, 
"  Eliza  Harris  crossing  the  River  on  the  Ice."  It  was  deemed  best  to  delay 
the  issuing  of  the  book. 

After  spending  some  weeks  in  Philadelphia,  she  concluded  to  visit  Boston. 
Here  she  was  treated  with  the  kindness  characteristic  of  the  friends  in  the 
Anti-Slavery  Office  whom  she  visited,  but  only  made  a  brief  stay,  after 
which  she  proceeded  to  New  Bedford,  the  "hot-bed  of  the  fugitives"  in 
Massachusetts,  where  by  invitation  she  addressed  a  public  meeting  on  the 
subject  of  Education  and  the  Elevation  .of  the  Colored  Race. 

The  occasion  and  result  of  the  commencement  of  her  public  career  was 
thus  given  by  her  own  pen  in  a  letter  dated  August,  1854 : 

"  Well,  I  am  out  lecturing.  I  have  lectured  every  night  this  week ;  besides  addressed 
a  Sunday-school,  and  I  shall  speak,  if  nothing  prevent,  to-night.  My  lectures  have  met 
•with  success.  Last  night  I  lectured  in  a  white  church  in  Providence.  Mr.  Gardener  was 
present,  and  made  the  estimate  of  about  six  hundred  persons.  Never,  perhaps,  was  a 
speaker,  old  or  young,  favored  with  a  more  attentive  audience.  *  *  *  My  voice  is 
not  wanting  in  strength,  as  I  am  aware  of,  to  reach  pretty  well  over  the  house.  The 
church  was  the  Roger  Williams ;  the  pastor,  a  Mr.  Furnell,  who  appeared  to  be  a  kind 
and  Christian  man.  *  *  *  My  maiden  lecture  was  Monday  night  in  New  Bedford  on 
the  Elevation  and  Education  of  our  People.  Perhaps  as  intellectual  a  place  as  any  I  was 
ever  at  of  its  size." 

Having  thus  won  her  way  to  a  favorable  position  as  a  lecturer,  the  fol- 
lowing month  she  was  engaged  by  the  State  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Maine, 
with  what  success  appears  from  one  of  her  letters  bearing  date  —  Bucks- 
town  Centre,  Sept.  28,  1854: 

"  The  agent  of  the  State  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Maine  travels  with  me,  and  she  is  a 
pleasant,  dear,  sweet  lady.  I  do  like  her  so.  We  travel  together,  eat  together,  and  sleep 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  759 

together.  (She  is  a  white  woman.)  In  fact  I  have  not  been  in  one  colored  person's  house 
since  I  left  Massachusetts;  but  I  have  a  pleasant  time.  My  life  reminds  me  of  a  beauti- 
ful dream.  What  a  difference  between  this  and  York  !  *  *  I  have  met  with  some  of 
the  kindest  treatment  up  here  that  I  have  ever  received.  *  *  I  have  lectured  three 
times  this  week.  After  I  went  from  Limerick,  I  went  to  Springvale ;  there  I  spoke  on 
Sunday  night  at  an  Anti-Slavery  meeting.  Some  of  the  people  are  Anti-Slavery,  Anti- 
rum  and  Anti-Catholic ;  and  if  you  could  see  our  Maine  ladies, — some  of  them  among  the 
noblest  types  of  womanhood  you  have  ever  seen  !  They  are  for  putting  men  of  Anti-Slavery 
principles  in  office,  *  *  to  cleanse  the  corrupt  fountains  of  our  government  by  sending 
men  to  Congress  who  will  plead  for  our  down-trodden  and  oppressed  brethren,  our  crushed 
and  helpless  sisters,  whose  tears  and  blood  bedew  our  soil,  whose  chains  are  clanking  'neath 
our  proudest  banners,  whose  cries  and  groans  amid  our  loudest  pseans  rise." 

Everywhere  in  this  latitude  doors  opened  before  her,  and  her  gifts  were 
universally  recognized  as  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  cause.  In  the  letter 
above  referred  to  she  said :  "  I  spoke  in  Boston  on  Monday  night.  *  *  * 
Well,  I  am  but  one,  but  can  do  something,  and,  God  helping  me,  I  will  try. 

Mr.  Brister  from  Lowell  addressed  the  meeting ;  also  Rev. .  Howe. 

We  had  a  good  demonstration." 

Having  read  the  narrative  of  Solomon  Northrup  (12  years  a  slave),  she 
was  led  to  embrace  the  Free  Labor  doctrine  most  thoroughly;  and  in  a 
letter  dated  at  Temple,  Maine,  Oct.  20,  1854,  after  expressing  the  interest 
she  took  in  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  that  state, 
she  remarked : 

"I  spoke  on  Free  Produce,  and  now  by  the  way  I  believe  in  that  kind  of  Abolition. 
Oh,  it  does  seem  to  strike  at  one  of  the  principal  roots  of  the  matter.  I  have  commenced 
since  I  read  Solomon  Northrup.  Oh,  if  Mrs.  Stowe  has  clothed  American  slavery  in  the 
graceful  garb  of  fiction,  Solomon  Northrup  comes  up  from  the  dark  habitation  of  Southern 
cruelty  where  slavery  fattens  and  feasts  on  human  blood  with  such  mournful  revelations 
that  one  might  almost  wish  for  the  sake  of  humanity  that  the  tales  of  horror  which  he  re- 
veals were  not  so.  Oh,  how  can  we  pamper  our  appetites  upon  luxuries  drawn  from  re- 
luctant fingers?  Oh,  could  slavery  exist  long  if  it  did  not  sit  on  a  commercial  throne? 
I  have  read  somewhere,  if  I  remember  aright,  of  a  Hindoo  being  loth  to  cut  a  tree  be- 
cause being  a  believer  in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  he  thought  the  soul  of  his  father  had 
passed  into  it.  *  *  *  Oh,  friend,  beneath  the  most  delicate  preparations  of  the  cane 
can  you  not  see  the  stinging  lash  and  clotted  whip  ?  I  have  reason  to  be  thankful  that 
I  am  able  to  give  a  little  more  for  a  Free  Labor  dress,  if  it  is  coarser.  I  can  thank  God 
that  upon  its  warp  and  woof  I  see  no  stain  of  blood  and  tears;  that  to  procure  a  little 
finer  muslin  for  my  limbs  no  crushed  and  broken  heart  went  out  in  sighs,  and  that  from 
the  field  where  it  was  raised  went  up  no  wild  and  startling  cry  unto  the  throne  of  God  to 
witness  there  in  language  deep  and  strong,  that  in  demanding  that  cotton  I  was  nerving 
oppression's  hand  for  deeds  of  guilt  and  crime.  If  the  liberation  of  the  slave  demanded 
it,  I  could  consent  to  part  with  a  portion  of  the  blood  from  my  own  veins  if  that  would  do 
him  any  good." 

After  having  thus  alluded  to  free  labor,  she  gave  a  short  journal  of  the 
different  places  where  she  had  recently  lectured  from  the  5th  of  September  t9 
the  20th  of  October,  which  we  mention  here  simply  to  show  the  per- 


760  THE  UNDERGROLND  RAiL  ROAD. 

severance  which  characterized  her  as  an  advocate  of  her  enslaved  race,  and 
at  the  same  time  show  how  doors  everywhere  opened  to  her:  Portland, 
Monmouth  Centre,  North  Berwick,  Limerick  (two  meetings),  Springvale, 
Portsmouth,  Elliott,  Waterborough  (spoke  four  times),  Lyrnan,  Saccarappo, 
Moderation,  Steep  Falls  (twice),  North  Buxton,  Goram,  Gardner,  Li tch field, 
twice,  Monmouth  Ridge  twice,  Monmouth  Centre  three  times,  Litchfield  sec- 
ond time,  West  Waterville  twice,  Livermore  Temple.  Her  ability  and  la- 
bors were  everywhere  appreciated,  and  her  meetings  largely  attended.  In 
a  subsequent  letter  referring  to  the  manner  that  she  was  received,  she  wrote, 
"  A  short  while  ago  when  I  was  down  this  way  I  took  breakfast  with  the 
then  Governor  of  Maine." 

For  a  year  and  a  half  she  continued  in  the  Eastern  States,  speaking  in  most 
or  all  of  them  with  marked  success;  the  papers  meting  out  to  her  full  com- 
mendation for  her  efforts.  The  following  extract  clipped  from  the  Portland 
Daily  Press,  respecting  a  lecture  that  she  was  invited  to  deliver  after  the  war 
by  the  Mayor  (Mr.  Washburne)  and  others,  is  a  fair  sample  of  notices  from 
this  source : 

"  She  spoke  for  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half,  her  subject  being  '  The  Mission  of  the  War, 
and  the  Demands  of  the  Colored  Race  in  the  Work  of  -Reconstruction ;'  and  we  have  sel- 
dom seen  an  audience  more  attentive,  better  pleased,  or  more  enthusiastic.  Mrs.  Harper 
has  a  splendid  articulation,  uses  chaste,  pure  language,  has  a  pleasant  voice,  and  allows 
no  one  to  tire  of  hearing  her.  We  shall  attempt  no  abstract  of  her  address ;  none  that 
we  could  make  would  do  her  justice.  It  was  one  of  which  any  lecturer  might  feel  proud, 
and  her  reception  by  a  Portland  audience  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  We  have  seen 
no  praises  of  her  that  were  overdrawn.  We  have  heard  Miss  Dickinson,  and  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  award  the  palm  to  her  darker  colored  sister." 

In  1856,  desiring  to  see  the  fugitives  in  Canada,  she  visited  the  Upper 
Province,  and  in  a  letter  dated  at  Niagara  Falls,  Sept.  12th,  she  unfolded 
her  mind  in  the  following  language: 

"  Well,  I  have  gazed  for  the  first  time  upon  Free  Land,  and,  would  you  believe  it,  tears 
sprang  to  my  eyes,  and  I  wept.  Oh,  it  was  a  glorious  sight  to  gaze  for  the  first  time  on 
a  land  where  a  poor  slave  flying  from  our  glorious  land  of  liberty  would  in  a  moment  find 
his  fetters  broken,  his  shackles  loosed,  and  whatever  he  was  in  the  land  of  Washington, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument  or  even  Plymouth  Rock,  here  he  becomes 
a  man  and  a  brother.  I  have  gazed  on  Harper's  Ferry,  or  rather  the  rock  at  the  Ferry ; 
I  have  seen  it  towering  up  in  simple  grandeur,  with  the  gentle  Potomac  gliding  peacefully 
at  its  feet,  and  felt  that  that  was  God's  masonry,  and  my  soul  bad  expanded  ia  gazing  on 
its  sublimity.  I  have  seen  the  ocean  singing  its  wild  chorus  of  sounding  waves,  and  ec- 
stacy  has  thrilled  upon  the  living  chords  of  my  heart.  I  have  since  then  seen  the  rainbow- 
crowned  Niagara  chanting  the  choral  hymn  of  Omnipotence,  girdled  with  grandeur,  and 
robed  with  glory;  but  none  of  these  things  have  melted  me  as  the  first  sight  of  Free  Land. 
Towering  mountains  lifting  their  hoary  summits  to  catch  the  first  faint  flush  of  day  when 
the  sunbeams  kiss  the  shadows  from  morning's  drowsy  face  may  expand  and  exalt  your 
soul.  The  first  yiew  of  the  ocean  may  fill  you  with  strange  delight.  Niagara — the  great, 
the  glorious  Niagara — may  hush  your  spirit  with  its  ceaseless  thunder ;  it  may  charm  you 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  761 

with  its  robe  of  crested  spray  and  rainbow  crown;  but  the  land  of  Freedom  was  a  lesson 
of  deeper  significance  than  foaming  waves  or  towering  mounts." 

While  in  Toronto  she  lectured,  and  was  listened  to  with  great  interest; 
but  she  made  only  a  brief  visit,  thence  returning  to  Philadelphia,  her  adopted 
home. 

With  her  newly  acquired  reputation  as  a  lecturer,  from  1856  to  1859  she 
continued  her  labors  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Ohio,  &c. 
In  the  meantime  she  often  came  in  contact  with  Underground  Rail  Road 
passengers,  especially  in  Philadelphia.  None  sympathized  with  them  more 
sincerely  or  showed  a  greater  willingness  to  render  them  material  aid.  She 
contributed  apparently  with  the  same  liberality  as  though  they  were  her 
own  near  kin.  Even  when  at  a  distance,  so  deep  was  her  interest  in  the 
success  of  the  Road,  she  frequently  made  it  her  business  to  forward  dona- 
tions, and  carefully  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  treasury.  The  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  might  publish  -a  volume  of  interesting  letters  from  her 
pen  relating  to  the  Underground  Rail  Road  and  kindred  topics ;  but  a  few 
extracts  must  suffice.  We  here  copy  from  a  letter  dated  at  Rushsylvania, 
Ohio,  Dec.  15th :  "  I  send  you  to-day  two  dollars  for  the  Underground 
Rail  Road.  It  is  only  a  part  of  what  I  subscribed  at  your  meeting.  May 
God  speed  the  flight  of  the  slave  as  he  speeds  through  our  Republic  to 
gain  his  liberty  in  a  monarchical  land.  I  am  still  in  the  lecturing  field, 
though  not  very  strong  physically.  *  *  *  Send  me  word  what  I  can 
do  for  the  fugitive." 

From  Tiffin,  Ohio,  March  31st,  touching  the  news  of  a  rescue  in  Phila- 
delphia, she  thus  wrote  : 

"  I  see  by  the  Cincinnati  papers  that  you  have  had  an  attempted  rescue  and  a  failure. 
That  is  sad  !  Can  you  not  give  me  the  particulars  ?  and  if  there  is  anything  that  I  can  do 
for  them  in  money  or  words,  call  upon  me.  This  is  a  common  cause ;  and  if  there  is  any 
burden  to  be  borne  in  the  Anti-Slavery  cause — anything  to  be  done  to  weaken  our  hateful 
chains  or  assert  our  manhood  and  womanhood,  I  have  a  right  to  do  my  share  of  the  work. 
The  humblest  and  feeblest  of  us  can  do  something;  and  though  I  may  be  deficient  in  many 
of  the  conventionalisms  of  city  life,  and  be  considered  as  a  person  of  good  impulses,  but  un- 
finished, yet  if  there  is  common  rough  work  to  be  done,  call  on  me." 

Mrs.  Harper  was  not  content  to  make  speeches  and  receive  plaudits,  but 
was  ever  willing  to  do  the  rough  work  and  to  give  material  aid  wherever 
needed. 

From  another  letter  dated  Lewis  Centre,  Ohio,  we  copy  the  following 
characteristic  extract : 

"  Yesterday  I  sent  you  thirty  dollars.  Take  five  of  it  for  the  rescuers  (who  were  in 
prison),  and  the  rest  pay  away  on  the  books.  My  offering  is  not  large ;  but  if  you  need 
more,  send  me  word.  Also  how  comes  on  the  Underground  Rail  Road?  Do  you  need 
anything  for  that?  You  have  probably  he^rd  of  the  shameful  outrage  oj  a  colored  man 
or  boy  named  Wagner,  who  was  kidnapped  in  Ohio  and  carried  across  the  river  and  sold 


7G2  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

for  a  slave.  *  *  *  Ohio  has  become  a  kind  of  a  negro  hunting  ground,  a  new  Corgo's 
coast  and  Guinea's  shore.  A  man  was  kidnapped  almost  under  the  shadow  of  our  capital. 
Oh,  was  it  not  dreadful  ?  *  *  *  Oh,  may  the  living  God  prepare  me  for  an  earnest 
and  faithful  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  justice  and  right!" 

In  those  days  the  blows  struck  by  the  hero,  John  Brown,  were  agitating 
the  nation.  Scarcely  was  it  possible  for  a  living  soul  to  be  more  deeply 
affected  than  this  female  advocate.  Nor  did  her  sympathies  end  in  mere 
words.  She  tendered  material  aid  as  well  .as  heartfelt  commiseration. 

To  John  Brown's  wife  *  she  sent  through  the  writer  the  following  letter : 

LETTEB  TO  JOHN  BEOWN's  WIFE. 

FAEMEE  CENTEE,  OHIO,  Nov.  14th. 

MY  DEAE  MADAM  : — In  an  hour  like  this  the  common  words  of  sympathy  may  seem 
like  idle  words,  and  yet  I  want  to  say  something  to  you,  the  noble  wife  of  the  hero  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Belonging  to  the  race  your  dear  husband  reached  forth  his  hand  to 
assist,  I  need  not  tell  you  that  my  sympathies  are  with  you.  I  thank  you  for  the  brave 
words  you  have  spoken.  A  republic  that  produces  such  a  wife  and  mother  may  hope  for 
better  days.  Our  heart  may  grow  more  hopeful  for  humanity  when  it  sees  the  sublime 
sacrifice  it  is  about  to  receive  from  his  hands.  Not  in  vain  has  your  dear  husband  periled 
all,  if  the  martyrdom  of  one  hero  is  worth  more  than  the  life  of  a  million  cowards.  From 
the  prison  comes  forth  a  shout  of  triumph  over  that  power  whose  ethics  are  robbery  of 
the  feeble  and  oppression  of  the  weak,  the  trophies  of  whose  chivalry  are  a  plundered  cra- 
dle and  a  scourged  and  bleeding  woman.  Dear  sister,  I  thank  you  for  the  brave  and  no- 
ble words  that  you  have  spoken.  Enclosed  I  send  you  a  few  dollars  as  a  token  of  my 
gratitude,  reverence  and  love. 

Yours  respectfully,  FBANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS. 

Post  Office  address :  care  of  William  Still,  107  Fifth  St.,  Philadelphia,  Penn. 

May  God,  our  own  God,  sustain  you  in  the  hour  of  trial.  If  there  is  one  thing  on  earth 
I  can  do  for  you  or  yours,  let  me  be  apprized.  I  am  at  your  service. 

Not  forgetting  Brown's  comrades,  who  were  then  lying  in  prison  under 
sentence  of  death,  true  to  the  best  impulses  of  her  generous  heart,  she  thus 
wrote  relative  to  these  ill  fated  prisoners,  from  Montpelier,  Dec.  12th: 

"  I  thank  you  for  complying  with  .my  request.  (She  had  previously  ordered  a  box  of 
things  to  be  forwarded  to  them.)  And  also  that  you  wrote  to  them.  You  see  Brown 
towered  up  so  bravely  that  these  doomed  and  fated  men  may  have  been  almost  overlooked, 
and  just  think  that  I  am  able  to  send  one  ray  through  the  night  around  them.  And  as 
their  letters  came  too  late  to  answer  in  time,  I  am  better  satisfied  that  you  wrote.  I  hope 
the  things  will  reach  them.  Poor  doomed  and  fated  men!  Why  did  you  not  send  them 
more  things?  Please  send  me  the  bill  of  expense.  *  *  Send  me  word  what  I  can  do 
for  the  fugitives.  Do  you  need  any  money  ?  Do  I  not  owe  you  on  the  old  bill  (pledge)? 
Look  carefully  and  see  if  I  Gave  paid  all.  Along  with  this  letter  I  send  you  one  for  Mr. 
Stephens  (one  of  Brown's  men),  and  would  ask  you  to  send  him  a  box  of  nice  things  every 
week  till  he  dies  or  is  acquitted.  I  understand  the  balls  have  not  been-extracted  from  him. 
Has  not  this  suffering  been  overshadowed  by  the-  glory  that  gathered  around  the  brave  old 

*  Mrs.  Harper  passed  two  weeks  with  Mrs.  Brown  at  the  house  of  the  writer  while  she  was  await- 
ing the  execution  of  her  husband,  and  sympathized  with  her  most  deeply. 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  733 

man?  *  *  *  Spare  no  expense  to  make  the  last  hours  of  his  (Stephens')  life  as  bright 
as  possible  with  sympathy.  *  *  *  Now,  my  friend,  fulfil  this  to  the  letter.  Oh,  is  it 
not  a  privilege,  if  you  are  sisterless  and  lonely,  to  be  a  sister  to  the  human  race,  and  to 
place  your  heart  where  it  may  throb  close  to  down-trodden  humanity  ?" 

On  another  occasion  in  writing  from  the  lecturing  field  hundreds  of  miles 
away  from  Philadelphia,  the  sympathy  she  felt  for  the  fugitives  found  ex- 
pression in  the  following  language: 

"How  fared  the  girl  who  came  robed  in  male  attire?  Do  write  me  every  time  you 
write  how  many  come  to  your  house ;  and,  my  dear  friend,  if  you  have  that  much  in  hand 
of  mine  from  my  books,  will  you  please  pay  the  Vigilance  Committee  two  or  three  dollars 
for  me  to  help  carry  on  the  glorious  enterprise.  Now,  please  do  not  write  back  that  you 
are  not  going  to  do  any  such  thing.  Let  me  explain  a  few  matters  to  you.  In  the  first 
place,  I  am  able  to  give  something.  In  the  second  place,  I  am  willing  to  do  so.  *  *  * 
Oh,  life  is  fading  away,  and  we  have  but  an  hour  of  time  I  Should  we  not,  therefore,  en- 
deavor to  let  its  history  gladden  the  earth  ?  The  nearer  we  ally  ourselves  to  the  wants 
and  woes  of  humanity  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  closer  we  get  to  the  great  heart  of  God ; 
the  nearer  we  stand  by  the  beating  of  the  pulse  of  universal  love." 

Doubtless  it  has  not  often  been  found  necessary  for  persons  desirous  of 
contributing  to  benevolent  causes  to  first  have  to  remove  anticipated  objec- 
tions. Nevertheless  in  some  cases  it  would  seem  necessary  to  admonish  her 
not  to  be  quite  so  liberal ;  to  husband  with  a  little  more  care  her  hard-earned 
income  for  a  "  rainy  day,"  as  her  health  was  not  strong. 

"  My  health,"  she  wrote. at  that  time,  "is  not  very  strong,  and  I  may  have  to  give  up 
before  long.  I  may  have  to  yield  on  account  of  my  voice,  which  I  think,  has  become 
somewhat  affected.  I  might  be  so  glad  if  it  was  only  so  that  I  could  go  home  among  my 
own  kindred  and  people,  but  slavery  comes  up  like  a  dark  shadow  between  me  and  the 
home  of  my  childhood.  Well,  perhaps  it  is  my  lot  to  die  from  home  and  be  buried  among 
strangers  ;  and  yet  I  do  not  regret  that  I  have  espoused  this  cause;  perhaps  1  have  been 
of  some  service  to  the  cause  of  human  rights,  and  I  hope  the  consciousness  that  I  have 
not  lived  in  vain,  will  be  a  halo  of  peace  around  my  dying  bed;  a  heavenly  sunshine  light- 
ing up  the  dark  valley  and  shadow  of  death." 

Notwithstanding  this  yearning  for  home,  she  was  far  from  desiring  at  her 
death,  a  burial  in  a  Slave  State,  as  the  following  clearly  expressed  views 
show : 

"  I  have  lived  in  the  midst  of  oppression  and  wrong,  and  I  am  saddened  by  every 
captured  fugitive  in  the  North  ;  a  blow  has  been  struck  at  my  freedom,  in  every  hunted 
and  down-trodden  slave  in  the  South ;  North  and  South  have  both  been  guilty,  and  they 
that  sin  must  suffer." 

Also,  in  harmony  with  the  above  sentiments,  came  a  number  of  verses  ap- 
propriate to  her  desires  in  this  respect,  one  of  which  we  here  give  as  a 
sample : 

"  Make  me  a  grave  where'er  you  will, 
In  a  lowly  plain,  or  a  lofty  hill, 
Make  it  among  earth's  humblest  graves, 
But  not  in  a  land  where  men  are  slaves." 


764  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

In  the  State  of  Maine  the  papers  brought  to  her  notice  the  capture  of 
Margaret  Garner,  and  the  tragic  and  bloody  deed  connected  therewith. 
And  she  writes : 

"  Rome  had  her  altars  where  the  trembling  criminal,  and  the  worn  and  weary  slave 
might  fly  for  an  asylum — Judea  her  cities  of  refuge ;  but  Ohio,  with  her  Bibles  and 
churches,  her  baptisms  and  prayers,  had  not  one  temple  so  dedicated  to  human  rights,  one 
altar  so  consecrated  to  human  liberty,  that  trampled  upon  and  down- trodden  innocence 
knew  that  it  could  find  protection  for  a  night,  or  shelter  for  a  day." 

In  the  fall  of  1860,  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  Mrs.  Harper  was  married  to 
Fenton  Harper,  a  widower,  and  resident  of  Ohio.  It  seemed  obvious  that 
this  change  would  necessarily  take  her  from  the  sphere  of  her  former  useful- 
ness. The  means  she  had  saved  from  the  sale  of  her  books  and  from  her 
lectures,  she  invested  in  a  small  farm  near  Columbus,  and  in  a  short  time 
after  her  marriage  she  entered  upon  house-keeping. 

Notwithstanding  her  family  cares,  consequent  upon  married  life,  she  only 
ceased  from  her  literary  and  anti-slavery  labors,  when  compelled  to  do  so  by 
other  duties. 

On  the  23d  of  May,  1864,  death  deprived  her  of  her  husband. 

Whilst  she  could  not  give  so  much  attention  to  writing  as  she  could  have 
desired  in  her  household  days,  she,  nevertheless,  did  then  produce  some  of 
her  best  productions.  Take  the  following  for  a  sample,  on  the  return 
from  Cleveland,  Ohio,  of  a  poor,  ill-fated  slave-girl,  (under  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law) : 

TO  THE   UNION   SAVERS  OP   CLEVELAND. 

Men  of  Cleveland,  had  a  vulture 

Sought  a  timid  dove  for  prey, 
Would  you  not,  with  human  pity, 

Drive  the  gory  bird  away? 

Had  you  seen  a  feeble  lambkin, 

Shrinking  from  a  wolf  so  bold, . 
Would  ye  not  to  shield  the  trembler, 

In  your  arms  have  made  its  fold? 

• 

But  when  she,  a  hunted  sister, 

Stretched  'her  hands  that  ye  might  save, 

Colder  far  than  Zembla's  regions 
Was  the  answer  that  ye  gave. 

On  the  Union's  bloody  altar, 

Was  your  hapless  victim  laid  ; 
Mercy,  truth  and  justice  shuddered, 

But  your  hands  would  give  no  aid. 

And  ye  sent  her  back  to  torture, 

Robbed  of  freedom  and  of  right. 
Thrust  the  wretched,  captive  stranger. 

Back  to  slavery's  gloomy  night. 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  765 

Back  where  brutal  men  may  trample, 

On  her  honor  and  her  fame  ; 
And  unto  her  lips  so  dusky, 

Press  the  cup  of  woe  and  shame. 

There  is  blood  upon  your  city, 

Dark  and  dismal  is  the  stain  ; 
And  your  hands  would  fail  to  cleanse  it, 

Though  Lake  Erie  ye  should  drain. 

There's  a  curse  upon  your  Union, 

Fearful  sounds  are  in  the  air ; 
As  if  thunderbolts  were  framing, 

Answers  to  the  bondsman's  prayer. 

Ye  may  offer  human  victims, 

Like  the  heathen  priests  of  old; 
And  may  barter  manly  honor 

For  the  Union  and  for  gold. 

But  ye  can  not  stay  the  whirlwind, 

When  the  storm  begins  to  break ; 
And  our  God  doth  rise  in  judgment, 

For  the  poor  and  needy's  sake. 

And,  your  sin -cursed,  guilty  Union, 

Shall  be  shaken  to  its  base, 
Till  ye  learn  that  simple  justice, 

Is  the  right  of  every  race. 

Mrs.  Harper  took  the  deepest  interest  in  the  war,  and  looked  with  extreme 
anxiety  for  the  results ;  and  she  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  write,  speak, 
or  serve  the  cause  in  any  way  that  she  thought  would  best  promote  the 
freedom  of  the  slave.  On  the  proclamation  of  General  Fremont,  the 
passages  from  her  pen  are  worthy  to  be  long  remembered : 

"  Well,  what  think  you  of  the  war?  To  me  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  is  Fre- 
mont's Proclamation  freeing  the  slaves  of  the  rebels.  Is  there  no  ray  of  hope  in  that?  I 
should  not  wonder  if  Edward  M.  Davis  breathed  that  into  his  ear.  His  proclamation 
looks  like  real  earnestness ;  no  mincing  the  matter  with  the  rebels.  Death  to  the  traitors 
and  confiscation  of  their  slaves  is  no  child's  play.  I  hope  that  the  boldness  of  his  stand 
will  inspire  others  to  look  the  real  cause  of  the  war  in  the  face  and  inspire  the  government 
with  uncompromising  earnestness  to  remove  the  festering  curse.  And  yet  I  am  not  un- 
easy about  the  result  of  this  war.  We  may  look  upon  it  as  God's  controversy  with  the 
nation;  His  arising  to  plead  by  fire  and  blood  the  cause  of  His  poor  and  needy  people. 
Some  time  since  Breckinridge,  in  writing  to  Sumner,  asks,  if  I  rightly  remember,  What  is 
the  fate  of  a  few  negroes  to  me  or  mine?  Bound  up  in  one  great  bundle  of  humanity  our 
fates  seem  linked  together,  our  destiny  entwined  with  theirs,  and  our  rights  are  interwo- 
ven together." 

Finally  when  the  long-looked-for  Emancipation  Proclamation  came,  al- 
though Mrs.  Harper  was  not  at  that  time  very  well,  she  accepted  an  invita- 


766  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

tion  to  address  a  public  meeting  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  an  allusion  to  which  we 
find  in  a  letter  dated  at  Grove  City,  O.,  which  we  copy  with  the  feeling  that 
many  who  may  read  this  volume  will  sympathize  with  every  word  uttered 
relative  to  the  Proclamation : 

"  I  spoke  in  Columbns  on  the  President's  Proclamation.  *  *  But  was  not  such  an 
event  worthy  the  awakening  of  every  power — the  congratulation  of  every  faculty  ?  What 
hath  God  wrought !  We  may  well  exclaim  how  event  after  event  has  paved  the  way  for 
freedom.  In  the  crucible  of  disaster  and  defeat  God  has  stirred  the  nation,  and  permitted 
no  permanent  victory  to  crown  her  banners  while  she  kept  her  hand  upon  the  trembling 
slave  and  held  him  back  from  freedom.  And  even  now  the  scale  may  still  seem  to  oscil- 
late between  the  contending  parties,  and  some  may  say,  Why  does  not  God  give  us  full 
and  quick  victory  ?  My  friend,  do  not  despair  if  even  deeper  shadows  gather  around  the 
fate  of  the  nation,  that  truth  will  not  ultimately  triumph,  and  the  right  be  established 
and  vindicated ;  but  the  deadly  gangrene  has  taken  such  deep  and  almost  fatal  hold  upon 
the  nation  that  the  very  centres  of  its  life  seem  to  be  involved  in  its  eradication.  Just 
look,  after  all  the  trials  deep  and  fiery  through  which  the  nation  has  waded,  how  mourn- 
fully suggestive  was  the  response  the  proclamation  received  from  the  democratic  triumphs 
which  followed  so  close  upon  its  footsteps.  Well,  thank  God  that  the  President  did  not 
fail  us,  that  the  fierce  rumbling  of  democratic  thunder  did  not  shake  from  his  hand  the 
bolt  he  leveled  against  slavery.  Oh,  it  would  have  been  so  sad  if,  after  all  the  desolation 
and  carnage  that  have  dyed  our  plains  with  blood  and  crimsoned  our  borders  with  war- 
fare, the  pale  young  corpses  trodden  down  by  the  hoofs  of  war,  the  dim  eyes  that  have 
looked  their  last  upon  the  loved  and  lost,  had  the  arm  of  Executive  power  failed  us  in  the 
nation's  fearful  crisis!  For  how  mournful  it  is  when  the  unrighted  wrongs  and  fearful 
agonies  of  ages  reach  their  culminating  point,  and  events  solemn,  terrible  and  sublime 
marshal  themselves  in  dread  array  to  mould  the  destiny  of  nations,  the  hands  appointed 
to  hold  the  helm  of  affairs,  instead  of  grasping  the  mighty  occasions  and  stamping  them 
with  the  great  seals  of  duty  and  right,  permit  them  to  float  along  the  current  o.f  circum- 
stances without  comprehending  the  hour  of  visitation  or  the  momentous  day  of  opportuni- 
ty. Yes,  we  may  thank  God  that  in  the  hour  when  the  nation's  life  was  convulsed,  and 
fearful  gloom  had  shed  its  shadows  over  the  land,  the  President  reached  out  his  hand 
through  the  darkness  to  break  the  chains  on  which  the  rust  of  centuries  had  gathered. 
Well,  did  you  ever  expect  to  see  this  day  ?  I  know  that  all  is  not  accomplished ;  but  we 
may  rejoice  in  what  has  been  already  wrought, — the  wondrous  change  in  so  short  a  time. 
Just  a  little  while  since  the  American  flag  to  the  flying  bondman  was  an  ensign  of  bond- 
age; now  it  has  become  a  symbol  of  protection  and  freedom.  Once  the  slave  was  a  de- 
spised and  trampled  on  pariah ;  now  he  has  become  a  useful  ally  to  the  American  govern- 
ment. From  the  crimson  sods  of  war  springs  the  white  flower  of  freedom,  and  songs  of 
deliverance  mingle  with  the  crash  and  roar  of  war.  The  shadow  of  the  American  army 
becomes  a  covert  for  the  slave,  and  beneath  the  American  Eagle  he  grasps  the  key  of  know- 
ledge and  is  lifted  to  a  higher  destiny." 

This  letter  we  had  intended  should  complete  the  sketch  of  Mrs.  Harper's 
Anti-Slavery  labors ;  but  in  turning  to  another  epistle  dated  Boston,  April 
19th,  on  the  Assassination  of  the  President,  we  feel  that  a  part  of  it  is  too 
interesting  to  omit : 

"  Sorrow  treads  on  the  footsteps  of  the  nation's  joy.  A  few  days  since  the  telegraph 
thrilled  and  throbbed  with  a  nation's  joy.  To-day  a  nation  sits  down  beneath  the  shadow 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  7G7 

of  its  mournful  grief.  Oh,  what  a  terrible  lesson  does  this  event  read  to  us  !  A  few  years 
since  slavery  tortured,  burned,  hung  and  outraged  us,  and  the  nation  passed  by  and  said, 
they  had  nothing  to  do  with  slavery  where  it  was,  slavery  would  have  something  to  do 
with  them  where  they  were.  Oh,  how  fearfully  the  judgments  of  Ichabod  have  pressed 
upon  the  nation's  life  I  Well,  it  may  be  in  the  providence  of  God  this  blow  was  needed 
to  intensify  the  nation's  hatred  of  slavery,  to  show  the  utter  fallacy  of  basing  national  re- 
construction upon  the  votes  of  returned  rebels,  and  rejecting  loyal  black  men ;  making 
(after  all  the  blood  poured  out  like  water,  and  wealth  scattered  like  chaff)  a  return  to  the 
old  idea  that  a  white  rebel  is  better  or  of  more  account  in  the  body  politic  than  a  loyal 
black  man.  *  *  Moses,  the  meekest  man  on  earth,  led  the  children  of  Israel  over  the 
Red  Sea,  but  was  not  permitted  to  see  them  settled  in  Canaan.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  led  up 
through  another  Red  Sea  to  the  table  land  of  triumphant  victory,  and  God  has  seen  fit  to 
summon  for  the  new  era  another  man.  It  is  ours  then  to  bow  to  the  Chastener  and  let 
our  honored  and  loved  chieftain  go.  Surely  the  everlasting  arms  that  have  hushed  him 
so  strangely  to  sleep  are  able  to  guide  the  nation  through  its  untrod  future ;  but  in  vain 
should  be  this  fearful  baptism  of  blood  if  fcom  the  dark  bosom  of  slavery  springs  such  ter- 
rible crimes.  Let  the  whole  nation  resolve  that  the  whole  virus  shall  be 'eliminated  from 
its  body ;  that  in  the  future  slavery  shall  only  be  remembered  as  a  thing  of  the  past  that 
shall  never  have  the  faintest  hope  of  a  resurrection." 

Up  to  this  point,  we  have  spoken  of  Mrs.  Harper  as  a  laborer,  battling 
for  freedom  under  slavery  and  the  war.  She  is  equally  earnest  in  laboring 
for  Equality  before  the  law — education,  and  a  higher  manhood,  especially 
in  the  South,  among  the  Freedmen. 

For  the  best  part  of  several  years,  since  the  war,  she  has  traveled  very 
extensively  through  the  Southern  States,  going  on  the  plantations  and 
amongst  the  lowly,  as  well  as  to  the  cities  and  towns,  addressing  schools, 
Churches,  meetings  in  Court  Houses,  Legislative  Halls,  &c.,  and,  sometimes, 
under  the  most  trying  and  hazardous  circumstances ;  influenced  in  her 
labor  of  love,  wholly  by  the  noble  impulses  of  her  own  heart,  working  her 
way  along  unsustained  by  any  Society.  In  this  mission,  she  has  come  in 
contact  with  all  classes — the  original  slaveholders  and  the  Freedmen,  before 
and  since  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  bill  was  enacted.  Excepting  two  of 
the  Southern  States  (Texas  and  Arkansas),  she  has  traveled  largely  over  all 
the  others,  and  in  no  instance  has  she  permitted  herself,  through  fear,  to  dis- 
appoint an  audience,  when  engagements  had  been  made  for  her  to  speak, 
although  frequently  admonished  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  venture  in 
so  doing. 

We  first  quote  from  a  letter  dated  Darlington,  S.  C.,  May  13,  1867 : 
"  You  will  see  by  this  that  I  am  in  the  sunny  South.  *  *  *  I  here  read  and 
see  human  nature  under  new  lights  and  phases.  I  meet  with  a  people  eager  to  hear, ready 
to  listen,  as  if  they  felt  that  the  slumber  of  the  ages  had  been  broken,  and  that  they  were 
to  sleep  no  more.  *  *  *  I  am  glad  that  the  colored  man  gets  his  freedom  and  suffrage 
together  ;  that  he  is  not  forced  to  go  through  the  same  condition  of  things  here,  that  has 
inclined  him  so  much  to  apathy,  isolation,  and  indifference,  in  the  North.  You,  perhaps, 
wonder  why  I  have  been  so  slow  in  writing  to  you,  but  if  you  knew  how  busy  I  am,  just 
working  up  to  or  past  the  limit  of  my  strength.  Traveling,  conversing,  addressing  day 
and  Sunday-schools  (picking  up  scraps  of  information,  takes  up  a  large  portion  of  my  time), 


768  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

besides  what  I  give  to  reading.  For  my  audiences  I  have  both  white  and  colored.  On  the 
cars,  some  find  out  that  I  am  a  lecturer,  and  then,  again,  I  am  drawn  into  conversation. 
'  What  are  you  lecturing  about?'  the  question  comes  up,  and  if  I  say,  among  other  topics 
politics,  then  I  may  look  for  an  onset.  There  is  a  sensitiveness  on  this  subject,  a  dread,  it 
may  be,  that  some  one  will  'put  the  devil  in  the  nigger's  head,'  or  exert  some  influence  in- 
imical to  them  ;  still,  I  get  along  somewhat  pleasantly.  Last  week  I  had  a  small  congre- 
gation of  listeners  in  the  cars,  where  I  sat.  I  got  in  conversation  with  a  former  slave 
dealer,  and  we  had  rather  an  exciting  time.  I  was  traveling  alone,  but  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  show  any  signs  of  fear.  *  *  *  Last  Saturday  I  spoke  in  Sumter  ;  a  number 
of  white  persons  were  present,  and  1  had  been  invited  to  speak  there  by  the  Mayor  and 
editor  of  the  paper.  There  had  been  some  violence  in  the  district,  and  some  of  my  friends 
did  not  wish  me  to  go,  but  I  had  promised,  and,  of  course,  I  went.  *  *  *  *  I  am  in 
Darlington,  and  spoke  yesterday,  but  my  congregation  was  so  large,  that  I  stood  near  the 
door  of  the  church,  so  that  I  might  be  heard  both  inside  and  out,  for  a  large  portion,  per- 
haps nearly  half  my  congregation  were  on  the  outside ;  and  this,  in  Darlington,  where,  about 
two  years  ago,  a  girl  was  hung  for  making  a  childish  and  indiscreet  speech.  Victory 
was  perched  on  our  banners.  Our  army  had  been  through,  and  this  poor,  ill-fated  girl, 
almost  a  child  in  years,  about  seventeen  years  of  age,  rejoiced  over  the  event,  and  said 
that  she  was  going  to  marry  a  Yankee  and  set  up  housekeeping.  She  was  reported  as 
having  made  an  incendiary  speech  and  arrested,  cruelly  scourged,  and  then  brutally  hung. 
Poor  child  !  she  had  been  a  faithful  servant — her  master  tried  to  save  her,  but  the  tide  of 
fury  swept  away  his  efforts.  *  *  *  Oh,  friend,  perhaps,  sometimes  your  heart  would 
ache,  if  you  were  only  here  and  heard  of  the  wrongs  and  abuses  to  which  these  people 
have  been  subjected.  *  *  *  Things,  I  believe,  are  a  little  more  hopeful ;  at  least,  I 
believe,  some  of  the  colored  people  are  getting  better  contracts,  and,  I  understand,  that 
there's  less  murdering.  While  I  am  writing,  a  colored  man  stands  here,  with  a  tale  of 
wrong — he  has  worked  a  whole  year,  year  before  last,  and  now  he  has  been  put  off  with 
fifteen  bushels  of  corn  and  his  food  ;  yesterday  he  went  to  se%about  getting  his  money,  and 
the  person  to  whom  he  went,  threatened  to  kick  him  off,  and  accused  him  of  stealing.  I 
don't  know  how  the  colored  man  will  vote,  but  perhaps  many  of  them  will  be  intimidated 
at  the  polls." 

From  a  letter  dated  Cheraw,  June  17th,  1867,  the  following  remarks  are 
taken : 

"  Well,  Carolina  is  an  interesting  place.  There  is  not  a  state  in  the  Union  I  prefer  to 
Carolina.  Kinder,  more  hospitable,  warmer-hearted  people  perhaps  you  will  not  find  any- 
where. I  have  been  to  Georgia ;  but  Carolina  is  my  preference.  *  *  The  South  is  to 
be  a  great  theatre  for  the  colored  man's  development  and  progress.  There  is  brain-power 
here.  If  any  doubt  it,  let  him  come  into  our  schools,  or  even  converse  with  some  of  our 
Freedmen  either  in  their  homes  or  by  the  way-side." 

A  few  days  later  she  gave  an  account  of  a  visit  she  had  just  made  in  Flo- 
rence, where  our  poor  soldiers  had  been  prisoners ;  saw  some  of  the  huts  where 
they  were  exposed  to  rain  and  heat  and  cold  with  only  the  temporary  shelter 
they  made  for  themselves,  which  was  a  sad  sight.  Then  she  visited  the 
grave-yards  of  some  thousands  of  Union  soldiers.  Here  in  "  eastern  South 
Carolina"  she  was  in  "one  of  the  worst  parts  of  the  State"  in  the  days  of 
Slavery ;  but  under  the  new  order  of  things,  instead  of  the  lash,  she  saw 
school  books,  and  over  the  ruins  of  slavery,  education  and  free  speech  spring- 
ing up,  at  which  she  was  moved  to  exclaim,  "  Thank  God  for  the  wonderful 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  769 

change !  I  have  lectured  several  Bights  this  week,  and  the  weather  is  quite 
warm ;  but  I  do  like  South  Carolina.  No  state  in  the  Union  as  far  as  co- 
lored people  are  concerned,  do  I  like  better — the  land  of  warm  welcomes 
and  friendly  hearts.  God  bless  her  and  give  her  great  peace !" 

At  a  later  period  she  visited  Charleston  and  Columbia,  and  was  well  re- 
ceived in  both  places.  She  spoke  a  number  of  times  in  the  different  Freed- 
men  schools  and  the  colored  churches  in  Charlaston,  once  in  the  Legislative 
Hall,  and  also  in  one  of  the  colored  churches  in  Columbia.  She  received 
special  encouragement  and  kindness  from  Hon.  H.  Cadoza,  Secretary  of 
State,  and  his  family,  and  regarded  him  as  a  wise  and  upright  leader  of  his 
race  in  that  state. 

The  following  are  some  stirring  lines  which  she  wrote  upon  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment : 

FIFTEENTH   AMENDMENT. 

Beneath  the  burden  of  our  joy 

Tremble,  0  wires,  from  East  to  West  I 
Fashion  with  words  your  tongues  of  fire, 

To  tell  the  nation's  high  behest. 

Outstrip  the  winds,  and  leave  behind 

The  murmur  of  the  restless  waves ; 
Nor  tarry  with  your  glorious  news, 

Amid  the  ocean's  coral  caves. 

Eing  out !  ring  out !  your  sweetest  chimes, 

Ye  bells,  that  call  to  praise  ; 
Let  every  heart  with  gladness  thrill, 

And  songs  of  joyful  triumph  raise. 

Shake  off  the  dust,  0  rising  race ! 

Crowned  as  a  brother  and  a  man  ; 
Justice  to-day  asserts  her  claim, 

And  from  thy  brow  fades  out  the  ban. 

With  freedom's  chrism  upon  thy  head, 

Her  precious  ensign  in  thy  hand, 
Go  place  thy  once  despised  name 

Amid  the  noblest  of  the  land. 

0  ransomed  race !  give  God  the  praise, 

Who  led  thee  through  a  crimson  sea, 
And  'mid  the  storm  of  fire  and  blood, 

Turned  out  the  war-cloud's  light  to  thee. 

Mrs.  Harper,  in  writing  from  Kingstree,  S.  C.,  July  llth,  1867,  in 
midsummer  (laboring  almost  without  any  pecuniary  reward),  gave  an 
account  of  a  fearful  catastrophe  which  had  just  occurred  there  in  the 
burning  of  the  jail  with  a  number  of  colored  prisoners  in  it.  "  It  was  a  very 
sad  affair.  There  was  only  one  white  prisoner  and  he  got  out.  I  believe 
49 


770  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

there  was  some  effort  made  to  release  some  of  the  prisoners ;  but  the  smoke 
was  such  that  the  effort  proved  ineffectual.  Well,  for  the  credit  of  our  com- 
mon human  nature  we  may  hope  that  it  was  so.  *  *  *  Last  night  I 
had  some  of  the  *  rebs '  to  hear  me  (part  of  the  time  some  of  the  white 
folks  come  out).  Our  meetings  are  just  as  quiet'and  as  orderly  on  the  whole 
in  Carolina  as  one  might  desire.  *  *  I  like  General  Sickles  as  a  Mili- 
tary Governor.  '  Massa  Daniel,  he  King  of  the  Carolinas.'  I  like  his  Mas- 
tership. Under  him  we  ride  in  the  City  Cars,  and  get  first-class  passage  on 
the  railroad."  At  this  place  a  colored  man  was  in  prison  under  sentence  of 
death  for  "  participating  in  a  riot ;"  and  the  next  day  (after  the  date  of  her 
letter)  was  fixed  for  his  execution.  With  some  others,  Mrs.  Harper  called 
at  General  Sickles'  Head  Quarters,  hoping  to  elicit  his  sympathies  whereby 
the  poor  fellow's  life  might  be  saved ;  but  he  was  not  in.  Hence  they  were 
not  able  to  do  anything. 

"  Next  week,"  continued  Mrs.  Harper,  "  I  am  to  speak  in  a  place  where 
one  of  our  teachers  was  struck  and  a  colored  man  shot,  who,  I  believe,  gave 
offence  by  some  words  spoken  at  a  public  meeting.  I  do  not  feel  any  par- 
ticular fear." 

Her  Philadelphia  correspondent  had  jestingly  suggested  to  her  in  one  of 
his  letters,  that  she  should  be  careful  not  to  allow  herself  to  be  "  bought  by 
the  rebels."  To  which  she  replied : 

"  Now,  in  reference  to  being  bought  by  rebels  and  becoming  a  Johnsonite  I  hold  that 
between  the  white  people  and  the  colored  there  is  a  community  of  interests,  and  the  soon- 
er they  find  it  out,  the  better  it  will  be  for  both  parties ;  but  that  community  of  interests 
does  not  consist  in  increasing  the  privileges  of  one  class  and  curtailing  the  rights  of  the 
other,  but  in  getting  every  citizen  interested  in  the  welfare,  progress  and  durability  of  the 
state.  I  do  not  in  lecturing  confine  myself  to  the  political  side  of  the  question.  While  I 
am  in  favor  of  Universal  suffrage,  yet  I  know  that  the  colored  man  needs  something  more 
than  a  vote  in  his  hand :  he  needs  to  know  the  value  of  a  home  life ;  to  rightly  appreciate 
and  value  the  marriage  relation ;  to  know  how  and  to  be  incited  to  leave  behind  him  the 
old  shards  and  shells  of  slavery  and  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  character,  wealth  and  influence. 
Like  the  Nautilus  outgrowing  his  home  to  build  for  himself  more  '  stately  temples  '  of  so- 
cial condition.  A  man  landless,  ignorant  and  poor  may  use  the  vote  against  his  interests ; 
but  with  intelligence  and  land  he  holds  in  his  hand  the  basis  of  power  and  elements  of 
strength." 

While  contemplating  the  great  demand  for  laborers,  in  a  letter  from  Athens, 
February  1st,  1870,  after  referring  to  some  who  had  been  "discouraged 
from  the  field,"  she  wisely  added  that  it  was  "'no  time  to  be  discouraged." 

*  *  If  those  who  can  benefit  our  peo- 
ple will  hang  around  places  where  they  are  not  needed,  they  may  expect  to  be  dis- 
couraged. *  *  Here  is  ignorance  to  be  instructed ;  a  race  who  needs  to  be  helped  up 
to  higher  planes  of  thought  and  action  ;  and  whether  we  are  hindered  or  helped,  we  should 
try  to  be  true  to  the  commission  God  has  written  upon  our  souls.  As  far  as  the  colored 
people  are  concerned,  they  are  beginning  to  get  homes  for  themselves  and  depositing 
money  in  Bank.  They  have  hundreds  of  homes  in  Kentucky.  There  is  progress  in 
Tennessee,  and  even  in  this  State  while  a  number  have  been  leaving,  some  who  stay  seem 
to  be  getting  along  prosperously.  In  Augusta  colored  persons  are  in  the  Revenue  Office 
and  Post  Office.  I  have  just  been  having  some  good  meetings  there.  Some  of  my  meet- 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  771 

ings  pay  me  poorly ;  but  I  have  a  chance  to  instruct  and  visit  among  the  people  and  talk 
to  their  Sunday-schools  and  day-schools  also.  Of  course  I  do  not  pretend  that  all  are 
saving  money  or  getting  homes.  I  rather  think  from  what  I  hear  that  the  interest  of 
the  grown-up  people  in  getting  education  has  somewhat  subsided,  owing,  perhaps,  in  a 
measure,  to  the  novelty  having  worn  off  and  the  absorption  or  rather  direction  of  the  mind 
to  other  matters.  Still  I  don't  think  that  I  have  visited  scarcely  a  place  since  last  August 
where  there  was  no  desire  for  a  teacher;  and  Mr.  Fidler,  who  is  a  Captain  or  Colonel, 
thought  some  time  since  that  there  were  more  colored  than  white  who  were  learning  or 
had  learned  to  read.  There  has  been  quite  an  amount  of  violence  and  trouble  in  the  State  ; 
but  we  have  the  military  here,  and  if  they  can  keep  Georgia  out  of  the  Union  about  a 
year  or  two  longer,  and  the  colored  people  continue  to  live  as  they  have  been  doing,  from 
what  I  hear,  perhaps  these  rebels  will  learn  a  little  more  sense.  I  have  been  in  Atlanta 
for  some  time,  but  did  not  stay  until  the  Legislature  was  organized ;  but  I  was  there 
when  colored  members  returned  and  took  their  seats.  It  was  rather  a  stormy  time  in  the 
House ;  but  no  blood  was  shed.  Since  then  there  has  been  some  '  sticking ; '  but  I  don't 
think  any  of  the  colored  ones  were  in  it." 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Eufaula,  Ala.,  in  December,  1870,  Mrs.  Harper 
did  a  good  work,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  extract  taken  from  a 
letter,  dated  December  9th : 

Last  evening  I  visited  one  of  the  plantations,  and  had  an  interesting  time.  Oh,  how 
warm  was  the  welcome  !  I  went  out  near  dark,  and  between  that  time  and  attending  my 
lecture,  I  was  out  to  supper  in  two  homes.  The  people  are  living  in  the  old  cabins  of 
slavery ;  some  of  them  have  no  windows,  at  all,  that  1  see  ;  in  fact,  I  don't  remember  of 
having  seen  a  pane  of  window-glass  in  the  settlement.  But,  humble  as  their  homes  were, 
I  was  kindly  treated,  and  well  received ;  and  what  a  chance  one  has  for  observation  among 
these  people,  if  one  takes  with  her  a  manner  that  unlocks  other  hearts.  I  had  quite  a 
little  gathering,  after  less,  perhaps,  than  a  day's  notice  ;  the  minister  did  not  know  that  I 
was  coming,  till  he  met  me  in  the  afternoon.  There  was  no  fire  in  the  church,  and  so  they 
lit  fires  outside,  and  we  gathered,  or  at  least  a  number  of  us,  around  the  fire.  To-night  I 
am  going  over  to  Georgia  to  lecture.  In  consequence  of  the  low  price  of  cotton,  the  people 
may  not  be  able  to  pay  much,  and  I  am  giving  all  my  lectures  free.  You  speak  of  things 
looking  dark  in  the  South ;  there  is  no  trouble  here  that  I  know  of — cotton  is  low,  but  the 
people  do  not  seem  to  be  particularly  depressed  about  it ;  this  emigration  question  has  been 
on  the  carpet,  and  I  do  not  wonder  if  some  of  them,  with  their  limited  knowledge,  lose 
hope  in  seeing  full  justice  done  to  them,  among  their  life-long  oppressors ;  Congress  has 
been  agitating  the  St.  Domingo  question ;  a  legitimate  theme  for  discussion,  and  one  that 
comes  nearer  home,  is  how  they  can  give  more  security  and  strength  to  the  government 
which  we  have  established  in  the  South — for  there  has  been  a  miserable  weakness  in  the 
security  to  human  life.  The  man  with  whom  I  stopped,  had  a  son  who  married  a  white 
woman,  or  girl,  and  was  shot  down,  and  there  was,  as  I  understand,  no  investigation  by 
the  jury ;  and  a  number  of  cases  have  occurred  of  murders,  for  which  the  punishment  has 
been  very  lax,  or  not  at  all,  and,  it  may  be,  never  will  be ;  however,  I  rather  think  things 
are  somewhat  quieter.  A  few  days  ago  a  shameful  outrage  occurred  at  this  place— some 
men  had  been  out  fox  hunting,  and  came  to  the  door  of  a  colored  woman  and  demanded 
entrance,  making  out  they  wanted  fire ;  she  replied  that  she  had  none,  and  refused  to  open 
the  door;  the  miserable  cowards  broke  open  the  door,  and  shamefully  beat  her.  I  am 
going  to  see  her  this  afternoon.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  in  spite  of  circumstances,  how 
some  of  these  people  are  getting  along.  Here  is.  a  woman  who,  with  her  husband,  at  the 
surrender,  had  a  single  dollar ;  and  now  they  have  a  home  of  their  own,  and  several  acres 
attached — five  altogether ;  but,  as  that  was  rather  small,  her  husband  has  contracted  for 
two  hundred  and  forty  acres  more,  and  has  now  gone  out  and  commenced  operations." 


772  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

From  Columbiana,  February  20th,  she  wrote  concerning  her  work,  and 
presented  the  "  lights  and  shades  "  of  affairs  as  they  came  under  her  notice. 

"  I  am  almost  constantly  either  traveling  or  speaking.  I  do  not  think  that  I  have 
missed  more  than  one  Sunday  that  I  have  not  addressed  some  Sunday-school,  and  1  have 
not  missed  many  day-schools  either.  And  as  I  am  giving  all  my  lectures  free  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  collections  are  not  often  very  large ;  still  as  ignorant  as  part  of  the  people  are 
perhaps  a  number  of  them  would  not  hear  at  all,  and  may  be  prejudice  others  if  I  charged 
even  ten  cents,  and  so  perhaps  in  the  long  run,  even  if  my  work  is  wearing,  I  may  be  of 
some  real  benefit  to  my  race.  *  *  I  don't  know  but  that  you  would  laugh 

if  you  were  to  hear  some  of  the  remarks  which  my  lectures  call  forth  :  '  She  is  a  man,' 
,again  '  She  is  not  colored,  she  is  painted.'  Both  white  and  colored  come  out  to  hear  me, 
and  I  have  very  fine  meetings ;  and  then  part  of  the  time  I  am  talking  in  between  times, 
and  how  tired  I  am  some  of  the  time.  Still  I  am  standing  with  my  race  on  the  thresh- 
old of  a  new  era,  and  though  some  be  far  past  me  in  the  learning  of  the  schools,  yet 
to-day,  with  my  limited  and  fragmentary  knowledge,  I  may  help  the  race  forward  a  little. 
Some  of  our  people  remind  me  of  sheep  without  a  shepherd." 

PRIVATE   LECTURES   TO   FREEDWOMEN. 

Desiring  to  speak  to  women  who  have  been  the  objects  of  so  much  wrong 
and  abuse  under  Slavery,  and  even  since  Emancipation,  in  a  state  of  igno- 
rance, not  accessible  always  to  those  who  would  or  could  urge  the  proper 
kind  of  education  respecting  their  morals  and  general  improvement,  Mrs. 
Harper  has  made  it  her  business  not  to  overlook  this  all  important  duty 
to  her  poor  sisters. 

The  following  extract  taken  from  a  letter  dated  "  Greenville,  Georgia, 
March  29th,"  will  show  what  she  was  doing  in  this  direction  : 

"  But  really  my  hands  are  almost  constantly  full  of  work ;  sometimes  I  speak  twice  a 
day.  Part  of  my  lectures  are  given  privately  to  women,  and  for  them  I  never  make  any 
charge,  or  take  up  any  collection.  But  this  part  of  the  country  reminds  me  of  heathen 
ground,  and  though  my  work  may  not  be  recognized  as  part  of  it  used  to  be  in  the  North, 
yet  never  perhaps  were  my  services  more  needed  ;  and  according  to  their  intelligence  and 
means  perhaps  never  better  appreciated  than  here  among  these  lowly  people.  I  am  now 
going  to  have  a  private  meeting  with  the  women  of  this  place  if  they  will  come  out.  I 
am  going  to  talk  with  them  about  their  daughters,  and  about  things  connected  with  the 
welfare  of  the  race.  Now  is  the  time  for  our  women  to  begin  to  try  to  lift  up  their 
heads  and  plant  the  roots  of  progress  under  the  hearthstone.  Last  night  I  spoke  in  a 
school-house,  where  there  was  not,  to  my  knowledge,  a  single  window  glass;  to-day  I 
write  to  you  in  a  lowly  cabin,  where  the  windows  in  the  room  are  formed  by  two  aper- 
tures in  the  wall.  There  is  a  wide-spread  and  almost  universal  appearance  of  poverty  in 
this  State  where  I  have  been,  but  thus  far  I  have  seen  no,  or  scarcely  any,  pauperism.  I 
am  not  sure  that  I  have  seen  any.  The  climate  is  so  fine,  so  little  cold  that  poor  people 
can  live  off  of  less  than  they  can  in  the  North.  Last  night  my  table  was  'adorned  with 
roses,  although  I  did  not  get  one  cent  for  my  lecture. 

"The  political  heavens  are  getting  somewhat  overcast.  Some  of  this  old  rebel  element, 
I  think,  are  in  favor  of  taking  away  the  colored  man's  vote,  and  if  he  loses  it  now  it 
may  be  generations  before  he  gets  it  again.  Well,  after  all  perhaps  the  colored  man  gen- 
erally is  not  really  developed  enough  to  value  his  vote  and  equality  with  other  races,  so 
he  gets  enough  to  eat  and  drink,  and  be  comfortable,  perhaps  the  loss  of  his  vote  would 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  773 

not  be  a  serious  grievance  to  many  ;  but  his  children  differently  educated  and  trained  by 
circumstances  might  feel  political  inferiority  rather  a  bitter  cup." 

"  After  all  whether  they  encourage  or  discourage  me,  I  belong  to  this  race,  and  when  it 
is  down  I  belong  to  a  down  race ;  when  it  is  up  I  belong  to  a  risen  race." 

She  writes  thus  from  Montgomery,  December  29th,  1870 : 

"  Did  you  ever  read  a  little  poem  commencing,  I  think,  with  these  words : 

A  mother  cried,  Oh,  give  me  joy, 

For  I  have  born  a  darling  boy ! 

A  darling  boy  !  why  the  world  is  full 

Of  the  men  who  play  at  push  and  pull. 

Well,  as  full  as  the  room  was  of  beds  and  tenants,  on  the  morning  of  the  twenty-second, 
there  arose  a  wail  upon  the  air,  and  this  mundane  sphere  had  another  inhabitant,  and  my 
room  another  occupant.  I  left  after  that,  and  when  I  came  back  the  house  was  fuller  than 
it  was  before,  and  my  hostess  gave  me  to  understand  that  she  would  rather  I  should  be 
somewhere  else,  and  I  left  again.  How  did  I  fare  ?  Well,  I  had  been  stopping  with  one 
of  our  teachers  and  went  back  ;  but  the  room  in  which  I  stopped  was  one  of  those  southern 
shells  through  which  both  light  and  cold  enter  at  the  same  time ;  it  had  one  window  and 
perhaps  more  than  half  or  one  half  the  panes  gone.  I  don't  know  that  I  was  ever  more 
conquered  by  the  cold  than  I  had  been  at  that  house,  and  I  have  lived  parts  of  winter 
after  winter  amid  the  snows  of  New  England  ;  but  if  it  was  cold  out  of  doors,  there  was 
warmth  and  light  within  doors  ;  but  here,  if  you  opened  the  door  for  light,  the  cold  would 
also  enter,  and  so  part  of  the  time  I  sat  by  the  fire,  and  that  and  the  crevices  in  the  house 
supplied  me  with  light  in  one  room,  and  we  had  the  deficient  window-sash,  or  perhaps 
it  never  had  had  any  lights  in  it.  You  could  put  your  finger  through  some  of  the  aper- 
tures in  the  house ;  at  least  I  could  mine,  and  the  water  froze  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
tumbler.  From  another  such  domicile  may  kind  fate  save  me.  And  then  the  man  asked 
me  four  dollars  and  a  half  a  week  board. 

One  of  the  nights  there  was  no  fire  in  the  stove,  and  the  next  time  we  had  fires,  one 
stove  might  have  been  a  second-hand  chamber  stove.  Now  perhaps  you  think  these  peo- 
ple very  poor,  but  the  man  with  whom  I  stopped  has  no  family  that  I  saw,  but  himself 
and  wife,  and  he  would  make  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day,  and  she  worked  out  and  kept 
a  boarder.  And  yet,  except  the  beds  and  bed  clothing,  I  wouldn't  have  given  fifteen  dol- 
lars for  all  their  house  furniture.  I  should  think  that  this  has  been  one  of  the  lowest 
down  States  in  the  South,  as  far  as  civilization  has  been  concerned.  In  the  future,  until 
these  people  are  educated,  look  out  for  Democratic  victories,  for  here  are  two  materials 
with  which  Democracy  can  work,  ignorance  and  poverty.  Men  talk  about  missionary 
work  among  the  heathen,  but  if  any  lover  of  Christ  wants  a  field  for  civilizing  work,  here 
is  a  field.  Part  of  the  time  I  am  preaching  against  men  ill-treating  their  wives.  I  have 
heard  though,  that  often  during  the  war  men  hired  out  their  wives  and  drew  their  pay. 
********** 

"  And  then  there  is  another  trouble,  some  of  our  Northern  men  have  been  down  this 
way  and  by  some  means  they  have  not  made  the  best  impression  on  every  mind  here. 
One  woman  here  has  been  expressing  her  mind  very  freely  to  me  about  some  of  our 
Northerners,  and  we  are  not  all  considered  here  as  saints  and  angels,  and  of  course  in 
their  minds  I  get  associated  with  some  or  all  the  humbugs  that  have  been  before  me. 
But  I  am  not  discouraged,  my  race  needs  me,  if  I  will  only  be  faithful,  and  in  spite  of 
suspicion  and  distrust,  I  will  work  on  ;  the  deeper  our  degradation,  the  louder  our  call  for 
redemption.  If  they  have  little  or  no  faith  in  goodness  and  earnestness,  that  is  only  one 
reason  why  we  should  be  more  faithful  and  earnest,  and  so  I  shall  probably  stay  here  in 
the  South  all  winter.  I  am  not  making  much  money,  and  perhaps  will  hardly  clear  ex- 


774  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

penses  this  winter ;  but  after  all  what  matters  it  when  I  am  in  my  grave  whether  I  have 
been  rich  or  poor,  loved  or  hated,  despised  or  respected,  if  Christ  will  only  own  me  to  His 
Father,  and  I  be  permitted  a  place  in  one  of  the  mansions  of  rest." 

Col.  J.  W.  Forney,  editor  of  "The  Press,"  published  July  12, 1871,  with 
the  brief  editorial  heading  by  his  own  hand,  the  document  appended : 

The  following  letter,  written  by  Mrs.  F.  E.  W.  Harper,  the  well-known  colored  orator, 
to  a  friend,  Mr.  Wm.  Still,  of  Philadelphia,  will  be  read  with  surprise  and  pleasure  by  all 
classes  ;  especially  supplemented  as  it  is  by  an  article  from  the  Mobile  ( Alabama)  Register, 
referring  to  one  of  her  addresses  in  that  city.  The  Register  is  the  organ  of  the  fire-eaters 
of  the  South,  conducted  by  John  Forsyth,  heretofore  one  of  the  most  intolerant  of  that 
school.  Mrs.  Harper  describes  the  manner  in  which  the  old  plantation  of  Jefferson  Davis 
in  Mississippi  was  cultivated  by  his  brother's  former  slave,  having  been  a  guest  in  the 
Davis  mansion,  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Montgomery,  the  aforesaid  slave.  She  also  draws 
a  graphic  picture  of  her  own  marvellous  advancement  from  utter  obscurity  to  the  plat- 
form of  a  public  lecturer,  honored  by  her  own  race  and  applauded  by  their  oppressors. 
While  we  regret,  as  she  says,  that  her  experience  and  that  of  Mr.  Montgomery  is  excep- 
^ional,  it  is  easy  to  anticipate  the  harvest  of  such  a  sowing.  The  same  culture — the  same 
courage  on  the  part  of  the  men  and  women  who  undertake  to  advocate  Republican  doc- 
trines in  the  South — the  same  perseverance  and  intelligence  on  the  part  of  those  who  are 
earning  their  bread  by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  will  be  crowned  with  the  same  success. 
Violence,  bloodshed,  and  murder  cannot  rule  long  in  communities  where  these  resistless 
elements  are  allowed  to  work.  No  scene  in  the  unparalleled  tragedy  of  the  rebellion,  or 
in  the  drama  which  succeeded  that  tragedy,  can  be  compared  to  the  picture  outlined  by 
Mrs.  Harper  herself,  and  filled  in  by  the  ready  pen  of  the  rebel  editor  of  the  Mobile 
Register : 

MOBILE,  July  5,  1871. 

MY  DEAB  FRIEND  : — It  is  said  that  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction;  and  if  ten  years  since 
some  one  had  entered  my  humble  log  house  and  seen  me  kneading  bread  and  making  but- 
ter, and  said  that  in  less  than  ten  years  you  will  be  in  the  lecture  field,  you  will  be  a  wel- 
come guest  under  the  roof  of  the  President  of  the  Confederacy,  though  not  by  special  invi- 
tation from  him,  that  you  will  see  his  brother's  former  slave  a  man  of  business  and  influ- 
ence, that  hundreds  of  colored  men  will  congregate  on  the  old  baronial  possessions,  that  a 
school  will  spring  up  there  like  a  well  in  the  desert  dust,  that  this  former  slave  will  be  a 
magistrate  upon  that  plantation,  that  labor  will  be  organized  upon  a  new  basis,  and  that 
under  the  sole  auspices  and  moulding  hands  of  this  man  and  his  sons  will  be  developed  a 
business  whose  transactions  will  be  numbered  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  would 
you  not  have  smiled  incredulously  ?  And  I  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when  the  planta- 
tion has  passed  into  new  hands,  and  these  hands  once  wore  the  fetters  of  slavery.  Mr. 
Montgomery,  the  present  proprietor  by  contract  of  between  five  and  six  thousand  acres  of 
land,  has  one  of  the  most  interesting  families  that  I  have  ever  seen  in  the  South.  They 
are  building  up  a  future  which  if  exceptional  now  I  hope  will  become  more  general  here- 
after. Every  hand  of  his  family  is  adding  its  quota  to  the  success  of  this  experiment  of  a 
colored  man  both  trading  and  farming  on  an  extensive  scale.  Last  year  his  wife  took  on 
her  hands  about  130  acres  of  land,  and  with  her  force  she  raised  about  107  bales  of  cotton. 
She  has  a  number  of  orphan  children  employed,  and  not  only  does  she  supervise  their 
labor,  but  she  works  herself.  One  daughter,  an  intelligent  young  lady,  is  postmistress 
and  I  believe  assistant  book-keeper.  One  son  attends  to  the  planting  interest,  and 
another  daughter  attends  to  one  of  the  stores.  The  business  of  this  firm  of  Montgomery 
&  Sons  has  amounted,  I  understand,  to  between  three  and  four  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  a  year.  I  stayed  on  the  place  several  days  and  was  hospitably  entertained  and  kindly 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  775 

treated.  When  I  come,  if  nothing  prevents,  I  will  tell  you  more  about  them.  Now  for 
the  next  strange  truth  Enclosed  I  send  you  a  notice  from  one  of  the  leading  and  repre- 
sentative papers  of  rebeldom.  The  editor  has  been,  or  is  considered,  one  of  the  represen- 
tative men  of  the  South.  I  have  given  a  lecture  since  this  notice,  which  brought  out 
some  of  the  most  noted  rebels,  among  whom  was  Admiral  Semmes.  In  my  speech  I  re- 
ferred to  the  Alabama  sweeping  away  our  comm^ce,  and  his  son  sat  near  him  and  seemed 
to  receive  it  with  much  good  humor.  I  don't  know  what  the  papers  will  say  to-day ; 
perhaps  they  will  think  that  I  dwelt  upon  the  past  too  much.  Oh,  if  you  had  seen  the 
rebs  I  had  out  last  night,  perhaps  you  would  have  felt  a  little  nervous  for  me.  However, 
I  lived  through  it,  and  gave  them  more  gospel  truth  than  perhaps  some  of  them  have 
heard  for  some  time. 

A  LECTURE. 

We  received  a  polite  invitation  from  the  trustees  of  the  State-street  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church  to  attend  a  lecture  in  that  edifice  on  Thursday  evening.  Being 
told  that  the  discourse  would  be  delivered  by  a  female  colored  lecturer  from  Maryland, 
curiosity,  as  well  as  an  interest  to  see  how  the  colored  citizens  were  managing  their  own 
institutions,  led  us  at  once  to  accept  the  invitation.  We  found  a  very  spacious  church, 
gas-light,  and  the  balustrades  of  the  galleries  copiously  hung  with  wreaths  and  festoons 
of  flowers,  and  a  large  audience  of  both  sexes,  which,  both  in  appearance  and  behaviour, 
was  respectable  and  decorously  observant  of  the  proprieties  of  the  place.  The  services 
were  opened,  as  usual,  with  prayer  and  a  hymn,  the  latter  inspired  by  powerful  lungs» 
and  in  which  the  musical  ear  at  once  caught  the  negro  talent  for  melody.  The  lecturer 
was  then  introduced  as  Mrs.  F.  E.  W.  Harper,  from  Maryland.  Without  a  moment's 
hesitation  she  started  off  in  the  flow  of  her  discourse,  which  rolled  smoothly  and  uninter- 
ruptedly on  for  nearly  two  hours.  It  was  very  apparent  that  it  was  not  a  cut  and  dried 
speech,  for  she  was  as  fluent  and  as  felicitous  in  her  allusions  to  circumstances  immedi- 
ately around  her  as  she  was  when  she  rose  to  a  more  exalted  pitch  of  laudation  of  the 
"  Union,"  or  of  execration  of  the  old  slavery  system.  Her  voice  was  remarkable — as  sweet 
as  any  woman's  voice  we  ever  heard,  and  so  clear  and  distinct  as  to  pass  every  syllable  to 
the  most  distant  ear  in  the  house. 

Without  any  effort  at  attentive  listening  we  followed  the  speaker  to  the  end,  not  dis- 
cerning a  single  grammatical  inaccuracy  of  speech,  or  the  slightest  violation  of  good  taste 
in  manner  or  matter.  At  times  the  current  of  thoughts  flowed  in  eloquent  and  poetic 
expression,  and  often  her  quaint  humor  would  expose  the  ivory  in  half  a  thousand 
mouths.  We  confess  that  we  began  to  wonder,  and  we  asked  a  fine-looking  man  before 
us,  "  What  is  her  color?  Is  she  dark  or  light?"  He  answered,  "  She  is  mulatto ;  what 
they  call  a  red  mulatto."  The  '  red'  was  new  to  us.  Our  neighbor  asked,  "  How  do  you 
like  her  ?  "  We  replied,  "  She  is  giving  your  people  the  best  kind  and  the  very  wisest  of 
advice."  He  rejoined,  "  I  wish  I  had  her  education."  To  which  we  added,  "  That's 
just  what  she  tells  you  is  your  great  duty  and  your  need,  and  if  you  are  too  old  to  get  it 
yourselves,  you  must  give  it  to  your  children." 

The  speaker  left  the  impression  on  our  mind  that  she  was  not  only  intelligent  and  edu- 
cated, but— the  great  end  of  education — she  was  enlightened.  She  comprehends  perfectly 
the  situation  of  her  people,  to  whose  interests  she  seems  ardently  devoted.  The  main 
theme  of  her  discourse,  the  one  string  to  the  harmony  of  which  all  the-  others  were  at- 
tuned, was  the  grand  opportunity  that  emancipation  had  afforded  to  the  black  race  to  lift 
itself  to  the  level  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  enjoined  by  it.  "  You  have  muscle 
power  and  brain  power,"  she  said ;  "  you  must  utilize  them,  or  be  content  to  remain  for- 
ever the  inferior  race.  Get  land,  every  one  that  can,  and  as  fast  as  you  can.  A  landless 
people  must  be  dependent  upon  the  landed  people.  A  few  acres  to  till  for  food  and  a  roof, 
however  humble,  over  your  head,  are  the  castle  of  your  independence,  and  when  you  have 


776  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

it  you  are  fortified  to  act  and  vote  independently  whenever  your  interests  are  at  stake." 
That  part  of  her  lecture  (and  there  was  much  of  it)  that  dwelt  on  the  moral  duties  and 
domestic  relations  of  the  colored  people  was  pitched  on  the  highest  key  of  sound  morality. 
She  urged  the  cultivation  of  the  "  home  life,"  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  state  (a  happy 
contrast  to  her  strong-minded,  free-love,  white  sisters  of  the  North),  and  the  duties  of 
mothers  to  their  daughters.  "  Why,"  said  she  in  a  voice  of  much  surprise,  "  I  have  ac- 
tually heard  since  I  have  been  South  that  sometimes  colored  husbands  positively  beat 
their  wives !  I  do  not  mean  to  insinuate  for  a  moment  that  such  things  can  possibly 
happen  in  Mobile.  The  very  appearance  of  this  congregation  forbids  it;  but  I  did  hear  of 
one  terrible  husband  defending  himself  for  the  unmanly  practice  with  "  Well,  I  have  got 
to  whip  her  or  leave  her." 

There  were  parts  of  the  lecturer's  discourse  that  grated  a  little  on  a  white  Southern  ear, 
but  it  was  lost  and  forgiven  in  the  genuine  earnestness  and  profound  good  sense  with 
which  the  woman  spoke  to  her  kind  in  words  of  sound  advice. 

On  the  whole,  we  are  very  glad  we  accepted  the  Zion's  invitation.  It  gave  us  much 
food  for  new  thought.  It  reminded  us,  perhaps,  of  neglected  duties  to  these  people,  and 
it  impressed  strongly  on  our  minds  that  these  people  are  getting  along,  getting  onward, 
and  progress  was  a  star  becoming  familiar  to  their  gaze  and  their  desires.  Whatever  the 
•negroes  have  done  in  the  path  of  advancement,  they  have  done  largely  without  white 
aid.  But  politics  and  white  pride  have  kept  the  white  people  aloof  from  offering  that 
earnest  and  moral  assistance  which  would  be  so  useful  to  a  people  just  starting  from  in- 
fancy into  a  life  of  self-dependence. 

In  writing  from  Columbiana  and  Demopolis,  Alabama,  about  the  first  of 
March,  1871,  Mrs.  Harper  painted  the  state  of  affairs  in  her  usually  graphic 
manner,  and  diligently  was  she  endeavoring  to  inspire  the  people  with  hope 
and  encouragement. 

"  Oh,  what  a  field  there  is  here  in  this  region  I  Let  me  give  you  a  short  account  of  this 
week's  work.  Sunday  I  addressed  a  Sunday-school  in  Taladega;  on  Monday  afternoon  a 
day-school.  On  Monday  I  rode  several  miles  to  a  meeting;  addressed  it,  and  came  back 
the  same  night.  Got  back  about  or  after  twelve  o'clock.  The  next  day  I  had  a  meeting 
of  women  and  addressed  them,  and  then  lectured  in  the  evening  in  the  Court-House  to 
both  colored  and  white.  Last  night  I  spoke  again,  about  ten  miles  from  where  I  am  now 
stopping,  and  returned  the  same  night,  and  to-morrow  evening  probably  I  shall  speak 
again.  I  grow  quite  tired  part  of  the  time.  *  *  *  And  now  let  n*e  give  you  an 
anecdote  or  two  of  some  of  our  new  citizens.  While  in  Taladega  I  was  entertained  and 
well  entertained,  at  the  house  of  one  of  our  new  citizens.  He  is  living  in  the  house  of  his 
former  master.  He  is  a  brick-maker  by  trade,  and  I  rather  think  mason  also.  He  was 
worth  to  his  owner,  it  was  reckoned,  fifteen  hundred  or  about  that  a  year.  He  worked 
with  him  seven  years ;  and  in  that  eeven  years  he  remembers  receiving  from  him  fifty 
cents.  Now  mark  the  contrast !  That  man  is  now  free,  owns  the  home  of  his  former 
master,  has  I  think  more  than  sixty  acres  of  land,  and  his  master  is  in  the  poor-house. 
I  heard  of  another  such  case  not  long  since :  A  woman  was  cruelly  treated  once,  or  more 
than  once.  She  escaped  and  ran  naked  into  town.  The  villain  in  whose  clutch  she  found 
herself  was  trying  to  drag  her  downward  to  his  own  low  level  of  impurity,  and  at  last  she 
fell.  She  was  poorly  fed,  so  that  she  was  tempted  to  sell  her  person.  Even  scraps  thrown 
to  the  dog  she  was  hunger-bitten  enough  to  aim  for.  Poor  thing,  was  there  anything  in 
the  future  for  her?  Had  not  hunger  and  cruelty  and  prostitution  done  their  work,  and 
left  her  an  entire  wreck  for  life?  It  seems  not.  Freedom  came,  and  with  it  dawned  a 
new  era  upon  that  poor,  overshadowed,  and  sin-darkened  life.  Freedom  brought  oppor- 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  777 

tunity  for  work  and  wages  combined.  She  went  to  work,  and  got  ten  dollars  a  month. 
She  has  contrived  to  get  some  education,  and  has  since  been  teaching  school.  While  her 
former  mistress  has  been  to  her  for  help. 

"  Do  not  the  mills  of  God  grind  exceedingly  fine?  And  she  has  helped  that  mistress, 
and  so  has  the  colored  man  given  money,  from  what  I  heard,  to  his  former  master.  After 
all,  friend,  do  we  not  belong  to  one  of  the  best  branches  of  the  human  race  ?  And  yet, 
how  have  our  people  been  murdered  in  the  South,  and  their  bones  scattered  at  the  grave's 
mouth  !  Oh,  when  will  we  have  a  government  strong  enough  to  make  human  life  safe? 
Only  yesterday  I  heard  of  a  murder  committed  on  a  man  for  an  old  grudge  of  several 
years'  standing.  I  had  visited  the  place,  but  had  just  got  away.  Last  summer  a  Mr. 
Luke  was  hung,  and  several  other  men  also,  I  heard." 

While  surrounded  with  this  state  of  affairs,  an  appeal  reached  her  through 
the  columns  of  the  National  Standard,  setting  forth  a  state  of  very  great  suf- 
fering and  want,  especially  on  the  part  of  the  old,  blind  and  decrepit  Freed- 
men  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  After  expressing  deep  pity  for  these  un- 
fortunates, she  added :  "  Please  send  ten  dollars  to  Josephine  Griffing  for  me 
for  the  suffering  poor  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  Just  send  it  by  mail, 
and  charge  to  my  account." 

Many  more  letters  written  by  Mrs.  Harper  are  before  us,  containing  high- 
ly interesting  information  from  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Florida,  North  Caro- 
lina, Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  Maryland,  and  even  poor 
little  Delaware.  Through  all  these  States  she  has  traveled  and  labored  ex- 
tensively, as  has  been  already  stated ;  but  our  space  in  this  volume  will 
admit  of  only  one  more  letter : 

"  I  have  been  traveling  the  best  part  of  the  day.  *  *  Can  you  spare  a  little  time 
from  your  book  to  just  take  a  peep  at  some  of  our  Alabama  people?  If  you  would  see 
some  instances  of  apparent  poverty  and  ignorance  that  I  have  seen  perhaps  you  would  not 
wonder  very  much  at  the  conservative  voting  in  the  State.  A  few  days  since  I  was  about 
to  pay  a  woman  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  for  some  washing  in  ten  cent  (currency)  notes, 
when  she  informed  me  that  she  could  not  count  it ;  she  must  trust  to  my  honesty — she 
could  count  forty  cents.  Since  I  left  Eufaula  I  have  seen  something  of  plantation  life. 
The  first  plantation  I  visited  was  about  five  or  six  miles  from  Eufaula,  and  I  should  think 
that  the  improvement  in  some  of  the  cabins  was  not  very  much  in  advance  of  what  it  was 
in  Slavery.  The  cabins  are  made  with  doors,  but  not,  to  my  recollection,  a  single  window 
pane  or  speck  of  plastering;  and  yet  even  in  some  of  those  lowly  homes  I  met  with  hos- 
pitality. A  room  to  myself  is  a  luxury  that  I  do  not  always  enjoy.  Still  I  live  through 
it,  and  find  life  rather  interesting.  The  people  have  much  to  learn.  The  condition  of  the 
women  is  not  very  enviable  in  some  cases.  They  have  had  some  of  them  a  terribly  hard 
time  in  Slavery,  and  their  subjection  has  not  ceased  in  freedom.  *  *  One  man  said  of 
some  women,  that  a  man  must  leave  them  or  whip  them.  *  *  Let  me  introduce  you 
to  another  scene :  here  is  a  gathering;  a  large  fire  is  burning  out  of  doors,  and  here  are 
one  or  two  boys  with  hats  on.  Here  is  a  little  girl  with  her  bonnet  on,  and  there  a  little 
boy  moves  off  and  commences  to  climb  a  tree.  Do  you  know  what  the  gathering  means  ? 
It  is  a  school,  and  the  teacher,  I  believe,  is  paid  from  the  school  fund.  He  says  he  is 
from  New  Hampshire.  That  may  be.  But  to  look  at  him  and  to  hear  him  teach,  you 
would  perhaps  think  him  not  very'lately  from  the  North ;  at  least  I  do  not  think  he  is  a 
model  teacher.  They  have  a  church;  but  somehow  they  have  burnt  a  hole,  I  understand, 
in  the  top,  and  so  I  lectured  inside,  and  they  gathered  around  the  fire  outside.  Here  is 


778  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

another — what  shall  I  call  it? — meeting-place.  It  is  a  brush  arbor.  And  what  pray  is 
that?  Shall  I  call  it  an  edifice  or  an  improvised  meeting-house?  Well,  it  is  called  a 
brush  arbor.  It  is  a  kind  of  brush  house  with  seats,  and  a  kind  of  covering  made  partly, 
I  rather  think,  of  branches  of  trees,  and  an  humble  place  for  pulpit.  I  lectured  in  a  place 
where  they  seemed  to  have  no  other  church  ;  but  I  spoke  at  a  house.  In  Glenville,  a  lit- 
tle out-of-the-way  place,  I  spent  part  of  a  week.  There  they  have  two  unfinished  churches. 
One  has  not  a  single  pane  of  glass,  and  the  same  aperture  that  admits  the  light  also  gives 
ingress  to  the  air;  and  the  other  one,  I  rather  think,  is  less  finished  than  that.  I  spoke 
in  one,  and  then  the  white  people  gave  me  a  hall,  and  quite  a  number  attended.  *  *  * 
I  am  now  at  Union  Springs,  where  I  shall  probably  room  with  three  women.  But  amid 
all  this  roughing  it  in  the  bush,  I  find  a  field  of  work  where  kindness  and  hospitality  have 
thrown  their  sunshine  around  my  way.  And  Oh  what  a  field  of  work  is  here!  How 
much  one  needs  the  Spirit  of  our  dear  Master  to  make  one's  life  a  living,  loving  force  to 
help  men  to-higher  planes  of  thought  and  action.  I  am  giving  all  my  lectures  with  free 
admission;  but  still  I  get  along,  and  the  way  has  been  opening  for  me  almost  ever  since  I 
have  been  South.  Oh,  if  some  more  of  our  young  women  would  only  consecrate  their 
lives  to  the  work  of  upbuilding  the  race  I  Oh,  if  I  could  only  see  our  young  men  and  wo- 
men aiming  to  build  up  a  future  for  themselves  which  would  grandly  contrast  with  the  past 
— with  its  pain,  ignorance  and  low  social  condition." 

It  may  be  well  to  add  that  Mrs.  Harper's  letters  from  which  we  have 
copied  were  simply  private,  never  intended  for  publication;  and  while 
they  bear  obvious  marks  of  truthfulness,  discrimination  and  impartiality, 
it  becomes  us  to  say  that  a  more  strictly  conscientious  woman  we  have 
never  known. 

Returning  to  Philadelphia  after  many  months  of  hard  labor  in  the  South, 
Mrs.  Harper,  instead  of  seeking  needed  rest  and  recreation,  scarcely 
allows  a  day  to  pass  without  seeking  to  aid  in  the  reformation  of  the  outcast 
and  degraded.  The  earnest  advice  which  she  gives  on  the  subject  of  tem- 
perance and  moral  reforms  generally  causes  some  to  reflect,  even  among 
adults,  and  induces  a  number  of  poor  children  to  attend  day  and  Sabbath- 
schools.  The  condition  of  this  class,  she  feels,  appeals  loudly  for  a 
remedy  to  respectable  and  intelligent  colored  citizens;  and  whilst  not 
discouraged,  she  is  often  quite  saddened  at  the  supineness  of  the  better 
class.  During  the  past  summer  when  it  was  too  warm  to  labor  in  the  South 
she  spent  several  months  in  this  field  without  a  farthing's  reward.  She  as- 
sisted in  organizing  a  Sabbath-school,  and  accepted  the  office  of  Assistant  Su- 
perintendent under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

Mrs.  Harper  reads  the  best  magazines  and  ablest  weeklies,  as  well  as 
more  elaborate  works,  not  excepting  such  authors  as  De  Tocqueville,  Mill, 
Ruskin,  Buckle,  Guizot,  &c.  In  espousing  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  as  a 
poet  and  lecturer,  had  she  neglected  to  fortify  her  mind  in  the  manner  she 
did,  she  would  have  been  weighed  and  found  wanting  long  since.  Before 
friends  and  foes,  the  learned  and  the  unlearned,  North  and  South,  Mrs. 
Harper  has  pleaded  the  cause  of  her  race  in  a  manner  that  has  commanded 
the  greatest  respect;  indeed,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  that  during 


FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER.  779 

seventeen  years  of  public  labor  she  has  made  thousands  of  speeches  without 
doing  herself  or  people  discredit  in  a  single  instance,  but  has  accomplished 
a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  removing  prejudice.  May  we  not  hope  that 
the  rising  generation  at  least  will  take  encouragement  by  her  example  and 
find  an  argument  of  rare  force  in  favor  of  mental  and  moral  equality,  and 
above  all  be  awakened  to  see  how  prejudices  and  difficulties  may  be  sur- 
mounted by  continual  struggles,  intelligence  and  a  virtuous  character? 

Fifty  thousand  copies  at  least  of  her  four  small  books  have  been  sold  to 
those  who  have  listened  to  her  eloquent  lectures.  One  of  those  productions 
entitled  "  Moses  "  has  been  used  to  entertain  audiences  with  evening  readings 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  With  what  effect  may  be  seen  from  the  two 
brief  notices  as  follows : 
\ 

"  Mrs.  F.  E.  W.  Harper  delivered  a  poem  upon  '  Moses '  in  Wilbraham  to  a  large  and 
delighted  audience.  She  is  a  woman  of  high  moral  tone,  with  superior  native  powers 
highly  cultivated,  and  a  captivating  eloquence  that  hold  her  audience  in  rapt  attention 
from  the  beginning  to  the  close.  She  will  delight  any  intelligent  audience,  and  those  who 
wish  first-class  lecturers  cannot  do  better  than  to  secure  her  services." — Zioris  Herald, 
Boston. 

"  Mrs.  Frances  E.  W.  Harper  read  her  poem  of  '  Moses '  last  evening  at  Rev.  Mr.  Har- 
rison's church  to  a  good  audience.  It  deals  with  the  story  of  the  Hebrew  Moses  from  his 
finding  in  the  wicker  basket  on  the  Nile  to  his  death  on  Mount  Nebo  and  his  burial  in  an 
unknown  grave;  following  closely  the  Scripture  account.  It  contains  about  700  lines,  be- 
ginning with  blank  verse  of  the  common  measure,  and  changing  to  other  measures,  but 
always  without  rhyme  ;  and  is  a  pathetic  and  well-sustained  piece.  Mrs.  Harper  recited 
it  with  good  effect,  and  it  was  well  received.  She  is  a  lady  of  much  talent,  and  always 
speaks  well,  particularly  when  her  subject  relates  to  the  condition  of  her  own  people,  in 
whose  welfare,  before  and  since  the  war,  she  has  taken  the  deepest  interest.  As  a  lecturer 
Mrs.  Harper  is  more  effective  than  most  of  those  who  come  before  our  lyceums ;  with  a 
natural  eloquence  that  is  very  moving." — Galesburgh  Register,  111. 

Grace  Greenwood,  in  the  Independent  in  noticing  a  Course  of  Lectures  in 
which  Mrs.  Harper  spoke  (in  Philadelphia)  pays  this  tribute  to  her : 

"  Next  on  the  course  was  Mrs  Harper,  a  colored  woman  ;  about  as  colored  as  some  of 
the  Cuban  belles  I  have  met  with  at  Saratoga.  She  has  a  noble  head,  this  bronze  muse ; 
a  strong  face,  with  a  shadowed  glow  upon  it,  indicative  of  thoughtful  fervor,  and  of  a  na- 
ture most  femininely  sensitive,  but  not  in  the  least  morbid.  Her  form  is  delicate,  her 
hands  daintily  small.  She  stands  quietly  beside  her  desk,  and  speaks  without  notes,  with 
gestures  few  and  fitting.  Her  manner  is  marked  by  dignity  and  composure.  She  is 
never  assuming,  never  theatrical.  In  the  first  part  of  her  lecture  she  was  most  impres- 
sive in  her  pleading  for  the  race  with  whom  her  lot  is  cast.  There  was  something  touch- 
ing in  her  attitude  as  their  representative.  The  woe  of  two  hundred  years  sighed  through 
her  tones.  Every  glance  of  her  sad  eyes  was  a  mournful  remonstrance  against  injustice 
and  wrong.  Feeling  on  her  soul,  as  she  must  have  felt  it,  the  chilling  weight  of  caste, 
she  seemed  to  say : 

'  I  lift  my  heavy  heart  up  solemnly, 
As  once  Electra  her  sepulchral  urn.' 

*    *    *    As  I  listened  to  her,  there  swept  over  me,  in  a  chill  wave  of  horror,  the  reali- 


780  THE   UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD. 

zation  that  this  noble  woman  had  she  not  been  rescued  from  her  mother's  condition,  might 
have  been  sold  on  the  auction-block,  to  the  highest  bidder — her  intellect,  fancy,  eloquence, 
the  flashing  wit,  that  might  make  the  delight  of  a  Parisian  saloon,  and  her  pure,  Christian 
character  all  thrown  in — the  recollection  that  women  like  her  could  be  dragged  out  of 
public  conveyances  in  our  own  city,  or  frowned  out  of  fashionable  churches  by  Anglo- 
Saxon  saints." 


THE  END. 


\VVV':;SV;:;- 


I 

'•  •-.  '  .  -  ..  . 

: 
i 

|  '      ::          |       I    - 

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,  • 

1  K  p 

'      •  v.  . 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973.7115ST5U  mm 

THE  UNDERGROUND  RAIL  ROAD.  PHILA 


30112025370385 


